A Very Daring Chair Makeover

Our dining room has long needed a makeover. I was so done with the painted antique-white wood table we'd been using for years. So when we bought our new {vintage} retro yellow dinette table at an antique store a few months ago, we were very excited, as I'd been begging for one for months. But we were suddenly faced with the challenge of hunting down matching chairs. Let me tell you, retro dinette chairs are not easy to come by. Especially for a decent price. And by decent, I mean super cheap.

Then one night I was searching Pinterest, desperate for a source for good matching chairs, when I came across these cane back beauties. That's when it hit me, we actually had cane back chairs just like that, in our garage! We had inherited them last year when my grandmother passed away.

I asked my mother for her blessing first, and then went ahead with a quite daring chair makeover. Matching these Victorian style cane back chairs with a 1950s retro dinette table, it was gutsy! But I love the outcome.

I painted them a bright cheery yellow {Downy Chick from Ace Hardware} and recovered the seats with oilcloth. Yes, oilcloth on grandma's nice old chairs! My stars...

I chose oilcloth for three reasons: 1) I have little ones who constantly spill their food and 2) our cats won't try and claw on oilcloth, and finally 3) I really felt like the vintage print oilcloth would help tie together these two styles.

{And speaking of oilcloth, I was very pleased to discover how cheap you can get it on Amazon.com! This is the fabric I chose, and I only needed 2 yards.}

It was a risky, daring makeover, but I'm so glad I tried it.

The first step was to remove the upholstery tacks, which thankfully weren't individual, but a string of tacks. They came out very easily, actually.

Then a good sanding, which is pretty much always necessary when you're painting over finished wood. I've tried to skip this step in the past, it's never turned out well. We also primed. Primer is always good too.

{Don't mind our trashy back patio.}

Finally, after discovering that the cushion was not what I'm used to--a cushioned board you can simply unscrew and recover separately--these chairs turned out to have a nice woven support and padding really built into the chair. Since they were in good enough condition, I didn't want to pull out the padding. So we taped and covered the cushions before painting.

As for the painting, my husband used his mom's paint sprayer. This is the first time we've actually used a paint sprayer. I can't believe how much faster it goes and how much better the finish turns out when you use a real paint sprayer! We're going to have to invest in one for ourselves.

I picked a semi-gloss finish, which I love. Again, I hoped the gloss finish of both the paint and the oilcloth would help match the retro table better. I was right, semi-gloss is the way to go for this sort of project. That said, boy does semi-gloss take a LONG time to fully dry. It's actually still a tad tacky. It's slowly getting better.

Tools I needed for recovering the chair: fabric scissors, a staple gun, tons of staples, a small hammer, a prying tool/multitool tool, tons of glue sticks, and a high heat glue gun.

This was the tricky part. Getting the oilcloth wrapped around the back properly was tricky. I learned by trial and error with the first one three, and eventually figured out that it was best to measure the space between the back legs and then pre-cut spaces for them. Just T-shaped cuts, not taking out shapes from the fabric, if that makes sense.

From there it's just a matter of pulling and placing. It takes time and concentration, but eventually you get it looking good okay.

I'd start with the back sections, stapling a few staples into the middle...

Then stapling down the oilcloth around the legs.

Then I'd move onto the front, pulling the fabric taut and stapling in place just above the painted wood.

I think it's best to staple a bit in the middle of all four sides, pulling tightly, then working on pleating around the corners. Again, tricky, but possible. My chairs definitely aren't perfect.

I mostly just did two pleats around each corner.

Once all four sides were stapled well in place, I trimmed off the excess. This part is highly satisfying. It finally all comes together!

At this point, I'd stand back and admire the chair. Just one more small detail to be done...

Now, I used a high temp hot glue gun for this, but only after realizing that a good permanent fabric glue wasn't going to work well with the oilcloth. Hot glue, on the other hand, sticks really well to oilcloth. So that's what I used to adhere the last touch: the cording.

Or edging or whatever you'd call it. I wrapped it around the entire edge of the trimmed oilcloth, a nice finishing touch. I was careful to adhere it to the fabric, not the wood, when going around the back legs:

So nice and clean looking now!

