Coffee Corner: Awkward Space Solution

My living room is an awkward space. It's rather roomy, so the problem is not how to fit all my furniture comfortably in it. Instead, it's just shaped in an awkward way, which makes it difficult to create useful space--and I ultimately want all the space in my house to be useful and easy to clean.

The living room is part of an addition on the house that was created long enough ago to have settled and finished settling, but is definitely not original to the house. It would just be a square popped onto the rear of the house, except that they added a bathroom to the space as well by cutting out a corner of the room. I'm not upset at that; without it there's no bathroom downstairs, so it's definitely needed and appreciated. But it ends up shaping the room in such a way that there are two pockets of space that basically are unused once I set up the TV area. Some of that we've solved by using a sofa table and desk against the couch, but there was a space in particular that really was just empty and barren, tucked away behind the bathroom.

I wasn't sure what to do with it. However, I had been inspired by several posts on coffee bars. I pinned images like this one:

And this one:

A quick overview of making the bar here.

And generally had dreamed of a space devoted to coffee in my own home. My initial thought was the library, which is located right off the kitchen, so seemed like the ideal spot. I had forgotten how many books we have, however, and realized that all wall space really needed to be devoted to them. So with that plan nixed, my husband suggested the awkward space in the living room.

Since we had a space planned out, all that remained was finding the components and finishing the living room. You may have noticed the deplorable state of the living room walls in the pictures of my chair after I reupholstered it. Not only was the wallpaper half-peeled off the wall, but, due to the previous owners' need to use rough, raw wood everywhere, there had been a half-wall of raw wood (I had the splinters to prove it!), and instead of cutting holes in the wainscoting, they simply put the outlets halfway up the wall (it's above the chair in the pictures).

But now the living room is finished (and the outlets are near the floor)! I may eventually do a post about the room as a whole, so you can see the transformation. It's exciting to have a place I can sit and appreciate.

Anyway, we kept watch for the perfect table for our own coffee bar. Finally, when we were on one of our outings to Ikea, my husband and I saw the perfect piece:

Olofstorp at Ikea. We love its mix of modern color and rustic style. My mother got us a shelf from Wayfair to display our collection of coffee cups, and I set our bar stools, which are just the right height for Olofstorp, on either side as a convenient and comfortable place to sit and talk and enjoy coffee. They need a makeover to match their location, but that will be later. I have a few other things I want to cover first.

I love the final results! The neutral tones of the bar and the black of the shelf pair beautifully with the blue wall and white trim. We have a Keurig and finished out the space with a mini-fridge (the coolest mini-fridge I have ever seen) to hold cold coffee supplies such as cream and milk.

The light from the window really makes this space look inviting!

This is the type of thing that can easily fill an awkward space without being difficult to build, organize, or set up!

Cleaning Calendar

I know I'm not the only person who's seen this printable by NessaMakes:

It's made the Pinterest rounds, and if you haven't seen it in full, you should check it out. It's really cute and the inspiration it provided me to try to organize my own chores will hopefully lead to a much more guest-ready house in the future.

I however, am a technophile and a lover of all things Google, so it was inevitable that my own personal chore chart would end up as a Google calendar.

Here's the thing: I was going to have to make my own anyway. Every house has its own needs, and every household has its own patterns. I can't do anything in the morning before work because I am barely human when I leave the house. I roll out of bed, put reasonable clothes on, try to make my hair do something, give up and put it in a ponytail, then head out of the house. On a good day I remember to take some coffee with me.

All of my daily chores are definitely happening in the evenings.

And getting organized about all of this is completely necessary. I work full time as a teacher, I am a grad school student, mother, wife, and have decided not only to fix up a house but also to remake furniture because I felt like I didn't have enough to do. It's easy for me to get caught up in anything other than cleaning my house.

Which is a mistake, because a sad house makes me sad.

So, time to organize! It's taken me 36 years, but thanks to this pin and a little brainstorming, I think I have a plan that keeps me from feeling overwhelmed. And hopefully sharing it here will give you a chance to do the same for your own housework.

First, I made a Google Document so I could figure out what really needs to be done on a regular basis in my home. I looked at the printable above to give myself guidance and a starting place, then left the document open for a few days so I could add to it.

