Ramsign Giveaway

When I first started blogging, I was pretty good about entering every giveaway that came down the turnpike. I wanted to play along and so I did. Then this amazing thing happened. I won! Not just some little thing, either, I won a Silhouette machine. It was huge. I was shaking and crying and doing that whole Miss America, hand over the mouth excited move. It was awesome.

 

This is not me. I am not a Miss America winner and I would never wear that dress. However, she does an excellent job at capturing my reaction to winning.

After I won such a big prize, I stopped entering contests. I felt kind of greedy, plus, it’s a lot of work. However, every now and again I see something I really want/need and I enter the contest in the hopes that lightening does indeed strike twice.

A few weeks ago, the good folks at Ramsign contacted me to see if I was interested in doing a giveaway of one of their house number signs. Since I had just finished entering a contest on another blog to win one of their signs, it didn’t take me long to say, “Yes, please!”

If you haven’t seen Ramsign products, prepare to be amazed.

 

Ramsign has been making porcelain enamel hand-crafted signs since 1991. Every one one of their signs is gorgeous.

I love the classic look of this arched sign. Isn’t it beautiful?

Ramsign is giving one Frou FruGal reader a house number sign (up to 5 numbers) of any size and style.

Sweet! I wish I could enter. I love the round signs.

Oooh. Or the vintage feel of the Highlander style.

Oh, and I love the red in the Lighthouse style, even though I’m trying to get rid of the red on the outside of my house. This sign has me rethinking red.

But, seriously, I really love the cobalt blue of the Metropolitan signs and absolutely love this color outside. *Swoon*

Okay, so it’s probably a good thing the sign is for one of my readers because I’d obviously have a tough time choosing.

How To Win:

Would you like to win a sign for your house? It’s pretty simple, just choose any (or all) of the following entry methods.

1. Go to Ramsign and tell me which style is your favorite.
2. Follow Frou FruGal – RSS, Google+, Facebook, Google Friends Connect, Email – I don’t care how you follow, just tell me how you do. If you leave a separate comment for each way you follow me, you’ll have more chances to win.
3. Like Ramsign on Facebook and leave a comment letting me know.

If you ever wanted to feel like a big winner, you should enter this giveaway. Since I’m not in the same leagues as the big girls, your odds of winning are really, really good!

The giveaway is open until May 4th, 12 p.m., EDT. I’ll announce the winner on May 5th. (Edited: Sorry for any confusion from an earlier version. I am giving this away in May, not April).

One final note: please, Please, PLEASE leave your email address if you don’t have it associated with your Google account. If I can’t email you, I’ll have to pick another winner.

Thanks and May the Odds Be Ever In Your Favor! (Edited, again: May the odds be ever in your favor for the winning part. Killing off the competition is not a requirement for this contest).

Suesan

ps. I am not being compensated for this giveaway. I just love these signs and am very happy to give my readers a chance to win one.

Master Bedroom Makeover–Chair Refinish

This post originally appeared April 12, 2012 on My Repurposed Life. I am republishing it here in case you missed it.

 

I found this chair at a local antique store for $8. I was so cheap and cute, I figured I could easily fix it up.

 

 

My original plan was to redo the caning in the seat since I’ve done that before and had all the supplies on hand. Sadly, once I removed the caning, I discovered that the groove needed to hold the caning in place was broken. The chair resisted all my attempts to fix it, so I had to switch directions.

 

I started off by stripping the old finish from the chair. The finish was old and I loved the crazing (crackled finished) in the back of the chair, but the seat was really beat up.

 

 

I have used a couple different products for stripping furniture, most of which are very stinky. I decided to give Citristrip a go this time because of it’s low odor. For stripping the finish, I like to use Steel Wool (#0 Grade) and high-quality chemical gloves. You can also use a paint brush to apply the stripper and a plastic putty knife to scrape off the old finish.

 

 

It’s a preference thing, but when removing a stain/varnish finish, I prefer the Steel Wool method and save the paint brush/putty knife method for paint removal.

