Tag: Houndstooth

Makeover: Chair 2

When Debby moved here from Ohio, she brought an old chair that had come into her daughter Sarah’s possession. Poor chair had seen better times–this was still its original fabric. One of the arms had broken and had been temporarily fixed with some duct tape (of course!). At least the duct tape was color coordinated with the fabric. Debby didn’t have room for the chair in Fairy Cottage, so it took up residence in our guest room.

Post-flood, since we needed to get furniture out of the house and were taking other pieces to be reupholstered, we decided to give Sarah’s chair new life. Houndstooth Hall life! We found exactly the fabric we were hoping for with Jackie Johnson’s assistance.

And no more duct tape! Not only do they do great upholstering, but their repair guy gave this chair the appearance it deserves. If you need furniture reupholstered or repaired in Houston, this is the place: Jack Johnson Upholstery.

Makeover: Chair 1

This chair belonged to Lynne’s grandmother, then her mother, then her Aunt Lil, who gave it to Lynne. When Lynne was moving, she offered it to me. Of course I wanted a chair that had belonged to three generations of a family that welcomed me as one of their own! Though she’d had the chair reupholstered, what I discovered was that the fabric wasn’t dog resistant.

When we took our antique settee and chair in to be reupholstered, we also took this channel back chair in and selected a fabric that would go with those two. I LOVE the result!


It’s a good match to the fabric on the other pieces, and it goes well with our old coffee table.

Thank you, Lynne, for allowing us to give such a special chair a home!

If you need furniture reupholstered or repaired in Houston: Jack Johnson Upholstery.

Apparently he is the boss of me

Contractor Keith says I can’t share any photos of the kitchen until it’s finished. BUT I WANT TO.

Still, I understand. He only wants to show the process when he can show his finished work. We really do have the best contractors making our home even better than it was.

I can’t even find photos of the kitchen the way it was, because if I have any, they are on my old and inaccessible computer.

My dolls….


After we were able to move back into our bedroom, Tom unpacked some of the things that had been on top of our old dresser. This little dish from Geri still had a pair of Barbie shoes in it that had once fallen out of a box from the dolls that were in the top of my “extra” bedroom closet. I always meant to find which little Cinderella was missing her shoes, but I never did and now those boxed dolls are with all my other dolls in storage.

I am acutely aware every day that my dolls and my two most precious stuffed animals (Dr. Neil and First) are NOT IN MY HOUSE. I’ll be glad when they’re back home. Things will be a lot more normal by that point.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I believe you all remember that Margot was the Queen of I DO NOT WANT CHANGE DO NOT LIKE.


Margot on the chair that became known as The Throne.

Guinness was a lot more easygoing.

You can not imagine how much I miss these girls. I love all three of our dogs and their unique personalities, but I always feel a little wistful for the ones who shared so many wonderful years with us. I’m glad that Anime got to know both Margot and Guinness, and glad Delta shared some time with Guinness.

The chair and settee they are pictured on took a lot of beating during the flooding. Water on the legs, of course, and being piled against wet or damp furniture. They just seemed dark and sad to us.

We decided to have them cleaned, repadded, and reupholstered. Tom and I had a lot of fun one day looking at fabrics at the upholsterer. It was one of the first things we did for our house after the apartments were nearing completion, and it felt so optimistic and forward moving.

We just got them back this week and love the way they turned out. We are 100 percent sure Queen Margot would not have given her blessing, though.

If you need furniture reupholstered or repaired in Houston: Jack Johnson Upholstery

Craft night-ready!

I don’t understand how a shopping trip for an umbrella stand turned into vintage chairs. But I like their quirky legs and the funky reupholstery fabric, all of which make me feel that I just time traveled back to the 1970s. Plus the dealer reduced their cost by a third. Can’t beat that!

When the kitchen is restored and I have a sink and a stove again, I think we may just need to have our first Craft Night in seven months so we can all test the comfort of the new chairs. It’ll still be quite a while before the craft room/office is back in use. It’s a big mess right now.

Every time there’s a hard rain, we are up again in the middle of the night dealing with water coming in at one side of the room. It’s kind of strange that during those times when Tom and I are mopping water out of our house, pulling up wet towels and replacing them with dry ones, we retain a weird sense of humor about it all. The new standard is, “It’s not like it’s fifty inches of rain. We’ll deal.”

Now he can watch all his shows in comfort

Here it is, the FIRST thing I promised I’d get Tom when we could start refurnishing the house. His replacement recliner.

Still plenty of work to do in the living room, but we’ll get there. Just around the corner from the couch (which desperately needs its leather rubbed down), we have decided to move the smaller table that had been in the library into the dining room. Those are our old dining room chairs. We haven’t decided yet whether to use them or use the chairs that go with this table (the table and chairs were my parents’, and we’re lucky we could save them). This table can be expanded–it has two leafs–but we like the feeling of space in there.

Because the OTHER table that had previously been in the dining room is larger and so are the new-to-me chairs I told you about. Next blog post…

Last night we had my birthday dinner out (remember? no stove? no sink? no kitchen?) with Tim, Debby, Lynne, Rhonda, and Lindsey. We had so much fun. I got lots of good stuff (now that I allow people to give me stuff again, BUT NOT TOO MUCH–still on the purging kick that will resume when we start pulling stuff out of storage). It was mostly books. There’s always room for books.

And Debby gave me the beautiful flowers. It was a lovely birthday.

Best birthday morning that could be

Today I dreamed I woke up in my bedroom. It was right for the first time in seven months. It had walls with fresh paint. It had new floors. The ruined furniture had been replaced. My clothes had been neatly folded into my new chest of drawers, and Tom had a matching chest of drawers. My clothes hung in the closet, and the shoes I still owned were in shoeboxes. I had an interesting new dresser. All that was missing was the art that should be hanging on the walls.

THEN I REALIZED THAT I WASN’T DREAMING.


Our bed is back where it belongs. It survived and so did my nightstand. Tom’s nightstand did not, but Debby gave him a new one for his birthday in December.


We lost our dresser and armoire in the flood. If our replacement chests of drawers look familiar, it’s because they are the same as the ones Tim bought after he had to refurnish his apartment. I never found any that I liked as much, and he said it was okay if I chose the same ones. I purged a TON of clothes (all donated), and now everything fits into my chest of drawers and one closet.


A closet! I have a closet again! I’m not pulling my clothes out of cardboard boxes. And I have a deal with myself. Every time I buy an article of clothing, an article of clothing must be donated.

This is my new dresser. It used to be Lynne’s TV stand, and when she sold her house and was downsizing furniture, I told her I wanted it and she gave it to me! I haven’t decided exactly how to use it yet, and I need to buy a mirror to hang over it. But we love the metal and wood look–Tom’s nightstand is also metal, and the legs of the chests of drawers are metal. I told you after Debby and Tim began refurnishing there would be a post-Harvey theme: lots of metal because it is not a happy thing to see your ruined wood furniture being carried from your house to the curb.

Eventually the art will return from storage and the bedroom will be as it should be. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!