CasaSugar

Before and After-Outside Room

RachelG — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:41:54 -0700

This is a before and after - I did this project last year - tore out bushes and mulch that were very overgrown; then put down a mesh cover to prevent weeds from growing, then added gravel from a local hardware store. I painted my old picnic table white and added the wicker chair (I found that in an alley behind a house I once lived in). The flags and begonia add to the patriotic theme! Now I can sit outside and have a cup of tea and eat dinner - its added a little room to my tiny house!!

San Francisco Big Cement Box: Before and After Our Loft Kitchen and Bath Remodel

halsig — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:54:01 -0700

We've worked for about 5 months on our loft remodel. We started with a big empty cement box, and we are in the process of transforming it into exactly what we want. We started with a blank canvas, and designed it all ourselves. I love our new place, and I am glad to share it with you all!Kitchen Before: As you can see, it was a drab kitchen with a basic electric stove, painted white and with cold galvanized steel shelves.Here is another one of the kitchen 'before' pictures. The partition is really cool - we are still trying to figure out where else to put it.This is the area next to the sink. The Bulthaup open shelves are fantastic.This is a picture of our backsplash. We designed and built it ourselves.This is a lengthwise picture of our Gaggenau convection oven and Dacor convection microwave. Not a single kernel left unpoppedThis is a picture of our Dacor fridge and appliance garage. It serves as a pantry too!There is lighting in each of the Bulthaup shelving units for the displays of glass.This is a picture with just the display lights onOpposite the Dacor fridge is the sink. We placed a round glass table in the middle to bring the room together. We added stainless countertops, painted the walls a warm greige color and added in beautiful swiss pear cabinetry from Bulthaup.The Bathroom before is pretty basic - we call it a 'gas station' bathroomAfter:The bath door is open, and light is off.After:From outside, there is privacy, yet still an open airy feeling with the translucent door panelAfter:Here is a picture inside the bathroom, with the door closed when the halogen IKEA lights are on.This is a picture of our Thassos White Marble vanity - it actually sparkles just like snow in the sun.We found this a-mazing Boffi Makro Cherry Red Glass bath tub. It is a full 6 feet long - and inset cubbies rock.We put in a partition between the toilet and the rest of the bathroom. It is airy and open with a modern feel.The Thassos White Marble Floor matches the Vanity. The shelf is from CB2.

Before, During and After: The Slate Garden Gallery

haze — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:32:37 -0700

With our patio project completed, my husband and I were more than encouraged to spruce up the rest of the yard behind our house. This is, more or less, a work in progress but we have made significant strides. The final intent of the space as a whole goes well beyond it being a rather lovely outdoor area to relax and entertain. Once it is completed in its entirety, it will be The Slate Garden Gallery, providing an ever-changing, but permanent outdoor display of some of my original, traditional media artwork.

Our View: The Slate Garden Gallery: Before

View of The Slate Garden Gallery itself, before and during cleaning and construction.

My husband, being an ardent collector of junk, previously used our lawn and garden area as his staging area for many of the outdoor tools and odd or over-sized auction finds. The ornamental fireplace, that you see against the garage towards the right of the photo, was original to the house, created by the original contractor from poured concrete sometime during the 1930s. Because of its history, my husband chose to keep it. The issue was that it weighs about 450 lbs between the docorative facing and the "firebox". This is the real reason why it was allowed to languish against the garage for the 3 summers since it was removed from my living room - No one wanted to move it. As it was on Saturday, DC and I got up our gumption and carefully removed it to the basement.

Our View: The Tomato Garden: Before

View of The Tomato Garden, before and during cleaning and construction.

With the strange weather we had during mid-May, the family obligations and events, and the substantial patio project that we had undertaken, the garden area itself was allowed to lay fallow. As usual when presented with any flat empty space, my husband started accumulating various leftover construction materials in the garden next to the shed. It did not take much to convince him that this area should also be cleaned up, given that he is very anxious to invite friends and family to enjoy the fruits of our labor on the patio.

It took the entire weekend, from sun-up to sundown, but I am happy to share our substantial amount of progress with you.

The Slate Garden Gallery as seen from the street

The Slate Garden Gallery, spruced & ready for artistic development, as seen from the rear of the house.