I divided the document into four categories: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Semi-Annually. The Daily chores are basic and based on keeping the kitchen from getting gross and some junk hotspots (you know, the places you stick things like junk mail and books and headphones and paintbrushes and other such things you don't feel like putting away or throwing away) from getting crowded. And keeping laundry under control. The Weekly chores are things that really need to be done once a week, like cleaning bathrooms and sweeping each of the rooms (I have the house sectioned off so a different area is swept each day and it never becomes too much). The Monthly chores are bigger, like waxing floors (again broken up between weeks) and deep-cleaning the stove. Semi-Annual are spring cleaning items like curtains and pillows and the oven.

Once I made this list, I started assigning things. I divided the weekly chores into basically even workloads and then divided them between Monday-Friday (I left the weekend for the larger Monthly jobs). It's important when you do this step to keep in mind any normal weekly activities--I made Friday's chores the lightest set because my son has archery on Friday nights, so we are out most of the evening.

I did my best to similarly balance the Monthly set of chores into four items, and then assigned them each to one Saturday a month.

Then I programmed my calendar!

Google Calendars allow you to create "events" that repeat, and it's as simple as writing out how often you want them to repeat.

I programmed my daily tasks by typing "Every Day" and then the tasks I want myself to do each day. To program weekly tasks, I typed "Every Monday" or "Every Tuesday" and it populated all the Mondays with that chore. I was even able to program monthly tasks by typing "Every 1st Saturday" etc. I had to manually enter the semi-annual tasks, but that was because I am really particular about where those end up.

When I was done entering all of these, I ended up with a calendar that looks a lot like this:

Which is very full.

Next I went into the events and scheduled notifications for the day before each task so I could be reminded. Thanks to that I get little reminders on the side of my computer screen and on my phone about the chores I need to be contemplating. They look like this:

Pretty cool. I was working on something else when they popped up, and I got a preview of my expectations for the day.

And if your Google calendar looks too full once you've filled it with your chores, you can actually turn off the view of that calendar, and as long as you've turned on notifications, you will still get the reminders about what you should be doing each day.

It's exciting. I love the fact I was able to tie my needs in with technology that I love and with which I am capable.

The Most Extreme Cake I'll Ever Make (Probably): Arcade Cake

I hadn't really planned to go into my baking on this blog, mostly because it's something I do sporadically at best, whenever I get in the mood, or for special occasions, such as my son's birthday party.

And I've done this for every one of his birthdays since he turned three, whenever he wanted me to (most of the time):

His 5th birthday! I didn't know what I was doing so I basically
"colored" with icing and outlined in black.

6th birthday--I had the birthday message on another cake.

7th birthday! This was my first exploration in fondant. Which
is fun stuff and everyone should play with it.

8th birthday. Phoenix actually got to work with me on this one.

10th birthday--my first time covering an entire cake in
fondant and using gum paste. It's sloppy but still fun.

Last year, Phoenix's 11th birthday. We had a bacon party.

So while these were never just average cakes, and they always matched whatever party theme Phoenix chose, they were not the crazy thing I decided I needed to take on this year.

This year, Phoenix chose to have his party at a really awesome local retro arcade, and when I asked what kind of cake he wanted, he said, "An arcade game?"

It was a question, not a statement. If you look at the cakes above, none of them are structurally challenging. I have never done anything like a fancy tiered cake or even anything that had more than two layers. But I have yet to let mere things like lack of knowledge, experience, or even a basic idea for an approach stop me. I've watched Food Network (a lot, actually--it's one of my favorite things to have on in the background while I'm grading, planning, studying, etc.). I've imagined making fancy cakes before. I'm a whiz at Google. So I decided to work through possible steps and come up with a plan.

This was three weeks out from his birthday party. I spent the first week of that co-leading a teaching workshop and passing out from exhaustion every day when I got home.

Math and quilting skillz: useful for
cake!

The second week I started thinking about the cake, how to approach the cake, and how I should start that week so everything would be done early and I could just calmly throw the thing together the day before his party. I even started researching things like how long gum paste takes to dry, whether or not I wanted to make my own gum paste (the answer was no--too many specialized ingredients), similar things other people have done, images of the arcade game my son chose (Donkey Kong), and ways to create the imagery as authentically as possible. I did lots of research. I didn't start a thing.

