Fashion Arizona with Nneka Saran 3/11/2011- VIDEO

Check out an interview I did during my trunk show in Phoenix! This is my first time doing an interview on camera so bare with me! :)

My SUPER FIND at Micheals yesterday!

So while browsing Michaels yesterday, I came across a few SUPER deals of some things I can use in my office space! I got two of these storage towers regularly $89.99 on clearance for $8.99 a piece!! I couldn't believe my eyes! Not sure why the regular price was so much though....

Then I got this little station regularly $34.99 on clearance for $3.49! Im not even sure what I will do with this yet..but I couldn't pass it up for $3.49! lol

And the kicker is this lovely little craft table I got regularly $109.99 on clearance for $10.99! Yes you read right...$10.99! How great is that! I LOVE a deal! :) 

Thats like 90% off...they are practically giving this stuff away! I hope no one bought any of these pieces at full price! Check your local Michaels and see what you can find!

Bag of the Day!

Today's Bag of the Day is the Miah!  Anyone who orders this today gets 10% off the price and FREE shipping! 

 Miah Clutch, $119 $107

The colorful material I used to make this bag is simply beautiful! The picture doesn't quite give it its full justice.  The fabric has a beautiful shimmer to it that you can't see in photo.  It is my signature fold over style clutch accented with ruched fabric on the front.  It can be worn casually with jeans and a top or dressed up for a nighttime look.  Not to mention, its super spacious and has an inside pocket.  This bag is definitely a head turner! Place your order today!

Shelves for Office

So today I have decided I am going to build the shelves I originally planned to purchase for my office space! I am SUPER excited about this! Some of you know that I have always dreamed of being a carpenter in another life..LOL.  So with the help of my wonderful hubby, we will get started on this project as soon as we get a warm and sunny day here in Philly next month! Stay tuned! :)

DIY for LIFE! :)

Before and After: Thrift Store Chair! (And TUTORIAL)

So Im finally finished my thrift store chair re-do and I couldn't be more pleased with the outcome! It went from this old ugly chair BEFORE:

 

To this fabulous chair AFTER: 

Here is an up close view of the back of the chair.  I used silver nailhead trim around the edges to give it a more polished and funky look.  Initially I was planning on doing double welt cording, but decided I would like this look better and I'm glad I went with it.

So lets see how much this project cost me: 

Thrift Store Chair       $7.50

Spray Paint (2 cans)   $10

Fabric (1/2 yd)          $22.50

Nailhead Trim (the kit was $30--including shipping-- but I only used about $2.00 worth of it and still have alot of it left to use on other projects)

Batting ($8.00 for a bag of it but just like the Nailhead trim, I only used a little and still have alot left over for other projects so lets just say I used about $2.00 worth of it for this chair)

---------------------------------------

All together this chair cost me about $44 to paint and reupholster!  Not bad at all especially when something like this could easily run anywhere from $129 to $199 at Home Goods and even more at a high end furniture store!!

I still have to do the twin of this chair.... check them out side by side. Big difference right?

So how did I do this? Well here is my tutorial on it:
First thing you want to do is gather all your supplies: 
Chair 
Fabric
Spray Paint- I recommend Rust-Oleum Lacquer from Home Depot
Sanding paper (optional)
Staple Gun
Spray glue 
Rubber Mallet
Batting - Here is a picture of the batting I used but you can use any kind:

Purchased at Joanns

Nailhead Trim kit or some type of trim - Here is a picture of how the kit looks..it comes with the nails and trim:

Purchased online www.diyupholsterysupply.com

Next thing you want to do is remove your seat from the chair frame.  This is easy... just flip chair over and use screw driver to unscrew nails that are holding seat cushion in place.  So now your chair should look like this:

After this, you can sand down your chair a little. I didn't do this but it is good to do because it will help remove any polyurethane and dirt on chair which will help the spray paint stick better.  I plan to do a little sanding on the other chair.  

