Sweet Little Writing Table

Hi Everyone! Hope all is well in your world. Sometime in December I found this adorable desk on Craig's List. It was the perfect size for what I had in mind. Here is how it looked when I pick it up:

Sorry for the crappy picture, it's from the CL ad. In my haste to get it started, I forgot to take a before picture.

I first had to give the whole thing a really good sanding. The old varnish was just chipping off all over the place & the top had issues. After the prep work was done, I gave it two coats of Duck Egg Blue. I love this color. Seems like everything I paint in this color sells quickly. Now we were ready for graphics.

Like I mentioned before, I had something in mind for this sweet little writing table. I have a favorite graphic I use a lot, so I go to the best source for vintage graphics "The Graphics Fairy". 

Here is what it looks like now:

So much better! 

Here's a closeup of the top.

I used my overhead projector for the image transfer. 

Available at Sassy Fabrics in Grand Blanc, MI

Then I used the same image & decoupaged it on the sides & inside the drawers. Now I needed a chair & I had just the one.

 

You may remember this chair from an earlier post. You can read about it here.  I knew they would look good together because they were the same color but, I hadn't realized what a perfect match they were until it set them together. The scrolly detail mimics the top on the table & the curvy legs also match the legs on the table. What a nice surprise! We put this cute little set right in the front window at Sassy Fabrics. Karen was very happy to see something fresh & new go in the window.  

I better get busy now painting a replacement, as I'm sure this Sweet Little Writing Table will sell shortly. Thanks for visiting & have a great day!  Dee

The Most Amazing Roadside Rescue

On a beautiful day this past fall, my Mom & I were on our way back from a delivery to Sassy Fabrics, when we spotted the most amazing chair just sitting there on the curb in the middle of someones yard.  It was obviously set out to the road.  My Mom & I spotted it at the same time & immediately whipped the truck around & gunned it. There was another woman slowing down in her car who had just past this "most amazing chair", & she was putting it in park & walking towards it. Needless to say, I beat her to it. Sometimes you just want it more then the next guy. Here is a before picture of this "most amazing chair":

Poor baby right after surgery..

You could tell that someone was just driving to fast & lost this chair out of the back of their truck. Can you imagine their surprise when they realized they had lost this beautiful chair? I assume a very nice person picked it up off the road & placed it in the yard (near the curb) of the house we found it sitting. Thank you kind stranger, you totally made our day!

Once we got her home I assessed the damage. Poor baby had road rash & some fine hair line cracks. Nothing we couldn't repair.  This chair is sooo heavy, but incredibly sturdy. After cleaning her up, sanding, gluing & patching we were ready for paint.

With all that great detail I wanted to do a light color that would really show it off.  We chose Old White. After a couple of coats, we gave it a coat of clear wax, then I used the dark wax in all the beautiful details. What a difference that made. Take a look!

Feathers or Fronds?

Beautiful chunky legs!

 I added a graphic to the cushion from The Graphics Fairy (my favorite graphic site ever!).  I used drop cloth fabric (also my favorite fabric for upholstery).

I love this extra large seat.

Available at Sassy Fabrics in Grand Blanc, MI

These pictures just don't do this Amazing Chair justice. It is so beautiful in person. I'm sure it will find a loving home very soon. So, that is my story about the "Most Amazing Roadside Rescue".

I wish you all Happy & Prosperous Rescues! Thanks for stopping by & Have a Great Weekend!! Dee

A Lesson Learned

Happy Holidays everyone!  I hope you are all in the holiday spirit, I know I will be in about two more days. I've been working on a never ending custom job & it is nearly finished. Then I'll get into the Holiday swing.

Early in the spring a family friend gave us a very dated dining set. It was a table, four chairs & a buffet. I already showed you the buffet, you can read about it here.  The table is big & heavy & the chairs have that cane back. Two of the chairs had big holes punched in the caning.  Here is a picture of one of the chairs:

It was going to be impossible to repair & to expensive to replace, so I went with plan B.  I'm getting ahead of myself here, we first painted them Old White to match the buffet & did a clear wax on them. Here is the only before picture I have of the table (base), unfortunately I had already put one coat on it before I remembered to take the picture.

Now the dilemma with the chairs. I remembered Miss Mustard Seed had upholstered a caned back chair & used her tutorial as my guide, you can read about it here.  We went to our local upholstery shop & got some great advice on cost effective material & some tricks of the trade. My Mom & I plan on taking an upholstery class after the holidays, my hubby said he'd like to take it too. It'd be nice to know exactly what we are doing when it comes to this upholstery stuff.  Anyway, we used drop cloth fabric on the chairs. I of course had to add a graphic to the seat.  I seen the perfect one at The Graphics Fairy & added it to all four chairs. Here is how they turned out.