Our plans going forward...
We live about 15-20 miles south of Pennsylvania's Slate Belt, making the material readily available and virtually cost free. Slate comes in an interesting variety of colors and varigations and it makes a texturally interesting substrate. With this in mind, I am currently collecting slate canvases of various sizes to paint with portraits of people, flowers, illustrations, etc. Another large-scale outdoor work will be hung in the center of the exposed wall of the garage.

The Tomato Garden, planted with the artwork in progress.

Check out this post for more details on "Pluckin' Joyful" which is currently being developed in the Tomato Garden.

The shed the Don built from the ground - up.

This shed, built by my husband from the ground - up, covers the entrance to the basement and provides ample storage for the garbage and recycling cans as well as the garden tools and equipment. The slab foundation is poured concrete and it was during this phase of construction that our lawn was all but destroyed by a truck load of concrete, wheel barrows full of cement, and 3 men in very heavy work boots.

05/24/2008: DC cleaned and the stripped the cement patio. I am going to paint it today.

He completed the frame construction and primed it by the end of the summer in 2007. realizing the white, while it matches the woodwork of the house, was way too bright, we opted to paint it this slate-blue sort of color. It coordinates well - I think.

View of the patio from the center of the space.

The Slate Garden Gallery and patio as seen from the rear of the house

The finished piece: 48" wide by 24" high. Acrylic on plywood. Signed & Sealed

06/25/2008

06/25/2008: Ginger Glass: Color blocked and ready to be hung for finishing and refinement

GingerGlass hung in place. I lost perspective of face. She's too cartoony. Will fix and finish today

You can read more about the development of GingerGlass, Queen of the Slate Garden Gallery in this post. Stay tuned for updates.

After a few setbacks in completing Ms. Ginger Glass, the work was stripped and revised between Friday, 06/26/2008 and noon today, 06/29/2008. He is the new and improved version, sceduled to be sealed with clear acrylic top coat as soon as the humidity breaks

06/29/2008: After many challenges Ginger Glass is finally complete - all 96 by 48 inches of her.

Ginger Glass as seen from the street

Refreshed vintage lawn chairs and two more panels of outdoor work have been added to the gallery.

I'm so happy to report that we are almost there and this entire project will soon be considered complete! Thanks so much to all of you, my SugarBuds, for being part of it. Your encouraging comments and continued interest has provided much of the fuel, encouraging our resolve, in getting this done.

Much love to all of you,

Haze

PS to Anyone Interested:
The car that you see in the driveway, in front of the garage, is my Little Black Corvair. He is a fully restored 1961 Corvair Monza 900 and my daily driver. I do love him. Yes I do - that Little Black Corvair In All of His Cuteness. I don't think I've ever had a car that I loved so much.

Before and After DIY: Our Patio

haze — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 06:15:18 -0700

Before

05/24/2008: The project began with DC cleaning and stripping the cement patio.

After

06/15/2008: The project is 100% complete and utilizes mostly reclaimed, reused, and/or repurposed articles from the late 1940s - 1950s.

I am absolutely delighted with this space. It's been a whole heap o' work - this is true. But both my husband and I are thrilled with the result.

Updates: 07/07/2008

Over the holiday weekend, 07/04-06/2008, DC helped our neighbor install his privacy fence. The look from his side is rather like a compound. But that's him. This fencing that he chose, which fronts his side, is very basic and very rustic. The back, which faces our yard, ended up looking very much like an unfinished barn.

This did not make me happy at all. We worked way too hard on this space to have the backside of his fence making our area look like a stalag. To counteract this look and to give our side a more finished appearance we installed sections of pressure treated latice down the length of his fence.

Our patio, partitioned from the neighbor's with the ugliest fence. Finished w/ lattice work.

I also planted little pots of ivy in the hopes that it will grow and eventually cover the wall.

I planted ivy-lets in the hopes that they will soon cover the offending wall.

There are 5 pots in total, stategically placed. I have my fingers crossed on this one peeps.

I've established a photo album and diary of the project that was previously featured on CasaSugar.

