Perfect Example of Eww to Ahh

This buffet/bench is a perfect example of Eww to Ahh! 

This was sitting by the dumpster in the apartment complex the next block over.  I drive through there once in while, especially at the end of the month, when people are moving out and putting furniture pieces by the dumpsters.  I saw this one in the middle of the night  and could only see it by the lights of my van.  I looked at it, got out and walked around it, tried to determine exactly what it was and  if all that white stuff was paint or dust or what.  Opened the drawers and saw that they still had some garbage shoved in them....not garbage garbage, just the kind of stuff you leave in a dresser when you don't want to move it.  One of the drawers didn't appear to work properly.  The doors had no handles so had to be opened using the tips of your nails.  It looked absolutely filthy with that white hazy stuff all over it.  It was so heavy I could barely lift one end.  I decided it wasn't worth my time.

Look how tired she looks, I was working her hard!  She'd like you think that, but she was actually cracking the whip on me after I worked all day and came home to do projects with her.

I told my mom about it and she wanted to check it out.  So we went back, we pulled the broken drawer out to discover it just had more garbage shoved behind it so it wouldn't close, not broken.  We took a wet napkin and the haze wiped right off.....probably painters dust.  By wiping it, you could see the wood grain color and the basket weave on the doors.  Yes, it was very heavy but that usually means it is a quality piece of furniture.  Okay, she sold me on it!  We had one heck of a time loading it into the van but we got it home and down the stairs.

This thing was a hot mess!  Filthy!

I'd love to say that we did a total workover on the thing, but all we really did was clean it out, clean it like crazy, Pledge it like crazy to get in all the little cracks, put handles on the two doors and touch up the two dings in the veneer with some stain.  It was missing its original legs but I already have a buffet in the room so decided to let it stay low as bench.  I can always add some legs later.

This bad boy looks awesome!  It had a furniture stamp on one of the drawers that shows it to be a Caldwell Furniture piece.  I did some research  and the stuff on their site seems to be some nice furniture.  This one is likely from the 70s or 80s.    This had the dovetail joints, nice smooth movement on the drawers, only a couple of small dings in the venner and absolutely no price tag......what else could you want?  I'll just have to keep dusting it because now that I see the photos, I still see some dust in the cracks.

Plum perfect! Obergine'ly wonderful!

Check out that detailing!  I love ornate details in furniture and decor....not sure if that is in style but it is what I love.  You can tell if from the picture frames that I buy.  This was Craigslist buy, $10 I think.  I caught my mom mid painting and grabbed a quick before shot.

We decided to paint it inside and out.

Notice that peek of orange table, the peeling paint, the ornate detailing that I love?  I mentioned this before as a future project.  I also mentioned trying paper mosaic on a previous project.  My plan is to cover that pitiful edge with a paper mosaic effect.  Just a little tease.  Anyway, off topic....back to this lovely little piece.

It wasn't until after she had completely primed it out that I mentioned that I wanted to try out DIY chalk painting it.....and it doesn't require priming.  Oops!  

This was Oops paint, isn't that an awesome color?  I always check the Oops paint when I hit the hardware store.  $5 for a gallon, $2.50 for a quart, how can you lose?  For the DIY chalk paint, we just added non-sanded grout and a little water.  The table came with those little glass panes to protect the ornate detailing and give a flat surface.  We put a couple coats of poly on it to protect it from the munchkins.

 I'm very happy with it!

Nailhead Trim

This is a nice heavy old buffet that I bought years ago at the thrift store.  I just changed out the handles.  At one point I painted the top flat black and paper mosaic tiled it.  I plan to do that same effect on another project later.  The method has the look and feel of real tile.  Anyway, pulling off the tile basically ruined the top of the buffet.  Oh I'm sure I could strip all the glue and gunk off to try to salvage it but it is easier to just recover it with some faux leather.  I was going to let it overlap the edges and staple it under the lip, but thinking about all that bulk of leather, I decided to go with nailhead trim.  You only tack it down every few inches, so it's not as bad as it might seem.  It also helps to give nice straight lines on nails.  I think it turned out nicely. 