Front



Back

Don't you just love that scrolly detail.....

Compliments of The Graphics Fairy!

 All four in their new look....

I love the contrast of the white Gimp against the tan fabric, it really gives it that finished look.

One last look at all that hard work, approximately 25,000 staples & 500 glue sticks later....



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Finally a complete set. They look pretty good together, don't you think!? We learned alot from doing this project. First, Don't be afraid of the unknown, do your homework & it's not so intimidating. Second, Get advice when you need it, makes the job so much easier. Third, once you've finished your project the next one will seem so do-able.  I hope this gives you some inspiration to give your scary project a try.  I'd love to hear about it.

 Thanks for visiting & take time to enjoy the Holidays!! Dee

An Eventful Week

Hello everyone! I hope you all have recovered nicely from your long holiday weekend & are settling in for a busy Christmas Season. I know I am.

This week started out pretty eventful. On Sunday morning I'm sitting at my computer surfing thru the linky parties, enjoying my morning cup of coffee while my husband is in the living room watching the "CBS Sunday Morning" program. All of a sudden he starts shouting "That's your bench!  Dee your bench is on T.V.!!, Kid Rock has your bench!". I'm totally confused. I get up & go into the living room to see what he's yelling about & can't believe my eyes.  There's Kid Rock being interviewed in the Living Room of his home & over his shoulder in the background is my Flag bench.

you tube video

 I'm freaking out! My mind in saying "It has to be my bench, no one is going to duplicate it & off center the back like mine was when it was built. If they were going to duplicate it they would have corrected that." So I pull up my pictures of this bench & compare them to what I see on the T.V. & they look exactly the same!  A couple of days later I make a delivery to Sassy Fabrics in Grand Blanc, where this bench was sold & I ask Karen (who sold it) if she seen this program? She says no, but that is your bench. It was confirmed! She sold it to Kid Rocks interior designer. She explained that celebrates were very private & she couldn't tell me who bought it when it sold. Woo Hoo!!  You see this bench at the top of my blog.

 So I am already on cloud nine when on Monday I check out The Graphics Fairy & there, being featured, is my "Menu" Dry Erase Board I posted about a couple of weeks ago.  I made it out of a Cabinet door, you can read about it here.  Everyone really seemed to love it because it was featured not one, not two but THREE times!! How awesome is that!? So I have some serious Thanking to do.

First, let me thank Karen at  The Graphics Fairy. She shares the most amazing graphics with us everyday. This is my go to graphic source.      

  

Secondly, let me thank Claire at The Rustic Pig. She has done some beautiful windows herself. 

And Thirdly, let me thank Karen at Redoux. She does some awesome re purposed pieces.

I think that makes for a very Eventful Week don'tcha think? I hope you all have a pleasant weekend & thanks for stopping by.  Dee

Repurposed window

Happy Friday everyone, I hope you all had a great week & are looking forward to an even better weekend. I know I am. We are having Deer Widows Ladies Night at Collette's Vintage & Antique Mall tomorrow where I have my booth.  I have been super busy getting all stocked up for this event.

A few weeks ago I found a couple of nice roadside treasures in my neighborhood. Four cabinet doors, two were all wood & two had glass panes. I decided to start with the glass doors first. Here is what I started with:

 After a good scrubbing & scraping, I gave it a coat of Black, followed by a coat of Old White. Then I did a wet sand (with a scrubby sponge) & rubbed on a couple of coats of clear wax. Now it was time to decide exactly what to do with this little treasure. There are a 101 things you can do with an old window, just look on Pinterest if you need some inspiration.

I knew I wanted to do one of those cool "Menu" boards, so I went to my favorite graphic site, Graphics Fairy. I printed it out in the Mirror image in the right size & taped it to the front side, turned it over & painted it in with a paint pen.

Graphic taped on the front side.

Here is a picture of the back side.

Then I painted in the Graphic with a paint pen. After the paint was completely dry I took it outside to do the next step.

Frosted Glass Spray Paint. I sprayed right over the graphic on the back side

 of the window.  I gave it four coats, just enough to give it that nice frosted look.  Give it a good 30 min. between coats.

Here it is after about two coats.

 You can see how opaque it gets the more coats you apply.

I let it dry overnight, then put the original knob back on. I love how you are able to see the wall color thru the Frosted glass. Now I have a very cool Dry Erase Board. All the artwork is on the back side so you are able to write on the front side & just wipe it clean.

I always wanted to use this graphic. I just love how it turned out.

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I attached a Black Dry Erase Marker on the side with Velcro after I took this picture.  I have one more door just like this one, I think I'll try a different color on that one.