Now its time to paint! Take your chair to a well ventilated area (preferably outside) and get to painting! Your chair may need a couple of coats.  My chair used 2 cans of spray paint.

 
Now pull out your chair cushion.  If its in bad shape, you may need to add some extra batting to your cushion.  My cushion was in good condition so I was able to get away without adding anything extra.  Get your fabric and cut a piece big enough to cover the cushion. Flip fabric on opposite side and then place cushion face down. Get your staple gun out and start stapling fabric around your cushion tightly.

Once you are done, you can attach your cushion back on the chair frame (once paint has thoroughly dried).  It should look like this:

If you are happy with the outcome of your chair at this point, you are done!! BUT if not, this is where it gets a little tricky.  If you decide, as I did, that you also want to cover the back of the chair as well, this next part isn't really hard but just not quite as easy as what we just went over.  I'm sure there are tons of different ways to do this but this is how I did it.  

Measure out a piece of fabric thats big enough to cover the back of your chair. Now this part may be a little hard for me to explain so bare with me. Basically I just used some spray glue and sprayed the center of the fabric and stuck it to the back of chair. Then I used a needle and thread to sew the fabric at the top in place a little.  

Next I got my batting out and cut a piece out and repeated the spray glue step. I sprayed some glue in the center and stuck it on the back of chair under the fabric I just sewed to the chair at the top:

  Then I took scissors and cut around it to fit the area i was covering like this: 

I used a little more spray glue and stuck the fabric to the batting. Then I got my nailhead trim set out and started putting that on like this:

 

This trim is really cool because every 5th stud, there is a hole and thats where you put the individual nailhead. If you look closely at the pic above, you can see the hole where the nailhead goes.  

Half way done with the nailhead trim...see below:

Finally, ALL DONE! Hope my tutorial helps someone out a bit!

Phoenix Trunk Show PICTURES

Check out a few of the pictures from my Phoenix trunk show!  Special thanks to Icon Status Entertainment for putting everything together & special thanks to Phoenix Fashion & White House!

 

NEXT STOP ATLANTA! DONT MISS IT! :)

April 9th from 6-9pm at Crystyles Boutique!

Check out more pictures on my FB page here.

Introducing: Nneka Saran Tshirts

They are here! Nneka Saran logo tees! These comfy American Apparel t-shirts are great to pair with some jeans and run out in!

GET YOURS TODAY FOR ONLY $19

PLUS, for every t-shirt order, you get a 10% off coupon on your next Nneka Saran purchase! 

How great is that! :)

I will be adding to my site soon, but for now you can email me to place an order! (S,M,L,XL)

nneka@nnekasaran.com

Little Girl Room Project

Yesterday I had an appointment with my client to go over the design I came up with for her beautiful 6 yr old daughter.  I'm so happy she loved all my ideas! Excited doesn't even began to describe my feelings about this project! Alot of you may know...little girls and girly things are my heart. But I do love little boys too! :)

One thing I plan to incorporate in the room is wallpaper. When I tell you I LOVE wallpaper, I really do! There are soo many options out there nowadays.  One of the best things ever in the world of wallpaper is the Easy Change line at Sherwin Williams.  If any of you have dealt with regular wallpaper before you know its nothing short of a nightmare to get it down and off your walls without losing some hair in the process! But with this new Easy Change line at Sherwin Williams.... its easy to put up and take down.  I haven't used it yet but I plan to soon. Based on the reviews I've read on it, it seems to work well but we shall see.

Below is a pic of me getting a visual (wallpaper samples, fabric, paint swatches, etc) for some of the ideas I came up with to go with the new comforter set my client just purchased for her daughter's room.

TIP: Whenever you are decorating a bedroom, purchase your bedding first and decorate around it.  Generally, its much easier to match your paint and decor to your bedding than it can be to match your bedding to your paint and decor.  

Stay tuned for how the room comes together! I cant wait! 