Please click here if the iFrame is not showing: http://teamsugar.com/group/429878/albums/1660692

Chair Before and After

Michelann — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 23:53:10 -0700

Believe it or not, I found this chair on the side of the road. Before I picked it up I checked to see that the springs, cushions, and basic structure of the chair were in good condition. Everything checked out, so I decided to get it reupholstered. A friend recommended a local man who does great, quality work for a good price.

BEFORE:

I found the fabrics on sale at a local fabric store. If you can't tell, they're light blue and green velvet. The green is actually brighter than it looks in this picture, it's almost a citrus color. I drew a picture of how I wanted the two colors distributed on the chair. I thought it would be fun to do the buttons and piping in a contrasting color. I also told the man not to keep the indentions (creases? I don't know the proper term) around the buttons. It isn't visible in this photo, but the back of the chair is in the same blue as the details and the part under the seat. Finally, I had the legs re-finished.

AFTER:

With some luck and a little over $300, I got a one of a kind chair that fits my personality perfectly. It's still one of my favorite things in thehouse!

before/after

miss-britt — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:43:13 -0800

Before

After

Before & After - Rearranging a drafty loft

tdamji — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 04:21:35 -0700

I didn't buy anything new for the space as I am leaving the country in a few months, but I felt like the area needed a bit of a change.

Before:

After:

the white dresser in the corner of the dining area was free - we found it outside. we put our shoes that we don't wear everyday in it and also stationary. the FSC certified wood bench was bought at the end of the summer season for about $30 from $99. we used it as our sofa until i got a slightly more comfortable bed and covered the cot i was sleeping on and put it under the stairs facing the tv area. it isn't all that pretty looking but i can take a picture if anyone wants me to. we got our coffee table (not in the picture, but it is the same wood as the bench and quite nice and square) at the Salvation army. we painted the top black since it was a bit stained. it was only $10. the vase was only $6 when a store was closing. the weird cardboard painting is done by me for practically free. the pictures hanging up were free to print from snapfish.com and the baggies were 3$ total. i think its an okay space etc. with what little money we spent. oh - there's taped-up map of new zealand (where we are right now).

Before and After: An In-Progress Studio

Casa Community — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:43:28 -0800

Here's a post from CasaSugar Community member ChicConservator from the Su Casa group:

One of the main projects in my house is to go through and paint all the rooms. With all the snow days I've had this winter, I've had plenty of time to re-paint the room I am calling my studio. The paint color I chose is "Environmental" by Behr. We went with the Behr premium plus paint and it is so nice to work with! I also bought the fabric and made these simple curtains myself. Now that it is looking more like a finished room, I am having trouble deciding what furniture to put in this room. I would like to use it as an artist studio and workspace. An absolute must is a large worktable with a smooth, flat surface. Probably some sort of flat drawers, or storage would also be useful. Any ideas?

To see the after photo and suggest furniture for her room, read more.

Have you been doing any redecorating or painting in your home? Be sure to post photos and tales in our Su Casa group! Do you have any furniture ideas for ChicConservator? Post them below!

Before and After: 1930s Club Chairs

CasaSugar — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:15:14 -0800

I've seen plenty of antique upholstered chairs at flea markets and thrift stores at affordable prices that are just begging for a makeover. But the trouble is that I don't have the time or the know-how to reupholster them myself. And the price to have them made over makes the deal not so cost-effective. So I was really impressed (and envious) when I saw how one Livingetc reader reupholstered these 1930s club chairs herself - and did so several times before she was satisfied.

She made them over in a luxurious neutral velvet to let the beautiful curved back and poised legs steal the show, adding patterned throw pillows to give them a bit of flair. Want to see the final product?

Before and After: Boring China Cabinet to Fabulous Bookcase

Casa Community — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0800

Su Casa member LittleLeo recently transformed a dated china cabinet into a fabulous bookcase:
We inherited this piece from a friend who was getting a new dining room set. My husband couldn't understand why I wanted the cabinet and not the dining table too. I explained I had a vision for my home office. I sanded it all down and painted it matte black, wallpapered the back, and had acrylic shelves made. It has set the tone for the room and now the "office" doesn't take away from the living room. It actually adds an extra layer of function to the room, at least I think so.
To see LittleLeo's finished project, .

Have you made over any furniture lately? Be sure to add photos to our Su Casa group!