Design*Sponge » Blog Archive » before & after: taryn’s walkway + kristin’s stool

tarynbefore
these before and afters are all about green: a green backyard and some seriously bright green paint. first up is taryn, who decided to spruce up a friend’s walkway in pittsburgh. taryn and her friend wanted to give the walkway an organic feel so taryn ended up making a succulent stencil and painting the entire walkway with bright white blooms. such a cheery way to brighten up the yard. thanks, taryn!

tarynafter
tarynstencil

kristinbefore
green paint is next on the agenda. kristin from waking beauty designs inherited a few beat up pieces of furniture from her brother’s recently purchased home (which came with furniture he chose not to keep). kristin found this little stool (with a tj maxx tag still attached) and decided to clean it up with some bright colors and new fabric. i haven’t been to tj maxx since elementary school but just hearing about that store makes me happy- i used to love to rummage through our local tj for inexpensive pieces. looks like they’re still carrying good cheap basics that are perfect for a diy project. thanks to kristin for sharing!

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kristinafter

Swooning over that walkway. I did something similar when I lived in Edmonton, AB but because of the low winter temperatures after 3 years it peeled in places. I wonder how that would work here in the South.

The Stenicl is an original drawing from Amy Garbark – the one whose walkway we stenciled – so she would have to okay the PDF – I will bring it to her attention. – We just created different sizes of it and then cut it out with an exacto – you could do it with ANY type of design.

Heather, I bought the fabric on Etsy, from a shop called fabricsupplies (they were great, super fast shipping). The fabric itself is designed by Tina Givens and is called Treetop in Sky (there are several other great color options).

Banu, here’s a how-to. It was really easy! I started by disassembling the stool, it was put together with hinges screwed into the top and bottom. I unscrewed the upholstered top, then put that aside. I lightly sanded and painted the base (it takes 2 or 3 coats). While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I cut a piece of fabric larger than the upholstered cushion, ironed the fabric and used a staple gun to adhere it to the original cushion. (I just covered up the old upholstery, I didn’t bother removing it). You have to be careful that you don’t cover up the holes that you need to reassemble the footstool. Then I just waited until the paint was dry, and screwed it back together. Ta da!

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