Grain Sacks.......

I am obsessed with grain sacks.... I absolutely LOVE them, I will admit I occasionally swoon over pictures of them (*silently in my head*)! They are rustic, gnarly, old and worn and have some great history behind them. I have searched on and off for the last year or so for some grain sacks to add to the whimsical house. To find some reasonably priced was impossible. It seemed everyone was on the grain sack bandwagon and the prices some of them were going for was ridiculous.... like I'm talking $80-$100 per sack. Mind you they were french and they were old, rustic and looked amazing but just add the word "vintage" to anything and the price seems to double if not triple!

Anyway back to the point.... I found some grain sacks (well actually sugar sacks) in our local auction center earlier this month. I got them for a steal (well compared to the prices above) of $7 for two and after the auction fee's were added on the total was $11. Not bad I thought and now I need to decided exactly what I want to do with them.

The sacks wording on the front is "Australia White Refined Sugar".... It's not french and vintage but hey I live in Australia it adds to the character of it! I have a few ideas rolling around in my head such as cushions, framing them etc but I still haven't decided on exactly what I want to do. I thought I would share some of my favourite inspiring grainsack images and ideas of what I could do with these two lovely sacks...... gotta love Pinterest!

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Grainsack curtains anyone? I just don't think I see them hanging in our house!

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This image has HUGE potential..... I love the rustic texture that the cushion brings against the white bedspread and fluffly bed runner. Gorgeous... !

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More Cushions.......

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Chairs look great upholstered in grain sacks....

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Framing them is also a good option!

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Some other interesting uses......

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Grain Sack Heaven!

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I will keep you posted on what I choose to do! Next week I will finish my $2 Decorating challenge with my last piece the glass bottle. Until then.....

Wingback Chair Progress & Drama's........

I thought i should give you all an update on my progress on my Wing back chair slipcover project! This has been nearly a year in the making really and i have finally made some ground with this project! Finally.....

I first used some old calico to make a rough slipcover "template" to get a feel for sewing the cover and also i can use it as a template for when i have to cut out the fabric pieces for the real thing. I won't say i had fun doing it because i near ripped all my hair out just doing this rough piece.... perfectionism is a curse and so is impatience... i think i will be learning quite a bit of patience during this project.

Calico template......

I decided to take a breather on starting the actual wing back slipcovers and start on something more simple.... like the ottoman. It's square, straight sides and pretty straight forward... just what i like to hear! I decided not to make a "rough" cover for the ottoman as i felt confident i could do it without a template. I have to say though there was a HUGE - "UH OH" moment during sewing my "Version 1" of the ottoman slipcovers. You see the material i had selected and purchased near a year ago was for upholstering the chair, as that was what i initially intended to do with these chairs. I spent probably close to $180 on the fabric and thought i could still use it to make slip covers..... was i WRONG!

I had sewed 40 meters of piping using this "upholstery" fabric, cut and pinned the fabric to fit the ottoman ready for making the first section of the slipcover. Then came the "Uh Oh".... I tried to sew the material using my sewing machine and broke 2 needles in a span of 20 centimeters and my machine malfunctioned about 5 times. Yep "Uh Oh"... my machine would no way cope with sewing such thick commercial type fabric for a slipcover for an ottoman let alone for the chairs. I was devastated - to say the least! It took a few days for me to pick myself up off the ground and find another solution - that was cheap!

Thankfully I remembered reading Miss Mustard Seed's solution to slipcover fabric... canvas painter's drop cloths. Yep may sound strange but they actually come up a treat. I popped down to bunnings and found the most economical way to buy the amount of material i needed for the covers and purchased six lots of drop cloths measuring 1.5m x 6m (i think that was the lengths off the top of my head). They came to a total of $110 - so much cheaper than the material. Oh well lesson learned.

Deciding how to do the skirting.

