Family Room

Eight months ago we purchased our "dream home". We bought a 1959 mid-century modern home. It's 1600 sq-ft, with slanted roof, and a really high selling. We love the location, it's right across the street from a public park, a mile away from the grocery store, and within five miles from all our friends.
We decided to furnish the house with 1950's and 1960's furniture, to go along with the style of the home. My first project was the family/kids play room.
I wanted a family room that would be mid-century modern, colorful, and easy to clean, since my family is a little on the messy side. I shopped thrift stores, antique stores, eb*y, and other places online for the best used furniture deal. After a couple months I finally found these couches on Cr%#gslist. I paid $300 dollars for both couches, an awesome side table (not shown), and the coffee table/foot stool. I've seen similar couches on eb*y go for over $1000! I'm very please with them, both couches and coffee table are made of wood and vinyl, which makes it very easy to clean. Now I just need a pretty rug and some pillows, but that's another post!

From Trash To Treasure!

I found these chairs in the trash! I was driving to my parent’s house when I saw them on the side of the road. While hanging out with my family, I kept thinking about them, so on the way back to my house, I stopped and loaded two of the chairs into my car. My aunt was with me. I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m a little on the crazy side, but I’m ok with that. I’ve always wanted to learn how to reupholster something and I thought these chairs would be an easy first project.
I started by wiping them with a rag. All the dirt and paper that was stuck to them came right off. I didn’t even have to sand or re-stain them!! I unscrewed the cushions from the chairs and started to rip the old fabric off. That was the grossest part of the whole process. The old cushion was saggy and stinky. I started to imagine all the bum-bums that once sat on those chairs, and how many toots those old cushions must have endured. I almost quit right at that thought, but I didn’t. I was too far into the process to give up.
I tossed all the nasty material away.I purchased new padding and fabric at the craft store. I used a staple gun to attach them back to the chairs. Total cost? $6 for each chair.
I would like to think there are no more toot particles stuck to the cushions now, but with a family like mine, I'm pretty sure I'm wrong!

Retro Pillows!

I found two huge panels of curtains at an antique store for $2 a piece. They were very retro looking with green and orange flowers. I think there were over 6 yards for fabric! What a deal!
I took them home, washed them, and with a little magic, they became pillows!!
Ok...I'll tell you the truth: I don't really have magical powers. I just cut the fabric into squares, hand-sewed them together, and stuffed them with some pre-made pillow inserts. They look great on my orange, mid-century, vinyl couches! Total cost? $5 for two pillows! I still have over 4 yard of fabric left, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. Any suggestions?