So...what do we think? Do these two polar opposite styles look alright together once the chairs are painted and recovered in oilcloth? I think so, actually!

Finally, we can store those ugly IKEA folding chairs away! We'd been using folding chairs while waiting for the right thing to come along to match our new {old} retro table.

I'm loving the look of painted cane back.

The yellow is bold, and risky, but my house doesn't get enough light so I'm loving the bright color. {Now I'm just dying to get new curtains up. It's always something, isn't it?}

I really wasn't completely sure about this project when I started it, but I have always loved mixing things that shouldn't go together. I think this daring risk ended up being a success.

Just one more before & after:


Thanks a million for checking out my latest project!

Cheers,
Heather

_______________________________

This week on my family blog, Last Day Ago:

A May Day - one of those days

Favorite Things Friday No. 3: Recent Thrifty Finds

For Favorite Things Friday this week I thought I'd just share a few of my recent favorite thrift finds. If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably seen this all already. If not, enjoy :)

This week I found a green Fenton vase. While some might be tempted to call this jadite, it's actually a shade named "lime sherbert", but also often referred to as satin vaseline glass. I paid $6 for it at Goodwill. I love it, I actually needed a good new vase, as I've just been using pitchers.

{Yes, that's a fake flower. Look, we've had a late winter here in Colorado, okay? My real peonies haven't bloomed yet.}

A few weeks back I found this Westclox wind-up alarm clock. I love the font used for the numbers. I think this is from the late 1930s. I paid $5 for it at Goodwill, but I've seen these listed on Etsy for around $30, so that's a great deal. 

A couple of days ago, at an antique mall, I discovered these Lefton owl salt & pepper shakers with the rhinestone eyes. They were in mint condition, with stoppers, no cracking in the glaze, no chips, they looked brand new. And they were only $8.50 for the pair, so I was very excited! 

Lefton is a china company started in 1941 by George Zoltan Lefton. 

I've long adored the vintage "bluebird" collection by Lefton and am dying to get my hands on it, but the bluebird stuff is PRI$Y so I'm happy to find these cute owls to start off with. 

I actually thrifted some Pyrex this month! Three Butterprint fridgies. Not bad.
$5 each at Arc.
The top fridgie has a thumbprint in the original print! A funny little manufacturing defect I've never seen before. Just makes it more interesting to me. 

I was really excited to find these Fire King mugs all because of the gorgeous colors. I haven't ever seen these mugs in pink & turquoise before. All three 99¢ each. For as much as I love Pyrex, I like Fire King better when it comes to mugs, but these colors match Gooseberry & Butterprint perfectly, don't they? 

I picked up each of these vintage Ball quilted jars separately, 99¢ each. These vintage Ball canning jars with the retro lids go for much more on Etsy, however, so if you ever see them when you're out thrifting, snatch them up!

I need suggestions though, what should I do with these???

Finally, our new chenille bedspread and pillowcases. I don't think these are vintage, because they were in such good condition and seemed new. Still, a good thrifty find to be sure. I paid $12 for the set. Not bad considering what new bed linens at department stores cost! And I adore the vintage look of chenille.

This is why I thrift, finding fun vintage, antique, and repro goods for cheap is always fun. I enjoy the hunt. So that's my Favorite Things Friday for today!

What fun things have you thrifted lately?


Cheers,
Heather

Favorite Things Friday No.2: Favorite Pizza Crust Recipe | A Mellow Mushroom Copycat! | The secret ingredient is...MOLASSES?! | Holy Shiitake

Longest title ever, but I needed to cram it all in there!

Have you ever been to Mellow Mushroom? They opened one near us a couple years ago and it has quickly become our favorite pizza joint. Not that we eat out frequently, but when we do, Mellow Mushroom is one of our top picks. We've never had a pizza there we didn't absolutely LOVE.

But what really makes their pizza, and you know this if you've been there, is their amazing crust. The texture is divine. The taste is wonderful. There is NO crust avoiding at Mellow Mushroom. Even crust discarders will eat their crust.

Every time we go there, without fail, I'll end up whining to my husband how "I wish I could make a crust like this at home!" Until now. Because after our last visit there, I became determined to find a similar enough pizza crust recipe that I can make at home.

