Typewriter Table Detailed
Sorry, I forgot to upload new pictures yesterday. But, today you get to see a lot of progress from the weekend! Here is the typewriter table that I showed you before. It is now finished and detailed!
Once I finished the second coat of white spray paint I arranged cardboard scrap-booking stencils in the placement I liked. I traced and filled the stencils with a paint pen. These little guys work great! I have used it on a couple of projects now and it always does the trick. I think it is super cute and ready to be used!
Shabby Chair Love
I love the shabby chic look. I just do. I always have. But, Tony isn’t a huge fan, and our house has stayed away from it for the most part. However, when I saw this chair on Flickr, I just couldn’t help but love it. It isn’t just a shabby white chair, look at the large curved back! “Unique Chair,” by Jaci Berkopec:
Have a great weekend!
Thrifted and Rearranged
We have been busy busy. It all started with a quick stop at the D.A.V. (Disabled American Veteran’s) thrift store. I happened upon a cute little vintage typewriter table for $3.95! I love the metal industrial look, so I couldn’t resist. It was just a bit dirty and scratched, so we painted her white. With one more coat and a small black swirl on top (this weekend) this beauty will sit next to the door to the backyard in the dining room. It is on wheels and easily movable, so it will serve as an outdoor drink table as well. We have been searching for something to go outdoors while enjoying grilling or the bonfire, and nothing seems pretty but built for the outdoors. This way we can just bring the little table in when we aren’t out there. Here she is:
While I was there I also spotted an antique, claw foot, drop leaf table. Hmmm… We got to thinking. We have been wanting a bigger table for the dining room and decided to try moving the red table to the kitchen. After giving the rooms some rearranging we fell in love. Here’s the kitchen:
It feels so nice and cozy in there now. We even sat here yesterday morning and had coffee together. So, after giving the new arrangement a night we decided it was a keeper. I headed back to the D.A.V. and snatched up the dining table. We got a great deal, but it does need some work. I removed some scuffs, but there are scratches. We are probably going to cover it with a table cloth until we get some other projects finished and then start stripping and refinishing it. We are thinking of staining it either a lighter brown to match the maple bar or black like the desk that is still in progress. I am still hung up on my mis-matched chairs, and am in the process of adding a few different styled ones, so although it doesn’t match perfectly right now it will when we get done! Bonus: I found out that the table expands for adding leaves! Although it didn’t have the originals with it we can make some for it to have big family meals here! 🙂 Here’s the dining room:
Well, what do you think? Any suggestions or ideas? Its always a work in progress, but it’s getting there! Oh, and Romeo the camera hog says hi, too.
Antique Treasures
My grandmother just sent me a box of antique jewelry and doodads! I was so excited last night to rummage through all of the sentimental pieces. I’m not sure what I am going to do with all of it, but I have some creative ideas going. Here is a peak at the goods:
The island covered in all the treasures.
I really loved this little tray. My grandma said it was very old. I thought it might look cute in the bathroom when we get in refinished.
A gorgeous cameo and some really pretty crystals.
Another cameo and a very old pin and rings.
Two old jewelry boxes and a sweet locket.
This box was special because my uncle made all of these turqoise and jade rings and pieces. His sign is a paw print and is engraved on the back of each piece.
Exciting huh? I will let you all know what I do with some of the pieces… I can feel the creative juices flowing…
Kitchen Inspiration
We are currently preparing to do a bit of kitchen renovation in our house. While I have a pretty clear picture in my head of what I would like to do I have also been scouring the blog world for some inspiration and creative ideas. We are trying to do this on a very tiny budget, so I am also searching ideas in that area. Today on Apartment Therapy I found one of my favorite kitchen pictures.
