Wednesday 29 February 2012

Another Lovely Sideboard!

I don't know about you, but there are just some pieces of furniture that just speak to me. Sideboards are one of these pieces. I just love them. 
I love how even though they are all basically the same, they each have their own character. 
Mostly I love their legs. 
But there are so many quirks in each. 
Luckily I found one that was just so different I am going to have a terrible time giving it up. 
Here is what she looked like when I "found" her. 
 Isn't she lovely? 
Actually my husband found her and basically told me to go get her and bring her home! 
He's wonderful :) 
So I went and brought her home. 
I was a bit rough on her..stripped her down to nothing and then lovingly sanded her, gave her top a deep walnut stain and painted her inside and out. 
 Can you see why I love love LOVE them?

 These are the original pulls. I can't begin to tell you how dirty they were. One of these days I'm going to share the secret to taking these babies from gross to glorious! 
(hint, vinegar)
 Legs...need I say more? ;)
 Now this is what is different.. I've never seen one that folds down like this. Have you? 
I've seen drawers and doors and lots of combinations of them...but none that fold down. I love that :)
 I added this wonderful material to the drawer. It originally had the green faded torn felt. I thought it needed an update.

 Nice and open! 
I also painted it a bright and cheery yellow. I thought the combination of the two (cream and yellow) went well together. What do you think?
 The details are subtle, but to me that makes it all that more classic and lovely. Like she is just begging you to sit up and respect her.
 Ahhh finished the way she was really meant to be. :) 
A bit of the past, a bit of the present..and just perfect! 
Leave me a comment..you know we bloggers love knowing what you think :) 
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Tuesday 28 February 2012

Finished couch!!!

Well it's finally here. I'm done! 



Remember this mess? 
You can read about it HERE
It took a while for my client to get back to me with material. She was awesome in sending me pics of things she liked and asking what I thought would look good. She wanted something updated but not modern. Something that would work well with the couch. 
I think she picked just the perfect material! 
What do you think? 
 I think she turned out perfect!
 I have heard so much about Gorilla glue I thought I would try it out..worked GREAT! I'm so pleased :)
 Of course some old fashioned Upholstery nails helped in some areas :)


 Time consuming, but worth the effort. 
What do you think? 
I still have a chaise lounge to do for her...now to get that material from her. 
Have a wonderful Tuesday! 

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Sunday 26 February 2012

Teal Beauties!

Sunday morning and it is BRIGHT outside. I think the snow has something to do with that. We haven't had a lot of the white stuff this year, but boy did we get dumped on yesterday. 
Just wanted to share with you a little project that took next to no time at all.

You ever come across pieces like these? They are pressboard, cheap and easy to find. 
I bought an entire set, two nightstands, a large dresser and a wardrobe for $80.  They are heavy (major downfall at times when I'm on my own) and very sturdy. But ugly! 
These are the kinds of pieces I like to experiment with. ;) And for some reason, they sell very well. 
I'm an antique lover..so these do nothing for me...but if they sell, who am I to argue? 
I've been seeing a lot of teal projects out there and LOVE the colour, so when I came across a can of "oops" paint at lowes...I snapped it up. 
Although.....when I first opened the can, I almost didn't use it. It's BRIGHT!!
But then I thought back to this lovely piece. 
You can find it by going to 
And convinced myself that it would be ok (crossed my fingers of course)
So I gingerly stroked on that first bit of colour
 Oh my! 
That's bright!
Our son came by the workshop and blinked a few times..but the boy is smart, he kept his mouth shut..lol
After letting the two coats dry I glazed it with a black that my husband thought would look good. 
And here they are!
 I know one looks darker, but it's just the lighting..or lack of it.

 I took the backplate off and painted the handles Black then put them back on.



 So what do you think? 
Just as I was finishing them, the phone rang, I needed to get something into my booth because more things sold. I took these in and they sold in under 2 hours. 

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Friday 24 February 2012

Fun Blue Vanity and working with family.

Good Friday Morning :) 
We are getting hit with the biggest storm of the season right now. I'm waiting till later this morning to start shoveling the snow. So far it doesn't look nearly as bad as what they were predicting, and I'm hoping it doesn't get that bad. 
Gotta love life in Canada :) 

Last week my sister dropped off a coffee table made by my nephew for a high school project. He asked me to stain it for him. Not knowing what it looked like, I said sure. 
When she dropped it off I knew right away it would be a teaching project for my nephew. There were gaps between the wood and it wasn't properly sanded down. So I insisted that he come "help" If he wants to make furniture, he better learn how to finish it correctly. (I'm mean that way..lol)
So here is my nephew working away. I had gotten him to sand it down and fill in the gaps. 