I was scared. This was a really, really big task. I didn't even know where to start.

Finally, that weekend, I measured my cake pans (to be sure they were 8"x8") and used algebra (I love math! It's so convenient) to convert the measurements from my images of the Donkey Kong machine to a piece of baking parchment. I also used my quilting grid and quilting ruler for this, which both came in really handy.

After measuring like crazy, I realized I needed to buy gum paste so I could actually get started, and somehow still didn't get around to that until the Monday before my son's party. (There's a theme here. Don't procrastinate with gum paste.)

I wanted gum paste because it dries much harder than fondant. The three main cake covers for decorating are icing, fondant, and gum paste. Icing stays generally soft and pliable; fondant eventually dries and becomes brittle if not taken care of, but stays pliable longer than gum paste which makes it good for many things but a poor choice for structural needs; and gum paste dries very hard and solid if you give it enough time, and lasts a long time (you can make your pieces of gum paste up to a month ahead of time if you bother to plan ahead), making it ideal for structural and decorative elements.

I used my measurements to create a pattern, which I cut out of parchment paper. I rolled out the gum paste around 1/4" thick (inconsistently, however, due to reasons). I'll get into the nitty-gritty of how much I used of each thing below in case you want that kind of detail. I then laid my pattern on the gum paste and used a pizza cutter (a trick I learned from Alton Brown a long time ago) to cut around the shape. I cut out two shaped sides that way. The other pieces were simple measurements, so I used the quilting ruler again to measure and give me a straight edge for cutting. I set all the pieces aside to dry and looked forward to getting started on decorating them the next day.

Except that they weren't dry the next day. Because when you have a piece of gum paste that is 16"x8"x0.25" it takes at least a week to dry properly. Awesome. I had four days. And I needed to decorate it in those four days.

So my house became gum paste drying central. It was spread anywhere I could find space and a fan.

The penny's so you can see the size.

And I went ahead and worked on the fondant section of my cake, because I could at least do that. I had decided that the screen of the arcade cabinet would be a fondant version of a screen shot I found online. Since the details were so small, I used texture to create the feel of the beams and ladders of the game, and painted the other details using food coloring very small before carving them from the fondant and attaching them to the "screen".

All the little triangles were made with a toothpick as were the rungs on the ladders. I got better as I went.

By Thursday evening I decided that I couldn't wait for the gum paste to dry completely before painting on it, so I went ahead and started. I would like to thank all of the wonderful people who host and post on cake decorating forums, especially Wilton and Cake Central, because I learned from both sources two important things: how to paint with food color (without it staying sticky) and how to make structural items stick (explained below).

Apparently, alcohol is the magic ingredient for cake painting. The higher the alcohol content, the better the evaporation, which means beautifully dried "paint" on the gum paste or fondant. Most people use vodka (which I also chose), some use everclear (gross), and some, who obviously have more money than I do (and I spent a lot on this cake), use lemon extract, which has a high alcohol content (higher than vodka) but doesn't scare people who don't understand chemistry.

Another forum post suggested that I create a light outline of my design on the gum paste to follow while I'm painting, because it can be erased using just pure clear alcohol (as can pretty much any of the other colors--that's how I made the lines and bolts for the details on the beams).

I was not able to avoid brushstrokes on my finished images, but I'm okay with that, and I think that short of learning to airbrush, that's just the way it goes.

My crazy workstation and mug o' vodka.

Partway through-it's messy before
the outlines.

The outlines made all the difference!

I finished one side the first night--it took me five hours. To be fair, that was partly because I had no idea what I was doing. I approached it like water color: lightest color first, then slowly through increasingly dark colors. It seemed to work, so I followed the same pattern the next evening when I finished painting everything else.

The day before my son's party, I wasted a lot of time figuring out that I couldn't use the same approach to paint the other side of the gum paste pieces black. A lot of time. As in, the entire day. So I had one side of the arcade painted and everything else was trying to dry black but was a really streaked gray color. I finally caved and went and bought the Wilton black cake spray and spray painted it all, which was really messy but effective and dried faster.

However, the end result was that I didn't get to start painting the other pieces until about 6 P.M. the night before I had to produce a finished cake.