I just love the little swinging door. It reminds me of old western saloon doors. I am wanting one for our kitchen. I’m just not sure that every kitchen could pull this off. Maybe that will have to go on my “someday” dream list. For now we are thinking more basic remodel in the kitchen. I would like to sand and paint all of the dark wood cabinetry a glossy white. The cabinets are outdated and mismatched. This will also allow us to fill the holes from the old hardware and add new pulls. These are the pulls I am thinking of, bin pulls:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wmc3cgAjw0k/SHeOWPk3S3I/AAAAAAAAAOc/sp4juB_wHwA/s400/IMG_6026_bin%2Bpull.jpg&imgrefurl=http://theletteredcottage.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html&h=266&w=400&sz=12&tbnid=1nyLQKGa76QSAM::&tbnh=82&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddresser%2Bwith%2Bbin%2Bpulls%2Bpicture&hl=en&usg=__noAFFwDt8FmB3VYpI7taTYFlhEQ=&ei=zCHRSb_kJMSInAfzwbhq&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=4&ct=image&cd=1
I have also been reading that it is possible to safely paint laminate countertops. Since paint is a much cheaper alternative to replacing the countertops at this point I would like to paint these black. Here is inspiration for a black and white kitchen with warm hardwood floors:
Little Bit Of Chair Love
I found this cute chair the other day on Design*Sponge in Jack and Lulu’s home sneak peak. The curvy lines on this chair match the bech seat I was loving the other day! The picture isn’t directly of the chair, but it’s right in front of the mirror here:
I want it for my bedroom! 🙂
Our House- The Outside
When we moved into our new home it was getting cold and dreary out, and I have yet to post pictures of the outside of our house or our porch. Until now, that is. This weekend was so gorgeous outside that I took some pictures of the porch and the newly covered bench, as well as the patio furniture that I had time to repaint. Here we go:
The front view of our house.
The little bench by the front door and our red vintage lawn chairs! 🙂
Our gorgeous chairs!
And on the other side- our lovely vintage ice cream table and chairs!
Enjoy our sunny pictures!
New Chair Love
This week I found this cute little Mid Century chair on Flickr.
This is a walnut and naugahyde rocker and ottoman. I’m not usually super into MCM furniture, but I can totally see this rocker being used in a living room or nursery for a new baby. The white leather look with the dark wood is great.
Bookend Project
I have said it before, but I love repurposing items. Especially in these times, finding new life for old items is the greenest option. Some things you hate to ruin by transforming them, but for the most part I believe that reusing old or obsolete items is a far better choice than letting them waste away in some one’s unloving basement, or worse yet, a landfill. Plus, repurposing is often much cheaper than buying new items, as well as healthier for the planet. So, when I get the chance to make a new addition to our home, and at the same time get a new project with old items, I jump on it!
In college I made bowls out of records as a dorm floor project. I still have mine in our office on the book shelf. The other day I saw a project online where book ends were being made out of old records, and decided that would be a perfect addition to the shelves, and even fit in with our music themed office.
I made a stop yesterday at the Salvation Army and picked up two records. They weren’t anything special, just old records in decent shape and with pretty labels. Last night we boiled some water and dumped it in the kitchen sink. The water softens the record and you use a utensil to bend it.
Overall the project was easy and turned out pretty cute!
Cooling off under a box.
Bench Project
When we first moved into our new house Tony and I bought a vintage vanity on Craigslist for $20 to go in our spare bedroom. The vanity is used to hold all of my “get ready in the morning stuff”. The vanity came with a little vanity bench. The problem was that the bench didn’t match the vanity. The bench was painted white and had obviously been recovered with some purple material. I had thought about painting the vanity a shabby white, but that wouldn’t solve the whole problem. The styles and sizes of the vanity and the bench didn’t even match. So, I put the bench up for sale on Craigslist, again. After a couple of weeks the bench still hadn’t sold. Well, another project for me!
I liked the chipped white paint of the bench, so I decided to keep it. I also decided that there were too many things, including another, smaller vintage vanity seat already in the spare bedroom. I thought that the front porch could use something, so that was to be the new home of the bench. We have a small, white ice cream table and two chairs on the porch, but nothing else so far. The white would be a perfect match. I have also had my eyes peeled for some of those vintage metal lawn chairs. I want two of them in red, or to paint red. That helped me make my choice for fabric. I chose a white material with a red coral pattern.
Last night I started ripping old fabric off the bench. Come to find out there was not only one layer of awful fabric, but three! Here’s the before photo:
The next layer. Even worse:
And the final dingy layer:
But, here’s what it looks like all spruced up:
I think its really cute now. I will show you pictures of what it looks like on the porch once I get the ice cream set repainted!
Make Mine Eclectic 
