Adding some more Spring things

Out with the Easter decor and in with the Spring.  Here’s what’s new in my ‘big booth’ at Stars:

Jars of nests and eggs, jars of moss and bird cages.

This shabby white cubby is $68.oo, and includes the hardware for hanging it on the wall.

Making the most of every inch of display space; an old crate on top of the shelf gives me a little more room.  Shabby wood bird-cage and dessert stand with cloche top underneath the table that the shelf is sitting on.  More jars, big and small, of nests and eggs to the right.

Another little grouping on the back side of the table.

Very cool glass cake stand with extra deep lid.

Vintage, upcycled ‘breakfast in bed’ tray.

Tall glass cloches are perfect for showcasing childhood tap shoes and ballet slippers.

Moved a few things around in Sophie’s Annex.

Stop by for some spring decor inspiration for decorating and organizing.  LOTS of unique baskets, trays, containers and crates for making organization fun and pretty!

 

 

New inventory in my booth at Stars

All of a sudden there’s been a flurry of furniture selling in my booth at Stars Antique Mall, which means ‘room for NEW inventory’!  I was caught a little off guard this time and the only furniture items I had ready to deliver were shabby white.  I will usually stock darker furniture this time of year, but . . . oh well!  Here’s what’s new:

LOVE this vintage vanity bench!  The existing paint consisted of a very pale aqua/sage green undercoat, topped with pink and topped with a creamy white.  The varnish on top of all that paint was very splotchy, drippy and yellowing, so I gave it a good ‘once over’ with the orbital sander . . . .and here it is!

This simple little three-legged half-table is super light weight and worked perfectly to stack atop another table to create some height in my booth display.  I mostly left it as I found it, and only distressed the top a tad bit more.

Another little white table, pretty basic design and was originally stained a light pine color.  I think it might have been part of a set of nesting tables, but little tables like this are convenient for so many different uses.  I sanded it, painted it white and distressed it.  (sorry about the one blurry photo!  I’ll try to remember to replace it.)

I actually have THREE of these little three legged stools; and even painted them all white!  I only have one stocked in my booth for now though.  They look like milking stools, but they don’t have the handle on the side.  I thought they would make nice stands for a dessert display.

A vintage slat wood picnic basket, and this time I left it ‘as found’ instead of painting it as I’m typically inclined to do with the picnic baskets I procure.  I almost passed this one up because it had one of those ugly plastic liners inside.  I actually had put it back on the shelf and was ready to walk away, when I decided to take another look and see how difficult it would be to remove the liner.   Turns out, the liner was not attached at all and pulled right out!  So into my shopping basket it went.  One feature of this basket that I especially like is that the lid is hinged about 3/4 of the way on the top.  Usually the WHOLE lid is hinged on the outside rim, and those hinges break easily.  So I’m thinking this one will be much sturdier and hold up a lot longer.

I stacked the newly added unpainted basket with a previously stocked and painted white basket that I stenciled “EAT” to the top of.  Little wood stained step stool is kind of ‘fancy’ with a beveled edge.  Old apple basket dry brush painted white and filled with apothecary jars.

Grubby little step ladder.  You can NEVER have too many of these!  They are awesome for displaying stuff on, but they usually sell super fast.  Most of the time I will just lean them in my booth so the shopper doesn’t have to unload it to buy the ladder.  But I was in need of more display space this time, so I loaded it up with Halloween decor.

LOTS of vintage milk glass vases.

For some reason ‘beach decor’ season totally slipped my mind!!  I usually stock the beach stuff right after Easter . . . better late than never, I guess!

Vintage white wire garden fencing candle chandelier.  The candle lanterns easily lift off for easy transport.  Just add your own battery or regular tea lights.

Assorted vintage treasures.  Those vintage ‘dirty joke’ cocktail napkins are HILARIOUS!

PLEASE don’t let the construction on the block next door scare you away!!  Dealers are stocking new items daily, and the parking is NOT as bad as you might be thinking!  

P.S. Stars sale coming REAL soon!!

 

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.

~::~

Old shelf ~ New paint

Found this grubby black metal shelf in another booth at Stars.

Nice and big with lots of room for ‘stuff’, but it was very lightweight.

You can’t really see it in this photo, but the black paint was chipping off quite a bit here and there; and I didn’t want to completely hide all that naturally occurring distressing with the new paint.  I opted to ‘dry brush’ paint it.

