Nailed it!

Kristi is an awesome repeat client of mine and had a few things she wanted to update in her home, so of course i had to hook a sister up! She had 4 cushions that needed some color in her mud room and a dining bench that needed a refresher. She is the easiest person to work with, i just love her!!

So much better! Color fixes everything!

now for the dining bench.. it had great bones and shape to it, the fabric was just worn. I had to rip off about 500 nail heads before i could completely strip it. then i had to hammer in 500 new nail heads after... but it is soo worth the look!

Her fabric was a really pretty green/grey velour. At least thats what it looked like down in the dungeon. The lighting is soo bad down there its hard to tell what the real color of anything is! I should look into that... Anyways, I am headed out on a hot date for the night. Enjoy the rest of the weekend! I have been redoing the kids room so I'll have some pics for you monday! Peace out!

Man she is a strong one!

Cute Susie was referred to me by one of my super awesome clients. Cute Susie lives in Idaho. Cute Susie has a super cute 86 yr old father that came and dropped off her fabric. We chatted for a good hour. He is my new favorite person! So Susie has 6 of the Ikea barstools that have slipcovers. Lets face it, Ikea has great bones, but with a little creativity, Ikeas' stuff can be spectacular! I normally need the item I am slipcovering to make the fitted cover, but in this case it just so happened that I was in the market for 4 new bar stools. Big Red ( my tinny 3.5 year old red headed daughter) has managed to single handedly break 3 of the 4 bar stools we are currently using. Man she is a strong one! And yes...I am still using them! I am not sure how a tinny little person can do that 3 times in a row... but alas. she did. So, this gave me the excuse to finally buy some new ones that I can put my own flare on! Susie has 6 barstools, but you will be seeing 4...

After

i am in LOVe with this print! She got in from this awesome little shop in South Carolina while on a girls trip. I am jonesin for some!! I love how they look! I can't wait to get going on mine. P.s. I realize that the quality of my pictures are horrid! It will be my goal for next year to provide you with legit pics, but until then, all i have time for is the point and click. compliments of my iPhone. Look for another post later this week! I am tempted to do a contest for my followers (all 46 of you), so your thoughts on what you'd like to win would be much appreciated! who knows... it could be something super fantastic!!

Talk dirty to me!

So we ran the "Dirty Dash" last Saturday... Soo much fun! It may become a Mortensen tradition! We did it with the in-laws and nephews. we had a blast. the Piglet Plunge was great too. Laker loved getting dirty! We did the 10k option...we had to get our moneys' worth! I felt like Steve and i could rock a "MTV Challenge"! We had soo much fun. Not to mention the shower situation after... group showers anyone....

Here we have me hosing Laker down in his undees and Steve washing off after the big race. Paying that extra $6 for a hot "shower" was worth it! Perfect activity to end the summer. I also managed to get these chairs done last week. Debbie is an awesome lady who splits her time between draper and florida! She works in Florida in the school system and gets awesome retirement perks.... so she is sticking it out while her husband mans the fort back in draper. i met with her way back in the year to chat about this project and i finally was able to work her in. She wanted to change the look of the chairs completely, so her sister, who is a designer back east ordered her fabric and got the ball rollng! here is the before of the chairs:

she has 6 total but we only reupholstered 4 of them. We changed the look by going with a more contemporary fabric and doing away with the skirt. Its amazing how different they look!

So great! on another note I am booked till January!! horay! We have a lot of exciting things going on. We fought the battle with the real estate market this year and almost came out on top...boo to buyers that back out on you! So we have decided to pull the house off the market and finish the basement. hopefully we can get a lot of the dirty sheet rock stuff done before the new year. My husband is on a rampage to get it done. So keep your fingers crossed! We will also be making the treck with kids in tow to Kona in november! thanks mom and dad for our early christmas presant! we are soo excited! i will have a few more posts for you this week as I am super busy!! i may have an extra spot open up in Ocotober, so if you are wanting something done,now is your chance!

Reality Check...

Well, I am sad to report I am home from the greatest place on earth...Lake Powell. Yes I was gone for a FULL week with the hubby and our super great friends on a super sweet house boat. Did i mention there was NO kids... Ah... While I was happy to see those smiling faces, I dread coming home from that trip! I have to wear "normal" cloths...heaven forbid I grocery shop in my swim suit... tend to my motherly responsibilities and function is society...BOO!!!! But I am back in the swing of things and my sweat shop is working overtime! I just finished this couch for one of my designer clients. This was for one of his clients, and I loved hanging out with her while I fitted her couch. She moved her with her husband from PA to be closer to family. When I asked her how she had liked it, she replied "I hate it! we'd like to be back in Florida. We enjoy an nice cocktail..." LOL! I love this woman!! She was soo nice and I just enjoyed chatting with her while I worked. She has a super darling house that is put together really well. She had this big red couch that followed her from PA and it just was not gelling with her darling house. It was LOUD! Before:

