pardon my absence~

I always say how,

“It’s better to be bUsy than bORed!”

Trust me~I have been ANYthing but bORed lately!

~We’ve had an unending job with all the spring clean up,

*as soon as the weather holds warm, the greenhouse is comin’ down and we’ll be planting!

~We’ve had a beautiful wedding,

~We’ve had a baby shower (I’m going to be a G-G-Auntie aGAIN!)–AnD–

*Saw this dress form at the flea market!

~yesterday was the 1st Elkhorn flea market of the season!

You know my passion for flea markets,

and sharing pictures of the incredible things I see,

So here we go!

You’ve just got to click on the picks to see some of these treasures bigger!

Oooooh this was p-R-ic-ey!  Be still my heart~uh, LUV at 1st sight!

You know I LUVs me some chairs!—check out the dolphin handholds!

This theatre seat was phenomenal~and it stILL had it’s brass seat tag for lucky #13!  When the seat is up, do you see the program holder-?

~And I love all the architecturals!

~And iron!

~And lighting, industrial-styled!

~And the traditional kind!

~And you know how I luv mirrors, frames–and some signs!

I was trying to get a picture of the (broken mirror) framed chalk board, but someone stopped in my path,  : |   but I thought it was funny how it looked sort of “cameo-like,” so I snapped the shot!  ; D

This church pew—the details, the patina, the veRY old wood.  WoW!

~Letters are always fUn!

More metals, and hardware. . . the flashlight was about 18″ long–very cOOl!

There’s ALways sOMEthing for eVERYone—how about a still?

This was the most unusual piece I’ve seen at a flea market!  The lidded “barrel” sits on top of the “table,” I tried to layer the pictures so you can see~these ladies do the Atlanta SCOTT Antiq Market too!

ANY GUESSES WHAT IT IS ?!?

Btw—this was a prelude-to-the-flea-market piece!  What a great idea~can you see the 3 crates the cabinet began from ?!?

Catherine

Happy Mother’s Day!

Hope all of you moms

are having the

mOST wONDERful and RELAXing day

you can dream of!

Me and mY mom—our family back in the US from France, and now stationed in South Dakota.

This picture always cracks me up, ’cause, OmG~could I be dressed any dorkier?!

The biGGest

Happy Mother’s Day wishes

to mY MoM~

looks like it’s going to be a warm and sunny day,

so I promise to fire up the grill for the brats and roasted veggies you like so much!

Love, Catherine

use what you’ve got~make what you need!

All the kiddos (at one of my big brother’s house) shuffled around to new bedrooms.  Now we need to do some individual re-decorating!

~enter Auntie!

Starting in my little princess Aleigha’s new room—

You saw her chairs!

And you saw her 1st selection new lamp!

Next project is the first of two very tall bookcases to be worked over.  This one into a. . .

bookshelf-dresser combination!

And thAt’s what I started working on when my little health issues erupted.  But I’m back on it now!

Use what you’ve got.

The tall bookcase is the foundation of this piece, and I’m adding the leftover section of the dresser from the neighbor’s curbies.

Make what you need.

1. I wanted to slip the “dresser” into the lower part of the bookcase.
2. I reduced the depth of the dresser to that of the drawers–

3. I also needed to reset the depth of the drawer guides.

4. The cantilevered dresser gave me an opportunity to add bun feet to the design, and,

5. I needed to rebuild the sides of the dresser to marry into the bookcase.

6. The last task was to cut a new dresser top.

I’ve been busy painting since yesterday, here’s the jist of how things are going so far~but there’s more to come!

Catherine

Inspiring finds!

 

While I am busy and finally

~back to work on Princess Aleigha’s bookshelf-dresser~

I wanted to show you some cOOl things I saw in the antique mall after I finished re-setting my space.  Oh, yea~I bought a few things too!

But 1st I want to show you this cool tool box/saw from the ReStore!  I was sO tempted to buy it JUst for the BoX!    *but I passed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m crAzy about the little lamp –for only $12– I may go back for it!  The other lamp is actually marble, and super heavy.  The Ship.  This one may throw you off, but I am fascinated by it for some reason.  I think it could make a really cOOl hanging light!

