Black and White

I've just handed in my last paper for my grad studies course, and have four days before I go back to work for the fall. So, naturally, that's enough time for a good project!

I am a perpetual redecorator. I rearrange my furniture, repaint stuff, recover stuff ALL the time. A little while ago, we got a couple of benches from Ikea, and they came with a standard pattern. 

They were intended to be toy boxes, hence the circus pattern.

The chairs at my table are hand-me-downs. I kind of (really) hate them. I recovered them once, a few years ago, with a fun pattern.

So it was time to update these items to reflect my current sensibilities.

I've been noticing these sort of African black-and-white patterns lately. Like:

1. Grace's bench:

and 2. Ariele's chair:

My local fabric store was having a sale, so I bought up some black-and-white batiks. Not quite African, but the graphic and geometric quality was there.

I totally freehanded those bench cushions. And messed up a bunch. It was a prototype in progress, and but it ended up working. I bought two more cushions, and stacked them to make them thicker, which I think looks better (and is comfier). And I also really love that each chair cushion is a different pattern, but it goes together. And it makes those chairs somewhat bearable.

It was fun to make!