Impressionist Chair

These metal outdoor chairs are very much an Austin staple. We’ve found them at flea markets, garage sales and consignment stores. Without fail, they are always $40-$45. That’s why we jumped when we found this one for $20. Bad news: it was this heinous color.

Attaching a wire brush to the drill, Tim took off the cloud-like color, only to find it had quite a few other coats hiding. You can see from the close ups below that the finish looks like an impressionist painting. What was interesting to us was that by removing layers of paint, it revealed more depth – reverse painting, if you will.

Nicole’s Crazy Succulent Project

Saturday morning at a garage sale, Nicole discovered two of the most gnarly succulent plants imaginable – paying $3 for each of them.

Carefully cutting them up and replanting, it took her 3 tries, 2 days and a total of 7 hours to replant these guys. Check out the process pics:

Drilling holes in the bottom of a cast iron pot (purchased at the same garage sale for $4.50)

Taking apart the larger plant took careful cutting. 

Close up of the roots. They grew crazy directions, which is why it took hours to replant them.

Doing this in the over 100 degree heat only serves to prove that the “weird plant lady” moniker is slowly approaching.

Many pots of succulents later. The bread tray planters are for cultivating more in the kitchen, the little pots are for gifts and the big pot is for the balcony.

Oh, and one last thing to note: this is the first project Nicole has completed solo… so, round of applause here people.

The Couch

This couch is the culmination of hours (and hours) of shopping around town and 7 weeks of waiting for it to be delivered. We picked the color slate because it was neutral without being boring.

It’s the Button Sectional from Urban Living.  From the start we set out to find a sectional (not a chase lounge), and this is the only “petite” section we could find. We were relieved that it looked great, too.

Cardboard Art

This honeycomb looking piece of art is actually cardboard packing corners which have been glued to a flattened box.

This is what Nicole saw when she walked in to the apartment. Looking at Tim disapprovingly, he said, “Can you believe someone wanted to throw these away?” her answer, “Yes.” (But, of course, as with most things, she loves the cardboard creation).

This next piece is a Frank Gehry inspired chair. Tim took a bunch of flat pieces of cardboard and cut out the shape of a chair (over and over). Using Elmer's glue, he made this little piece of wonder by gluing all the cutouts side by side.

It is very sturdy and can support almost 300 pounds (we haven’t tried much more than that…)

The Boudoir

Oh yes, that’s a sink in the middle of our extra bedroom. This little piece of plumbing marked this area from day #1 as Nicole’s space.

Of course, when the picture above is the vintage fan, vase and flowers and jewelry box that were all gifts from Tim, you can see who wears the design pants in this household.

This is a great little reading corner. The mini-sofa and curtains are from Urban Outfitters, the shelves are refurbished drawers.  Notice the little bitty pots in the windows? Those are Nicole’s baby succulents = awesome.