What's Going On

Believe it or not, I'm still here. While I've been a tad quiet here on my blog, I have been busy as a bee in my workshop pumping out furniture pieces and keeping Eight Hundred up and running. There's been quite an upswing in furniture sales these past few weeks, and I haven't been able to take the time to properly document each piece's makeover like I normally do.

With that said, I thought I would take a bit of time to catch all of you up on what's been going on in my neck of the furniture world.

First, I snagged this beautiful oak church pew from Crickets Antiques and Garden Market. It was a bit frustrating to paint, but I eventually got the look I wanted with some of Miss Mustard Seed's "Grain Sack" and Furniture Wax.

It's sitting pretty in my booth at Morgantown Market right now if you're interested! Mention that you saw this blog post and get a 10% discount off the listed price of $310.

My upholstery supplies have finally arrived except for two important items - spring twine and cotton padding. Hurricane Harvey put a damper on the delivery schedule from my supplier, but they'll be here soon enough!

The tools above all came from an intermediate upholstery kit I ordered. I've found that if you're going to do upholstery properly, then you need the correct tools. There's really no other way to stretch webbing efficiently without a webbing stretcher. Staples would be an absolute nightmare to remove without a staple remover, and having an upholstery-specific nail gun has made all the difference in the world.

I've already put these tools to good use on my Victorian settee. It's been torn down and painted in Miss Mustard Seed's "Mora". This afternoon, I installed new webbing to the bottom. Once my Ruby Italian Spring Twine arrives, I'll be able to install the springs again and tie them down using the 8-way tie system. Side note - I will not be working that fast!

I plan on covering the settee with this gorgeous linen fabric I purchased from a site a friend recommended. I'm so happy with the quality and the color, and I'm 100% confident it will give me the look I've been dreaming about on my upholstered pieces.

Now before you think that I'm flying by the seat of my pants, I wanted to share a fun resource with you. I have subscribed to Kim's Upholstery Classes for one year and I have access to oodles of tutorial videos on all sorts of upholstery topics, skills, and projects. This is how I've been learning how to do all of this upholstery "stuff". I watch them at night (in between binge-watching The Walking Dead) and have been learning bit by bit. Kim and her husband are very responsive to your questions and I highly recommend signing up if you're wanting to learn how to upholster. They also offer month-to-month memberships if you're not quite ready to dive in head first.

P.S. - This blog post is not a sponsored one and I'm not trying to sell you something. I'm just sharing a really great upholstery resource with you in case you want to start learning how to do it too!

I started tearing down this chair today and boy was it frustrating! It's a reproduction of a French style chair and it seems to be a relatively new piece. There are a ton of staples in it and the hot glue holding the gimp trim on seems fresh. It took me about 40 minutes just to get the bottom fabric off. I haven't even tackled the endless rows of staples along the chair frame yet, let alone removed the fabric from the arms or back. These seem like they're going to be quite time-consuming to get going.

So in between wrestling with the unruly Frenchies, I'm brainstorming on what to do with this pretty piece I picked up the other day.

It has some chipped veneer, but it's otherwise in good shape. I'm thinking about doing a handsome gray with a wood interior, or perhaps navy with some brass hardware. What do you think?

I also picked up some pretty ironstone, a set of shop bells, and a bunch of sifters on my latest antique haul. These will get priced soon and taken to Morgantown Market.

Meanwhile, pieces are flying out of the shop at Painted Table Designs, like this little guy. I brought it in this past Monday and it was gone by Wednesday.

Tomorrow, I have a drop-in pumpkin painting workshop at Morgantown Market so I spent the last bit of my day in the workshop packing up supplies and materials so I'm ready to go.

All that to say, I'm still here and working away, doing what I love. Some days are harder than others and I'm constantly balancing work with rest. Businesses are kind of like toddlers at first. (Not that I've ever raised a child, but I get the general idea.) They take a lot of coddling, guiding, and tending-to until they can stand on their own two feet. Eight Hundred Furniture is essentially a one year old, and I need to keep reminding myself of that from time to time. Sometimes I think, "I should be able to do this or that by now" but once I put things into perspective, I feel a lot better about where I'm at with the business.

For now, it's pumpkin painting tomorrow and rest for tonight!

P.S. - If you haven't noticed yet, most of these photos are from my Instagram account. If you don't already follow me, you should! I'm pretty active on this platform and it's by far my favorite place to interact. Find me at "eight.hundred.furniture"!