Outdated – Updated: Little wood stool

Little stools are one of those things I’m ALWAYS on the look out for.  They consistently sell well, AND are really handy for creating height in my booth displays.

Found this little oval one a while back.  Took a fair amount of sanding to sand down the painted on angel design; but after that it was quick to re-paint.

I left the brown base-coat, and gave the top a fresh base of brown before painting the whole thing aqua.  Some hand sanding and a stenciled design on top and DONE!

Available for purchase in my booth at Stars.

ANOTHER Re-made make-over

So, if stuff site in my booth TOO long without selling, I bring it home and re-make the make-over.

Such was the case for this simple little table.  THIS ^ was actually it’s THIRD make-over!  Originally it was the largest in a set of nesting tables that I bought new 20 years ago.  They were primitive/rustic style and I think this one was blue.

After a few years I sanded off the blue and stained it hunter green, to match literally EVERYTHING else in my house, which was also hunter.

When I’d tired of the hunter green, I changed my decor to Americana with a lot of red,white and blue.  At which time I painted the top of this table to look like an American flag.

Just before we closed our shop, I had tired of the Americana primitives and sold most of them in an estate sale via the shop.  Somehow this little table go left behind, and it has come in handy over the years.

In my most recent downsizing though, it HAD to go; at which time I did the above black and tan Paris chic make-over.  It has been in my booth for at least 6 months and not sold, so I brought it home and made it over YET again!!

But WHAT color do I try next???  I primed the whole thing black and it sat in my garage for quite a while as I pondered my options.  Ah-HA!!  Everything I’ve painted my ‘new lighter blue’ has sold quickly!  There’s my sign!

And here she is, in her fourth (and hopefully FINAL, incarnation!).  Plain and simple, light Robin’s egg blue over a black base-coat and distressed.

I love that, even after so many times being painted and sanded and repainted and sanded again, some of the grain pattern still shows in the distressing!

Painted and distressed the legs to match the top this time.

Will wait until after Christmas, and possible even until Spring, to take it to my booth at Stars.  Just depends upon when I NEED to add more furniture.

I also painted this chunky wood footstool the same color; but without the black base-coat.

And this cute little stool that already had a coat of white on it.

I almost always end up using the little stools that I take to Stars to ‘prop stuff up on’.  But they still always sell really well.

Ready to go and just ‘waiting for spring’!

Up next on my ‘paint blue list’ is these two bar stools. . . . IF my son and new daughter-in-law decide they don’t want them.

Seeking inspiratioin

Every so often even “I” need some inspiration.  (tis true!)

 While perusing for dresser painting ideas on Better After,  (which is ALWAYS a good source!)   I came across this great collection of salvaged/updated pieces from one of the featured artists.  Take a peek!

This little dresser I just picked up is a PERFECT candidate for a ‘unique make over’.  The single drawer pulls make it easy to ‘work around’ .  Pretty much a blank canvas.  I just can’t decide WHAT to do?!?!?  OR if I’m even BRAVE enough to do a ‘wild’ paint job?!?!

This idea popped into my head as I drifted to sleep the other night.   For the knobs I’d use some BIG oval wood plaques, and make them into letters for the painted on number words.  I just got a totally “WTH?!?!?!” look from Michael when I asked him what he thought.  I’m not convinced I’ll like the asymmetry of the numbers on the drawers.  Might be too unbalanced for me.

I can ALWAYS just paint it white or beachy blue; change out the knobs.   It would sell instantly.  Little dressers always do.  But I’m kinda itchin to do something different too!   Better sleep on it a few more days.  But we’re SUPPOSED to be getting a stretch of warm and sunny days and that’s PAINTIN’  WEATHER in these parts.   So I can’t put it off for TOO long!

Last summer I broadened my painting repertoire with what I called my ‘Cabana stripe collection’.  Remember this big boy???

It sold surprisingly FAST.   I had so much fun painting all the striped pieces, and everything sold quite well.  I have one little shelf (like on the dresser above) and a folding table left over from then.  So I COULD bring back the stripes this year, but I really yearn to do something NEW.  (new to me at least!)