 

Follow the instructions on the stripper, but it’s basically:

 

 

1. Apply the Stripper

 

The more layers you have to remove, the thicker the coat of stripper and the longer the wait time.

2. Wait

You can see it working, so you just have to judge by your piece of furniture. It’s more obvious when removing paint since it bubbles, but stain and varnish just start to look melty, if that makes sense.

 

 

Those dark patches are the old stain and finishes coming off.

 

The white-ish looking section here is where I left the stripper on too long. It dried and left this filmy color on the wood. I just used more stripper in a wipe on/wipe back off move and was able to remove the film.

 

 

3. Remove Stripper

Use the steel wool to take off the finish. Make small, circular motions to wipe off the old finish. You will use a lot of steel wool. Just switch to a new piece when it feels like you are putting more gunk on than taking off.

 

4. Assess and Repeat, If Necessary

 

After the initial stripping, let the furniture dry and see how things look. You can see along the joins and edges, I have so darker areas. When things are still wet, it’s hard to see, so letting thing dry will show you any places you’ve missed.

 

 

Can you can see the darker areas on the inside of the leg? Those need another round of stripper to even out the color and finish.

 

Once your old finish is removed, you can re-stain and finish how you want. I didn’t take pictures of the steps, but I used a light coat of Dark Walnut and then 3 layers of Minwax Paste Finishing Wax. I love how the lighter finish on the chair shows the grain of the wood. We have a dresser in our room with a similar finish making these two pieces go very well together.

 

 

The back looks too red in the above picture, the color in real life is more like the seat below.

 

 

To upholster the seat, I taped off the area where I want the seat to be. You can see the old nail marks in this chair when it was upholstered once upon a time. I taped just outside that area so it will be covered up.

 

 

Using some webbing, I wove a new seat for the chair.

 

To Weave An Upholstered Seat Using Webbing:

 

 

The seat was big enough for 4 strips of webbing in each direction. I started the first piece to the left of the center of the chair back. When you put your first row of staples in, leave about an inch of webbing to fold back over the first set of staples (picture 2).

 

If you have a webbing stretcher, you can use that for steps 3 & 4. I did a poor man’s version by wrapping some needle-nose pliers in the webbing (so as to not scratch the wood). You need to have a good grip on the webbing to pull it tight and wrapping it around the pliers will give you a good hold. I had my son shoot about 3 staples into the webbing on the same side where I was pulling it. Then, I wrapped my pliers on the other side of the webbing and stretched the webbing while he put in the rest of the staples.

 

When I got to the edge of the seat, I folded back the side and notched the corner. Notching will help remove some of the bulk when you fold back the edge.

 

 

Do the same steps for the webbing across the seat, making sure to weave it in and out of the first row of webbing.

 

 

Cut a 1” thick foam cushion to match the woven seat. Wrap the foam in a layer of batting.

 

 

For the fabric, I used a drop cloth that I drew on with a Sharpie Marker. You can read about how I do that and the meaning behind the artwork over on post, Bedroom Makeover – Chair Seat on frou fruGal.

 

Staple the fabric onto the chair, being sure to pull the fabric tightly. There’s a fine line between tight enough and too tight. You can only learn this by practice, so be prepared to pull out a few staples to get it right.

 

I use a pneumatic staple gun for all my upholstery work. If you don’t have an air compressor and staple gun and plan to do any amount of upholstery, it’s a good investment. At the very least, buy a quality electric stapler, but just know that hard woods, like this chair, can be too hard for some non-electric and electric staplers.

 

 

Trim any excess fabric close to the staples. Using a hot glue gun, cover the staples with some gimp.

 

 

There you have it.