So with the designers help they picked this beautiful fabric that actually resembled her grass cloth wallpaper. One problem...it was drapery fabric. It was too light for a slipcover and it had movement to it. So I had to line the sucker up! We did a simple box skirt. Its amazing what a change in fabric can do do a loud piece of furniture. Now the couch does not scream at you when you walk in the door. Now it welcomes you in, a lot like Connie! After:

Love it!! Just a quick blurb... I am pretty much booked solid till January!!! Yay!! but I may still be able to fit 1 or 2 more clients in between now and december... so let me know asap if you are jonesing to get something done before the holidays. I can't tell you how much I appreciate my clients, they are truly awesome!

Celestial Glory

So this client of mine found the gem of all gems! can you guess where these chairs came from?

I'll give you a hint...I was nervous to strip them because I thought I would be struck by lightning...lol! They came from the Idaho Falls LDS Temple! I have to admit, there have been many a time I have found myself examining furniture when I am at the temple, but never did I think I would have a pair to "re-do". Hey the LDS Church does not mess around when it comes to furnishing their temples, so you can imagine that these chairs are in pretty much perfect condition! All my client wanted to do was give the fabric an update, and that she did! She had an awesome cream matelesse fabric with a small geometric pattern to it. Beautiful!! The chairs turned out great and I am still standing in one piece...

Also I just got me some new business cards thanks to the very sweet and talented Alexi Bullock! Did i mention that she designed my oh so great blog?? well she did and she just got back from doing a summer internship in NYC with the only person who could make "Jail time" fabulous...The one and only Martha Stewart! She is amazing, so you should check out her website and see if she can help you out! I just love my new cards!!!

Now I am frantically packing so we can head off to lake powell for a solid week of bliss... i still have a few spot open in october, so feel free to send me an email to get on my schedule and Ill get back with you when i return!

Retro rad!

If you know me at all you know i love a good deal! So of course I am a little excited when my clients bring me awesome finds to recover. Check this ditty out! She scored 2 of these super orange, yet retro rad chairs off of ksl for basically free.

I mean... seriously? How fantastic!! Love them to bits! Now to make matters even better, she wanted them slipcovered in white denim. She found it on fabric.com, and pre washed it. (her detergent smells quite lovely too) I loved this fabric! I am tempted to get some for myself and possibly dye it...hmmm. Anyways, it was a gem to work with and is super soft! we did a 3" knife pleat skirt. I got to use my new tools, the perfect pleater!! I have been doing pleats by hand for the past few years and i feel that i have done my time. These things cut my time prep time down to nothing!! Oh how I love them! I may just start pleating things around the house because i can...

I am sad to let these go! I want them for me!!! Next up, a semi redo on these leather chairs.

She just moved into a new house and needed a change in fabric..., so thats what we did, changed put he fabric to bring the chairs into this century. Its amazing how a little thing like changing out the fabric can give the chairs a whole new look!

Don't they look so much brighter?! or maybe that because the garage doors were open for the after picture... either way, you have to agree that this fabric is so much better! and comfy too! I just had my last client for the week drop off 2 chairs with super amazing fabric! I can't wait to show you these! and then its off to Powell for a whole week of fun!!! The countdown has begun...

It's alive!!

Its great to have LU back in action! I have to give some major props to A1- Vacuum and Sewing in Orem! Not only are they the sweetest people on earth, but they got poor LU all fixed and ready to work with out me spending and arm and a leg and another arm...THANK YOU!! SO, now that I am back on track I am slammed!! Which is great, I love me a good routine! So lets start off with these 2 wing back recliners.. Here is the "before", so bare with me. One is in the garage and one is in the basement, and I forgot to get a good before pic before I took them apart and slipcovered...plus they are heavy!!

So, after having to wait a good week to tackle them, I was finally able to work out the process in my head and put the slipcover together. It took me a bit to think on it, but I really like how they came together, and the slipcovers still allow the chair to do its duty...recline!

Sure there were times I wanted to pull my hair out trying to figure out the best way to make it, but in the end it all came together! On a side note, i love it when my clients send me picture of their projects when they get them home! Remember this awesome little number? Well she sent me pics of the chair before she had it reupholstered in muslin to then be slipcovered. this is how she was:

and here it is slipcovered in a awesome white linen at home!

I LOVE this transformation! So now that the "sweat shop" is back in full swing, I've got 6 chairs, a few ottomans, a couch and some pillows to get cracking on! All this has to be done by Sept 1st cause the hubby and I are headed to Powell with NO kids and great company for a whole week!