White furniture binge

Went on a bit of a white furniture painting binge recently.  Here’s the end result of said binge.

Cute little metal birdcage.  Just a quick coat of white spray paint.

Little brown step stool.  Painted white and distressed.  Still debating whether or not I should stencil something on it???

Not a very good picture of the refinished piece on this one.  (sorry!)  Just a basic white paint job and distressed.

Cute three tier wall shelf; again just painted white and distressed.

This half round table was the same dark wood color as the shelf above.

This little shelf was already white.  I just distressed it.

This coffee table with lower shelf had already been repainted white, but they didn’t do a very good job of it.  You can’t really tell how ‘streaky’ the paint was in the pictures.  I needed to sand it before repainting it anyhow; and decided that I liked how it looked without repainting!  Distressing covers a multitude of mistakes!

Little ‘jewelry box size’ chest.  Removed the knobs, sanded off the red, white and blue; painted it white, distressed it and put the repainted knobs back on.  easy peasey.

Little upcycled side table made using a tall metal candle stand and an inverted metal tray.  Glued together using e6000, and spray painted.

This ‘open back’ cubby shelf was a medium wood color.  The white paint and distressing really emphasized the dental moulding at the top.  Below it, in the second photo is another cubby shelf, but with a back.  It was already white, so I just distressed it a bit.

I guess this shelf was for some kind of sports memorabilia.  Some white paint and you have just a regular white wall shelf!

 

No before picture for this one.  It was dark brown and had a ‘tapestry-like’ cover on the seat.  I LOVE the foot stools that open up like this for storage space!  Painted it white and distressed it a little.  Added some additional padding to the seat before I recovered it with a pretty soft aqua paisley print fabric.

All of these went to my booth at Stars.  A few have already sold.

So, what’s next???  I’ve got some pretty BIG news!  A new shop is opening soon in Aurora . . . and they will be carrying some of my items!  Stay tuned for more details and official Grand Opening notice!

 

 

 

The right place at the right time

For all those times you are disappointed because ‘just missed’ that perfect piece or missed out on a great deal . . . .

 . . . . something like THIS happens and you do your happy dance!

I don’t usually buy chairs with upholstered parts due to the high cost of new padding and fabric.  But at that great price, I could afford to make over this vintage chair.

This is pretty typical of what I’ve found on covered seats; someone has just re-covered the original tattered ugly fabric and and the worn out foam with new fabric and called it good.  ICK!!  The wood is usually fine to re-use; but if it’s in bad shape, it’s easy to use the old one as a template to cut a new one.  The hardest part of making over a padded seat is removing all the staples that are holding on the old fabric!

I had this pretty brown and blue fabric in my stash and decided to use it so I could leave the chair brown, as found.  I just gave the chair frame a good sanding to distress it though.

The new foam seat cushions usually run around $20.00; and I like to add a couple of layers of batting over the foam to protect the fabric and to add some extra ‘cush’.  I wrap the fabric over the batting and foam cushion, use a staple gun to attach the new fabric to the wood base.

By the time I’ve added up the cost of the foam cushion, batting and fabric; I’ve got about $30.00 just in materials invested in the chair.  Which is difficult to factor into the selling price if you’ve paid a lot for the chair.

I also had this little foot stool and decided to paint and cover it to match the chair.

I did NOT distress the wood base on the footstool though; because the undercoat was too dark to really show.  I used a small pillow instead of a foam pad on the footstool for a really ‘OVER-stuffed’ look.  I love over stuffed stools and chairs!

Both have gone to my booth at Stars.

BIG SALE AT ALL THREE STARS MALLS THIS THURSDAY – MONDAY, July 14 – 18.

As always during the sales, EVERYTHING in my booth is 50% off!!

The big 8 drawer blue dresser has already sold.

But my booth is still jam-packed with goodies!!

UPCYCLED Little Treasure Chest

Little trunk style jewelry chest I recently found.

Nice clean ‘innards’? Check.  Paper peeling off?  I was probably going to remove it before I painted it anyhow.  Sold!

It was actually a nice finish under the paper.  It was a bit harder to get all that paper off than I’d hoped.  I peeled off whatever would easily come off first; which wasn’t much!  Then I soaked a dishcloth in hot water and laid that over the remaining paper.  After letting that sit for a bit, I used a paint scraper to get ‘most’ of it off.  finally had to use some ‘Goof Off’ to get the last little bits of paper off.  Then a little sanding before repainting.

