Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Rock A Bye Baby

Hi, I hope everyone is having a good week. My post today is a before and after of a lovely cradle I found at a resale shop. It was a little worse for wear with a stain job that was only half way done and parts of it were loose and falling off. I really like the floral cut outs don't you?

I started refurbishing it by tightening everything up and sanding it down then I added some floral wood onlays and primed it. After that I painted it white and antiqued just the onlays to bring them out more. It really is lovely probably made by someone's father or grandfather.

Here are the pics.



Thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Pillow Talk..And A Sneak Peek

I found the following vintage chenille bedspread a few weeks ago and just fell in love with it! I love the colors and  the design but alas, it had several stains on it and no amount of scrubbing would get them out.  So, I made pillows out of it and they turned out so cute. I loved the back of the spread as much as the front and in the following pictures you will see I used that side on some of the pillows.  I also used a really pretty pink and white floral fabric on a couple.

I think for the spread to be so old the colors and design are pretty modern. Hope you like them. These are for sale at $30 for large, $20 for medium, and $15 for small.  Here are some pictures.

The Spread



The Pillows









Also, talking pillows (got ya'll didn't I for shame on you lol) I saw the following ad in a magazine for a French chair cushion and really wanted one but did not want to pay $80 for it! So I decided to make my own.


I tea dyed a flour sack towel and using Picnik soft ware combined the text and a rooster print I got from the "The Graphics Fairy" and using T-shirt transfer paper ironed it on my material. The other one that I haven't sewn yet I traced and painted in the letters and ironed on the rooster.  Whew, to much work.

I dyed it with coffee but it was too much of a yellow brown so after drying I then tea dyed it also and just love the way it turned out.  


The one I finished is quite large and would fit a rocker or larger chair, but you could also make them for dining chairs.  


Here are the pictures starting with the magazine ad.








Now here is mine :-)












As promised in the title here is a sneak peek at one of the projects I'm working on.




Bits & pieces





(This project is now finished you may view it here 


Thanks for stopping by.

Visit thecsiproject.com

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Two of My Best Friends

I'm being lazy today but I thought I would take a minute to share with you two of my best friends.  They are really part of the family and  we don't know what we would do without them.

First is Bo short for Prince Bogart I he loves to chase rabbits & squirrels and watch animal shows on TV. Really!



Next is Radar (named for those ears) we were glad to take him off of a friends hands after her large dog came up with him in his mouth while he was still a puppy! He doesn't watch tv but he'll sit in your lap while you do. lol


By the way they have on their matching Halloween costumes from last year. They glow in the dark. :0

Hope you're having a great weekend.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Take Your Cell Phone to the "Gossip Bench"

I am really busy working on a piece I hope to be able to show you soon but I thought I'd share a little before and after today. It's a retro probably early 60's telephone bench or "gossip bench". I think it turned out really cute. Hope it inspires you to do something today in your home. Also, I'd like to say I really appreciate those of you that have been checking in daily. Thanks so much for coming by.

BEFORE








AFTER

Friday, June 24, 2011

Should I Study or Cook?

Here's a before & after that was quite a bit of work for myself & my hubby.

I had been wanting a kitchen island but didn't want to cough up anywhere from $400 to $1000 for one. I found this old desk at a resale shop along with a nice piece of marble and immediately thought here's my kitchen island! What? You wouldn't have thought that? I know. I'm strange but hey it takes all kinds huh? . :0

We cut the legs off the desk put a new solid bottom on it (more support because of marble top) boxed the bottom & added new legs with rollers. My husband then made a top with a cut out to insert marble as it was smaller than the desk top. He then trimmed it out with a decorative wood trim I had picked out.

After scrubbing the heck out of the whole piece I found the paint was a really pretty robin's egg blue! Who knew! I then primed the unfinished wood then painted it a golden yellow to go with my kitchen. I painted the trim around top white & the edge around the marble a dark brown. I then distressed the whole piece & antiqued it with an espresso glaze and when it was dry I sealed it with wax. Wax is very durable almost as good as poly.

I then sealed the marble & the top making it safe for food prep.

Viola! A unique kitchen island! I love it!

Now the whole time we were making this piece of furniture my husband was telling me "Peggy, this is going to be too big for the kitchen." "No, its not I measured and everything. I know its going to be just perfect!"

Alas, as usual he was right it was a little to big so it is now in my booth at King's Antique Mall waiting for some lucky person to find it. What's that old saying measure twice....


BEFORE




DURING




AFTER


Wednesday, June 22, 2011

OMGosh I Can't Believe I Did That!!

Hello everyone. Since I am in the middle of several projects right now I thought I would share just one of my goofy mess ups that I had to fix.  You say, "What?! Not you Peggy surely you never mess anything up!" Yeah, right. LOL I'm just like everyone else I mess up & mess up often but the joy of re-doing a piece of furniture or home decor is that you can usually just re-paint it or start over.

The following piece I picked up at a flea market. It had soot all over it and underneath it was painted a really yucky purple, and it had a knob on it. I think it was a door to a wardrobe or some other piece of furniture, but best of all it had a mirror! You know how much those cost these days.  I could just see the possibilities!

I brought it home, cleaned it up, added a floral wood onlay to the top & bottom, painted it Country White, distressed, and stained it with a walnut oil stain. Wow! so Shabby Chic! It was faabuulous! I thought about keeping it but no greed won out. ;-) Then I started to clean the mirror up......

Now folks it had a perfect mirror until I got a hold of it! When I was distressing the wood I had grabbed my hand sander & I seem to remember trying to talk to someone and cook supper at the same time, you know, the usual multi-tasking that we women do, and to make a long story short I had scratched the heck out of that mirror! Boy was I mad at myself! Peggy you're such a dope!


