My new favorite color

I’m really drawn to galvanized metal items and soft grey colors these days.  I especially LOVE the contrast of mixing them in with shabby chic white decor.  I’ll be bringing LOTS of items in this color to the upcoming Rebel Junk Vintage Market on February 2&3.

In addition to the ‘real thing’ (all of those items are already packed away for the show) I’ll have lots of faux painted items, like the ones shown above.

 I’ve also got some distressed turquoise metal items, shown above.  For some reason, I decided to buy some dark turquoise spray paint a while back; and I painted these items with it.  Did not like it once they were painted though, so they have just sat in storage.  Got them out and was going to sand them to prep them for repainting, but decided that I actually LIKED the distressed dark turquoise!

These items and much MORE will be available for purchase at the

Rebel Junk Marketplace

Come visit my booth, and don’t forget to ASK for your 20% discount.  Discount given ONLY to those who have read about the show via my blog and/or Facebook page; and only if you ask.  My booth only.

 

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!

Nesting tables

Bought this set of wood nesting tables at an estate sale a while back.

At first I didn’t think they all actually went together, because of the different shapes; but they are indeed a ‘set’.  When the smaller tables are ‘nested’ they slide on runners that actually lift the legs slightly off the floor.  A unique feature.

I sanded off all the ‘sheen’; painted them aqua and sanded again to distress.  (I was able to do most of the distressing with an orbital sander.  Then added some stenciled designs.  Since I never actually sell a set of tables ‘as a set’

A set of ANYthing that a customer MIGHT want to buy ‘just one of’; it’s always best to price individually.  For several reasons:  a) Someone WILL ask “How much for just one of them?” whether they are actually interested in buying just one of not.  b) They can STILL buy the set for the combined price; but the store doesn’t have to waste time calling you to ask.  c) If the set gets ‘separated’ by shoppers in your booth you have items that don’t have tags and they end up in another booth!  It’s just easier to price them individually and be done with it!

I didn’t want to completely cover the tables with a design, and I didn’t have any stencils that ‘worked’ with both shapes.  Settled on these simple edge designs.

Nesting tables are GREAT to work with in your displays!  You can ‘nest’ them id space is tight.  Stack and use them like a shelf, or spread them around.

I actually only had room for the large oval one when I took then in last week.  Stacked it atop a little night stand at the front of my booth.

In the meantime, I got this other oval table put together and painted, and took it in along with the two smaller nesting tables on my next trip.

This third oval table has been in my booth for a while.  I was HOPING the newer oval pedestal table was a slightly lower height than the one already in my booth; and I knew the oval from the nesting set was shorter.  I putting them at the front of my booth, cascading from taller to shortest; with the matching upholstered chair and overstuffed foot stool sitting on top of them; along with some stacks of my grubby books.

Yippee Skippee!!!  The heights are just right!

Alas, the chair legs were a tad too wide to fit on the biggest table.  (well, the just perfectly fit . . . but could have easily been knocked off with the slightest touch.  A gamble I was not willing to take.  So the three tables ended up like this.

You can still see part of them from the front of my booth; tucked behind a couple of night stands.  As soon as something sells and I have a little more room to work with; I’ll bring the three tabled forward.

Did you notice the two smaller nesting tables on top of the tallest oval?  Once I have more room, I’ll spread those out or stack them for better visibility.

I wanted to be sure it was really well stocked going into this weekend because  . . .

I am occupied taking care of this little ball of energy this weekend while her mommy  and daddy (My son and his wife) are out of town for a friend’s wedding.

Yep!  She follows my every move.  Sleeps at my feet when I am sitting down (she’s ON my feet, under the computer desk right now!) And keeps me very entertained.

And before you ask . . .  she is a ‘Bernedoodle’.

Big eight drawer dresser

Rarely do I find big furniture pieces at Goodwill; OR they are TOO big to fit in the back of my car and too heavy for me to unload by myself.  This eight drawer dresser was ‘just right’!

I always keep a few old sheets in my car to cover furniture with AND to protect my car bumper when loading/unloading big items.  It’s difficult for me to LIFT the items like this to put in my car; so here’s my  ‘bad back method’ for loading big stuff in the car.

Well, first of all you have to have the right kind of car; a hatch that lifts UP and a LOW back end.  (and trust me, the PT Cruiser sits LOW!  Sometimes TOO low!!  I’ve had to ‘train myself’ to not pull all the way into parking spaces that have the concrete stops, because my front bumper will catch and scrape on it!!)  

