Anthropologie Leather Lasse Chair Knock-Off [DIY]

 Anthropologie is kinda the bomb. I have an unnatural obsession with browsing through their furniture. When I came across this particular chair, I fell in love! The green leather and the midcentury modern lines made my heart sing.

I stopped by my local Habitat for Humanity Restore to pick up a chair with similar lines to the original. See it tucked in at the beginning of the second row? Potential! Ugly beyond belief, but potential..

My store always has a large selection of chairs, and I picked this one up for just $2.

I took the chair from dumpster worthy, to living room ready with the help of a jigsaw, drill, and electric sander. First off, I had to change the shape of the frame. After removing both of the cushions, I tackled the legs.

First, I chopped off the part connecting the front and back legs that ran along the floor.

I also used a jigsaw to taper them.

After some quality time with my sander, the legs were completely transformed!

The back of the chair was rounded, and I needed it to be straight across. Once again to the jigsaw. The curve was cut off of the back and screwed into the front to square off that side as well. 

Last step: arms. Screw on a simple 1x4 and voila!

After that, it was ready to be upholstered. I stopped by my favorite fabric store to pick up materials. I actually did a post just on that store! Fabric for miles, people. Check it out. It's amazing.

I matched the green leather, and found black and white 

chevron fabric for the cushions.

So, once the frame was done, I covered it with batting and was ready to upholster.

Then the upholstering began. This being the second chair I've ever upholstered, I am not going to do a tutorial. I really had no clue what I was doing.

With the price of fabric and foam coming out to $82, the total was $98! That total includes $2 for the chair, $12 for upholstery tacks, and a $2 board that was used on the arms! A far cry from the original, which rings in at nearly $1,500!

♥

Geometric Moravian Star Light {Tutorial}

Ok. Here we go. You see this thing? You like it? Well make your own then! Here is how I did it.

I apologize for the lack of actual pictures. But think of it this way: You get to see how talented of an artist I am. ha. ha. ha. yes. It's on notebook paper.
 Like in most cases, I didn't really know what I was doing until I was done.

First off! 

Supplies

Cocktail/Coffee Straws. 
Lower (Stronger) Gauge Wire. [I used 16 gauge.]

Higher (Weaker) Gauge Wire. [I used 24 gauge.] 

Thread. [Optional. You could use wire if you desire.]
Clip. [Optional. See step 5.]

Brass Fasteners. [You'll need 17 in total.]

Hot Glue Gun.

Spray Paint. [I suggest one formulated for plastic.]
Pendant Light Thingy. [I have no clue what they're called. I think I'm close?] 

LED Lightbulb. [or any low to no heat producing bulb.]

Preparation.

First order of business, cut your straws! 

The lengths I used were about 5" and 2.5". This doesn't have to be exact, but they do have to be the same as each other. I've seen tutorials on cutting straws with a roller cutter, but this didn't work for me. So, I cut one and trimmed the rest to the same length with scissors, using the same first straw as a guide/reference.

Cut out 48 of the 2.5" straws and 68 of the 5" straws.
[If you're not in a rush, I suggest gradually stealing these from your local coffee shop. Or, if you're me, you find an enormous bag of them in your mother's car trunk. We don't ask questions.]

1.

This step, string 8 short straws onto your strong/16 gauge wire.

This will create a straw hexagon. You'll need 4 of these. 

2. 

Now, we're attaching these four hexagons to each other. Cut 8 short pieces of the thinner wire. Tie/wrap this around the intersections of the four hexagons.

Hopefully the drawings explain where they attach to each other. This going to be the frame. 
We're starting to form a geometric ball shape. 

3. 

Keep the thin wire out for this step. We'll be finishing off the frame. See how the tops create squares where they intersect? You will be making the entire ball/frame into squares. Attach all of the intersections. You will end up with 8 triangular shapes and 18 squares. The points/spikes will stick out from the squares. 

4.

Here is an easy step. Take your thread (or wire) and cut 4 strips around 14 inches long. (Basically, the length of two longer straws put room to tie them to the frame at the end. The longer, the easier.). Tie the four strings together in the middle. Now repeat this 16 times, until you have 17. One for each point.

5.

This step is tying on the points to your star. Separate out two strands of thread, and attach a clip at the knot area. [To be honest, I just used my teeth] String these two pieces of thread down one long straw segment. Take the two ends and tie them around any corner of a square on the frame. Repeat with the opposite corner, pulling relatively taught, but not enough to snap the thread. Finish off the other two corners, and VOILA! One point down! 16 to go. Sorry. This will probably take you a while.