 

 

Cost Breakdown:

• Chair – $8.00
• Chemical Stripper – $3.82 (Used about 1/3 of an $11.48 bottle)
• Fabric – $.50
• Webbing – $3.16
• Foam Pad – $3.29 (40% off coupon)
• Gimp – $3.98
• Gloves/Staples/Batting/Steel Wool – Stash on Hand

Total Project Cost – $22.75

Total Project Time – 5 hours

 

This chair is part of a makeover for my master bedroom. I’ve blogged about my master plan for the room, my new bedding, headboard and bench, and about some Centsational Girl-inspired pillow shams that I made. I’d love for you to check out my other projects.

 

Suesan

Master Bedroom Makeover–Industrial Lights & Fan Froufing

As the weather in Ohio continues to fluctuate like a menopausal woman, I have tried to focus on projects that can be done in spite of the weather. We are going from hot to cold so fast it’s a wonder I don’t’ have whiplash. With the bulk of my sewing projects completed, it was time to focus on the lighting in our room.

We have the basic room fan.

Have you ever seen the home improvement shows where the professional comes in and says, “That fan has GOT. TO. GO!” as if you are harboring some sort of war criminal? I get why designers may not like them, but as a home owner, I fully appreciate the usefulness of a ceiling fan.

See that round vent on the ceiling? That’s where our air conditioning comes in. Our bedroom is the furthest away from the A/C unit. We need a fan in the summer to help move the cold air around our room. If we didn’t use fans, we’d have to have the A/C turned colder than 72 degrees.

We also have electric baseboard heaters in the room so the fan helps lift the heat and warm the room during the colder months which really saves me money. In this house, fans are a necessity and as much as I’d love to put a chandelier in my room, it’s just not practical.

My challenge then, was to make the fan more interesting. Back at Christmas time when the Daja was home, she and I went down to Columbus for some shopping. We popped into World Market where I found this 8” coffee capiz shell “lantern” for $19.99. Not sure why they call it a lantern. I call it a shade.

I had to buy it, even though I wasn’t sure how it would fit. At first, I just unscrewed the light bulb, and then stuck the shade around the light bulb and screwed it back in. That didn’t work so well.

When I was putting together my Pinterest board for my Master Bedroom Makeover, I came across a tutorial on House*Tweaking who had done the same thing. She purchased the larger shade for $69.99 and I while I did love that one, I thought it would be too big for my fan. Plus, let’s be honest. I simply didn’t want to pay that much money to upgrade my fan.

On House*Tweaking, she used zip ties to hold the shade to the frame. I had been overthinking the process, assuming I’d have to disassemble the light from the fan, attach the shade between them and reassemble it.

Nope, zip ties. Baby. Worked like a charm. Thanks, House*Tweaking! You’re a genius.

It’s kind of like playing Where’s Waldo to see the zip ties. Here’s a side view.

Genius, right? I just snipped the ends down close and you really don’t notice them from the room. If they ever do start to bug me, I’ll simply color them in with a brown Sharpie and call it good.

In case you are wondering, the fan does move the shells when it is on the highest level. I kind of like the white noise of them clinking together. It makes me feel like I’m in the tropics. Hubs, not so much of a fan. Ha! See how I just did that? He’s not a fan of the FAN?…I know. I’m a dork.

Anyhoo, we rarely have our fan on the highest setting. We were having trouble with the fan being unbalanced and it would make the pulls clink against the globe when set any higher than low. We figured out that the connection at the ceiling wasn’t tight. I pushed a shim in there to tighten the gap and now we can have the fan on medium without anything clinking or clanking.

A clear glass bulb looks the best in fixture and doesn’t take away from the look of the shells.

I love the look of the fan and shells together. The coffee colored shells tie in nicely with the caning on the blades. I’ll admit that this type of fan blade isn’t my favorite, but it adds another layer of texture to the room and the tones all match what I’m going for. With the new shade on the fan, I’m really happy with it.

Our only other light in the room was a bedside lamp that I’d purchased about 15 years ago from a hotel liquidator’s store for $5. I like that it has a three-way bulb, but it’s just a little big for the table and I’ve never found a matching lamp for Hubs’ side of the bed.