I jumped straight into making the covers for the ottomans and had to start from scratch again with sewing piping etc. Bummer! It took me about two - three days sewing on and off to complete the first cover. I then cut the old skirting off the ottomans which showed the legs a bit more before pinning and sewing the skirting. I decided to go with a ruffled skirt as i thought it was a bit more classical than a straight skirt.

This is the finished product. But i am happy with the result and am kicking myself for not going with the drop cloths in the first place.!! I have finished the second one and am now looking at starting the chair cushions next...... wish me luck!

I am linking my drop cloth project up to the Blog Party at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia!

Decorating With $2 - Part 2: Terracotta Pots

It seems I was successful in my wire basket transformation (PART 1) and I thank you all for your lovely comments on the finished product. One comment that astounded me was that a reader said that you could buy something similar to that in pottery barn for $65. *Gasp* Wow who would pay that much for a wire basket! 

Just to recap this is what i started with in my $2 Bargain Haul.

 
My next challenge was the terracotta pots that I bought in my $2 bargain haul. I had to look around for a bit of inspiration to figure out what i wanted to do with them.

The pots before.....

Inspiration...................

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I came across these images and LOVED the chippy, rustic look of these terracotta pots. I have to say it has taken me some years to fall in love with terracotta. It was not my favourite colour of pot but i think adding the rustic look to them really appeals to me now.... brand new terracotta... not so much!

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I did a bit of research on how to achieve the "rustic" aged look with these pots and came across this great tutorial by Martha Stewart - "Aging Terracotta Pots". All it required was Lime powder, water, a paint brush, sandpaper and a bit of elbow grease at the end.

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As we are gardening enthusiasts here at the Whimsical House we had the lime powder already which we use for the garden and we had all the other materials that were required. So again i did not spend a thing doing these pots up. I followed Martha's instructions and painted the pots with the lime & water mixture. I think i applied it a bit thick as when it came to the sanding part it took AGES to sand back to the terracotta to get it to show through. So keep that in mind if you think you want to attempt it. 

So without further ado here is my attempt at aging terracotta pots................

I am thinking i need to do a bit more sanding to age it a but more... but it's bitterly cold outside so it can wait a bit longer before i touch them again!

Decorating with $2... Literally.

I went garage sale-ling over the weekend and I sure did pick up a few pieces that I thought has some potential! This lot below I picked up at a deceased estate for a grand total of $2. Yup you probably think even $2 was too much for all of this.... but I see potential in this pile of junk! You just wait and see. Over the next few posts i will show you what you can do with $2 worth of junk in your home.

Project 1: I thought I would start with the old wire basket for my first project from this pile. I initially thought I might spray paint it white but after a good scrub with a wire brush and a soak in the tub with some detergent it really was white underneath all that grime. It came up a treat in a rustic sort of way with chipped white paint showing the grey metal underneath.

Voila.... all nice and pretty!

I decided I would use the basket as storage. I thought a nice touch would be to make a lining for it to really dress it up. I had some left over calico from previous projects and cut out a rough template of pieces to make the lining. I pinned it to fit and sewed it up in a jiffy...... well actually over a few afternoons when I was free.

I love the look of natural colours & textures together such as calico and jute string. I added some jute ribbon which I also had in my craft supply to the edges of the lining to hold it into place. I thought it added a nice touch.

I added two tabs at the ends of the basket to give the lining extra support and I  raided my button jar to see what I had lying around. I found these gorgeous big brown buttons and added them to the tabs to finish it off. I used Velcro to attached the tabs to the lining which allows the lining to be removed if it needs washing.

Love this big buttons!

So this little baby cost me next to nothing to rejuvenate and make into something usable and not too bad looking if I say so myself!

Fits perfectly under one of my most recent Op Shop bargains this $10 side table. Please avert your eyes to the garish orange stain that it has. It's on my list of things to renovate...... one day!

Now to do something with those old terracotta pots........!

PART 2: Decorating with $2..... Terracotta Pots