Aqua paint (of course!) and a bit of sanding to distress.

A section of a pretty paper napkin decoupaged on the top for a little added ‘oomph’.

Done and already SOLD, at Stars.

New batch of small frames. 50% OFF sale reminder.

I typically prefer to gather and re-vamp BIG wall size picture frames, but it’s been pretty slim pickin’s on those lately, so I’ve started rummaging through the smaller frames at thrift stores and estate sales of late.

 Here are some from my most recent batch of made-over frames.

Just aqua paint and some hand sanding on them all.

I look for frames with interesting embossed details.

Sometimes the details are ‘just’ in the corners.

Other times, the whole frame is detailed.

Even just repetitive grooves add a lot of interest once painted and distressed.

I was in a hurry to get this batch done and into my booth, and decided to forego the ‘pictures’ in most of these frames.  It really doesn’t COST much to add some kind of a picture to them, but it is TIME consuming.

But I still managed to add a ‘little something’ to a few of them!

Sometimes I do varying shades of aqua / turquoise when I do a batch of frames.  Since each frame was so unique I went with all the same color on all of them this time.

Really DEEP frames are always a good find too!

Not so fond of how this one turned out.  Just might have to repaint it white.  We’ll see.

I think I actually liked it BETTER before I repainted it!  You can’t tell in the picture, but the brown part of the frame has a crackled texture to it; kind of looks like alligator skin.

An old, newly repainted berry basket stand was ‘called up’ to serve as the display for the gathering of all the smaller frames.  ( a few of them are from a previous batch)

Layers of frames; a study of contrast.
This small and sweet vintage metal frame was perfect ‘as found’; I just added a picture.

This batch of larger ‘wall frames’ had originally all been repainted white and distressed.  Alas, they had been sitting in my booth for TOO long without selling, so I brought them home for another make-over.  A quick dry brush with aqua or turquoise paint and a bit more sanding.  Back in my booth just in time for the HALF PRICE SALE.

I SO wish I had more wall space available so that I could actually ‘display’ them instead of just plopping them on the floor.  Frames are probably my favorite decorating accessory and they sell so much better when ‘properly displayed’.

Although there is another dealer who has one of those big ole canvas cargo carts in her booth and she just piles all her frames into it.  I constantly see shoppers curiously rummaging through them, hunting for a treasure to take home.

REMINDER:  EVERYTHING IN MY BOOTH IS 50% OFF THROUGH LABOR DAY MONDAY.  Sale signs are posted in each booth, (and in all 3 stores!) with varying % off.  Perfect way to spend a rainy Labor Day weekend.

I’ve got lots of vintage little gold frames too!

Little tin candle lantern: outdated rustic to beach cottage chic

Thrifted  rustic little  candle lantern.  The price was right so I brought it home for a make over.

I spray painted it with flat white, and sanded a little to distress.

Just to ring out the pretty details.  Then as it sat on my work table while I hunted for a suitable candle, which I could NOT find, I decided to alter it a bit more.

While I couldn’t find a small enough TAPER candle to fit the existing hole, I DID have several pretty aqua 3″ pillar candles on hand; which ‘filled the space’ much better anyhow!  So I glued on (using e6000) a mini metal pie tin to put the pillar in!

CAREFULLY spray painted to newly added tin, avoiding spraying over the distressed parts as much as possible.  (YES, I am that lazy!)  Then sanded the rim of the tin a tad.  Then I GLUED IN the candle.  (otherwise they seem to ‘disappear’ at the antique mall!)

Then I ‘beached it up’ by tying on a white fingerling starfish and seahorse tag.

Pretty AND functional (remove the tag before burning!) cozy beach cottage candle lantern.

This lantern is for sale in my space at Stars antiques in Portland, Oregon.

Old drawers repurposed into little shelves

Didn’t really need to do too much to these old drawers.  Cleaned them up and sanded off some scratches and glued some pretty paper to the inside bottom (which becomes the backing when hung as a shelf)

I removed the handle to distress the top and bit, then reattached the handle.  Used some vintage sheet music for papering this one.