I did spend the day baking the three and a half cakes I needed to build the base of the machine. Which was good. Because I didn't finish painting the fancy bits until 2 A.M.

Layer and layer and dowel
rods for stability.

Then, basing my action on things I've seen Duff Goldman and others do on T.V. (I'm a Food Network geek in addition to all the usual geekdoms), I used cardboard supports and dowel rods to create some level of structure to the cake (also layered with icing), including a section that needed an overhang. I also did my best to carve the "screen" at a reasonable angle, covered the stuff in icing, and added a thin layer of black fondant to the top section and blue fondant to the bottom or base of the machine. Lastly, before I passed out at 5:30 A.M, I stuck the sides on the cake and supported them. I also took a picture, in case the sides collapsed, and went to take a two hour nap.

When I woke up with a panicked "What if the sides did collapse and the cake is a failure and my son is going to have the worst birthday ever?!" I dragged myself back to the cake and worked on the rest of the details. I made fondant buttons and a gum paste and fondant joystick. I made the coin slot panel and learned that in order for the Wilton silver spray to actually look silver, you actually need to spray it on a gray fondant (otherwise it looks pearly). Then, with the help of my husband, since I hadn't conveniently grown a third arm in the two hours I'd slept, I attached the back of the arcade. This is where the other piece of advice I'd gained from the forums really saved me. They suggested using candy melting wafers as glue (instead of icing or the various other normal means of attaching gum paste) for things that were structurally difficult.

I would have never succeeded had I not read that.

I melted some wafers in a ziplock baggie and clipped the corner (thanks Alton Brown!) so I could pipe a controlled stream into the corners where the pieces of gum paste met. I used my finger to smooth the line (like I do when I caulk--this was really just like caulking). Then I took a picture. Then my husband held the top sign of the arcade to the front of the "sides" of the arcade and I piped that together too. I held it until I was sure it was cool enough to be stable. And I took another picture. I was really scared the whole thing would fall apart so I wanted proof that I had gotten as far as each step.

I added the fondant screen. And I took a picture.

I added the joystick and button section. And I took a picture.

I set my husband the task of wiring a light behind the front sign of the arcade. I didn't take a picture because I didn't want to annoy him.

I added the coin slot and the black band of fondant (mostly there to break up the blue). And I took a picture.

You don't really need all of those pictures. They may even be considered excessive by some. Instead, may I present to you, with a lot of build up, The Most Extreme Cake I'll Ever Make (Probably):

Front view with the light off. Yes, I know the fit is wonky. That's
explained below. I was frustrated.

Side view without the light.

Front view with the light. The blue really made it seem like the screen
was glowing.

Side view with the light. You can see a little of the glow behind the
sign, which helped sell the effect, I think.

Things I learned the hard way (aside from "never procrastinate when gum paste is on the line"):

1. Don't dry gum paste on parchment paper. It just wrinkles from the moisture, which then translates to waves in the dried gum paste (see lit side view of cake above). I recommend silicon or foam.
2. Cake shrinks when it cools. I knew that, really, but hadn't thought to apply that knowledge to this particular cake that required pretty much exact measurements to work correctly. Thus, instead of an 8"x8" cake, mine was 7"x7" which made the fit a little (lot) off. I was able to clip one piece of gum paste with lots of sawing and careful breaking, but that would have ruined the design of the top sign so it stayed oversized.
3. Some people suggest speeding up gum paste drying by setting it in your oven with the light on (without actually turning the oven on). I tried that on a few pieces, and one ended up cracking. My pieces were huge, though, so I don't know if it works for smaller pieces.
4. I have a long way to go in cake carving.

Things I am inspired to do thanks to this cake:

1. Any simple decorating. I'm serious. After that cake, I feel like all the others were breezes.
2. A cake painting party. I could make small cakes, cover them in blank white fondant, and everyone could paint whatever they wanted on it. And there'd be vodka. For painting.
3. Light-up edible gum paste art. It doesn't show in the pictures, but the light was visible through the 1/3" gum paste sign. So cool. So edible. So lit up.