At the end, you'll have one square without a spike in it. I recommend tying some string through the square before you put too many spikes on, so you remember not to put one there. Pick one of the squares that was created by the hexagons with stronger wire through them.

6.

Now it's time to take out your glue gun.
I used a small amount of glue on every intersection of straws. This is to eliminate any shifting, and unite the structure. The points are especially important, as you want them to be lined up nicely to look professional. 

7.

(Did I mention my horrible spelling skills? You'll need Pliers. Not Plyers. I'm ashamed.)

Pull the little legs of each fastener away from the center and chop them off with a pliers, wire cutters, pair of scissors you don't care much about, etc. Just get them off. 

8.

Take the Brass Fasteners and hot glue them to the end of the points on your star.

The ends look so much nicer covered, rather than having the straw ends showing.

9.

Spray painting time! Hang your star outside, or in a garage. 
[I know it's cold outside. Trust me. I live in Minnesota. But still, skip wearing your nice winter jacket during this step. Learn from my mistakes. ....It's actually kinda sparkly and cool now.... But don't!]

I also spray painted the top of my pendant light, which I recommend doing for aesthetics. This is taking up the visual space of another point, and uniform color makes sense.

10.

This part is kind something you need to figure out for yourself. Attaching the pendant light. My light was round, and twisted onto something, so I took a small piece of plastic, cut a round hole in it, punched holes in the corners and used wire to string it into the remaining/non spiked square.

And, you're: 

You can see more pictures over in this post

Yay Geometry!

Did you make one? Planning to make one? Questions? Tell/ask me below!

♥

How did I do it? {Altering a chair frame!}

Two days ago, I revealed my Anthropologie-Inspired Chair overhaul! 

{You can see the post here}

 From This:                                 To this:

So, how did I do it?

Honestly? I have no clue.

That being said, this is definitely not a tutorial. 

The first thing I attempted to do was change the arms. 

Looking at my inspiration (The Anthropologie Astrid Chair), it is obvious that the arms do not slope upwards, as the original chair's arms did.

 So, I simply cut them off! 

Next, I cut off the back of the frame, and added tubes on the arms to make them round.

The arms are actually made from mailing tubes.
I didn't take a picture in between these two, but under the tubes, I put in the original arms for more strength.

I wanted the front legs to look more like those of the Astrid Collection.

Searching through my garage, I found the perfect solution: The legs of an old table. 

I then cut out the center section and added some old little wheels that I found in my garage!

Problem solved!

Next up was the back of the seat.

This was relatively simple. I cut a thick piece of plastic in the shape of the chair back. 

This was stapled to the top of the original chair back, and some 2x2s. 

Next I took some thin boards and covered the sides and back.

(And broke out the duck tape...)

Voila! New frame nearly complete!

After adding foam to the back, I simply covered the entire chair with two layers of quilt batting.

The chair was completed by painting the legs with a coat of gold paint, and finishing off the upholstery. 

 Tada!

 Chair reveal found here!

Thanks for reading! All comments are loved and appreciated! 

Anthropologie Astrid Chair inspired makeover!

[Update: How did I do it? See the process of altering a chair frame here!]

In my previous post, I mentioned how you can find a typical cane chair in nearly every thrift store and DIY blogger's home.

Source: The Robin's Nest

That being said, I wanted to make my own cane chair very unique.
I also wanted to show more possibilities with a very common item. 

It all started with this picture that I came across while browsing Anthropologie.com 

It's so cute!! 

Source: Anthropologie 

Upon further searching, I found out that Anthropologie sells a matching chair!

It. was. perfect.

Funky, whimsical, crazy, adorable.

That is when the light-bulb lit up. 

The idea was brought to the next level after I stumbled upon the perfect fabric at my local thrift store.
It is the exact color of the Astrid settee that originally stole my heart (cheesy, I know...).

At the low price of $3, I couldn't pass the fabric up. 

I then took inspiration from the Astrid collection, and created my own masterpiece.

*******************************************

Before.

After.

My Favorite part:

The tufting 

(My cat approved... and felt like posing for a picture)

Individual Costs:
$3-Fabric
$10-Batting
$8-Original Chair
$0-Everything else!
Total Cost:

$- 21

Compared to:
$-1,598.00
on Anthropologie.com

:)

"The frame of your chair should never limit your creativity"
(Sorry for all the cheese)

Please hop on over to East Coast Creative and click on my project in the linksy!

How did I do it? [See the process of altering a chair frame here!]

Thanks for viewing! Comments are always appreciated!