 “Tea stained’  (using my own special stain formula; NOT realy tea!) the edges of this torn paper for a very aged look.

On this second drawer, the handle was splattered with old paint, so I gave it a fresh coat of black spray paint when I removed it to sand the drawer front.

Used a couple of coordinating scrapbook papers for the bottom of this one.  Just tore them up and glued them down kinda mosaic style.  You ‘could’ do nice neat straight line cuts if you prefer.  I just happen to like the torn edges look. 

Very quick and simple project!  These  two will be going to Stars.

 

Wrapping it up at Camas Antiques ~ NOW 50% OFF EVERYTHING!

  Just a quick post to let you know that we’re getting down to the wire on our moving out sale at Camas Antiques; and EVERYTHING is now 50% off.  Last day it Friday, July 8th.  Our bigger display shelves are NOT for sale at this time.  But check back closer to the final day, and if enough of the small stuff has sold that I can sell the shelves (without having to pile stuff on the floor!) I will.

 

 

 

 

Filthy old hat box / carrier

Found this GRUBBY old hat box a few weeks ago at Salvation Army, on half price day.  Honestly, if it hadn’t been half price, I’d have passed on it; it was THAT FILTHY!  But the inside was surprisingly clean.

It was in pretty good shape, other than all the grime.  Seriously, it looked like it had been stored in a car mechanics workshop!  I spent a good two hours trying to get it clean.  sprayed it with 409 and scrubbed.  Sprayed again and let sit, then scrubbed again.  Got out my handy-dandy bleach pen and ran it along all the stitching and let it soak for a while and got out an old tooth brush to scrub some more!  Managed to remove several layers of gunk, but it was still fairly grubby.  Time to bring out the SPRAY PAINT!

After several coats of spray paint, it was ready to go to my space at Stars.  Next time??????  From how much work it took for me to clean this baby up, I’d probably PASS on one that grubby in the future.  If I spent that much time on ALL of our purchased product, we’d never make any money!

But it really does look GREAT with all the other white stuff I currently have in our space at Stars.

Old cane back chair ~shabby cottage chic make-over.

Sigh.  Once AGAIN, I got too excited when the sun came out and dashed outside and started painting . . .forgetting to take a before photo!  Sorry!  My bad.  Originally this chair was dark DARK brown, with a brown leather covered seat, that had obviously sat upon for many, MANY years!

First I removed the seat, saving it just long enough for Michael to use it as a template to cut me a new seat base.  For some reason these VERY dark brown older chairs ‘bleed PINK’ when you add your first coat of paint.  I used a good coat of KILZ primer, and just as I expected, it turned PINK (just on THIS chair, not on the other pieces I was working on!)  Then it took a good THREE coats of white paint to get full coverage.

The seat cushion base is smaller than the actual chair seat, as you can see.  This is to allow room for your padding and fabric.

Then I sanded the edges to distress it.  Pondered if there was anything I could do to hide that little hole in the cane back.  Michael suggested a slip cover for the back.  While that WOULD work, the curves along the back are so pretty, it seemed a shame to cover them up; besides,  I’m not good enough of a seamstress to perfectly fit a slip cover over those curves.  MY slip covers tend to resemble pillow cases!  So I just decided to leave it be.  Afterall the chair IS supposed to look old and well-loved!

Rummaged through my fabric pile to select the seat covering.  This one had a pattern reminiscent of the cane pattern, so I selected it.

About a hundred staples later . . .voila!  A 2″ foam pad atop the wood seat base; topped with quilt batting and then the fabric.  Set some fo the fabric scraps aside to cover some pillows later on.

A nice THICK and comfy seat!

Now I keep looking at the darn HOLE in the back.  It’s more noticeable in photos, because it doesn’t really bother me in person.  And the paint will ‘hold it together’ so the hole won’t get any bigger.  Whaddya think??? Does that hole bother YOU?  Would you buy an otherwise nice, shabby chic chair WITH a small hole in the back?

This chair is in storage right now; awaiting room for it in our space at Stars.

Ahhhhhhhhh. . . . . .

That’s what this color makes me feel:

And as you can see here, I’ve been doing a lot of ‘ahhhhhhhhhing’ lately!

These are the newest pictures of our space at Stars in Portland.