Tip Shop armchair

Hi everyone and welcome to my latest project, the tip shop chair!

Now those of you who know me will know that the tip shop is one of my favourite places to visit.  All that booty just chucked out, you never know what you might find.  This particular specimen cost me the grand sum of $15 which I was delighted with I must say.  Why anyone would just throw out a classic old chair like this is beyond me but hey, one man's trash is another girl's treasure.

The structure is just fine here and the chair is super comfy, just the upholstery to replace as it is a bit shabby.  The good news though is that this chair has been reupholstered at least once before (I think from the shape the chair itself is quite a good age).  This means that I can use the pieces to make templates and see how the upholsterer went about the job much easier than if the upholstery were original.

The plan is not yet clear but I'm still on my recycled denim wagon so I think some kind of patchwork design might be the go.  This is by far the biggest fitted upholstery project I've tried so I'll keep you posted.

As Christmas is nearly here so I'll have until the New Year before work starts to come up with flashes of inspiration.

How hard can it be .....

Patchwork chair reno

Just a little update and a new pic of my patchwork chair project.  I've been very busy with my projects recently and have just finished (finally) adding the trim to this chair.  Its 3 little "friends" have also been all stripped back ready for a makeover.  I also decided to distress the chairs a little and it suits the whole look although it is hard to really see that in the photo.  This one is staying here with me however the other 3 will be up for sale once completed and I'll post them here first.  I also take orders or refurbish your existing chairs in your own colour scheme using as much recycled material as possible for each project.   Here she is!

This post covers a whole new project I've had happening for a while so I thought I'd share.

I was given four of these chairs which were painted in a cream(ish) colour with purple velour seats and gold piping.

They had been in storage for some time and they have hung around as a possible project for years waiting for me to decide where to go with them so the fabric and the paintwork was pretty shabby looking and not really my taste.  This post is the story of the first chair.

With my current dual obsessions with recycling denim and all things patchwork, this is what I came up with.

Sanded back and repaint the chair white.
Pulled off all the upholstery and used the old bits as a template to create patchwork pieces to go back on.  (All the fabric used was already in my stash as was the paint so no cost involved.) 
 Using a staple gun, fitted the new upholstery onto the freshly painted chair and ... voila

I still have to glue the trim in place over the staples to satisfy my picky nature but all up I'm delighted with the results.  The big decision now is whether to keep this as a feature chair and do the others completely differently or create a "set" of four (although they will all be different of course).   What do you think?

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall ...

What to do on a wet windy day with the kids on holidays?  Get the sewing machine out and have a go at making them some toys, what else.  Here's humpty, and I'm pretty happy with the way he's turned out.  He's completely made from bits and pieces already lurking in my fabric stash so he cost nothing to make.  The original plan was that he would be a gift for Christmas however he has been adopted by my 5 year old son (who reckons he's "awesome") so I'll have to come up with something else for the gifts.  I also now have an order from Miss 3 for a pink and purple unicorn with ribbons and shiny bits ... hmmmmmmm.

Byron Bay Roadtrip

Ok Ok, I know I have been totally slack with progress reports on the van so apologies for that.  The time has just zipped by recently and I've been meaning to take some update photos.  This weekend we went to the lovely Suffolk Park Holiday Park at Byron Bay for a weekend in the van so I took a couple of shots as we were packing up.  I'm pretty happy with it all now and have decided not to bother with changing the cupboards for the time being.  I think I'll keep that for an inspired moment somewhere down the track.

The van went into the repair shop last week for a set of sexy new legs as we managed to snap one of the corroded old ones off on our last outing.  The new ones are longer and stronger which makes the van much less rocky than it was.  It cost us a little bit to have done and I wish I could do that sort of job myself however a complete lack of welding skills (or interest in welding come to think of it) meant that the lovely guy at the caravan repair shop got the job. 

What has been finished by me is the curtains.  We now have full blackout curtains in a plain colour to match the canvas so you don't really see them.  These were made from bargain fabric I found at the Spotlight clearance.  Full blockout curtain material down from $22 per metre to just $2, I was on a high for days about that find!  I've jazzed up the plain with red spotty lighter weigh fabric curtains for the bed ends, tiebacks and on the door.  The original plan was red spots all round but the effect was way to much, made me feel seasick.

Other than that, this weekend was our first (and possibly last) attempt at using the awning which came with the van.  It works fine but takes nearly as long to put up as the whole tarp setup so we will just use that I think for long trips and take the pop up gazebo for short ones.

The van itself we are really getting the hang of and it's quicker to put up each time now, I'm really pleased with it overall and am starting to think an external paintjob may be on the cards. 

Here are the latest photos:

Quite a change from this:

 All up I'm feeling pretty proud of myself and inspired to tackle some new projects so watch this space.

