Saturday, April 23, 2011

Runs in the family

Happy Easter everyone! I may have some exciting news for you all soon, but I'm going to keep you in suspense a little longer. Check in sometime over the next few days to find out all about @#$%&*&%#$%@. And no, those aren't swears. It's a secret code that only I know. MUAHAHA!

Now back to my real post. We love painting furniture in my family! My sister-in-law, Marygrace, recently painted the bureau I gave her and she turned it into a beauty. When I first got it, it was white and all chipped up. At the time, I re-painted it white and painted over the brass knobs with light purple paint. It didn't look great, but it was an improvement. Now Marygrace has painted the bureau a rose color and bought matching knobs to replace the brass ones (I think they might be porcelain). It's so lovely! I wish I could have kept some more of my furniture before we moved, but it makes me equally happy to see it loved by other family members.

Also, I'd like to send out a VERY BIG THANK YOU to Lisa at Fern Creek Cottage for her awesome Red Crowns Giveaway. I just received it this week in the mail and was so excited to open it. Thankfully, I had enough sense to stop and take pictures of her beautiful packaging job first.

I love the tin and burlap bag! Thanks again Lisa! Please stop by Fern Creek Cottage to see her projects and pictures of her wonderful home when you get a chance.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Posing prettily

Here are the glamour shots of the two chairs I completed this week. In between the chairs is the little white table I painted last month. And sorry my pictures are always taken in the same area. It's the only open space at my brother's house! Well there is one other option, but it's on the 4th floor and I am not going to lug the furniture all the way up there, only having to bring it back downstairs to the garage. I already have to lug a 24lb baby up and down the stairs at least 20 times a day.

And just for fun, here's the latest wall art my brother put up. He bought some of the stick-on wall decals from blik and put this "Happy Creatures" one on the wall on the first floor. Cute huh?

Most of his house is modern/contemporary with art like this, but a year ago I convinced him to buy an antique camera at the Cambridge Antique Market in Cambridge, MA. It was the start of some of the industrial pieces in his house. Even better it's Polaroid brand which started in Massachusetts. I think I may have to steal this when we move out!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Blue Boy Dining Set

Eeeee! It's finally done! The antique dining set I bought back in February has been refurbished and restored! The chairs have been re-covered and trimmed up and the tabletop has been stripped, stained, and poly-ed. I'm really proud of my work, I think it looks pretty great but you all can be the judge of that. Also, sorry that I don't have a picture of the entire dining set together. The table is at my parent's house and the chairs are at my brother's (whom I live with), but once I get it consigned you'll be able to get the full effect!

Here's what the dining set looked like when I bought it at the Spring Antique Mall. The table did not have any leaves and there were only four chairs, but I didn't mind. The price was 75% off and it was gorgeous, so I didn't need to think twice about buying it. The downsides were the dirty blue worn-down fabric and the watermarks and deep scratches on the tabletop. By the way, I believe the wood is walnut. 

I started covering the chairs with a beautiful blue and off-white patterned fabric I found at Hobby Lobby. It's a fun fabric that in my opinion fits with any style. I would have preferred to take the seat back cushions off to completely to recover them, but the cushions couldn't be removed because the previous upholsterer had glued the slits in the wood back together. Also, at some point a few of the slits on the chairs cracked and putty was added to fill the spaces. So I chose to staple fabric around the seatbacks and add trim to the side. The oyster-color trim was also from Hobby Lobby.

 I call these my "Blue Boy" chairs because it reminded me of the the Thomas Gainsborough painting.

So tonight I finished covering all of the chairs including the bigger one with arms.

I'm taking the glamour shots tomorrow of the last two chairs I finished (because I need the natural sunlight to produce decent pictures), but here's a closer look at my "Blue Boy" with arms.

Love the dark wood and detail on the legs! I would never paint over them!

Now on to the dining room table. The tabletop was in bad shape and had two large white watermarks. 
I had a feeling I was going to have to restain and refinish the tabletop, but I first attempted to salvage the original finish. I took some advice I found online to vigorously rub lemon oil over the watermarks, but that didn't do anything but make them stand out. I also tried using an iron with a cotton cloth between the watermark and the iron, but it did absolutely nothing. After those methods didn't work, I knew I had to begin the stripping process to get the old finish off. Below are some pics of the process, but you can read more about it here. And if you're wondering, the watermarks were completely removed once the finish was stripped off.



Last week I had two coats of Minwax dark walnut stain on the table. This week I added one more coat of stain and three coats of Minwax Wipe-on Poly. Following MMS' instructions, I used steel wool between each coat of poly and waited at least 3 hours between each application. Look at that! The table is beautiful once again!

There's still some dust I need to wipe off the table from all the stripping and sanding, but doesn't it look wonderful? So maybe you can imagine the whole dining set together if I put the two pictures side-by-side.

I hope it sells! I have a few things I'm bringing to a local consignment shop, but this is my biggest piece of furniture. I'm considering it my signature piece! I already spoke to the shop owner last month about bringing it in and she confirmed they would take it at that time. Hope they still have the space for me! I'll be posting all about the process I went through to get my furniture consigned so stay tuned!

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Monday, April 18, 2011

A stroll in an antique mall

BRING US NEXT TIME!
Today my mom and I went to the Spring Antique Mall in Spring, TX. This is where I bought the dining set I'm currently working on. Although we went home empty-handed today, we took pictures for you all. You can pretend you went shopping with us!

This is the first booth I saw when I walked in. Love the little blue drawers and the old kitchen table.

This one also caught my eye. Lots of blue and white and everything's displayed nicely. Maybe a little TOO much white and a little TOO neat and nice...

The next booth could use some work. She has some neat stuff but the mix between antique, vintage, and new doesn't quite flow well.

The chandeliers were pretty though. The right one was on sale for $199. Not a bad price but as usual, I think you'd be better off at an estate sale or auction.


This was a small shot of all the furniture crammed in this booth. They didn't have the space or room to arrange anything which is unfortunate because the stuff was nice. I'm going to guess most people walk right past this one.

This particular booth was done a little better, but nothing gave me that "YOU HAVE TO BUY ME" feeling.


This booth had a huge display of beer steins and oil lamps. Not my thing, but fun to look at!

Lastly, this is my favorite booth at the antique mall. I would love to buy this stuff for the house I'll own in 10 years. Especially this huge dark wood island shelf piece. It has shelves on both sides and almost 8 ft long. I can see it acting as a divider between 2 rooms in an open concept house.

I also loved the wood and glass display case and the grain storage bin.

I'm a little creeped out by the raggety-ann dolls though. I can't look them straight in their black button eyes. I only got near them because I liked the little green wood shelf/display they're sitting on. Aren't those balls cute? I they're fabric covered yarn balls.

So that's it! Hope you had fun on our shopping date! Maybe next time I'll buy something!

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