It's going to look fantastic. Made of solid ash! He really did do a good job of building it. I think though that if he attempts to do another piece he will make sure there are no gaps..the sanding of all that wood fill can be brutal..lol He kept saying he's learning a lesson in all this. :) 
While he was doing that I was finishing up a vanity that I picked up and decided to go wild with. Well wild for me. 
 I am so bad at before pictures. 
I picked this piece up last weekend from a lovely lady who thanked me for responding to her kijiji ad. Her parents bought this for her brother back in the 1940's. Sweet, but I really don't see this as a guys piece...do you? 

 All chippy, so I removed the worst of it, and sanded it down nice and smooth, the way it was meant to be :)
 This thing was/is HEAVY. There was a double layer of veneer on the back that just broke off in less than two min. It covered solid wood, and not just any solid wood. One inch thick maple! No wonder it was heavy. 
Time to check on Zach (nephew)
After a ton of sanding he chose a stain, Best way to do that is to just open some different ones up, and do little test spots on the underside. Each wood accepts stain differently so even if you pick the same stain for two projects they might not look the same because of the wood. 
He chose a dark walnut.
And went to work after a brief lesson from me. 

I will share some more pics of this project, but he worked hard and got it all stained before he had to go home. Good job Zach! 
Ahhh back to my little beauty. 
 I painted the body an oops blue and the drawers and mirror a light cream. Then went to town distressing the drawers.
 I went over the whole thing (except drawers) with a black glaze that I mixed myself.

 I just love these original bakelite pulls. I wanted to keep them.

 See the cute little drawer in the middle? Should I lay down some material in them? Would you? They are in very clean very good shape.
 This is so very different for me. 
I love it, but not sure anyone else will. 
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Wednesday 22 February 2012

Feeling Blessed and Grey dresser.

I'm feeling extremely humbled today. 

When I started this blog I'm not sure what I expected. You see I didn't have a specific "plan" or idea in my mind. Actually I didn't think anyone would ever look at my blog. So I didn't go looking for ways to showcase anything that I did. I think this was initially started as a way for me to keep track of what I was doing..a way to chronicle the pieces of furniture that I redid. Things that worked, things that didn't work. Kind of like how I view my life. I like to journal my feelings, my views my thoughts and opinions, then go back and see how all those things change, how I grow as a person. What I liked 10 years ago...well chances are I don't always like those things now. Some things stay the same. 
My views on the world get tweeked. My views on people get tweeked..but my values, my core beliefs are all the same. 
Of course my world isn't the same now as it was 20 years ago. Things that seemed black and white...well aren't always as black and white anymore. Some things have greyed around the edges. 
The last month or so, I've noticed that my blog was starting to get more views. At first it was slow. 
Then grew. Then stayed fairly steady from one day to the next. Then.....................

EXPLODED! 
My views have increased X5. 
I've been featured on a few blogs..and I feel BLESSED. Humbled really. 
Shocked wouldn't begin to explain how I feel. 
I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone that drops by and has a peek into my world. If you comment or you don't (psst, I love the comments though!) 
I just want to say thank you for visiting.

Now onto my dresser :) 
Before I tear up and can't see the screen ;) 

Since things have been selling like hotcakes lately, I had to resort to going online to search for new interesting projects to bring home. 
Lucky me...I found quite a few things that piqued my interest. 
This is one of them. 
Pretty but dated. I noticed a few lines I liked..not the normal legs I'm always in love with, but the spindles between the dresser and the body satisfied that longing enough that I contacted the owner and made my pitch :) 
Thankfully she took it and I went to retrieve the dresser. 
Turns out the person I picked up the dresser from wasn't the actual owner. She actually liquidates estates for owners. hmmmm a good contact for me to have? I think so!! Lucky me. She was also thrilled to meet me. She often has people buy old stuff but then not know who can do anything with those thing. She now will start sending business my way. I see a good future working together :) YEAH!! 
ohh wait, getting off topic here. I was going to show you the "after" pics wasn't I? 
Well here they are. 

 I removed the old hardware as I just felt they were to heavy for this piece. I wanted it to feel lighter..more classic. Not sure if I'm expressing this correctly, I hope you know what I mean.
 I made sure the inside looked just as good as the outside.

 This faux shutter door turned out even better than I had hoped for..doesn't it just make you think of spring/summer and throwing open the windows? It does for me.
Thankfully this piece was made of solid wood. It just made it so much easier to work with. I love real wood :) 
 Ok, so they aren't legs...but I still love them..lol
 Oops...now how did my hunny get in this? Shouldn't get a cold there hun and stay home from work sick..you might end up on a strange blog...hehehehe
 Then I felt guilty...so I snapped one of myself..in my work clothes...so don't look to close at all that dirt all over me.

I love that. 

So let me know what you think, and enjoy your Wed. 

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