I love these old carriages!  Even through the coating of dust you can tell they were 1st class-elegance in their time.  Many people have sworn there is a ghostly presence around them~some have been scared by it, others say it felt like they were “trespassing,” and think it’s creepy back there.           *I kinda hoped I’d capture an “image” or something~nope.

This dealer gets some really cool “chairs” in all the time, and I always go back there to check them out!  (I know–surprise, surprise!)

Now~best for last!!!

The dealer has two–TWO of these!  O-M-G!

This cupboard is almost 9ft tall~and it’s aMAZing!

And, btw— I bought a very tall, hand blown, (partially) seeded, apple-green vase!  And a little-bitty bubble vase that was also hand blown, in a faded-delft blue color!

And a cOOl old yard stick—but is it??  It’s 48″ long!            Does that make it a yard and ¹/3 stick ?!?

Catherine

a dresser and a bed makeover

I found this dresser just recently at a GoodWill store for $13.50 !

I loved the dresser~just as it was!  No cutting up or reinventing this one.  Just some paint and waxing this time around–how unusual pour moi!

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The bed, I found at one of those St. Vinnie’s ½ price day sales $10 $5 (oh–about 3 yrs ago.  I know-I know~ h-OAR-der).

It needed a lot of repair, and one of the foot board posts was so”iffy,” I just cut them both off and modified the ends to reattach the finials.

Last year I saw this brass branch with birds-thingy for $7.97 in a thrift store.  I had an INSTant flash-back to an old ad for Patina Furniture.  They were featuring this beaUtiful bed with birds atop each of the four posters.  ~It was an inCREDibly expensive bed.

So I bought the tacky brass-bird-thingy with the intentions of making my oWn version of the bed!

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-Getting to work now-

I really loved the Revere Pewter and Alabaster White combo -and the paint wAs already out- so I just kept painting.  ; D

From the hall tree– to the dresser, to the bed!

And then I waxed EVERYthing to the smOOthest finish!  And while I was at it–I even waxed the inside drawer rails because the drawers were just horrible to open and close.  Now they just gLIDe!

Yes~my work space is cRAZy out of control at the moment, just don’t look at the background!

Out of all the mayhem came these beautiful pieces!

Now- my bed makeover!

Like I said, I cut off the foot board posts (again, because one was sO bad), cleaned scoured the whole bed–it was really gross!  Then I painted away, sanded, painted, sanded–waxed.  Wow did my arms ache from that time off.

I unscrewed 2 of the birds from their branch and quickly figured out a way to attach them to the top of the posts.  Double threaded screws.  So off I went to the box-store.  But guess what—they don’t have anything so small.

The guy said, “I guess you’ll have to scrap your idea, huh?”  Silly man.  Never under estimate the power of a determined girl!

Okay, plan A—out.  Plan B, why don’t I enlarge the hole, and re-thread it to the smallest double threaded screw you have?  The guy actually looked surprised, but agreed, THAt would work— .

So we grabbed the double threaded screws, headed over to the isle with the drill bit/re-threading parts  -aNd then-  he said I would need to buy this $9 hand tool to do the job.  “WHY,” I asked–?  After he explained why, and we “discussed” it, I said I really thought I could do it without the pricey (probably, 1 time use) tool, but I wOUld buy it for back up.

Maybe WOmen are just better at this stuff—I never had an ounce of trouble using my drill–very sl ow ly, and finished the task in less than 5 minutes.  And I retURNed the unopened tool for a refund the next day.

I think my birds look sO cool perched up there!

And here’s the whole bed—

I wanted to float the bed in my small space, so I needed some supports to hold it upright.  Bed stores actually sell short little bed rails for display purposes, but they’re expensive.  And, honestly, I wasn’t sure someone wouldn’t assume they go with the bed at sale and take them too!

So I grabbed some scraps and made an improvised “collar.”  While I was at it, I made a little platform so I could display some pillows in the void.      Here are my 2 concoctions—

Hope you like my projects and problem/solution ideas~

Btw—here’s my newly RE-LOADed space.  Without an inch to spare in my 5ft deep x 11ft wide space, huh?