Part of our plan is to have some industrial elements in the room to balance out all the froufy bedding. When I saw the tutorial on That’s My Letter to convert hard wired sconces into a wall plug, I knew I had found a solution for my room.

I started with two Steel Outdoor Wall Lights that I picked up from Menards for $19.98/each.

I didn’t like the faux rusted look, as it is kind of hokey looking to me. Our plan is to put tongue and groove wood paneling on the wall behind our bed so I wanted more of a contrast between the lights and the future wall. Enter my aged silver finish process.

I sprayed a clear coat over the top to add a bit of shine. Using the antiquing glaze on them made them a bit dull. I also wanted to protect the finish and the clear coat helps do that while adding a bit of shine.

I hung them by the bed and because I don’t always like to measure, I hung them up and called it a day, feeling really good about knocking that project off my To Do list. Then Hubs walked in the room and told me they were crooked and proceeded to get all technical on me. I’m glad I have that man around. He’s a keeper.

If you look closely, you can see where I hung them the first time.

This picture really makes me want to get a move on the wood wall, as well as make the new side tables for our bed. It is hard to force myself to be patient and let this room come together as I have time to work on it. Just know that the crappy little round table is on it’s way out and the antique table on the other side of the bed will find a new location soon.

Other than the paint finish, I followed the tutorial to the letter. It’s very simple to rewire the lights.

I plan to make some cord covers out of left over fabric from my Window Scarf Bed Skirt project. I’ll be sure to show you that when it’s done.

For now, I’m happy to have the new lights in my room and to see it shaping up and coming together.

Cost Breakdown:

• 8” Capiz Shell Shade – $19.98
• Wall Lights – $39.96
• Cord Set with Switch – $9.96
• Zip Ties, Paint, Antiquing Glaze, Clear Sealer Spray – Stock on Hand

Total Project Cost – $69.90

Total Project Time – 30 minutes for Fan, 2 hours for Wall lights but only because I painted them.

Slowly, my room is coming together. I’m working on the bench and some art work for the walls. I have started staining the wood paneling, but the weather turned on me again. I’m hoping to get the ceiling painted and the walls painted this weekend since I need to do that before I can put up the paneling.

Do you have any projects that you’re itching to do but can’t because of the weather?

Suesan

Master Bedroom Makeover–Pottery Barn Knock Off Quilt

Today’s post is more of a cautionary tale. Trust me, you’ll thank me for the warning.

Do you remember my sad sack of a bedroom? The one a muted rainbow barfed all over? Allow me to refresh your memory.

Oh geez. It’s so harsh to see the before. *hanging head in shame*

I showed you the mid-progress update with some new bedding when Hubs had a I-Can’t-Stand-It-No-Mores fit one day.

It was already such a big improvement, but my grand scheme for my room had something froufier in mind. If you will recall, I wanted this Pottery Barn Duvet:

Source: potterybarn.com via FrouFruGal on Pinterest

 

At $179 for the duvet and another $179 for the comforter to fill the duvet, you can imagine the heart palpitations a frugal Gal like me felt when realizing that the bedding of her dreams carried a $358 price tag. I couldn’t use my old comforter in the quilt, lest the blue and white stripes show through. Plus, for our queen sized bed, we actually needed the king-sized quilt, due to the thickness of our mattress. I don’t know if you’ve ever priced out king sized anything, but it gets pricey.

Oh, how I wish I could take this next thought back. I can make that, I thought in a spot-on impression of Pollyanna. I can do it! I saw a tutorial from Fussy Monkey Business, even. It doesn’t look that hard. Oh, and since I hate getting too hot at night and this bedding is going to have a lot of fabric, I’ll just make it a quilt and not a duvet. Genius, Suesan. You. Are. A. Genius! That’s what the pep talk in my head was like.