Here is another window I painted using the same Frosted paint.

Table is available at Collette's Antique Mall in Burton, MI

This window sold quickly, but I have another one at Sassy Fabrics (V Trading) in Grand Blanc, MI. Now I need to put some finishing touches on a couple of things for tomorrows sale. Wish me luck!

Have you done a cool window repurpose lately? I'd love to hear about it. Have a great weekend everyone & Have a Happy Thanksgiving!  Dee

One Ugly Buffet

In the last week we have had Summer, Fall & Winter here in Michigan. Just last Monday my Mom & I were painting in my driveway in beautiful Sunny 75 degree weather. Now as I look out my window at my driveway all I see is a windy rain/sleet/snow mix kind of day. Yuck! That's Michigan weather for you. I guess I'll have to go back to painting in the basement.

Early in the spring this year a family member gave us a Dining table, four chairs & one ugly buffet. Thanks Scott & Rhonda! They were elated to find someone to take it off their hands. This is not the most attractive dining set on the planet.  It's from the early 80's, maybe even the mid 70's. It's that very heavy, chunky real ornate style. This always looks better painted. We started with the buffet. Here is a before picture:

This is my Mom giving it a good cleaning. This buffet has a "Marble" like stone top that was very scratched & dull. Just look at those enormous handles. What were they thinking? They look big enough to open a twelve foot door! They are almost Gothic looking. We removed them & filled the holes, I figured anything I replaced them with would have to look better then this.

After a good cleaning we gave it two coats of Old White & two coats of clear wax. I wanted to brighten/lighten up this heavy look. Once the painting & waxing was done we had some primping still to do on this piece.  The top was scrubbed & polished clean. We went to Hobby Lobby & found the perfect knobs to replace the old Gothic ones.  Here is the after picture:



Available at Sassy Fabrics (V Trading) in Grand Blanc, MI



So much better! We distressed it to enhance all the detail. Here is a shot of the "Marble" top:

The inside got alittle attention too.

We decoupaged the inside of the drawer & the shelf...

This has become my go to alternative to contact paper. I love how it looks. It's a graphic of a Vintage French script from The Graphics Fairy. I printed it on stock paper & cut it to the size I needed. I've used it recently here on a desk we finished last month....

and on a mirror/key holder organizer..



Available at Collette's Vintage & Antique Mall in Burton, MI



This one I added some other graphics on top of the script. This is in our booth at Collette's Vintage & Antique Mall.

When I first seen this buffet I thought to myself "That is one ugly buffet". Now with a new paint job & hardware I think the buffet turned out beautiful. We also painted the table & chairs but I'll show you those later. The chairs need major upholstery work. 

I hope you enjoyed your visit. I love to read your comments. Have a Happy & Safe Halloween.  Dee



His or Her Desk & A Thank You

I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything, I guess I needed a little break. But now I'm back in the swing of things.  Last month I went to an Antique Festival in Midland & found a very unique desk.  When I walked into this tent I spotted this desk from the backside & I could only see a corner of it, but I could see that it was different. So I walked around to the front of it & fell in love. It has such unusual lines.

I am so proud of myself, I actually remembered to get a before picture (even though I had already started painting it). You can see how the front curves in, even at the bottom. The style is both masculine & feminine. I decided to try & paint it neutral so it would appeal to both. 

After a good sanding & cleaning, I started with Paris Grey on the top & body.  The details got a coat of Old White & the recessed areas are painted black. Now it was time for a graphic. I went to my favorite place for graphics The Graphics Fairy. This is what I went with:

I love that the subject is masculine yet the script is feminine.

Did I mention this desk came with a chair? Well it did & here is a picture of what I did with it. I painted it Old White & put a graphic, I found at Etsy, on the cushion.

I used the original hardware & one of the best things about this desk is there are casters under it so you can just roll it to wherever you need to.

Here's a nice shot of the sexy curve....

I even decoupaged the inside of the top two drawers.



Available at Sassy Fabrics (V Trading) in Grand Blanc, MI.



I love how they look together. The perfect His or Her desk!

Now I would like to take a minute to say Thank You to Beckie at Roadkill Rescue. She featured my coffee table I found on the side of the road last month. You can read about it here. I just love this site. You can submit your roadside/repurposed treasures & if she likes it you'll be featured. I love the inspiration you get when you see what other people create. There are so many talented people on that site! If you've never heard of it, please check it out. You will be addicted just like I am. Thanks Beckie!!!

My mom & I are back to work again, so I should have plenty to write about in the very near future. As always, I love to read your comments. Thanks for stopping by & have a great day! Dee