Burlap Wall Art

(For those who have expressed interest in purchasing one like this, please email me: andrea at lemonadespring.com.)


A few weeks ago, I was getting carried away with various burlap projects. This one I did very much like the Burlap Silhouettes in that I created my image on the computer, this time in Word, printed it off, arranged and taped down my pieces (I used an old poster, still wrapped, as my work surface), covered my work surface in burlap taping it to the backside for stability, then traced each shape (word) with a small craft paintbrush. I then filled in each letter with paint until the job was done. After my work had dried, I stapled it to a frame my husband had made for me a few years ago that had just been wasting away in the garage. Although I still haven't found a good place to hang it in my home, I love how this project turned out. It was a nice and relaxing project to work on.

Friday Flashback - Sofa Slipcovers

One month before our now 3 year old daughter was born, we moved into a bigger house. I had a lot more space to fill up with furniture. My husband gave me a budget, enough for a new sofa. I wanted to make that money stretch and fill up the other rooms that needed furniture. That's when I jumped into the world of craigslist.

I looked for pieces with the right shape, ones I could work with as I found time. I found a sofa/loveseat set for $150 and thought this was a steal. The set even came with an extra set of sofa cushions that hadn't been used.

With a 9-month preggo belly and then a newborn, it took me a little longer to get around to finishing this project, but it did get done. For slipcover materials, I had to get a deal. I liked the look of matelasse, but couldn't afford to make two slipcovers from the real deal. Thinking back to some of my grandmother's catalogs, I visited Blair's store online. There I found blankets that had the right look for $25, any size! Yep, I recovered my sofas with king-size blankets and lots of piping. I bought 4 blankets, but in the end probably used 3 of them for that project. The floral pillows were made from Waverly cloth napkins I had found on clearance at Target. I splurged on the red fabric for the other pillows and the backs of the two middle pillows were from a fun furry-like fabric find at Joann's in the remnant basket.





2 years and another child later, the slipcovers are holding up well. This past Sunday, I discovered an old sippy cup of milk that my little girl had forgotten about. Although I was happy to finally figure out where the unpleasant smell was coming from, I was sick to my stomach to think about what was to come of my hard work and what additional hard work was at hand for this most holy day of rest. Our loveseat underwent a little surgery (thank you, Todd!!!) and the carpet had to be steam cleaned.

After some ingenuity on my husband's part with the loveseat and an online search of getting rid of the sour milk smell in fabric, we've managed to save ourselves some money and hang onto our loveseat. The fix that worked (and removed the old stains!) - Pour one cup laundry detergent and one cup dishwashing detergent (we used lemon Cascade) into washing machine. Hot water setting. Agitate to mix solution. Add stinky fabric and let soak in the hot water overnight. Run washing machine the next morning. Add 1 tablespoon white vinegar during the rinse cycle. Apparently this takes out the stink. (And it did!!!) Rinse a second time to get rid of extra detergent residue.

I had tried washing normally my first time, but the stink and stains were still there. When I tried this method, I was amazed at how great the slipcover looked and smelled! Just thought I'd pass this tip along in case you find yourself in the same boat some day. For your sake, I hope not!

Friday Flashback

On Fridays, I'll try to feature projects I've done in the past. Maybe some of them will help you out or even inspire you in your own project adventures.

For today, I'm featuring a bed frame redo. This spindle bed was an anniversary gift from my husband about 7 years ago and I thought it was a great find for $100 at a consignment store. It just needed a little TLC.


I stripped the frame. I wish I could remember the name of the stuff I used!!! It was awesome. It was a spray on stripper that had a citrus smell to it, so it didn't knock me out.


I then sanded the frame. :| It was quite a job in itself and I'm so thankful that my husband pitched in when I'd run out of steam.


After a good wipe down, I used Minwax's Ebony wood stain to give the frame the dark wood look I was going for. I then used polyurethane to seal the frame and love how it turned out!


Soon after refinishing the bed, we moved across the country. Can you imagine how nervous I was about that frame getting scratched up?! It then sat in storage for nearly 2 years. :| Sad, I know. After using it in our guest room for a couple more years, we moved across the country again. It now sadly sits in our garage as we do not have an extra room to use it in. I've often considered converting the frame into a bench, but haven't figured out how I could get away with not painting it after cutting it up to make the bench.... And painting it now is not something I'm willing to do. Yet it sits, collecting dust and cat hair. Someday when I no longer have preggo brain, maybe I'll be able to think straight about what to do with my beloved bed. Until then, maybe you have some suggestions? I'd love to hear them!

Burlap Silhouettes

I'm so excited to learn that some of you ladies have a love for your children AND for burlap. In this project, I combined the two. I had these great frames on my wall with sorry, too small for the frame, old vacation pictures. The vacation was great, but the pictures didn't do much to add glamour to my walls. Being a mom of two toddlers with another on the way, I don't have a lot of time to think about home decor or upload my million pictures to winkflash to place an order during one of their great sales.

One evening, the idea came to me. Why not paint silhouettes of my sweet kiddos on scraps of burlap I had covering my sewing table to put in those frames?! This was such a quick and simple project, one I highly recommend to anyone who loves their children and burlap, classic and a little shabby.

Here's how I did it -
I found/took profile pictures of each of my children.
I opened them in an image editing program. In this case, I used Gimp.
I used the lasso tool and clicked around the profile I wanted to create the silhouette of. (Sorry, I'm not a professional graphic designer, so I don't know what the technical jargon is for clicking around the image using the lasso tool.)
I then created a new layer and flood filled the selected shape black. Then, I hid the original image/layer.
Saved new image and printed. (I actually imported the image into Word to get my proportions right, then printed.)
I cut out the pieces of burlap I'd need and taped my printed paper and burlap onto a cookie sheet. The great thing about burlap for this kind of project is that it's pretty transparent. I used a small paint brush to trace around the silhouette's outline, then used a larger brush to fill it in. For this project, I used a craft acrylic paint. Cheap. Could this project be any cheaper?!


After drying, I framed each silhouette and love the new look!