What my head should have been saying, whilst playing the music from the Psycho shower scene: *Reeet-Reeet-Reeet!* You. Are. An. Idiot! There is a reason this is a duvet and not a quilt. Do you not see all the gathers? How are you going to quilt it so the batting stays put and doesn’t bunch up? You know that batting has to be quilted closer together than those rows of ruching, right? What about binding it? Have you thought about how you are going to finish the edges once you have it all quilted? Well, have you? Stop swooning over the gathers. Stop it. Stop it now. It’s not worth the headache! *Reeet-Reeet-Reeet!*

Now,  you may not know the difference between making a duvet and making a quilt. A duvet is like a giant pillow case for a comforter. It can be removed. A quilt has all the layers in sewn (quilted) together. When it comes to sewing, there’s a big difference.

I won’t go through the step by steps of making the Hades Quilt, as I like to call it. I linked the tutorial up above if you want the basic directions. Again. Make a Duvet! For the love of Pete, Do NOT Make a Quilt!

Here are some tips I have learned:

1. Use Poly Thread on Cotton Fabric for Maximum Gathers

When you are trying to gather fabric, your machine can be set to do a lot of the work for you. Set both your tension and your stitch length to the highest numbers on your machine. It will gather the fabric as you sew….ONLY if you use poly thread. Poly thread has a little stretch to it. Poly thread slides through cotton fabric. Cotton thread through cotton fabric does not move. That’s why it’s good for quilting the layers together in a quilt so they don’t move. Trust me. For gathers, use poly thread. For quilting, use cotton thread.

2. More Fabric Equals More Gathers

It seems pretty obvious. Fussy Monkey used three sheets, two for the top and one for the bottom of the quilt. I measured my bed and used 2.5 times the amount for the top, as I wanted to make sure I had a lot of ruching. I purchased muslin from JoAnn’s when I had a 50% off muslin coupon. I bought the 108” wide muslin, which was wide enough for my bed.

3. Use Bonded Poly Fiberfill

If you are going to make a quilt, use poly fiberfill for the quilt. I used that but then decided that since I just happened to have some cotton batting that I’d purchased brand new from Goodwill for $5/roll, I might as well use it. This turned out to be a spectacularly bad idea.

From bottom to top the layers are muslin, cotton batting, poly fiberfill, ruched muslin.

Why did I want that extra layer of cotton? Well, for one, I’m a natural-fiber girl and I thought it would add some warmth, without adding a lot of weight. It’s the same reason I wanted a quilt instead of a duvet. I didn’t want to feel smothered by so many layers that comes from a comforter and a duvet, but I also wanted my quilt to be warm enough for an Ohio winter. We like to keep the air cool in our room and have the warmth come from the blankets.

So why is cotton a bad idea? Well, let me share. Cotton needs to be quilted about every 5” so that when you wash it, the batting doesn’t bunch up on you. The space between my rows of ruching is 18 inches apart. Which means for my quilt that measures 90” x 106”, I need to hand tack the quilt in 378 places to hold in that cotton batting. *Head Slap*

Sadly, I didn’t realize this until after I washed it. The cotton batting is a little messed up in places, but I think I can save it. However, I won’t be washing the quilt again until all 378 tacking stitches are in place.

4. Baste First, Then Bind

Another lesson I learned the hard way. Basting holds all the layers together so  you can quilt them. Binding is the outer edge that goes around the outside of the quilt. Binding should be put on last. I repeat: first baste the layers together, then bind the quilt.

Here’s where I really shot myself in the foot. I got the idea to sew the edges of the batting to the inside seam of the quilt. My plan was then to turn it right side out, shoot some basting tacks into quilt along the ruching strips and then stitch-in-the-ditch to quilt it all together. Simple, right? Don’t laugh.

Nothing is ever that easy when it comes to sewing for me. I got the batting sewn to the seams but then made the fatal error of top-stitching around the edge of the quilt before I basted the quilt together. Once I basted the quilt, I discovered extra material on one gathered edge and one straight edge of the quilt.

See why I’m warning to baste first? If I had taken the time to properly lay out the pieces of the quilt and basted them together, I would have found the extra material before it was already sewn together.