And by golly--I've really got it! I think I've got it! {That's a My Fair Lady reference for you. Your Friday is now complete. You're welcome.}

I came home and searched and Googled, I read blogs and forums and scoured Pinterest. I sifted through obscure parts of the internets, reading strange posts by baking scientists. I baked multiple pizzas, tweaking the recipes each time. Finally, I came up with a crust that, while {probably} not the exact recipe Mellow Mushroom uses, it's close enough that I'm HAPPY!

My husband is also very HAPPY these days. Thanks to my new pizza crust.

It's easy, it's simple, but I learned so much that I went from the girl who used a blah recipe without questions to knowing tons of facts and info about how to really make pizza crust. It's not complicated, but there are a few tricks...


I'll get to the Holy Shiitake copycat later, that's just toppings. First, let's look at what I learned about crust during my studies....

To make fantastic pizza crust at home:

1. Preheat your oven AND your pizza stone {you NEED a pizza stone} to 550 degrees at least an hour before baking. Yes, 550! That's as high as my oven goes, but oh we go there. No we didn't? Yes we did!

2. Cornmeal is a must. Of course! Why did I never think of this before? All the restaurants use it. It helps avoid using too much flour and makes your crust a little more crunchy on the outside. We want this. You'll roll your pizza dough out on a lightly floured, but heavily cornmealed, surface. If you don't have a pizza peel, I recommend rolling out your pizza dough onto parchment paper. Don't use wax paper, you'll burn down your house.

3. Skip the sugar! Word on the street is Mellow Mushroom uses molasses--yes, molasses!--in place of any sugar. I've tried this, and it's delicious. Why granny, I never knew you could be like this in the kitchen--you saucy minx!

4. Make your crust like so:

First, pour 1 1/2 cups of hot water into your mixer bowl, add 2 tablespoons of molasses and stir it in.

TIP: Try using spring water instead of tap, as Mellow Mushroom says they do. I haven't noticed a difference, but if you really want to copycat MM, then go ahead and try.

Between the metal bowl and the molasses, your water should cool quickly enough to sprinkle in your yeast. Think bath water temperature, around 100 degrees, you don't want it too hot, that will kill your yeast. Cooler is better than too hot, but warm is best. 

Sprinkle in your yeast

TIP: I even go so far as to stir it gently in to make sure it all gets wet.

TIP: Don't smell molasses right out of the jar. Especially if you're pregnant. I love molasses in cookies and even pizza, but right out of the jar it smells like wet dog. You don't want to have to start a whole new batch of dough because you tossed your cookies into the first one.

In 5-10 minutes, you'll have a delicious smelling puff ball of yeast.

Meanwhile, mix together 3 1/2 cups flour with 2 teaspoons of salt.

TIP: You don't want to just dump salt into your yeast mixture, as salt kills yeast when it has direct contact. It's actually important to dilute it into the flour first.

Go ahead and dump your flour and salt mix into the yeast mixture, then add 1 tablespoon olive oil.

See? That's really all very simple.

Turn your mixer on stir with the dough hook and let it knead your dough for about 5 minutes.

The dough will get itself all worked up. Sheesh, you'd think you started talking politics with it or something.

It should be sticky, but if it's too sticky to even handle then go ahead and mix in another 1/4 cup of flour and try again.

Remove it from the bowl, form into a ball, and place it into a greased, lightly floured bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap.

At this point you can place it in the fridge to rise over the course of several hours, a great choice if you want to make your crust in the morning. Or, leave it out covered in a dark warm place for a couple hours.

This dough makes one large pizza, two medium pizzas, or 4-6 personal pizzas. Divide it as you wish.

Now let's talk baking...

Again, you want to roll your pizza dough out with cornmeal {and maybe a little flour, and flour your hands a tad}.

But when I say "roll it out" I mean, pick that ball of dough up and let gravity work for you. Turn the dough in your hands like you would a steering wheel.

You can do thin or thick crust, and I wanted to show you a few options you have...

Here, I preheated my pizza stone high up in the oven, rolled the crust pretty thin, and turned on the broiler right after putting my pizza in.

For this pizza, the Holy Shiitake copycat, I kept my stone lower in the oven, did a pretty thick crust, and you can see the result.

