The Dayton Women's Fair

Hello everyone! So after a long weekend at the Dayton Women's Fair I am finally caught up and back at it. Today I wanted to share with you some photos of our booth set up. I was super happy with how everything turned out and couldn't have asked for a better weekend. I really appreciate everyone who stopped by our booth, even if it was just to say hello! It was great to meet some fabulous vendors and potential clients!

If you like what you see, we still do have items available for sale. They will be up in our store shortly or you can contact Ivory House directly to order!

And be sure to stay tuned next week, as we will be announcing our FREE DESIGN winner!

Sneak Peek of The 2014 Dayton Women's Fair

It is Women's Fair Week!! Ahhhh, I can't believe that all of these months of preparation have finally lead up to this coming weekend! I am over the moon excited to be setting up our first ever trade show booth and sharing Ivory House with the Greater Dayton community. I love getting out there and meeting new people, making connections and sharing inspiring art with the world.

Today, I just wanted to give you a little sneak peek of what we would have for sale at the Women's Fair as well as go over a few other details of the weekend.

Offered for sale will be a variety of social stationery: desk calendars, notepads, greeting cards and wall prints. All of these items will be offered in colored prints as well as limited quantities of foil prints. These items will range in sizes A6 to 11x14. The calendars also come with a magnetic clip or small easel, both pictured below.

We will also be testing out a new concept called "The Shirt of the Month". The first screen print design will be available at the booth in small, medium, large and extra large. There will be limited quantities available, so get there quick if you would like first dibs.

This month's shirt will feature the saying "Be Awesome" screen printed on a heather black v-neck tshirt with gold metallic ink. Since the shirts are still on press, a mock up is shown below.

No worries, if you can't make it to the show or if we run out of inventory, WE WILL BE TAKING ORDERS at the show!



Throughout the weekend we will also be having an Enter to Win contest. You just simply fill out our short entry card and you will be given a chance to win ONE FREE DESIGN. This includes one standard design with backer (4x6, 5x7 or 4x9), printing not included.

And as a little gift to you we will be passing out some Ivory House swag. Small, black grocery totes will be handed out to the first 100 customers.

Last but not least, we will have some of our custom designs on display and will be taking requests for custom orders as well.

Can't wait to mingle, make connections and see some other beautiful vendors.

Hope to see you there!

Reupholster Project

Hey everyone! I have been slacking a bit on blogging but I finally had a moment to share my latest DIY project with you! Lately I have been consumed with preparing for our first ever, full-blown, trade show exhibit at The Dayton Women's Fair. As part of the planning process I have been scouring garage sales and Craigslist for gently used items that I can up-cycle for our booth. For this specific project I was looking for some vintage style dining chairs that I could bring back to life. I found these beauties on Craigslist and met the lovely owner in Cincinnati on one of my trips down south for equestrian related events. It was quite convenient if I do say so myself. These "Mad Men" styled chairs had good bones to them. No missing parts or uneven legs. They were just what I was looking for. With a little sprucing up they would be a perfect accent to our booth!

In keeping with our branding, the color palette for our booth is none other than black and gold mixed with neutral hues and of course just a touch of rustic, vintage flare. With that in mind I set out on a journey to find a great piece of fabric. Thankfully, Hobby Lobby had just what I needed.

I also purchased a few cans of black primer, black satin paint, clear polyurethane and some new foam inserts. The chairs were just a bit on the hard side, so I thought while I had them apart I would fluff them up a bit. 

Step one of the entire process was to disassemble the chair. It was super simple and only required removing the screws from the bottom of the seat with a screwdriver. Then I simply took the body portion of the chairs outside, primed, painted and polyurethaned them. I used a couple coats of each, while rotating the chairs around to be sure I got all of the cracks and crevasses. 

The next step was to re-cushion the seats. This part was a little more time consuming but still rather simple. I used a flat head screwdriver to remove the staples from the current upholstery. Once the fabric and old cushion were removed I fitted my new foam pieces to the wood and trimmed the edges. Finally, I measured my fabric by placing it over the cushion and then trimmed it to the appropriate amount. All in all, I used about 1.5 yards of fabric for two chairs. Once the fabric was trimmed I simply attached the fabric using a staple gun. The most tedious part was making sure the corners of the seat were flush and that the front two corners mimicked each other in their fold pattern. 

Once the chairs were dry and the cushions were put back together it was time to reassemble the chairs. I just screwed them back together the same way I took them apart. I did have to replace a couple of screws due to age and corrosion. But, nothing that you can't handle.

And there you have the final product! I was super happy with the results and I can't wait to see the rest of the booth come together.

Have you ever reupholstered anything? If so do you have any tips or tricks?