This buffet has had a lot of uses in my house, first in the dining room storing dishes, then storing CDs in the living room, then back in the dining room as a secretary, then back downstairs storing office supplies and exercise gear.  Now it stores scrapbooking supplies.  The thing is SO heavy, I know because it has gone up and down the stairs multiple times.  I had started this project and while back but hadn't finished putting on all the nail head trim.  My mom finished it up for me while I was at work :).  Ain't she great?

It could stand a closer trim on the leather, but I am afraid to mess with it too much.  Sometimes good enough is good enough.  This faux leather was bought from the remnant bin years ago.  I also actually like the way the black paint has rubbed away some and decided to leave that effect.  It is just black craft paint from before that served as the "grout" in the paper mosaic project, so I could likely scrub it right off if I decided to later.  

Happy New Year....where have I been?

Happy New Year all!  Where the heck have I been?  Well, I'll briefly fill you in and then get down to business.  I talked my Mom into coming up to visit and she came at the beginning of December.  She just went back home at the end of January.  I've just been really too busy to post since she left.  She usually stays for long visits when she comes but the last time it was this long, I was on bedrest :).  We have been so busy.  When I asked her to come, I said that she could help with my long list of projects and boy has she!

 I know that I posted a sewing punch list on here and we have done some of that  but the main goal with her visit was to help me pull myself together with some house projects that would get me organized so that I could work the fun sewing punch list without guilt.  Let me just say, MY HOUSE IS LOOKING SO GOOD NOW!  We basically went room by room making a list of what needed to be done.  Some rooms had some major painting, sewing and redecorating and others just had some existing projects that need to be finished.  My house looks so warm and cozy now.  And almost everything we did was with stuff I already had.....remember I am an overplanner, so I had already bought this stuff from various places over time and just never executed the ideas.  We had to buy very little.

So down to business....

I'll start with my living room.  We decided to paint!  Well, I had decided to paint a while back, didn't fully have the hubby's support, talked myself out of it, decided to do it, bought the paint, chickened out, decided to go ahead, talked my self out of it again.....you get the point.  I told my Mom, "I don't think I am going to do it"....she said, "you've bought the paint and I am here."  That is all I needed.  That is why I asked her to come.  I have all these ideas and she is the person that says "grab that end and let's go".

This is one of the only before photos that I could find.....this living room is the far room.  It only shows the top part of the room, view from the dining room.  Doesn't do it any justice but shows the previous curtains and the white wall color.

I tried to find some before photos but I have none that show the full scope of the room so I'll just show the after and will elaborate on the various projects in later posts.  This room is so hard to photograph so please bear with me.  And you'll notice, we got so busy, photos for the blog were an afterthought....sorry.

The big reveal......

Notice the railing is black now....future post on the dining room.  Stay with me now, focus on the living room.

As you can see from the photos, there was good reason for my wishywashiness on painting that room.  It is a beast!  20 ft ceilings.  I started cutting in on the ladder around 5pm and we finished the room at 2 am.    Can I just say, I love this color.  Not beige....tan.  I'll have to look up the actual color but I believe it had Latte in the title.  This was the color I wanted when we first moved in and was talked out of....."it's too dark".  NEVER AGAIN.  These walls are very imperfect and the darker color and flat paint really hide a lot of issues (TONS of drip marks at the top from previous painters, drywall tape lines, etc.)  Before everything was so much more noticeable.    Hubby came in during and was not happy with me....but he did admit later that week that it looked good.  He doesn't deal with change as well as he thinks.

So let's start with that crazy cat walk.  I never really knew what to do with it before and it was totally a dust catcher.  Now it is at least interesting (Are those windows?) and accents the height of the room continuously around the room.

Not sure what this is in the picture on the ceiling but it's not there in real life. Everything you see here is from thrift except the mirror (gift) and flowers (store bought). 

We took two panels of insulation board, around $8 a piece and pinned everything to them.  They are right at 8 ft tall, give or take and that was perfect to be able to just tuck them in floor to ceiling, no cutting, no nailing, no nothing.  They must be a dab over 8ft because they are slightly bowed out at the bottom but that is fine by me since it holds them in tight and the curtains cover it anyway.