There may have been a whole lot of weeping and wailing and gnashing of the teeth at this point.  That top stitching you see there? Yeah. I did that with 100% cotton thread, meaning it wasn’t pulling out easily, even if I were so inclined to pick out 200 INCHES of stitching.

I literally had to walk away from the project for awhile. I was too invested to pitch it, plus I was completely married to the idea of this quilt for my room. I knew to fix the problem I’d be hand sewing the edges, so picking it out and then hand-sewing wasn’t going to happen. Not on my watch.

This is what I had to do to fix the problem.

To hand sew all 200 inches of the quilt took me more than 6 hours to do. Probably more, but I’ve blocked it from my mind. Are you getting a feel for why I have thus named this quilt. Has it earned its name in your mind yet?

If you really want to try this as a quilt, I suggest making some binding strips for the edges. The sides of the quilt are gathered, so they really need to be machine sewn down. Research different ways to bind a quilt and use one of those methods.

5. Sew Slowly to Get Good Results

With the edges fixed, I was able to start quilting. I had a lady lined up to do the quilting for me using a long-arm machine. I was going to pay her to sew down each side of the ribbon (stitch-in-the-ditch). It wouldn’t have cost me that much, but I wanted to see if I could do it myself.

Take your time on a project like this. You want nice, even seams.

Even if you are only making the duvet, there is nothing gained by going quickly. Take your time to feed the material through the machine and still keep things straight. You’ll be happy you took your time.

If you are as insane as I am and decide you want a quilt, just know that you will have to go slow to feed all the layers through the machine. It’s slow-going, but manageable.

It’s also hot, so do yourself a favor and don’t do it on a day when it’s nearly 80 degrees out. Lesson learned.

In fact, we’d been having a warm spell in Ohio and the irony was not lost on me that about the time I finished this quilt it was too warm to use it! Don’t worry, though, because in Ohio if you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes.

We’re back to normal temperatures and we’ve been enjoying the quilt, but in another few weeks I will take it off the bed and start sewing 378 tacking stitches into the quilt. Think of a tied quilt but with thread instead of yarn. I believe I will be able to hide the tacking in the gathers so it won’t show, but it may take me until next winter to get them all done.

Was all the blood (I scrapped up a finger with the seam ripper somewhere along the way), sweat and tears worth it? I’ll let you decide.

I absolutely love it, in spite of all my mistakes. I love looking at this quilt. I love how romantic it is. I love that it’s warm and even when my bed is messed up, it still looks great. Hubs is less excited about it, but he likes how warm it is. Plus, he says if it makes me happy, then he’s happy. Smart man.

I picked up some new sheets, too, on sale at Walmart for $13! They are some of the BHG sheets which normally run about $37 for the set.

Yeah, they are only 250 thread count, but I love the pattern and they go well, so I’m a happy girl for now. Maybe down the road we can invest in more expensive/high thread count set of sheets.

Cost Breakdown:

• Muslin, 9 Yards – $35.45 (50% off coupon + $5 off coupon )
• Poly Fiberfill Batting – $12.45 (50% off coupon)
• Grosgrain ribbon, 5/8” 2 Rolls (18 feet) – $3.35 (40% off coupon)
• Cotton Batting – $8.00

Total Quilt Cost – $59.25

Total Project Time – Don’t Ask

That concludes the bedding portion of this makeover. I previously posted that we spent about $75 for the first set of bedding. That was wrong. We really spent $136.94. Add in the new sheets at $19, the $6 it cost me to make the window scarf bed skirt and $13.43 for the Pleated Pillow Shams, along with the cost of the new quilt and it brings our total bedding costs to $228.62. That’s a savings of $129.38 if we’d only bought the Pottery Barn duvet and quilt.

Considering that we now have 2 quilts, 2 sets of sheets, 4 pillow shams and a bed skirt, I’d say we did pretty well.

All that messing up has made me tired. Good thing I now have such a pretty bed to curl up in!

Suesan