I lay a folded over sheet from the back of the car draping over the bumper.  This particular dresser needed to be turned on it’s side first.  Once on it’s side and scooted up to the bumper, I tip it over onto the sheet and then just give it a good shove (using my knees for extra push, if needed).  Gotta LOVE leverage!

This dresser was pretty heavy, so the gal at pickup helped me ‘shove it’.  So  I knew it was too heavy for me to re-load to take to Stars, after I refinished it.  Here’s how I handle that problem.  I leave the drawers out!!  Load the dresser frame, cover with a sheet, them the drawers on top of that.  For unloading at Stars, I take the drawers in first.  (I use my little wheely cart for loading EVERYTHING at Stars!)  Then the empty dresser, then put the drawers in once I have it in the spot I want it to be.

This is a good way to move heavy dressers around the house too.  Take the filled drawers out and it’s it’s easy to move the frame.

Okay, back to the dresser at hand!

Very clean drawer innards!!  Very UGLY metal knobs painted white.  Originally I was thinking of JUST distressing the existing white paint, adding new knobs and calling it done.  Alas, someone had spray painted it RED before it was painted white, so I HAD to repaint it.

I added some vintage style paper to line the drawers with, even though they didn’t really NEED to be lined; it’s a nice touch on a bigger, pricier item.  I really struggled with finding the right replacement for the ugly knobs.  The knobs it had are the kind that have a couple of BARBS on the back to better hold them in place; but whomever attached the knobs LET them spin around while being screwed on, which gouged a ‘moat’ around the hole for the knobs.  Which meant I had to find replacement knobs that covered the moats!  sigh.  I went shopping for new ones and left empty handed.  LOTS of really pretty knobs out there IT I wanted to double the selling price of the dresser to afford them!  Especially since I needed 16 of them!  sheesh!   I settled upon these cast iron ones I had ‘in stock’.

A bit more ‘simply’ styled than I had originally envisioned it with some new knobs, but knobs are easy to replace, so I’ll leave that to the new owner.

Available for purchase in my booth at Stars for $149.00

Upcycled beach treasure box

Just a simple, almost ugly, little wood box.

With a very BAD paint job I might add.  The paint was kind of ‘curdled’.  Bleck!

Not sure WHAT the deal is with the partially painted innards, or the raised parts on the sides???  But it IS ‘clean’ inside and paint will easily cover all of that.

It took a LOT of paint to cover that bright red; so instead of a THIRD coat on the inside, I added some pretty scrapbook paper.

And a white fingerling starfish on the top.  I HAD to leave this one ‘un-distressed’ due to the first coat being red.  I COULD have sanded off all that red paint, then repainted AND distressed.  But on a small project like this you need to be sure you aren’t spending more time than you can recoup in your selling price.

This one has sold already too!

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.

Outdated / updated Folk Art chest

Cute little ‘folk art’ style three drawer chest.  Emphasis on the LITTLE!  It’s more like jewelry box size, but with deeper drawers.

The images on the drawers are glued on PAPER; and the knobs are STAPLES on!  So, that’s a new ‘issue’ for me to deal with.  I can’t sand off all of the paper without removing the knobs, and those suckers would not BUDGE!  I finally just had to WHACK them off with a rubber mallet; then lift the staples with a screwdriver, then pull then the rest of the way out with pliers.  Whew!

And this is what the drawer fronts looked like after I sanded off the paper pictures.  I could fill the holes from the staples and drill new holes for the new knobs . . . . OR . . . .    before I did all that I noticed that the BACKS of the drawers were the SAME size as the fronts.  Could the solution to this conundrum possibly be as simple as turning the drawers around?!?!?  NOTHING is ever that easy for me.

But YES!!  It worked!  The innards of the drawers were ‘clean’ but they LOOKED dirty due to a poor staining job; so I added some pretty paper on the bottoms to spiff them up a bit.  Now to search for ‘just the right’ new knobs; which entails digging through 8 plastic show boxes of knobs.

Doesn’t it look like a face close up like this!?!  hehe  The knobs don’t exactly match; but are similar enough.   The top two have pewter colored centers and are new reproductions.  The bottom is a vintage knob and back plate with a gold finish.

I painted the whole thing aqua (including the BACK!)  and distressed with my orbital sander.  Pretty quick and easy projects once I got the old knobs off!

