Trashy & Brassy to Sassy & Classy

This is a guest post from my blogging sister in decorating crime, Kimba from A Soft Place to Land. If you've been under a rock and have yet to meet her and all her genius ways fly on over and say hello.

When it comes to furnishing my home, I love the challenge of finding a piece of bedraggled furniture and rehabbing it into something that I love. This method also works nicely with my cheapskate tendencies.

Let me start with this disclaimer...What I do isn't furniture restoration or even refinishing. If you do that type of work, you really should look away now. The pieces I work on are usually someone's unloved trash or thrift store bargains. I use paint, fabric and some elbow grease to create something new and pretty that I can love.

I was up for a challenge the day that I saw this brassy, trashy vanity stool at the Salvation Army for $5. I threw him into back of the van with visions of a dramatic makeover for my bathroom. Every girl needs a soft place to sit in her bathroom, right?

Here's what I used for this dramatic makeover:

• Brassy, trashy stool
• Rustoleum spray paint in Heirloom White
• Burlap
• Staple gun
• Stencil
• Lumiere fabric paint in metallic brown
• Sponge brush
  

The seats on these types of stools (and most chairs, for that matter) are easily removed by unscrewing the seat from the bottom and lifting it off. This will let you paint the frame without protecting the seat.

Two or three coats of my beloved Heirloom White spray paint (satin finish) covered up the horrible brass. Note: I did not prime this piece because it's going in my bathroom where it won't get banged around (and because I'm lazy like that). BUT, if you want to increase the durability factor, a base coat of primer will greatly increase the chances of your paint not chipping.

Recovering a seat like this one is as easy as wrapping new fabric over the seat cushion and stapling it to the bottom with the staple gun. Once the seat is recovered, you just reattach it using the same hardware that you just removed.

The monogram was done using a regular stencil, fabric paint and a sponge brush. Burlap takes fabric paint beautifully, so it was an easy way to add a bit of personalization.

I'll be honest...Even I, lover of all things aerosol, (spray paint, hairspray and cheese whiz) wasn't convinced I was going to love the end results on this one. I knew that the brass could be transformed with spray paint. But I was worried that the scrolls and swirlies would look dated even when they were painted. But now I love it! What do you think?

Do you have something at home that you could transform with some paint, fabric and elbow grease?

Thanks Kimba, I now want to paint everything I own, and used to own, and got rid of too soon. By the way, today is moving day for us. I'll have some photos soon!

In other news, Jon and Kate's {K8?} old house is still on the market {thanks em} if you are interested. It brings back so many nice memories. I'd love to know what the note in the bathroom say. Because I am nosey like that. But let's play nice in the comments about them please.