upholstery

Moving into the new house is going very slowly.

My dad is relying mainly on the help of one of my uncles to get most of the fix it work done before I can move in, and it's been one dramatic family crisis after another thats set things behind.

Among them, one of my cousins hit a deer and totaled her car in Kansas City the other day, so he had to go deal with her rather than get things done in my house.

Basically I'm waiting for my appliances to be installed (again, my dad's a landlord, so he all ready has them, they just need to be carried in and hooked up properly), some minor paint, re-attachment of some pieces of trim still left off from the floors being refinished, the water turned on and a countertop to be installed.

This is all very frustrating to me. But, I'll take what I'm given since my dad has been generous enough to give me somewhere to live rent free.

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In the meantime I've been dealing with the future decor of the house.

When I lived in Baltimore, my apartment was mainly furnished by my roommates father. He brought us a mismash of things her family had given us- so I didn't have much by way of decorating in that shared space when I moved home, save for my bedroom furniture. Fast forward to furnishing a whole (but small) house. 

I've claimed a wooden daybed from my grandparents house, and made new cushions. 

I've been working on the reupholstery of the cushions for the last few days. 

I hit a hiccup with my mom's sewing machine yesterday, and ended up having to take it to be serviced and have the tensions aligned.

So with no real progress to show you, I thought I would highlight the color choices I've made.

The couch cushion fabric is this orangey-gold geometric print.

I never thought I would end up with orange, but this was the only fabric I liked throughout my exhaustive search here in KC of every fabric store known to man.

A plus is that I bought the last of this yardage in the sale section, so I got it for a song! 7+ yards for about $60! 

I even have enough left to upholster matching cushions for my side chairs!

 I'm using this fabric for throw pillows. It's a tapestry from urban outfitters from maybe 5 years ago. I really like the watercolor-y  cherry blossom print. The peach tones coordinate well with the upholstery for the couch.

It's super thin, more like drapery weight fabric, so I'm going to need to line it, but it will work perfectly well as a pillow cover.

 This is a better shot of the pattern repeat. I know I've seen something similar to this in dec weight fabric. 

I saw something on fabric row last spring in Philly, but I have no idea who the maker is.

This will the be other throw pillow fabric. 

I've been into animal print lately, and I made a freezer paper stencil and painted the fabric myself to get it in the shade I wanted. It's a nice peach-pink.

Freezer paper stencils are amazingly easy if you've never tried before. You just cut out whatever you want, like leopard spots, iron the shiny silicon impregnated side of the paper down to fabric with a warm iron, daub paint over the top, then peel the paper off. It's like magic.

This would have been easier to screen print, but without the wonderful studio of undergrad printmaking lore, I'm stuck with stenciling for now.

More updates once I get the sewing machine back and I finish up my projects. 

I'm so excited to show you the whole sofa ensemble!