OUTDATED                                      UPDATED

 

 

UPcycled 3 drawer chest

DRAT!!!  I could have SWORN that I took a picture of this ‘nasty’ three drawer chest before I started working on it!?!  Alas, apparently I did not; but from the looks of these drawers, I think you can imagine what it looked like.

Layers of old paint colors, mismatched drawer pulls . . .

Contact paper on the top?!?!?  (I REALLY should have looked at this more closely and with my glasses ON; before I decided to buy it!)  Fortunately, said contact paper was SO old that it was really BRITTLE, and scraped off with a paint scraper fairly easily.

And MORE contact paper was covering this mess on one side!!  That ‘indent’ is far too big to just fill with wood putty.  Time to get creative.  (Just in case you are wondering WHERE that indent came from; this piece must have been the side drawers from a desk.  And this is the side the desk top and drawer was attached to.)

The repair in progress.  I found a ‘strip’ of wood that was almost the right size; then filled the rest of the gaps with bits and pieces of bamboo skewers.  Sanded all that smooth, then filled any remaining gaps with wood putty.

Sanding down the top revealed more layers of colors.

Lots of pink under the brown on the drawers.  Filled the holes from the previous drawer pulls.

A couple of layers of paint and lots of sanding with the orbital sander; purposely revealing some of the old pink and yellow paint on the top.

The side with the damage on the right; the good side on the left.

Good (right) and bad (left) sides again; but in better light.  My ‘repair’ job IS noticeable, but not very!  Most of the time, you don’t even SEE the sides of a chest when it’s in use in a home anyhow.

Found the perfect vintage drawer pulls for this piece.

Available for purchase in my booth at Stars.

Outdated / Updated little end table

Poor little outdated and unloved end table!!  I’m not sure exactly WHEN this was ‘in style’, but I actually LIKE this style; with the drawer and open area.

It was pretty banged up, but I’d need to sand it to prep it for painting anyhow.  What’s a few more minutes of sanding to remove the scratches.

Sorry about all the shadows in the photos!  We’ve had some crazy sunny spring weather.  (Our spring weather typically consists of April showers with lead to May showers which lead to June showers.)   A couple of pretty deep gouges on the side there that required a bit of wood filler to repair.  Nice clean drawer innards.  Since I had to remove the drawer pulls to sand and repaint; I decided to fill the holes and add a single knob.  It just looks strange to me for the single drawer to have two knobs.  (Does that bug you too?!?)

I only had ONE of these fabulous cast iron lion’s head drawer pulls; so I’ve been saving it for the ‘perfect project’.  THIS seemed like the perfect piece to use it on.

With the lion’s head drawer pull creating a bit of a ‘Gothic theme’ to this make-over; I decided to add to enhance that theme with a cast iron sconce added to the top, at the back.

I resisted the urge to add and stenciled designs.

I kind of wish the sconce was longer and reached the sides, but it will look better once there is ‘stuff’ sitting on the top.

I’m really liking how this one turned out.

It’s at the bottom of a stack of three furniture pieces in my booth at Stars, so you can’t see the sconce in the pictures.

Visit my Stars web page to get a 50%0ff coupon valid on EVERYTHING in my booth through 5-31-2016.

Prettied up trinket boxes

Cute little trinket box with magnetic closure makes for a quick and easy make-over.  (found the box at dollar store!)

I cut a piece of paper big enough to cover the existing image; but left the pretty border still visible.

Then I glued a stamped piece of muslin on top of that; just a little off-center.

I added a little scrap of matching paper to the underside of the lid.

The sticky label on the bottom of this one just so happened to peel off perfectly; which is NOT usually the case.  IF it had not come off without damaging the bottom of the box, I would have glued another piece of paper to the bottom as well.

Just so happened to find another box at a different store, with the exact same design.  Went with a simpler design on this one.  Covered the whole top and front with vintage dictionary page; added a vintage post card image and a ‘paper’ key.

This one is a soap box that I saved.

This one had a very pretty design on the existing paper, so I just needed to partly cover it.  A piece of paper and a crown stamped on muslin, off-center.

A little piece of matching paper to cover the ‘non-removable’ label on the bottom of the box.

And a little piece on the underside of the lid ‘just for fun’ (this piece wasn’t really ‘necessary’ because it’s not covering anything  . . . I just thought it added a little interest!)