Oh and meet my new BFF, Stapy ( I know its an ugly name but its the closest thing to stapler I could think of....lol). Anywho, Stapy is my brand new electric staple gun! I got her yesterday and she is the best thing ever esp when you are doing upholstery projects! Using a manual staple gun for awhile can give you some serious hand cramps so I decided to do a little upgrade.  And for only $29.99 you too can have a Stapy! :) 

Purchased at Lowes

Have a blessed weekend yall! :)

Bag of the Day

Today, I'm starting a new feature...Bag of the Day! Once or twice a week,  I will feature a bag and my inspiration for making it!  Anyone who orders it the day its featured gets 10% off the price and FREE shipping! How great is that!? :)

Today's bag of the day is the Boyfriend clutch.  I only have 1 left so don't wait forever to move on this one! It was made with a beautiful textured leather and a bow accented with lambskin leather and gold hardware.  This is one of my favorite styles because it has such a rugged, yet girly look! Not to mention, its super spacious and has an inside pocket.

Boyfriend Clutch, $139

To order this bag and get special deal, email me at nneka@nnekasaran.com TODAY!
_______________

Update: SOLD!!

Beginning Stages of Chair Re-do

Yesterday, I ventured to the city (NY) to pick up a few items and I ran across some BEAUTIFUL fabric I thought would be perfect for my thrift store chair re-do.  You can't get the full beauty from the pic but here is the fabric:

This beautiful upholstery fabric was a little pricey... it ran $45 a yard.  I also purchased some coordinating material to cover the ottoman I got from thrift store as well...but I'll feature that in a different post.

So as alot of you know, reupholstering the seat of a chair is super easy! All you have to do is flip chair over and remove the cushion, figure out what color you are going to paint the frame, and then recover seat cushion with new fabric and reattach.  Easy enough right?

You remember how the original chair looked from this posting here.  So this is my chair without the seat cushion:

I decided to go with white for the color of the chair frame.  TIP: White gives everything a nice fresh look.  This chair took one entire bottle of spray paint and I still need to go over again with another bottle or so to get a nice clean look. Actually I should have sanded the chair down a lil before painting but I was being lazy which is prob one of the reasons I need some much spray paint for each chair :(

Then I took my fabric and used my staple gun to recover the cushion. Since it was in good condition already, I didn't need to add any additional padding...but sometimes depending on chair, you may have to add some.

I'm not done yet but I'm always extra excited to see how the finished product would look so I sat the newly reupholstered cushion in the chair (without attaching) to give me a full view.  Here is how it looks for now:

 

Now that I see it, Im not really feeling the rattan/net backing on this chair with the look I'm going for so I have decided to cover the back of the chair as well.  Covering the back isn't quite as easy as recovering seat cushions. This will be my first time trying this so stay tuned for the finished product!

Cute Furniture for a Teen Room!

Check out some of these cute furniture pieces I found at www.pbteen.com. A lil pricey but great for a pre teen or teenagers' room!

Phoenix Recap!

Last week, my hubby and I journeyed to Phoenix, AZ for my 1st west coast trunk show! The weather was amazing and I love the beautiful landscapes there!!

The turnout for trunk show was great and I met alot of new people which is always fun! I have great pics to share as well as video. I will post everything as soon as I get them back so stay tuned! Here is one pic of me from the event:

I couldn't go to Phoenix without eating at the infamous LoLo's Chicken and Waffles! Yummy yummy!

I love boutique hotels! So we ended up staying at the Clarendon Hotel which is a cute boutique hotel downtown Phoenix and I got a great deal on Hotels.com for only $99 a night.  Check out their swanky pool area and rooftop deck...not bad for $99 a night!

And this is me saying goodbye to Phoenix for now...at the airport getting ready to head back to the much colder weather on the east side of the country :(  Pay no attention to the smile on my face... I was really sad to leave ... lol

Remember to check back for pics and video..I will post as soon as I get them back! Have a GREAT Monday yall! :)

P.S. I UPDATED MY WEBSITE WITH NEW BAGS! BE sure to check it out here!