Where there's a will, there's a leg!

Just a couple of weeks ago my sofa looked like this...

But now it looks like this, thanks to a super find on Etsy.

Remember a couple of weeks ago, when I shared about finding these legs and getting a green light from my husband to get them. Well they arrived and I got them installed. The whole process was suppose to be super easy. Flip the couch over, unscrew the old legs, screw in the new ones, and then flip it right side up. Done! And that's totally how it worked out for the first couch. But the second one just didn't want to be that simple. And as soon as I started having problems screwing the new legs in, I remembered that 7 years ago, we had similar problems with one of the couches and we decided to live with it because the ikea was 2 hours away and we'd had the couch delivered (essentially no way to exchange it). If you look closely, you can see in the image below that some of the legs aren't  bolted down, like the one in the top right hand corner. There is a gap between the leg and the couch. 

And that's because the bolt wouldn't thread properly. And it had nothing to do with the new legs.

So after trying to screw it in without wrecking the threading, I decided to just pull the embedded nut out. Which wasn't too hard, I actually just pryed it out with the nail puller on the back of my hammer. But then I needed to find a way to secure the bolt inside the couch, and you know, it just so happens that the wing nuts inside the couch, also fit the legs.

So I decided to steal some of them to hold the legs on with. 

And the reason I stole the wing nuts for the legs, rather than just use regular nuts, is that there isn't enough space inside of the couch to manouver a wrench to tighten a bolt. Only enough room for my hand, so the wing nut was perfect. 

But it did mean that I needed to replace the stolen wing nuts with regular nuts.

Once I solved the nut and bolt problem, everything turned out! The other thing that I did was change out the sliders on the bottom of the legs. I originally thought that the felt would be fine, but once they came, I didn't like the look. So for $3.50 each I bought to 2 packs of metal sliders, and just nailed them in place. You can order the legs with metal sliders, and if doing it again, I would have just done that. But you have to agree, the metal makes them look even more handsome. 

Now I just need to sew some new pillow cases, and the couch upgrades will be complete!

Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes... Hands and Legs?

The last 8 weeks have been filled with ups and downs. I've loved blogging, but have run into an interesting road block - my hands! For the last while, I've been struggling with a couple of cases of Dyshidrosis, which is an incredibly painful type of blistering eczema.

And though that isn't the prettiest picture I've ever posted, it is where I'm at. I've been to the dr. twice with no successful results, I've tried eliminating dairy and wheat from my diet, and now I'm trying some hard core probiotics. I can't use cream on it, as it only makes it worse, and so have resorted to some ointments. But between the itching, the swelling and the pain, it's difficult to do much of anything. I'm lucky that the swelling hasn't progressed to the point that I'm unable to work. But my fine motor skills of pen and fork holding are really painful. It's been heart breaking for me to not get to work on all the projects that I've wanted to. And to be honest, I'm going a little stir crazy not making things. So I figure I can still do some things, and I will, and I'll also blog more about other things, like what's happening in our neighbourhood, little adventures we take and stuff that I'm loving on line. And I'll keep working away on projects that I can. Which leads me to the second piece of this blog title - LEGS! And not my legs - couch legs. 

As I've shown before, we have two Klippan couches in our living room. And of course, they came with beautiful metal legs (please hear my sarcasm). Okay, so they weren't horrible, but they weren't pretty either. 

And since now there are so many custom options for these couches, like Bemz covers, I couldn't help but lust over some new legs from Pretty Pegs. And it didn't take much searching on their website to fall in love with these three styles. 

And though I like the pop of colour they can bring, I was totally into changing out my silver legs for black ones!

After much consideration, I decided that the chunky middle one was my fav. The final step, as per usual, was to convince my husband they were worth the $200 splurge. 

And that's where this project came to a screeching halt. For the first time, in a long time, he was a no on the legs. Not that he didn't like them, because he did. He just wasn't willing to part with the money to get them. Keeping in mind we bought the couches for $300 each. But for me, a no is just a little word with a deep desire to be a yes! So I began a new hunt for cheaper legs. And all it took was one stop at the ETSY store to find exactly what I was looking for. 

With a price point of 4 legs for less than $50, that "NO" to new legs became a "YES"! And this shop had lots of style options. 

And since I'd previously settled on a square taper, I ordered two sets of black square tapered legs for under $100! Score!

Now just to get them and get them installed!