Furniture Before & Afters | DIY, Hacks & Restorations

We moved into our home four years ago in a flurry of MA thesis writing and job changes. When we had time, we worked on decorating the bedrooms, living room, and dining area — but we pretty much ignored the loft space at the top of the stairs. We eventually bought a rug and our friend Karen kindly built us pine shelves while staying as a houseguest. Sadly, that was about it until last year, when our home office moved there to make way for a nursery.

Whit and Rachael Gardner of Our Mid Century are savvy stylists, whether we are about talking vintage or contemporary furnishings— the post that they shared with us for Home Project month proves it. When the search for an affordable mid century sofa kept coming up dry, they did a complete makeover of an affordable IKEA basic to help it fit in smoothly with their vintage style home. The “after” looks like a totally different sofa!…and the After!

When I moved into my apartment, the built-in cabinet in my bedroom was shoddily painted in yellow and blue with brown “accents.” To make matters worse, there were so many layers of paint that the hinges didn’t work well.Basically, I spent several hours over two weeks chipping away at the old paint — a process I found surprisingly satisfying. Beneath the yellow, blue, and brown, I found pink, gray, and lime green.

Ashley sent in the results of her just-completed upholstery project &mdash and it’s crazy! This afternoon I re-covered a set of four dining room chairs that my husband and I received from his GREAT grandmother, all the way across the Atlantic from Bermuda. It’s a lovely set — but the fabric in which they arrived was dirtied and dingy and was in desperate need of a change.