The dry brush technique doesn’t completely cover the original finish; and it’s such a ‘light finish’ that the areas that had begun shedding the black paint, will more easily continue to do so naturally, over the course of time.

Dry brush painting is pretty ‘fast and easy’ too!

Perfect size for the crowns in my booth at Stars.

And lightweight enough to easily place on top of another shelf to get the crowns at ‘eye level’.

Trying my hand at some mixed media art

Mixed Media Angel Plaque

Still ‘sorting and purging’ the craft supplies that I didn’t get rid of before I moved.

Came across this ‘thrifted’ plaque (which originally had a simple abstract design) in a box of frames,  It was either ‘USE it or donate it’ time . . . . I decided to use it.

I had NO IDEA what I was going to make of it when I first started.  I applied a page of sheet music; then layers of old clothing patterns, extending over the edges.

I ‘tested’ some assorted papers and thought about making it a ‘vintage key collage’; but I’ve dome LOTS of those.  Forcing myself to do NEW things right now . . .  and I settled upon painting an angel.

It took two coats of acrylic craft paint to cover the paper.  It’s been a while since I’ve painted eyes . . .and does it ever show!  sigh.  Then I outlined everything with a black Sharpie.

I glued a piece of gold pipe cleaner for her halo; and some little gold metallic stars on her wings.  I thought about giving her a tiny ‘key charm’ necklace, but the chain didn’t look quite right; so I settled for painting a heart on her chest.

Painting OVER the edges was new to me, so I only attempted it with the wings.

Here you can better tell the size, fairly smallish at just 8″ x 8″; even though it’s not a very good ‘photo’.  The flash made a lot of glare and the lamp is reflecting in the glass in the lantern on the right, completely obstructing the ceramic bust.

SO, that was my new adventure for now.  I’m TYING to ‘ease my way’ into less ‘physical labor intensive’ projects.  I’m not getting in younger, after all!

February sales report for my booth at Stars

I really didn’t have high hopes for this to be much of a ‘good month’ sales wise, given ‘everything else’ that is going on this month.  

So many other options for spending and drawing the attention of the shoppers; starting with the Junk Salvation show, then the Super Bowl, then the snow storm (which literally shut the city down for days!) then Valentine’s Day, President’s Day sales all over the place AND the Expo Antique show coming the end of the month!!!

After a disappointing (but not unexpected!) start to the month, once the snow cleared the shoppers came out to SHOP!

And again, as happened last month, LARGE pieces are selling very well.   I had quite a bit of restocking and rearranging to do yesterday after I packed up the Valentine leftovers.

Took this fabulous shabby cubby shelf in.  Perfect to display all my small white dishes in.

Pretty carved embellishment along the top.

Hooks on the back so it can be hung on the wall; but it also sits nicely on a flat surface, as I have done with it here.

Shabby aqua pedestal bowl, that for now (due to lack of room!) is being used as a prop up for a lamp.  Will fill it with shabby Easter eggs when I take the Easter stuff in.

I flipped this little shelf upside down to create a ‘pocket’ to store some journals in.

This is the plate rack I just re-did.  Perfect for displaying note cards in.

Here’s the before version.

And the after.

To ‘build up’ my front facing display, I took my largest wood bench and ‘bridged it’ across the top of the two white end tables; then built my display UP from there.

You can see where I positioned the bench a little better here.

I really try to create my displays in LAYERS.  I try to think of how it will ‘break down’ and look if/when one or two of the pieces sell.  How it will be easiest for the sales staff to ‘un-do’ a display and remove a piece for a shopper; and quickly and easily  put it back in place without having to completely rearrange; yet not leave it a complete mess so that I have to make a trip in EVERY time something sells.  AND not leave any big empty HOLES when something sells.  I hate empty space!!  (as if you hadn’t already figured that out!)

Vintage ballet slippers under glass cloches.

I sold 36 of these monogram blocks last month!!  Little inexpensive ‘impulse items’ like this are always great to have.

I keep them right out in front; where there is room for the shopper to kneel down and dig through for the exact letters they need.

This 9 hole cubby seems small compared to the new 18 holer I just added.  This is a Pottery Barn re-vamp.  A little more of a classic style with the crown moulding on the top and bottom.

Upcycled little round table; lamp shade wire cloche sold separately.

More wire cloches and wire bird house.

Little 4 drawer apothecary chest.

