DIY - Pocketful of Joules

Feeling Blue… Navy Blue

Even though the pollen was fighting me this weekend, I still had the urge for a quick and fun little outside painting party.

When we moved into our house last year, we found that the previous owners had left us two old outdoor chairs. They were a faded hunter green color and had some nasty old cushions on them that were moldy and had probably served as a romantic place for some gross spiders to do the nasty.

I decided to paint them a happy yellow color, throw on some new cushions and call it a day.

I was okay with it until a month or so ago when I started thinking that my “happy yellow color” looked more like a “come into my Mexican fiesta” color. There was just something about the combo of the color and the cushions that was rubbing me the wrong way. Maybe it was just a little too LOOK AT ME on the front porch?

This weekend I grabbed some Rust-oleum outdoor paint in Glossy Navy Blue and went to work. I ended up using part of a can (with a cheap brush that I didn’t mind throwing out afterwards) and a little more than one can of the spray paint version of the same color. I painted the first coat on, followed by an extra coat on the flat areas like the top and armrests. Then, after letting it dry, I sprayed on another coat so I could get in all the crevices.

It took me less than two hours and I really like the new look! I also added a couple solar lanterns that were on sale at Target (they charge during the day and then flicker at night) and kept my cute little yellow bird for some color.

Oh yeah, and if you’re wondering what’s happening on the other side of the porch… it’s this guy!

So there you go, the first stage of my front porch project. I’m also planning to paint my front door (inside and outside) but I ran out of time this weekend.

How about you, did you work on any fun projects over the weekend? What do you think of my sultry blue chairs – do you like them better or did you prefer my fiesta chairs?

Adding Fabric to a Folding Chair Set

I have a fun little DIY project that cost me less than $100, took about an hour and has put a smile on my face for a couple days. Oh yeah, and it was SUPER easy. Interested?

It all started because we’re having family over this coming weekend for Jack’s very exciting FIRST birthday. No, I’m not going all crazy with pinterest-inspired decorations and food. I’m keeping it easy (and keeping my stress level’s down) by having an easy menu of pizza, salad and cake. Yum, right?

For decorations I did a cute little Valentine’s Day garland in our den and bought a package of party decorations that I may use in the kitchen. Oh, and I got a 1^st Birthday hat for Jack, because it is so darn adorable I couldn’t resist.

What I DIDN’T have was enough seating for our guests.

Even with just our close family (not including a sister-in-law’s family and my two sisters who are unable to come), we’re expecting 15 people. Our kitchen table fits 8 people when it’s expanded… so unless we’re going to take turns sitting I had to figure out some extra seating.

I have a nice wooden folding table and chairs set from World Market (purchased probably 10 years ago) that I can use for 2 or 3 people. Probably the kids since the chairs are made for mini butts and not full size grown-ass men. So, that helped but didn’t totally solve my problem.

I checked Target, Home Depot, Costco and Amazon before I settled on this folding table and chairs set from Walmart for just $56.83. A FIVE piece set for less than $60 is the way to my heart and a total steal!

So cheap!
So functional!
So… boring.
It was REALLY boring.
OH SO VERY boring.

So, I snazzed it up with my Easy Peasy Folding Chair Makeover:

First, you remove the seat from the chair with the help of a handy, dandy screwdriver.

Decide which direction you’d like the fabric to go and cut it so there is a couple inches left on each side of your seat.

Normally I would use my staple gun to secure the fabric to the seat. However, these seats are pretty thin and I didn’t want a butt full of staples every time I sat down. Bring on the duct tape! Pull the fabric nice and tight and tape it down on each side.

Finish with one more application of duct tape to make sure everything stays where it is AND make it look a little prettier in case someone checks out the underside of your chair.

Attached the seat back to the chair and you’re done! Super quick and how freaking cute is that chair?!

Oh wait, you don’t want cute? How about ROMANTIC — check out these babies in front of a roaring fire with a pretty vase of flowers. BaZING!

These bad boys are even sassy folded up and stored out of the way. I think I’m in looooove!

Here’s my cost breakdown:

Folding table and chairs set: $56.83
Fabric from Joann’s with a 40% discount: $5.99
Duct tape: $3.37
Total: $66.19!

Tell me, have you been DIYing any fun projects at your house this month? If you blogged about it, you are invited to share the links in the comments below (since I invited you, you totally won’t be a BlogHole).

Don’t Cha Wish Your Pantry Was Neat Like Me

Um, can you tell I’ve been rocking out to my Britney Spears station on Pandora again? I was totally going to call this post Pantry Porn, but then I got worried about the weirdo pervs who might find this post while looking for some boobies in a pantry so I changed it to a play on Don’t Cha from the Pussycat Dolls. Which I guess didn’t really work, but oh well.

Here’s a refresher if you haven’t heard the song in a while. Oh, and be warned… you’re totally going to wish that you hadn’t just eaten a piece of pizza and immediately make plans to do some situps. Oh, just me? Hmm…

Who wants to play a sassy version of musical chairs now? Anyways, now that we’re all dropping it like it’s hot* and swinging our hair around, let’s get to the pantry brewhaha.

I mentioned that one of my goals over the holiday was to finally turn my mess of a pantry into something so organized that it would make me swoon.

Here are my “before” shots. No swooning here:

before - full pantry — Here it is in all it’s “before” glory. Our pantry holds all my baking stuff, snacks, party stuff, and oh yeah… dog food.

before - baking stuff — Here’s a close up of my baking ingredients. Every time I pulled out the flour I ended up covered in it. We’re super lucky that we didn’t end up with bugs anywhere!

I spent about $100 total at The Container Store and ordered a can rack, 2 double cabinet shelves, a tiered spice organizer, 2 party tubs, containers for sugar and flour, and some shelf liner.

I was actually quite impressed with everyone I ordered… except for the can rack. You are supposed to be able to put your canned veggies and soups on the rack for easy access, but it was kind of a pain in the butt to get things on and off the rack. I’m kind of lazy though, so instead of returning it I repurposed it to hold my hot chocolate and cider packets.

Here’s my after shots. Oooh… Ahhhhh..

after - full pantry — Here’s the “after” shot. So nice and neat and PRETTY!

after- spices — Check out those baking ingredients! You can actually SEE what’s going on. I also LOVE the flour and sugar containers, they’re designed so you can just put the whole bag inside!

after - snacks area — Yeah, check out the snacks on that shelf. (Does that sound dirty? Darn, I really am going to end up with perverts on my website… again).

after - party stuff and wine — I used the cute bins to keep stuff together, like everything I need for a party — plates, plastic ware, napkins, straws, etc. And yes, that’s Mommy’s Time Out wine… a gift from a friend that I haven’t cracked open yet.

after - can rack — This is the can rack that didn’t work so well for cans. It did a pretty good job with my hot chocolate, cider packets and assortment of chocolate chips though!

I completed this project about a month or so ago and I have to say that if you looked in my pantry today it looks almost exactly like these pictures. So yay for pantry organizing!

Have you done any organizing projects lately? Would I swoon if I looked your pantry? Have you created a cheesy dance-mix station to keep you PUMPED on a long work day?

* I randomly clicked over to the post where I talked about my pantry plans and saw that I wrote, “Break out the dance music because there is going to be a pantry organizing party up on my hizhouse this weekend! BOOYA.” I’m not really sure why pantry organizing makes me want to dance like a Pussycat Doll, but at least I’m consistent with my dancing feelings.