Anyway, I ended up making a chalk board out of it so not all was lost. It's good to know when you're re-doing or re-purposing an item like I do that its okay to make mistakes they are usually easily fixed and hey Shabby Chic is not suppose to be perfect anyway right?  I have found pieces that were called Shabby Chic to be everything from solid white furniture to pieces so distressed there is hardly any paint left on it. 


By the way a tip about painting chalkboards when you finish take your chalk and rub the entire chalkboard. This sets it and keeps the first things you write on it from staying impressed on the board.  Here's the pics of the finished product.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Grandma Recovered her Chairs Why Don't You?

Hope everyone had a good weekend mine was great even though it got up to 105 here. Whew! Today I wanted to share a before & after of a chair I finished this weekend. It was a really sad chair but the wood was still in great shape so I recovered it in a zebra fabric with black fabric details. I am no professional upholsterer but out of necessity (because I was broke LOL) I have recovered several chairs over the years.

This chair was my most ambitious one yet mainly because I decided to insert a black fabric on the front bottom and I am proud to say it came out fabulous! I hope by the pictures I post today that I can inspire you to try your hand at upholstery and to help here are a few tips.

  1. Pick out something easy for your first job like just recovering a dining chair seat or if you have that down a armless dining chair that has an upholstered back. (The arms are where it gets tricky).
  2. Take a picture of the piece before you start this will help you remember how everything goes when you get ready to put it back. Plus you will want before & after pics for me to post so everyone can see your great work!
  3. If it still has material on it take each part off carefully and you can use them as pattern pieces cutting them an inch or two larger this will save you a lot of time and trouble. If your material has a pattern that needs to be matched be sure to buy extra so that you can center the pattern on chair back front and back and the seat.
  4. Usually you start covering the chair with the chair back front, then the seat, next the chair back back, and last the bottom of the seat. When you remove the material start removing it the way you ended when putting it on, at the seat bottom.
  5. The easiest way to cover your staples around the edges is to use nail heads or gluing on gimp, but if you really want to look professional you can use lip cord which is a decorative cord with a lip on it that you staple on under the chair back material then apply a metal strip called curve ease that you fold the material over. The material will catch on small hooks on the curve ease and then you tack it down close to the exposed cord creating a neat finish. Then you hot glue regular cord or gimp around edges.
See that wasn't so hard was it? :-) Here are my before and after pictures. Thanks for visiting and please come back anytime.

BEFORE (I forgot to take pics until I already had the chair painted and the front back on. Sorry)




AFTER




Sorry this chair is sold

Saturday, June 18, 2011

To Buy or Not to Buy that is the Question

Well, I stopped buy one of the re-sale shops I make a habit of watching for bargains and found a gem! It was a vintage buffet in really good shape and I hopped from one foot to the other as I examined it, because you see, I really wanted it for myself and I have no where to put it. 

So I started trying to talk myself out of buying it...you really don't have the cash to spend on this right now, where would you put it?, its not that great a buy, etc.... I am proud to say I turned right around and left that shop without the buffet.

But....for two days I kept thinking about it and how much I really liked it and maybe I shouldn't have been so hasty!

Well, I finally broke down and said I'd go back to look at it just to prove to myself it wasn't all that great. Yeah, right.

When I got there it was still there I was amazed! I drooled over the detailed appliques, the original hardware, the mirror in back, how there wasn't a water ring or mark on it! But no! I have no where to put it! Yes you do! I could put one piece of furniture in the storage building and another on the carport, throw out this piece....Okay I'm buying it! When I talked them down $20 off their asking price I was convinced I had done the right thing. Yippee!

To make a long story short I got it home with help from hubby who also said, "Where you gonna put this thing!" I moved this, put that on the carport,  and squeezed it into my eat in kitchen next to the frig. 

I was pleased as punch as I stood admiring it with my hubby and daughter they both said, "Your NOT going to paint this piece are you? Surely not!" They know me so well. LOL

What do you think paint or not? By the way it is vintage but reproduction if that helps you decide. I think chalk paint in Louis Blue and Old White would make the details pop. ;-)

 


 Please ignore dirty 80's floors.



























Friday, June 17, 2011

Honey it's Called Shabby Chic not Wore Out!

I thought I would share a conversation I have had several times with my husband, William. Here's how it goes I have bought a piece of vintage furniture and painted it and of course it looks great, but...of course I can't leave it that way! LOL So I start distressing it and antiquing it and William will come in from fishing and say, "Why are you ruining that beautiful paint job?" I reply, "William I am distressing and antiquing the piece not ruining it its called "Shabby Chic". To which he replies, "Looks like a waste of hard work to me just let me load it up for the shop & not tie the dresser down & it will get distressed!" Ha ha ha ha. "No, William I want it distressed where I want it distressed. Understand?" He just shakes his head and gives me that look that says I've married a crazy woman!

Ladies he just doesn't get it! Can I get a witness here?

Today I'm sharing a lovely little dresser I just finished. Sorry no before pics I forgot and I'm sorry for the less than professional photography is just not something I have conquered yet. 

This was a ca. 1950's piece I found at the Canton, Texas flea market. It was a hideous green and really needed some love, but it had this lovely wood-carving on the drawers and I just fell in love with it. I painted it country white, distressed it (yes William I ruined another paint job) and antiqued it with a walnut stain. I painted the drawers (I just love the look of clean painted drawers) and tacked a liner into each one. I used the existing drawer pulls and after painting them to match I decoupaged  them with the French words "le fleurs" that I printed out on tissue paper.  I think it turned out wonderful and hope it inspires you to try your hand at re-furbishing something for your home. 
Thanks for stopping by.






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