Any thoughts?  And new trends you’ve seen that I may have missed and should give a go???

 

Outdated / Updated big ole seahorse candleholder

Found this BIG seahorse candle holder at GW last week.  It’s almost 2 feet tall!  Was pondering attempting to turn it into a lamp

But I really needed to repaint it FIRST to be sure it would turn out good enough to be made into a lamp.  First a good couple of coats of flat black spray paint.

Then I sponge painted it with tan, and decided I didn’t want to make it into a lamp.  Mostly because I didn’t want to have to go hunting for a lamp SHADE!  Found a big wood charger plate in my stash and turned it into a little TABLE or plant stand instead.

After painting the plate to match the base, I glued them together with e6000.

Perfect little accent table for displaying a few of your favorite collectibles; or setting your drink and snack on!

This piece will be going to my booth at Stars in the very near future.

Updated train case

Ain’t she sweet; all pretty and PINK!?!

Her ‘before’ state was rather bland and blue:

Amazing what a couple of quick coats of spray paint and a pretty bow will do!

No before pic of this one, but it was a slightly lighter shade of blue.  I actually painted this one first.  I’s been sitting around for WAY too long, so I decided to see how it would work to paint it.   Worked great so I moved on to the train cases.

Forgot the before pic on this one too!  You may have noticed it in the recently updated pics of our space at Stars:

And the big black suitcase has gone to Camas; along with the pink train case:

NOW I’m ‘on the hunt’ for more inexpensive train cases to paint up!  Had to run a few errands yesterday and stopped by Salvation Army Thrift Store in Hillsboro to see if they were STILL doing half price on Mondays.  Yep!  Found two more train cases! 

AND to my surprise the store has been reconfigured!  It was originally nearly 3/4 clothes; and very little ‘bric-a-brac’ (as they call it).  They’ve scaled down the clothing to about 1/3 and expanded bric-a-brac and furniture!   I just may have to stop in more often!  Much more of ‘my kind of stuff’ there now.

***A word of warning about SA though!  They CHANGE their ‘sales’ program VERY frequently!  So if you don’t see the big “HALF PRICE SALE’ banner in front on Monday when you go; ASK!  They ‘used to’ date all the tags and when items were over 2 weeks old, they became half price.  I had a whole cart full fo stuff one day, and found out they NO LONGER ‘did that’.  No signs or information posted anywhere!  harumph! 

They do still offer a senior discount (55 and over) on all regular prices.

Wicker chair with “UN” slip cover

I have one of these chairs at home.  Got it second-hand and painted it off white.   Found another one while out thrifting.  Thought about maybe keeping it to have a pair.  Then remembered the other one was a different color to start with, so they wouldn’t match.

I have loved this style of chair since they first came out.  It’s wicker, but it has very modern, clean lines.  Sturdy and comfortable.  Just need to update it a bit.

A couple of little snippets of wicker missing.  No problem, I’ll cover it with a cushion or something.

I literally only took me TEN minutes to dry brush this entire chair.  Since I’ve been doing so many pieces with this aqua paint lately, I store the brush in a baggie for re-use.  I didn’t even have to re-load the paint brush until I got to the legs!

Since some of the original brown wicker shows through, I wanted some brown to show on the legs too.  A quick bit of sanding took care of that.

Now for that cushion or slipcover!  I was perusing the thrift store for some fabric to inspire me and found this awesome TABLE RUNNER!

Perfect colors!  Perfect fit!  And it worked exactly as I’d imagined it would!  (but if it hadn’t worked, I could have used it to make a cushion)

That pink ball fringe is so FUN!!

To keep the runner in place, I just tied a pretty piece of ribbon at the back of the seat. 

Pretty little bow at the back and I’m done!

Come on over and sit a spell!

This cabana cutie has gone to my space at Stars. 

Where everything in my space is 25% off through this Sunday!