Supplies I personally needed so I could stumble my way through making this cake:

Six bags of Wilton gum paste (around $9 each): $54
One bag of Wilton white fondant (not the pre-rolled: around $7): $7
Four packages of cake mix (around $3 each): $12
Four tubs of icing (around $2 each): $8
One collection of gel food color (which will be useful in the future, but I'm counting it): $13
One bottle of Gray Goose Vodka (trust me, good quality means less fumes): $35--but I only used half, so $17
Cake dowels: $2
Cardboard cake supports: $3
Black and Silver icing sprays ($3 each): $6
Black candy melting wafers: $3

This doesn't count things I already had on hand, like paint brushes dedicated to edible decorating, a cake leveler, a cake display board, the wiring and such for the light, etc.

So for expenses only based on things I didn't have, this cake cost me $125 to make. Good thing I have an understanding and supportive spouse. And good thing this is only once a year.

The cake survived the drive to the site! And the cake was not a lie!
It was chocolate and delicious!

Last Time on Ashwood Manor: Things Best Left Alone

Last time, on Ashwood Manor.

Settling into his favorite armchair, allowing his man to remove his shoes before he rested his feet on the footstool next to the fire, Clarence let his mind drift to his evening at Ashwood Manor. Images of Rosemary flowed behind closed eyes; he felt tight muscles in his neck and shoulders relax their grip as he imagined ruby red lips, black hair in a curly bob just brushing the very edge of a delicate jawline, the smooth slope of a shoulder into a beaded black sleeve, eyes clear and pure--the color of emeralds--with a tendency toward humor, slender wrists encircled by stylish silver bracelets--a harsh hand grasping that wrist too tightly, leaving red marks on the milky skin.

Clarence's eyes opened, and he frowned in distaste. To think Rosemary would be married to such a man, someone who obviously did not know how to treat a woman--especially a woman of Rosemary's caliber--to think that she was forced to waste her vibrancy and vitality on such an unworthy husband--his cheeks reddened with the heat of his ire.

If only he could do something about it.

And yet--and yet he couldn't. He would not even consider interfering in the match. It was not his business and frankly his passion was much stronger than it should be. He'd only met her that night, been briefly introduced, watched her from a distance, shared a smile.

He wanted to see her smile more.

Clarence sighed and tousled his hair. There was no use wishing for things that could not be. At his elbow, on a table situated at a comfortable proximity to the chair, was a pile of envelopes, all unopened. The pile was neatly arranged and balanced. No envelope was out of alignment.

To get the whole story of Ashwood Manor, the collection is here.

Chevrawesome Chair

I am thankful for Project Runway. And HGTV. And blogs. And Pinterest. And wonderful DIY videos for those of us who like to take on difficult projects. And, of course, mom's lessons on sewing.

Because reupholstering a chair is hard.

Really hard. I could have been part of a cheesy 80s sitcom. Every time I would finish a section I would foolishly say, "That was the hardest part. The next part should be easy!" It became a joke to my husband, but I was sincerely convinced each time I was right. How could it be more difficult than what I just accomplished? I sewed piping and pleats in a curve! ..Oh, that's how.

And yet, I loved it.

Sure there were moments. I put the project down for two days after I completely botched one of the side panels and had to cut new fabric and try again.

But I am often an artist and love creating and I needed a comfortable chair to curl up in to do homework and work on my son's quilt. One that went with the room and my overall color scheme for the house. So I kept marching forward, overall had fun, and ended up with a chair I am excited about.

It cost me about a third of the price a chair like that normally goes for. I found the chair itself at Goodwill for $15 and bought the fabric on sale for $55 for 9 yards. I probably only needed 7 yards to simply cover it but the chevron pattern made it necessary to (attempt to) line everything up a certain way. If I had been able to stop buying supplies there, I would have gotten the chair for a crazy low price. But I decided to save time by buying the piping.  It cost $35 by itself and is really the only wasted money in the effort (I was distracted and didn't check the price before I was at the checkout--after I'd had the store cut the section already).

So $105 for a chair that fits my sense of style. Good buy. I can be picky.

Reupholstering a Chair

Let me say now that this was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I know I've already said that and implied it repeatedly above. However, had I taken this on even three years ago, I would not have been able to successfully complete it. Even now, there are flaws in the completed version that I have decided to live with until I come up with a remedy I can feel secure won't make things worse.

I didn't actually mean to buy it. I was looking for more diningroomesque (it's totally a word) chairs with padding that I could personalize.

