Timing is everything.

Remember this cute little grey chest of drawers?  It’s been forever since I had any chests to put in my booth at Stars, so I was anxious to get this one painted and taken in.

Just DAYS after I had put it in my booth, I came across this adorable little SOLID OAK  hutch top /  cubby shelf, that looked like it would be a perfect fit to set atop the grey dresser.

I went to work on it as fast as I could.  Painting it in the same grey that I had used for the chest, and distressing it.  I was SO looking forward to pairing it with that grey chest!  Alas, when I went in the following week with the grey hutch top and some additional stock for my booths, the chest had SOLD!! Bitter sweet.  Happy for the sale, of course; but disappointed that I wasn’t able to display the two pieces together.  Lousy timing!

Here are a few other pieces that I’ve recently completed:

Off white oval three tiered night stand; painted pink and distressed.  This piece is available for purchase at Pink Door in Aurora, Oregon.

I had two of these child size chairs.  The seats were made of that white ‘dry erase board’ kind of wood, which as as you can see in the before photo, was slightly damaged.  While the damage did not affect the structural integrity of the chairs; my attempts to cosmetically repair them failed.  Pretty wrapping paper and Mod Podge to the rescue!  These have not yet been taken to either of my sales venues.

  The drawers to this cubby didn’t slide very well once I had re-painted it; so I set them aside for some other project.  Cubbies with the backing already on them are extremely time consuming to paint; hence, spray paint is my go to solution for such pieces.  A little hand sanding along the edges shabby it up a bit.  available to purchase in my booth at Stars.

Continuing with the grey color scheme on this small shelf and DVD rack.  available to purchase in my booth at Stars.

 This bar stool is BIG and sturdy.  It had a glossy finish on it to begin with, so I had to either prime it or sand it before re-painting it.  I opted for primer, which gave it an added dimension when I distressed it.  Some of the distressed areas show the white primer layer and others the original dark color.  I was very tempted to stencil something on the back, but I couldn’t quite decide what, and I really NEEDED furniture in my space, so I left it plain for now.   Available to purchase in my booth at Stars.

With two of the wicker drawers missing, I opted to just remove them all.  The cubby was in fairly rough shape, and since I had just painted the other cubby white, I decided to leave this one it’s original wood; just distressed it a bit.  It’s available to purchase in my booth at Stars.

The leopard print mannequin torso needed some ‘legs’.  I had a black wrought iron base and a tall curvy plant/candle stand.  Opted for the wrought iron base as the weight of it would make her stand steadier; and besides, her skirt pretty much covers the base.  I used nearly 100 yards of tulle to hand make her fluffy black skirt.  She is available for purchase at Pink Door in Aurora, Oregon.

A couple of smaller upcycled mannequins with fluffy tulle skirts; also available for purchase at Pink Door in Aurora, Oregon.

I’m ALWAYS on the lookout for vintage gumball machines to make over and fill with ‘fun stuff’ like seashells, spools of thread, jingle bells . . . . etc.  NEVER imagined that I’d come across a silver plated one!?!?!  It really wasn’t even very tarnished and required minimal polishing.  Such a fancy gumball machine needed some fancy filling.  Acrylic gemstones to the rescue.  They look prettier in person.   Available for purchase at Pink Door in Aurora, Oregon.

Somehow I missed getting a ‘before’ picture of this one.  It was dark brown wood, that I sanded painted and sanded again to distress.  LOVE the little drawer and the ceramic rose drawer pull that I put on it.  This piece can be purchased at Stars in Portland.

Could hardly believe my good luck when I found this set of three suitcases . . . ALL of them had beautifully CLEAN innards!!  The color is difficult to tell in the photos, but it’s a very, very pale pink.  Each is priced individually; and available for purchase at Pink Door in Aurora, Oregon.

Just waiting for the weather to cool down a bit and the outside air to be ‘breathable’ so I can get LOTS more painting done.

Two-step stool with DRAWER

A little DRAWER in a step stool?!?!?  I love that!

This sweet little stool really didn’t ‘need’ to be made over at all . . . it was in perfect condition; but you know me!!!  I can never leave well enough alone!

I removed the drawer knob and gave the whole thing a good sanding.

Some aqua paint and more sanding to distress.  Another ‘perfect piece’ to use one of my little aqua ceramic rose knobs on!!

And off to my booth at Stars it goes!

Great little piece for adding height to displays in my booth (while it lasts!)

Here’s a little peek at some of the other new stuff in my booth:

Ceramic and stoneware bunny dishes.

Covered duck tureens and a tiny duck pitcher.

Vintage metal plant stand set up as a serving station.

One of my ‘yard wreaths’ (hand crafted using twigs, bark and moss collected from my yard)

A new batch of small frames; some with glass and backings, some without.

A couple more vintage crystal lamps with NEW Paris script shades.

How adorable is this box of vintage cocktail forks!?!?!  (Sorry about the glare!  I had to wrap the box in plastic wrap to be sure none of the forks ‘went missing’)

Stop on by if you haven’t been at Stars in a while.  LOTS of new stuff in my booth  . . . and throughout the entire mall!