Catherine

PS~ I’m saving the other two birds for a project that will be for ME!

I’m sharing my projects in these linky parties!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 2nd Hall Tree completed

Y’know what—I (mostly) feel just like my old self again!     Such. a gREAt. feeling.  Thank you God!

Just sO “happy as can be,” “whistle while you work,” JoY to be working on a project, and finishing the 2nd Hall Tree~and a few other projects tOO!

In February, I had a fresh gallon of Ben-Moore’s Revere Pewter mixed up for a project in my niece’s room—now I’m seeing all kinds of posts and articles about this color being one of the hot new favorites.  That’s sO funny to me–’cause this is nOt my first time around with this beautiful color!  But it’s nice people are finding it now!

I wanted a simple color palette for both Hall Trees~who knows where they’ll land!  So I paired the Revere Pewter with an Alabaster White, added some chalkboard paint for one of them, and reproduction ticking for both seats.  A soft, neutral palette.

Both Hall Trees began with a 24″ ReStore closet door.

Since I couldn’t get the 2nd Hall Tree finished on time for the charity (and donated another piece), it is now for sale in my antq store space.

I have two more projects to show you next—and they look fABulous, so come right back–

Catherine

that 2nd Hall Tree

I’m feeling  -SOooo-  much better, and, very appreciatively, truly getting back to a backlog of projects!

Building that 2nd Hall Tree—

I showed you some of the materials I pulled from trying to figure out a design.

And told you how I decided to cut off and re-use the top, small panel of the door.

I also told you how I took apart the mirror/frame to capture the decorative split pediment~and routered a dado to “receive” the new top.

Then I told you about cutting up some salvaged, turned, stair railing pickets to create “legs” for the storage box.

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The following are pictures of the varying tasks—

The last image I shared with you  -and-  as I was painting—

I needed to deal with the hardware pre-cuts.  I didn’t have any old door knobs (that I was willing to give up), so I bought a new “dummy” at a local box-store.  But it looked  -NeW.   : \

“Aging” a door knob

I love those old white porcelain and enamel knobs—and they’re actually pretty easy to emulate!  This is how I like to approach the task.

1. I like to use Kilz to prime the whole knob.  Then I will dry brush some paint over the escutcheon plate *much like would happen when you paint a door with the hardware on.
2. Tape off the escutcheon plate and neck of the knob really well.  Then paint the round knob/handle with white spray paint.  The spray paint will give you that smooth no brush mark finish.  Paint a couple coats, the paint sheen doesn’t matter.
3. ThEN you’re going to DUNK the knob/handle into a can of Glossy LACQUER.  You’ll have to hold it over the top of the can for a moment to let all the excess drip off, you may have to shake some off too.  Basically–you don’t want a flood of the lacquer running down the tape or getting all over any other part of the door knob.  *I’ve never tried this with shellac, but I know that marine varnish turns yellow’ish.  Again, dunking=no brush marks.
4. Set it upright, on a flat surface—the ideal is somewhere it can be undisturbed. (Give at least an hour to dry between dunks.)
5. Repeat the dunking steps~on, as many times as you want for the desired “depth of character.”  The one I just did (pictured below) was dunked 3 times.  *I did a black knob once that I dunked 5 times–it had a glass-y look.  **I’d like to paint something Mercury Glass-like and then dunk it a bunch of times–see how that turns out!

Okay—you may not want to do this next step.  I admit, it’s always a gamble.

After you’ve let it have a day to fully dry—DROP IT ON THE GROUND!     From about 3 or 4ft, preferably onto smooth concrete.  Sometimes it dINGs the knob~ but SOMEtimes it CHIPs!  (And looks like the real-deal that you find in the flea markets–that cost an arm and a leg, and always seem to be chipped!)

I just have to upholster the seat of the hall tree and attach my enameled knob—so I’ll show you my finished project tomorrow!

And the bed and dresser I’m busy painting too!

Catherine

I’m sharing this project in these linky parties!