The toppers are two embroidered pillow shams wrapped around and pinned to the board with T-pins.  The curtains are retail (but from thrift store of course) but they were too short so I added a piece of fabric at the bottom (thrift again).  Everything else  here was just moved from other areas.

And here is the area under the catwalk.  The red chair was a steal at $35 from a hotel furniture resale store. The round side table was a Craigslist buy that we painted a dark purple (oops paint - made into diy chalk paint.)  I show that project in a later post.  The rug on the floor is a carpet remnant from the hotel furniture resale store - $25! and I actually had to cut it down a little to fit the room.

 

So lets talk about the elephant in the room....check out those curtains!  Yes I am a sewer and I had all intentions of sewing up my own curtains here but then I found these at the hotel store for $20 a panel.  They are pinchpleat, came with the hooks, were already super long and are fully blackout fabric lined.  They even had the sheers included with them but I put those aside for a later project.  And let me tell you, that black out lining is expensive to buy.  It has done wonders for the draftiness of that room!  

The long maroon panels were already in my plans and they are simply scarves...the curtain scarves that you drape across the top of a window. Thrift store of course!  These were brand new in the package from JCPenny, had the $100 price tag (each) still attached, and even included the nice trim.  If you ever see curtain scarves, grab them if only for the fabric....each one is 108 inches long!  The trim alone is very expensive for that kind of yardage.  All I had to do was sew in a curtain pocket at the top.  Big curtain rods were also a thriftstore find.  Those are very expensive to buy too.  That top long one, I had to buy from the store and it was about $25, rod only!  I also had to buy to wooden hoop sliders, expensive.  It killed my because I see those things all the time in the thrift store and pass them up.  So did I see any the entire time my Mom was here?  NO!   The rest of the rods, finials too, were from the thriftstore, thank goodness!  I would have paid hundreds in hardware alone.  The sheers here are thriftstore too.  They were actually tab top curtains and I cut those off and put in a curtain pocket.

The buffet is a thriftstore piece that has a had several lives in my home.  The latest is a new top of faux leather fabric with nailhead trim...another future post.  The double shaded lamps and huge mirror are from the hotel store....what can I say, I racked up in that place.  The lamps were $15 a piece and the mirror was $15....yes, I said $15!  The lamps even have that nice plug in (and phone jack) on the base.  ALL lamps should have that, it's great!

There's a better view of that carpet.  Too loud for some, but I love hotel carpet, the really decorative kind they have in the fancy hotels.  The leather couch, we've had for years but it was a Craigslist buy, almost new for about a third of its original price.  The round orange coffee table is still in progress so I won't say too much about it now.  Just know it was a thriftstore table, butt ugly, I'll show you more about it in a later post.  The low piece with the cushions on it is a post on its on. It was  a dumpster find!  Yes, I drag things home from the dumpster.  More on that later too.  The cushions are recovered from thriftstore, some I've been hoarding away.

I believe I've shown the pictures before, showing how I frame fabric for art, mostly thrift store skirts.  Well here they all are.  Much cheaper than buying huge art pieces.  The frames were won on Ebay years ago.

Notice the bookshelf in the background.  This is the second one in the room.  The other is under the catwalk.  I just moved things around a little.  The covers are shower curtains that I trimmed out.  Covers a ton of clutter!  All the little decor items are thrift finds I've been hoarding away or just moved from another part of the house.

The lovely treadmill sits in the corner as you enter the room.  Notice the blue walls, that is new for the entryway area....you'll see that later too.  Yes, I've sewn a cover for the treadmill before, but it never gets put back on so it is pointless.  I've been thinking about putting the vinyls on there, like I did on my sewing machine (see previous post).  What do you think?  Tacky?  The red cushions were a dumpster find.....they were sitting out beside someone's garbage cans, I didn't actually dig in the dumpster!  We use them to let the kids lounge around.  I did clean them with the carpet cleaner.  They are ultraseude material.