Wall display.  The crate shadow boxes ARE for sale!

Shabby beachy blue frames.

Starfish frame.

Spring and Easter decor coming up next.

Drawer love!

Remember this sweet little thaing I picked up at an estate sale a while back?

I was reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally tempted to keep this one.

 All those drawers with all those great dividers in them.  Alas, I was in a real pinch for some ‘quick product’ to take to Stars after this last busy week of furniture sales.  

Not wanting to lose the good momentum I had going by not having a well stocked booth; I fixed her up and sent her off.

I kept the make-over simple.  Would have taken me forever to paint the insides of the drawers; so I left them pink.

Just a good once over with the orbital sander to rough up the surface and remove the old grime; and two quick coats of my latest (and very LIGHT) shade of aqua.  Then a bit of distressing along the edges.

Available for purchase in my booth at Stars for $89.00.

 

 

Unfinished wood plant stand.

As I already mentioned when I first showed you the picture of this plant stand; it’s a real ‘treat’ to find a piece that is UNfinished!   A good percent of the time I spend on refinishing things, IS spent on removing the original finish.   (the only ‘prep’ an unfinished piece might need is to sand off any ‘oily residue’ that may be on the surface from use.)

Since I had saved so much time by NOT having to prep this piece, I decided to experiment with the finish!  I did a ‘color wash’; which is just watered down paint.  I mixed about 4 parts water to one part paint.  You want it to be as thin as water.  A foam brush or soft fabric rag works best for applying a color wash.  Brush it on and wipe off the excess; similar to how you apply a stain.

The effect is very similar to a stain.  You get a hint of color, but the wood grain still shows through.  I applied a quick coat of matte varnish to the top; which enhances the grain even more.

It’s a very subtle finish and quite a change from my usual bright aqua.  But you need to try something NEW and different every so often!  AND I figure if no ones likes it and it doesn’t sell, I can always repaint it if necessary!

Another ‘bonus’ with this type of finish is that it is super fast and easy which greatly factors into the selling price!   A good part of the price I put on items is ‘for the time’ it took me to refinish it.  With this being such a fast and easy process, I can price this piece extremely reasonably!

It is available in my booth at Stars for $29.00.  That little “Paris” stool is $17.00.

 

Child size desk chair

Found this cute child size desk chair on my recent thrifting rounds.

And while I LOVE finding ‘child size’ items; I HATE that they almost always come laden with stickers!!!  ACK!!!  Only a few to deal with on this particular piece.  Plus, it had a fairly shiny finish, so I was going to need to sand it before repainting it anyhow.  And the stickers sand right off with the finish.

About ten minutes with the orbital sander and it was prepped for painting.

If you don’t have an orbital sander, and you want to fix up and repaint old furniture; you really NEED this tool.  It would have taken a good HOUR to hand sand this little chair.  With the orbital it took about 5 minutes.  Time IS money!

Most of the chair I was able to paint using a mini sponge roller.  Just needed a brush for the corners.  Using a paint roller is a real time saver too.  Plus the paint goes on much smoother and more evenly.

After two quick coats of paint and almost NO drying time in the summer heat, I was ready to distress; again using the orbital sander.

Fast and easy!

I debated whether or not to paint some kind of design on the seat or back rest.  Went withOUT for now.  If it doesn’t sell right away I’ll bring it home for some additional detailing.

It is available to purchase for $25.00 in my booth at Stars in Portland.

Patience

Maybe it was really nothing more than I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, but I like to take a ‘little’ credit and call it the reward for being patient and diligent.

You know that feeling when you find EXACTLY what you were looking for, and you can hardly even believe that no one else snatched it up already?!?!?  Those times when you really want to shout “WOO!~HOO!!” out LOUD, and do a little happy dance?!?  Yea, THAT feeling.  I had one of those last week.

I found these at the thrift store.  The smaller one w/o a lid first, in the dishes aisle.  I almost passed it by because it didn’t have the lid.  But I thought it matched the one I already had at home and I could use this one as a utensil holder.

Then as I got in line to pay I saw the two bigger ones on a front aisle display and grabbed them,

Got home and sure enough, they WERE a match to the small one with a lid I already had!  Yesssssssssssssss!

And looky here!  The salt and pepper shaker I bought at an entirely different time matched too!

Now I have a nice matching kitchen canister set!  Just gotta keep an eye out for the fourth canister.

Patience.