Love my caravan

The whole project is coming along really well now, sorry it's been a while since the last post but there are loads of changes and I'm really loving the van now.  The space has gone from bug infested and quite scary to be in to fresh and clean and ready to travel.  Here is a rundown on what I've done and the order I did it in: 

•  Painted the brown ceiling, cupboard frames and cabinetry white.
• Relined the old and perished ply facings below the beds and round the seating area in grey vinyl.  I know that these shuld probably have been ripped out and replaced but hey, it's a fun van and that was WAY too labour intensive and difficult.
• Recovered the mattresses.
• Recovered the seating cushions - the old covers were basically more dust than fabric but I managed to salvage and reuse the zips after a wash.
• Relaid the floor to cover the old brown one.  These are stick on tiles from Bunnings which can be cut to size with scissors.  They discontinued them half way through the project and I had to do a spot of detective work to track some more down but I love them and this is a much easier option that trying to work with the rolls of vinyl on this kind of space.

I think that's it for now and you can see it all in the photos.  I'm hoping to have all the curtains finished and the cupboards relined in something other than hideous pink rug mat stuff so I will post again once this is all done.  I haven't been able to track down replacement handles for the two missing ones in the kitchen though so if anyone knows of a Jayco van being stripped or wrecked or happens to have a couple of these hanging around at home, please tell me.  The story goes that the same handles were used on ALL Jaycos and many other brands for about 15 years.  All were made at the same factory and it continued to create spares until a fire gutted the factory and destroyed the mould.  It was never recreated as by that time they were only making spares so these handles are pretty hard to get hold of - might have to get clever and rig something up.


I'm still working out what I'm going to use on the cupboard doors, want to wait until the curtains are in to see what will work.

Here are the pics

Caravan carries on

Hello blog followers, this week is just a quick caravan update but ... drumroll ... I actually have some photos of progress made (along with one of me & Alex with some superheroes we met while taking time out from the reno).  A little bird I spoke to this week tells me there are a few out there who are watching what I'm up to but haven't yet followed the blog, I'd love to see who you are and know that I'm not just yabbering away to self, so please follow me, comment on me and give me any advice.

You can begin to see where I'm heading now even though we have a ways to go yet.  The vinyl on the walls is up and looks great with the new red cushions and the white paint.  It looks a bit bumpy in the photos which is partly true as the ply under it is a bit warped but the sun made it look way worse in the pics and I reckon once I've reattached the brackets for the green table which sits in the middle there it will all stabilise nicely.

Next step is remembering which bracket goes where and then starting on the flooring.  I will have to pack it all away again for a week or two now though as the open home/auction of house combo this weekend might go better if I don't have a fully open caravan in the middle of the front yard (just a thought).

I think that's it for now so Ciao All and speak to you soon.

Sloooow progress (but progress all the same)

Well, it's been a little while since I posted a progress note on the van, no photos yet but I'll get some later this week.  The painting is all done now and it looks fab, new seat covers made and covers for the mattresses.  I've also managed to find a spot in the corner of the front yard to park the van which hopefully won't upset the neighbours too much.

Progress has been slow this last week or so as we've decided to sell the house in the meantime.  This has meant that all my fun caravan reno time has been stolen by house tidying time (bah).  I did have a big score this week though for the wall covering vinyl I was after.  I managed to source a roll of several metres of industrial wall/floor vinyl from the lovely man at the carpet shop for a complete bargain $20.  It did take a while for me and the carpet guy to be on the same page regarding what I was after (not brown, beige or fake tile look) but what I've ended up with is perfect for me and has been hanging round his warehouse for years left over from a job apparently.  Very excited and now working out the best way to cut it all to size without losing a finger or two.

That's all for today folks, will get those photos happening soon.

Ants everywhere - slight setback

This week I started to paint the ceiling of the caravan.  It had an old leak which had left the roof looking pretty scruffy so I'm painting it white.  I should tell you all the my theory is that there isn't much you can't achieve with a bucket of white paint no matter what the job is!  A quick trip to the paint dude at Bunnings Hardware and a can of stain covering primer later and the action began.  Big surprise as I'm happily priming away, turn around and a sea of ants is descending from the roof (guess they don't like primer too much then).  Honestly, it was like something out of a horror movie (remember the flies in Amityville anyone?).  No way I could continue until the ants were gone so I've basically spent the week waging a war on the little terrors. 

At first I was worried that it was a major setback but a quick google fest later and it turns out this is pretty common in old vans which have been stored outside for a while.  I tried bug bombs and sprays to little success but good old ant rid seems to have now done the trick, took a few days but they are goneskis.  The ants couldn't get enough of the stuff and I'm happy to report that there are no live ants left to be seen now and about a gazillion of them dead on and around the van.  Now that I've seen (and hoovered up) more dead ants in one place than I ever care to see again, it's back to work.

Recycled Rose Crafty Caravan Restoration

So the blog is new and I'm going to start it off with my biggest project yet, revamping our 1981 Jayco Dove pop top camper.  The van was a bargain and is in really bomby condition so my big plan is to make it into a fabulous family holiday home.  I'm posting developments good and bad so jon me on the journey.  I'll get some "before" photos up in the next day or so and we'll go from there.  Cheers