What to do about cigarette burns on old furniture

This tall end table / lamp table with one little drawer was in pretty good condition, except for the badly damaged top.

A couple of VERY deep cigarette burns and several areas where the embossed gold design had worn down completely.  But it was plenty sturdy, had a lower shelf and a drawer (storage is always a big plus!) and it had ‘nice legs’!  I decided to buy it and see what I could to with it.

The CLEANEST vintage drawer innards I have ever seen!  Missing knob is no biggie since I usually change them anyhow.

The cigarette burns were not just ‘singes’ . . .  they were divots, burned clear through that top layer of wood; and just sanding them was not going to do the job.

I filled them with some wood putty, then sanded smooth once the putty was nice and dry.  The gold embossed border which was worn away in some spots was very inconsistent.  At first I thought I could just sand the rest away.  But it was very deeply  embedded in some spots and just barely on the surface of others.  So I just sanded enough to remove the surface sheen and painted as I usually do.

That little drawer was perfect for another one of the aqua ceramic knobs I have.

I went fairly light on the distressing because of the issues with the top.

I was concerned that the variations in the embossing would bother me, but it doesn’t.  And you can still see where the filled cigarette burn divots were . . . .  ‘a good distressing job covers a multitude of flaws’. (You may quote me on that!  hehe)

All in all, I an quite content with how it turned out.

Available for purchase in my booth at Stars for $79.00.

~::~

Just restocked (STACKED!) at Stars

After a very busy sale weekend at Stars, I pulled the few remaining white pieces to make room for all my new beachy blue stuff.

It’s a tight fit, but I did manage to fit quite a bit of the newly painted beachy blue stuff into the space by doing some serious stacking!  There’s the half round coffee table I recently showed you, on the bottom of the stack.  Topped with several benches, a little corner shelf and a small storage shelf with a drawer.  ALL of these items were constructed by us using reclaimed wood.

Enough space under the coffee table for a basket of your favorite magazines.

Little cabinet with drawer.  White wire basket sold separately.

Assorted benches.  And a big vintage wood ‘trencher’ bowl filled with old architectural elements.

Little corner shelf for extra storage on the bathroom vanity perhaps?

And little black lamps with ‘skeleton’ shades.  Just LOVE these!!!

LOTS more stacked up on the right hand side of our booth!  A gate leg and a drop leaf table topped with small tables and chairs.

Vintage grubby little step ladder that I painted beachy blue, makes a great ‘catch all’ or plant stand.

Atop the beachy blue drop leaf table, a small pedestal table with carved base, a medium sized occasional table with a little step stool underneath.

A vintage cake dome /cloche fits perfectly on the little table!

This is the repurposed bar stool table shown recently.

And a little vintage child’s chair with a bird cage on it on top of that!

 

Behind the aqua drop leaf table is a gate leg table (covered with old book pages) and THIS stuff is stacked on top of the gate leg.  An aqua child’s chair and shabby little bench.

And an aqua end table under the bench.   Kind of hard to get a good photo of some of this stuff because it IS so jam packed in there!

A regular size chair next to the child size one.

TO  BE  CONTINUED  TOMORROW . . .

Half round coffee table

Michael scrounged (rescued from a dumpster!) several of these BIG half round pieces of plywood, so I’ve been wracking my brain to think of a good way to USE them.  First thought was a headboard for a child’s bed, or maybe a GIANT ‘man in the moon’ painting.  Nope, just not the right inspiration yet.  THEN I was telling Michael what items are on my current ‘wish list’, and coffee tables was at the top of the list.  Why not make some half round coffee tables?!?  And so we did!

SUPER simple design with an elongated “H” base (instead of legs) like we use for step stools.  I painted the whole thing beachy blue, sanded to distress then applied some of my own ‘weathered wood wash’ (a stain or glaze would work just as well) to give it that weathered beach feeling.

Things NEVER look as ‘distressed’ in the pictures as they really are!  sigh.  It is QUITE well distressed, trust me.

We actually made 2 of them.  Was thinking it would be fun to display them together, as a big round, like this.  Alas, I don’t think there is going to be enough room in my booth at Stars for both of them just now.  One of them will be going in this week, for sure though.

We’ve got a couple more pieces of this half round stuff to work with; so we’ll see how well these coffee tables go over before we decide to make more or not.  I also spotted a smaller half round in Michael’s stash and was thinking we could do a TALL sofa back table, with a shelf  below, and an upper shelf  from the smaller half round.  Would work well as an entry hall table or even a BAR! 

Watch for LOTS of the beachy blue items to appear at Stars by the end of the week!

Repaired and updated curio shelf

I come across old curio shelves like this quite often.  This one is missing the ‘decorative top piece’ (you can see where it’s supposed to be); which most likely had one of those wonderful country heart cut outs in the center.

Michael cut a new top piece and attached it for me.  If this one HAD still had the heart cut out top piece still in place, we would have just attached this plain one right over the top of it to hide the heart.

While the PLAIN top piece was just fine, and could have been left as it was; I decided to add a pretty wood applique.  I’ve also added decorative stamp designs on that top piece in the past.  Now it’s ready to paint!

