Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Musical Chairs with Amber Schamel

Blogger: Amber Schamel

 Who loved musical chairs as a young'un? Here's some music. Shall we play? We could all get up and walk around our chairs.




Okay, I'm sorta kidding, though it would be good exercise. Today, I'm not talking about the game of musical chairs, but musically decorated/themed chairs. But we can still enjoy some nice music for the post, right?

Lately, I've been busy remodeling my bedroom. I picked an "old hymn" type of theme with antique paper and music notes. While looking for inspiration on Pinterest (one of my all time favorite social medias) I found this chair.
Pinterest Inspiration
I really liked this idea, and thought it would be perfect for my writing desk chair. So for today's post, I'm inviting you to come along with me as I make my attempt.

BEFORE
Above is my original chair. I found some cream colored fabric and cut out a piece that was big enough for the chair seat, leaving some room to fold it under and tack it. Then, I laid the fabric out on the chair and traced the design that I wanted with a pencil. Look closely in the image below and you can see it.



For the treble clef, I found a clip art piece and printed it out on regular paper, cut it out and traced it onto the fabric. Then I used a ruler to make the lines.

Next, I purchased some black fabric paint, and laid the fabric out on a piece of cardboard. I painted the traced design, very carefully, using a small brush. I used a piece of paper in my attempt to make the lines clear and straight, although I think some scotch tape would have worked better.

I had to let the paint dry several times between the painting of the lines so that I wouldn't smear what was still wet.

Here's the design once I finished painting it. Not perfect. But for a gal who is artistically challenged and apparently incapable of drawing a straight line, acceptable.


The next step, or course, is to remove the cushion from the chair frame. I did this by turning it upside down and unscrewing it from the frame. Then I painted the frame of the chair in the same cream color I used on my walls. I decided on two coats.
While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I went back to the seat cushion. Once I had the design painted and dried, I used a stapler (or staple gun) to tack the fabric into place. Fold it very carefully so that the edges look tidy.

Here's the finished seat cushion.
As a finishing touch, I painted some musical note wood decals (found at Hobby Lobby) black. I glued one to the back of the chair frame.
Finally, reattach the seat cushion and VOILA!
That's my most recent project.

Now it's your turn. Tell me about your most recent DIY or craft project, or tell me about the last time you played musical chairs.  :)

13 comments:

  1. I love these chairs. Very clever. I'm no good at the DIY, but appreciate the effort in others.

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    1. Good morning, Mary! So glad you stopped by. The nice thing is, for those of us that are artistically challenged, we usually have a bestie that's really good at it. I can't draw worth a hoot, but I have a dear friend that's very good at it. She just laughs at me when I try to draw. LOL

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  2. Nice work, Amber! I recently made over an old vanity chair in a similar way - new paint and seat cushion - and added some fringe around the little seat. It took time more than any real know-how and it turned out great. I love DIY projects if they aren't too complicated!

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    1. Hi Peggy!
      That's awesome! Sounds like it would be beautiful. I love fringe. :)

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  3. Amber, I think you did an outstanding job! Go, girl!!!!!

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  4. Good morning everyone! I've brought Krispy Kreme doughnuts and coffee to share. Who wants some? It will go right along with our musical chairs.

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  5. Your chair is very cool. I just posted on my blog about redo-ing a flowerbed thriftily. It can be seen at https://graciouswoman.wordpress.com/2015/07/29/thrifty-gardening-adventures-by-susan-karsten
    And, am redeeming a quilt with my dear daughter-in-law...no pictures yet.

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    1. That sounds like fun, Susan! I'm going to hop over and check out that flowerbed. :) Thanks for sharing!

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  6. That's awesome, Amber! We just got done doing a DIY on my back porch, replacing the porch posts with cedar. Did I mention it's 100 degrees in the shade? Oy. Glad your chair turned out so well. :)

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    1. Oh, Crystal. Bless your heart. Right now, I'm glad I'm in Colorado where it is a sunny 75 degrees.

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  7. Very clever. This would0be so cute for a writer with famous quotes on it.

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    1. That would be really neat, Catherine! You should have mentioned that before I re-did my room! LOL

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  8. by the way, musical scores have 5 lines and 4 spaces, not 4 lines and 3 spaces. just hope you don't have any musicians visiting your house ;)

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