I took a break from blogging so I could get our family ready for 10 days at our cabin at Roxbury Holiness Camp. It was a great 10 days, but now it is back to reality and the countdown to school starting for our boys. Depressing, huh?
While I was at the cabin, I worked on a few quick projects. Here is one of them:
A few years ago, this rocker love seat ended up in the old cabin. It was more comfortable than the sofa that was in there so I kept it there until someone claimed it. A year or so later, after we rebuilt the cabin, I noticed that this rocker still smelled quite strongly of mothballs so I left it on the front porch for another year.
We still haven't had anyone claim this little rocker. While I am definitely not a fan of the fabric, I think it is an adorable little rocker. I struggled with giving it an update. First of all, I still felt it belonged to someone else and someday they would miss their little rocker. Secondly, I had examined it before and found something about this rocker that had me stumped as to how to fix it. It bothered me, though, that it didn't fit in with the rest of the furniture on the porch. Finally, with a little coaxing from a friend (it didn't take much), I decided I could give it a quick, temporary update so it was at least an attractive item on the porch. I've decided that if someone claims it, they can have the new, improved one. I think it is safe to assume that most people would be okay with a fabric update in this case.
I started by removing the back cushion. Easy. Look at the beautiful, curved back. So charming.
Under the seat cushion, instead of a smooth seat, there was this plywood screwed into the seat. This was the issue that I knew about and was hesitant about fixing.
As you can see from looking at the bottom, it was covering a great big hole in the seat. I have no idea what was there. I'm guessing it was a caned bottom maybe? Either way, it is the other reason I hesitated on fixing it up. I had no idea what to do about this board. I don't have the woodworking skills to fix it so I had been stumped on this one for about year. On this day, however, inspiration came and I came up with my temporary solution. Amazing what a day sipping hot tea on my porch will do for my creativity at times.
I turned the thing upside down and began removing the skirting. I keep a couple of screwdrivers in our utility closet at the cabin and they worked really well.
Look at this clean rocker. Okay. Okay. It needs a bit of a dusting and furniture polish, but I didn't bring the wood cleaner from home so that will have to wait. I just wanted it to stop clashing with the porch. Let's not get too distracted here.
Since I had no way to fix or replace the board on the seat, I replaced the cushion. I had no choice. We are at camp and supplies are limited. I do, however, have quite a supply of fabrics and curtains in a bench I keep in the cabin. I'm not done hanging curtains so they sit in the bench until I decide on what to do and get some rods hung.
In my treasure hunt in that bench, I came across this fabric. It is a square tablecloth. I'm not sure what I originally had in mind for it. I have a tendency to grab fabric at yard sales when the price is right (usually .25) and if I find it an attractive pattern. I used it to cover the original cushion. This means the mothball smell is still there, I know. But, remember, it is temporary until I can spend the time I need to on it.
So, do you want to see the end result?
I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with how well it turned out for a quick fix. I just grabbed a couple of neutral pillows off of the futon upstairs and the pillow in the middle was another quick project that I will share later.
Here is a picture of how it looks with the rest of the porch furniture. I love the way the pillows ended up pulling the colors of the shutters with it.
For a temporary fix, I was a very happy camper that week.
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