But then I walked into Goodwill, and there the chair was, looking at me, with its perfectly healthy structure and dingy upholstery. And its $15 price tag. I bought it and took it home and wondered if I had made a relatively cheap mistake and how I would get rid of it if I decided I had made a mistake.

Just look at that face. I couldn't leave it there.

I turned to my friend, always there for me in times of confusion: Google. I found several blogs over covering a wingback chair (this was the one I found the most useful, as well as the videos she links in this blog post--they helped me identify what I was working with when I took the chair apart).

I probably should mention that while I was all gumption and positivity and self-confidence and actively looking for a (much easier) reupholstery project, this is actually the first time I've done anything like that. My sewing experience is mostly limited to costumes for myself and my son. 

I should also mention that my brand-new old wingback chair had a surprise waiting for me: it's a recliner! I had no idea until I sat in it at home and happened to lean back.

So I jumped straight into the deep end. That's fine. Some people learn to swim that way.

The Process: It's All About the Record-Keeping

Even the tack strips were meticulously
labeled.

I like to keep records. Luckily, we live in a fantastically technological age, and so I was able to keep records by simply taking approximately a billion pictures with my phone as I took the chair apart. I am not sure I can clearly articulate how glad I was that I had taken the billion photos when I started trying to put the chair together. I can tell you that I bought the chair in late September, slowly took it apart through January (I had maybe an hour a week to devote to it, and that was not always the case), took lots of pictures, and labeled everything to an embarrassing degree (until I was putting things back together, at which point I was super relieved I obsessively labeled and took pictures).

Note the wear and tear on the head.
That's not even very far into the
removal.

Taking the chair apart was actually a learning process for me. I finally perfected the art of removing staples after almost stabbing myself with a screwdriver more times than I'd like to admit. You need a flat head screwdriver that you don't mind possibly ruining, a hammer, and pliers. The professional-grade staples that had been used to attach everything to my chair fought removal most of the time. I had to wedge the screwdriver at an angle (45 degrees or so) and hammer it into the wood just below the staple, then twist to create a gap. At which point, it was generally simple to remove the staple with pliers. 

I carefully kept all the fabric I removed from the chair and labeled, as well as the tack strips, pli-grip strips, and metal tack strips for each section so I wouldn't have to replace any of the hardware.

I learned while doing this, as many others have, that chairs are actually much less sewn than we tend to think they are. Mostly they're cobbled together with staples and other sharp implements. 

I just loosened the metal tack strips with my screwdriver.

The pli-grip strips are kind of like stapled-down carpet tacks.
You should pry them open, then carefully remove the staples.

The side panels were attached at top with a tack strip that
could curve around the arm, then pli-grip for the front curve
and metal tack strips for the top and back. Then they were
stapled to the bottom. No sewing, but lots of room for error.

I am so glad I took as many photos as I did, if only for the moral support the photos gave me whenever I doubted if I had the right approach. I simply had to follow the photos backwards to reconstruct the chair. 

Putting Things Back Together

Battened and beautiful.

If I were cool, I would have planned these images to line up.

I followed Modest Maven's and my mother's suggestion to cover the chair in quilt batting before moving on to the fabric. It did help contain the loose wool that was falling apart all over the chair, and made it feel fresher even before I put the new fabric on. I also sanded the legs and stained them a nice reddish color (Cabernet by Verathane) before putting three coats of polyurethane on them. You can see in most of the before pictures that they had been varnished and were chipping badly. I like the red tone with the light, bright teal on my finished chair.

I was fortunate in both of those endeavors: I didn't have to buy anything new. I tend to have quilt batting (it can be surprisingly handy) and we bought a bunch of sample stains before we decided how to treat our floors (most of which we didn't use) in the new house.

I also saved money where I could by using scrap fabric for sections that would not eventually see the light of day (in the picture to the right).

There's not much left to say! I used the original fabric as my pattern--luckily the manufacturer of the chair marked pleats and matched pieces by cutting nicks into the fabric, so I didn't have to figure that out myself; I simply ironed all the pieces, pinned them to my chevron material, cut and sewed and stapled. If yours is not marked, however, it will make your life much easier if you go ahead and mark fabric so you can easily align darts and pieces correctly before you sew.