You can do whatever you think you'd like best. Broiler or no broiler? Broiling gets a darker, blackened crust in spots. Thin or thick crust is a preference thing. Both methods had lovely texture.

BEFORE baking your pizza, however, brush the crust with a melted garlic butter. This is, supposedly, what is done at Mellow Mushroom.

If you don't have a pizza peel, the parchment paper works great for easy sliding on and off the pizza stone. For serving, the baked pizza should come off your parchment paper just fine. If you're having the Queen of England over for dinner, you don't want to serve her pizza directly off the parchment paper, do you?

Bake at 550 degrees for 5-7 minutes, keeping a close eye on it. The beauty of a preheated pizza stone is that your pizza's center will be just as well baked as the crust.

Another last minute Mellow Mushroom touch, sprinkled that crust with parmesan right when it comes out of the oven.

This crust has been WONDERFUL for us! Between the molasses and the baking methods I've learned, we get that perfect mix of chewy & crunchy crust that is still soft on the inside and has a rich taste. I'll never try another crust recipe again I think. The molasses adds an extra sumpthin' to the taste as well, for sure, while not tasting molassesy.

It tastes very much like Mellow Mushroom's pizza, but even if you've never been there, I think this crust recipe would be a hit for any family. The Queen of England might even like it. Just don't serve hers on parchment paper.


Now, since I talked up Mellow Mushroom so much, I'll share our homemade version of our very favorite pizza from MM: their "Holy Shiitake" pizza!


Once my dough was formed, I brushed it with olive oil and truffle oil, and topped it with mozzarella and shredded romano cheese. Then I sprinkled on a liberal amount of sliced baby bella mushrooms {Mellow Mushroom uses a mushroom variety but they're pricey so I just picked up a pack of sliced baby bellas}, caramelized red onion, and pre-cooked bacon. {The MM menu doesn't include bacon, but the waiters always suggest it as an add-on and it's very yummy, so I added it at home.}

I baked it the same, though lower in the oven and no broiler. Of course, the crust was brushed with garlic butter before and sprinkled with parmesan after baking.

The finishing touches include a drizzle of garlic aioli and a sprinkling of chives!

Not only was this very similar to Mellow Mushroom's Holy Shiitake pizza, some family members who helped us eat it said it was the best pizza they've ever had. Well, shoot!

___________________

Pizza Crust Recipe - A Mellow Mushroom Copycat

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups hot water (optional, use spring water)
2 Tbsp molasses
2 packets of active yeast
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil
cornmeal
melted butter with garlic
parmesan cheese crumbs

Directions:
1. Place hot water in mixer bowl and stir in molasses. Once cooled to warm, sprinkle on yeast and gently stir it in. Let sit 10 minutes.
2. Mix flour and salt together. Add flour mix and olive oil to yeast mixture.
3. Using a dough hook, run mixer on low/stir for 5 minutes.
4. Form dough into ball and place in a lightly greased bowl, sprinkle with flour. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and kitchen towel, let rise in fridge over several hours or on counter top for 2 hours, or until doubled.
5. Preheat oven to 550 degrees with pizza stone, hold temperature at least 30 minutes before baking pizza.
6. Form dough into pizza crust, top as desired. Brush crust with garlic butter. Slide onto preheated pizza stone, bake 5-7 minutes or until done, using oven on bake or broil setting, as desired. Sprinkle crust with parmesan cheese immediately after removing from oven.


Toppings for a "Holy Shiitake" copycat:

• sliced mushrooms (baby bellas, shiitake, or whatever gets your goat)
• caramelized onions
• pre-cooked bacon, chopped
• olive oil
• white truffle oil (buy this, it's so worth it)
• garlic aioli (added after baking)
• chives, chopped (added after baking)

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we have! Though we will still frequent our local Mellow Mushroom, they have amazing pizzas and drinks. Our other favorite pies of their's include the Philosopher's Pie, the Red Skin Potato Pie, and the Magical Mystery Tour. Everything there is delish!

Thanks for visiting today. Happy homemade pizza making!

Cheers,

Heather

____________________

This week at my family blog, Last Day Ago:

A Spring Bridal Shower