This was a Craiglist buy that has was waiting on paint.  See a post soon that shows that  whole transformation.

More home decor items that I was squirreling away in the attic.  Still on the lookout for round ball candles.

Bad photo but it give a better look at the sheers.  I have to use these because of the glare and the  double paned windows seal has leaked so they are fogged over....not pretty.  

So can you tell I've been busy?  And that is just one room!  I believe I mentioned about 20 future posts in there.....so I need to get busy on those now.  More rooms to come also, we did the entire house!  Signing off now,  it's good to be back!

What Gives?

Okay I have a serious question.  I am not doing this blog for income, you'll notice that I have no ads.  This is strictly for my own fun, accountability and networking.  But I do check out my traffic once in a while.  I've noticed something really strange lately.  While most of my posts show 17 hits, 25 hits, 3 hits, ect.  there is ONE post that has over 200 views.  And it is a post that I put out with no photos, it is just a punch list post called "Heart it, Don't Hoard it".  I even say in the post that it may be a long boring post with no photos.  And I believe I've received more comments on that post, online and off.   What gives?  Does the title hit home for a lot of folks?  Please comment.  I just find it really strange, the interest in that one post.

The "ugly" Christmas sweater

I know its a little early but I want to talk about the reuse of Christmas sweaters.  I grab any that I see, especially ones that have a lot of detail.  I know that everyone calls them the ugly Christmas sweater but I think that they are adorable for kids.  No?

Here is one where I just removed the sleeves and used bias tape to finish them off (and keep from ravelling). Then I used a piece of elastic to tighten in the neck.   It was a big sweater, so it fits her more like a dress but I think it is pretty darn cute.

Notice the neck is cinched in a little with a piece of elastic under the collar.  Not even sewn, just weaved into the knitting and knotted off.

I have a whole box of these things, and would love ideas if you'd like to comment.  Now I have seen all the ideas in the world about reusing sweaters by felting.  And it is really neat and the items made are cute, but honestly useless.  Making little balls of felted wool for a centerpiece bowl is not what I have in mind.  And little stuffed felted animals are not what I am thinking of either.  Not a bad idea, just not what I have in mind.  My point in reusing these sweaters is to preserve the art (tacky or not).  And most of these are not real wool so felting is out anyway.

One other idea that I've had is removing the sleeves, sewing up the neckhole and having a office chair cover to bring a little Christmas spirit to the office.  This only works if the sweater is unadorned with hard objects.
I'll have to dig in the attic for a photo of that...maybe I'll post it later.  I'll get my box of sweaters out of the storage unit and start working on those soon (yes I am still working on that - but I have given notice that this is my last month of rental, so I am almost there).

Any other ideas that would preserve the art?

By the way, the sleeves of that sweater have lots of reuses.  I have some lined up for future posts:   mittens, leg warmers, winter dog walking coat (did I mention we just rescued a dog?), kids hats, attaching to a t shirt to winterize it.  Any other ideas for those?

Black Chandelier

Now for the new dining room chandelier.  It is not installed yet but I have it hanging from a plant hook so you can see the results.  I found this large chandelier on Craigslist, a little country for my taste with shiny brass and porcelain, but tons of potential.

It is obvious that I am new to blogging because I forgot to take a before photo.  Here it is with a coat of primer on it.  The cups and bulbous parts of the base are porcelain and the rest is brass.  This thing is heavy!

I decided to go with a flat black to give it a wrought iron look.  I may touch it up with just a touch of antique gold to make it work with the existing medallion. For now it is just black until I decide.

This is the existing ceiling medallion.

Here it is before adding all the bling.

After priming it, I painted it with a foam sponge....messy job.  Then I added the shades, recovered in some upholstery fabric that was previously curtains, and then some antique chandelier crystals I won on eBay.

Of course, you've got to get dirty sometimes.

Over those country porcelain pieces, I had planned to use stung crystal beads to cover it over but those things are expensive!  And it would have taken a ton of them to cover it.  For now it is all black.  I may go back later and add the beads but I think it may have made it a little too fancy for my home...I am not in a mansion here.