I also learned that it's much easier to sew a section with piping by:

Step 2 of piping!

1. Basting the piping to one side first. I found this made it much easier for me to align the fabric because I didn't have to adjust three pieces, but only two.
2. Then basting the whole thing together. The basting made it easier for me to focus on keeping the fabric nice and straight and unwrinkled when I was ready to sew it close to the piping.
3. Finally sewing a line next to the piping. I used a zipper foot and actually sewed a little into the piping itself just to keep things as tight as possible.

And I learned how to use tack strips and metal tack strips on the back of the chair. The pli-grip was saved for the side panels, and I will tell you that, at least for me, it took some finesse.

The tack strip was used to create
a sharp line on the curve.

The metal tack strip created sharp
edges on the sides.

Just poke the spikes through...

And then you'll roll them into the
chair and hammer.

Final Thoughts

I didn't take a lot of pictures of the putting together process because I found that no matter how many blogs I'd read about wingback chairs and wingback recliners, mine was different. My guess is that manufacturers approach manufacturing in their own ways. So the big lesson here is to let your chair be your guide. Take a million pictures. Label like no one's watching. And create something you love.

I know I love mine.

I did my best to align the chevrons patter. Sometimes I was
at least a little successful.

I really love the way the chair turned out. Maybe someday I'll take
a new picture once I've removed the wallpaper in the room and
repaired and painted the wall. And added trim. And have a new table.
And move the outlet from the middle of the wall (so many things).

Last Time on Ashwood Manor: A Mother's Love

Last time, on Ashwood Manor.

Hardly had Rosemary progressed away from Reginald and returned to Lillian before Reginald felt a pressure on his arm from behind. He stiffened. Unwelcome lips brushed his ear and a too-familiar voice whispered, "Now, darling, how can we make sure you join our household if you keep scaring my daughter away?"

Reginald steeled himself before turning around, replacing his distaste with a debonair expression. "Lady Ashwood, a pleasure, as always."

"Always so adorably formal." Painted red lips curled into something more like a snarl than a smile. "So proper. I'd almost think I'd imagined our night together."

"My Lady, I assure you, as much pleasure as that evening afforded," Reginald paused here, keeping his voice low and calm, "it was something that, alas, can never be repeated. I am engaged to your daughter."

The Lady's dark eyes narrowed. "That can be arranged differently."

Before Reginald could reply, Lord Ashwood joined them. "Wife mine, do you see our handsome son-to-be? We will have the most beautiful grandchildren in Sussex."

Lady Ashwood turned her vitriol to sweetness. "Yes. He is handsome, and he will make handsome children."

To get the whole story of Ashwood Manor, the collection is here.

Last Time on Ashwood Manor: The Honourable Clarence Maugham

Last time, on Ashwood Manor.

Rosemary pretended not to notice the eyes on her as she did her best to pay attention to the conversation she and Lillian were engaged in.  Lillian was a friend, inasmuch as Rosemary had friends.  Her social superiority to nearly all those she and her parents associated with made it difficult to form bonds with others that did not include an imbalance of power, and, though she treated Lillian as an equal, underneath the giggles the girls shared was a strain on their relationship that would forever prevent Lillian from becoming a true confidant.

Feeling the gaze again, Rosemary could not help looking back and directly into the eyes of The Honourable Clarence Maugham, known only to her in name before this night.  Dark eyes--almost black--were trained on her own.  He smiled, a smile that took his dangerous eyes and transformed them into something kind and welcoming.  She smiled back, and returned her awareness to Lillian.  After all, she was not the type to pretend interest in a man when there was no option to pursue anything further.  And there was no option.

Feeling a sudden uncomfortable pressure on her elbow, the girl turned to find her fiancee.  Rosemary yanked her arm away, only to have her wrist captured with even more pressure.  "Stop that.  Let me go."

Reginald instead tightened his grasp. "Let me remind you that you are engaged to me.  You should not be flirting with strange men."

Attempting not to create a scene, Rosemary extracted her hand as gracefully as she could. "Let me remind you that you are not my husband yet. And a smile hardly counts as a flirtation."

From across the room, Clarence watched the exchange through narrowed eyes.

To get the whole story of Ashwood Manor, the collection is here.