My signature ‘beachy blue’ paint was my choice for this piece.

Close up of the wood applique.  Won’t this shelf look great filled with a collection of little white cream pitchers?!?

This, and the rest of the ‘beachy blue’ stuff I’ve been working on lately will be going to Stars by the end of this week.  If you’ve been thinking about buying some of the WHITE stuff, get it NOW; because I’ll be pulling it to make room for the blue stuff.

Little thrifted stool

Found this little cutie on a recent thrifting trip:

VERY banged up seat, so I gave it a good sanding with an orbital sander.  Then a couple of coats of my fav beachy blue paint.

Then it’s always the SAME dilemma, “to sand or not to sand”.  I usually opt TO sand.  Mostly because then I don’t have to worry about nicks and scratches when we haul it to its destination.

Sanded and ready for a cozy beach house!  Will be going to my space at Stars soon.

SANDING INFORMATION: I almost ALWAYS use an electric ORBITAL sander.  Hand sanding is just TOO difficult for me with my damaged spine.  If you are going to invest in an electric sander, an ORBITAL one is the way to go.  IF you are going to hand sand, buy SANDING SPONGES.  YOu’ll find them at any paint of hardware store.  Much easier to handle than a flimsy piece of sand paper. 

WHAT ABOUT GRIT?  No, not ‘grits’. . .  grit, as in how coarse/fine your sandpaper is.  We ALWAYS use a coarse grit.  On the orbital sander, on the belt sanders and on sanding sponges.  Fine sand paper will take you forEVER to accomplish very much.  Coarse does the best job for the purposes of prepping and distressing things like you see us do.

Space at Camas Antique Mall updated

We are STILL offering 25% off anything/everything PINK in our space.

We need ROOM for new stuff!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because I LIKE them . . .

I really can’t tell you WHY I like bowls and baskets and jars full of string or crochet thread.  I just DO!

My ‘love for the look’ surfaced last summer when we started our closing sale for our retail store, and I decided I wanted to get rid of my entire collection of primitive/folk art and Americana decor.  We live too far out in the boonies to ever do a yard sale at our home, so I hurriedly whisked my entire collection off to our store to sell there, while I had the chance.

I knew I wanted to go with a more ‘nurtral palette.  And a more ‘organic’ and simplistic look.  And I found myself drawn to whites and creams and soft putty colors.  ESPECIALLY big bowls and jars filled with string!  THAT was the inspiration for the whole living room re-do.  (which is still very much a ‘work in progress’ . . . . SLOW progress!)

These pictures are of items I just stocked in our space at Camas.  I finally got enough ‘to share’.  I’ve got two big glass jars at home, and a couple of small jars with darning thread and grubby vintage white ric rac in them. 

I’m lovin’ the BIG industrial size cones of thread too.  I have one at home and took the rest to Camas.  You can see part of one on the far left here.  The other two (I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of them!!)  have sold already.

The jars shown come WITH the contents included.  The big glass jars are actually harder to find than the string.  Target carries some at a ‘reasonable price’ if you are buying for your own use.  Of course I have to HUNT for them at garage sales at a cheaper price so we can make ‘some profit’ on selling them.    If you already have a jar or basket or bowl and just need the string, these shown are sold individually.

  What is it about big bowls and jars of string or yarn that is so appealing?

CONTINUED: Latest pictures from our space at Stars

Sure glad I spent every minute possible outside soaking up the SUN yesterday, cuz it’s POURING RAIN again today!  harumph!!  We now return to our previously interrupted post . . .

Replenished my stash of tea stained and stamped muslin ribbons; AND gave them a fun new display stand!

Perfect place for them on top of this two tier table.

Handmade stuffed stars with stamped words.

Decorative balls and tea stained tags.  Also have bottles of my stain for sale for the ‘do it yourselfers’.

More moss rocks (was sold out for a while)

More ‘make your own chalkboard paint’ kits.

Unscented pods and botanicals to use as bowl fillers, or scent as potpourri.

Little bundles of rusty wire for you crafty folks who might want to try your hand at making your own rusty wire bird nests.

Vintage white wares.

Four foot tall corner shelf; handcrafted by Michael using reclaimed wood.  Available in custom sizes and colors.

Vintage one of a kind little green shabby corner shelf.

Little black shelf (made from an old drawer!)

Black candelabra.

Vintage carved black frame and handmade paper wreath.

Ginormous vintage straw bee skep.

Shabby white spindle corner shelf, and a couple of old brown shutters.

Vintage cubby shelf topped with a vintage white wicker shelf.

Closer look at the cubby shelf.  Perfect size to use as a desk hutch.

Little green shelves with bun feet.  (That’s two of them stacked atop one another)

Shabby vintage window pane shelf.  Perfect size for an entryway or a sofa back.

LOTS of frames!

Little white shelf made from an old drawer!  Nice size for a bedside table or to plop a cushion on for a settee.

Round tables.

Signs and pictures.

I can never get a good photo of the whole booth, and yet I KEEP trying!