Tuesday 23 April 2013

Time stamped piece

Don't you just love when you know exactly how old your "new to you" piece of furniture is? 
I know I've spent many hours online trying to guess how old this or that piece of furniture is. Most of the time it's all guess work. 
But sometimes I get lucky and the date is stamped right on the piece. This one says May 8 1830!

 I nearly fell over when I saw this piece sitting at one of the goodwill stores I go to. 
It was an instant love affair.
 Yes, I could see she had seen a lot of love, and maybe a bit of abuse. Heartbreak even.
 Bits of veneer missing..but what can you expect from something this old and this lovely?

love...yes love. I almost didn't want to give this one up. 

I posted it on fb..and had lots of inquires..but one person stood out and definitely wanted it. She asked for a teal colour and I accommodated it. After all I do this to bring pieces of furniture together with their rightful owners. 

Here she is! 
 I may have gone slightly overboard with the "after" pics.
 But in my defense... it's spring and this is my first "outside" shots of the year.
 Don't these knobs look FAB? I seriously need to make another trip to Hobby Lobby!

 Lots of distressing..just like she was meant to have.
 My Husband rolled his eyes when I brought out the wine to stage it with..my daughter laughed.
 Doesn't everyone drink wine when they have to study?

sigh...I wish I could spend more time with her...but she is begging to go to her new home. 

In just two days we will be leaving for a 10 day vacation. I'm sure to post pictures along the way, after all what's a good road trip without stops at hidden junk stores and flea markets? 

Monday 22 April 2013

Black Waterfall

I feel bad. 
For a friend. 
Her father is moving into a home with full time care. 
It takes a lot out of people to have to move their parents..it can't be easy. I've never had to deal with that. 
And even in the midst of all of that, she thought of me. She called me and told me she had a dresser I might be interested in. Could I come get it. 
I said of course. 
So off I went. 
This is what she showed me.
 This pic was taken after I took one drawer out and the handles off...
 Check out those handles! Love Bakelite!

And how cute are those feet? A bit on the "busy" side..but love the shape! 

So after cleaning the hardware and trying to picture different colours in my mind...it just kept screaming BLACK to me. Ever get that? I know, strange, but I swear my pieces speak to me and beg me to be certain colours. 
So what was I to do but listen! 
 I think he's much happier being black. Those stripes were rather confusing on his feet.

 I cleaned up the hardware and put it back on.

 Now he is distinguished from head to foot.
You can't see all the detail in the mirror, but trust me it's very nice. 

All in all I think I'm as happy as he is. :) 

Red and Rustic!

I have been all over the place in the past week, have picked up some great pieces of furniture and have worked hard to get it all done before we head out on vacation. 
I'm really hoping to finish up that desk in the next couple of days. Didn't see the desk? Check it out
HERE You have to scroll down past the yellow dresser. 

Last week I picked up a nasty dresser. The bones were good but it was in rough shape. 
 I took this picture after I had ripped off the back. Someone had replaced it with tongue and groove pine. Most was loose and some was missing. I replaced it all with new material.  The shelf was missing from inside the doors and all the drawer slides were loose one door was ripped...in short it needed a lot of repair before I could even start to really prep it.
BUT I think it was worth it. :) 
I stripped the top, sanded, stained etc and painted the base RED!
Then dry brushed it in order to give it a real rustic feel. :) 
 Doesn't it remind you of the midwest?
 It's a bit dusty after the final sanding (after sealing it) I was in a hurry to head to the cottage.
 Solid wood and now in wonderful shape :)

 Built a new shelf :)
And ready for a new home! 

Now to get back to that desk. 
It's almost ready for paint! 
Happy Monday! 
Sharing here:
Knick of Time
Coastal Charm 
Miss Mustard Seed 
  

Sunday 21 April 2013

New week and exciting news.

What were we thinking? 
Tomorrow we bring home a second dog. 

YIKES!

Ok, so the dog will actually belong to our daughter and will only be living with us for about a year..but it's exactly like getting a second dog right? 

Crossing our fingers he fits in well and doesn't give our Riffy a heart attack! 

So if you see me online with my hair pulled out, you will know why. 
Ohhh boy.
I can't wait for this adventure to begin! 


Friday 19 April 2013

Sunny dresser

It's Friday right?
What a busy busy week so far. And it's not over.
I've been armpit deep in furniture. Yes I said armpit, some of these pieces are really big.

Remember the "stuff" I picked up two weekends ago?
You can see it all HERE
I need to post about the long dresser and I will once I get my other computer up and running. I had a bit of a computer "crash" issue and I haven't been able to turn it on...with all my thousands of pictures. Can we say PANIC!!
Yup!
Ohhh back to the dresser.
This is the one I am talking about






Isn't it sweet?
It even has the dust separators between the drawers. I've really been loving the whole mid century thing lately. It's not normally "my thing" but they are such solid pieces so they seldom come to me in bits and pieces... a real joy to work with.
I had found an oops paint in yellow that I was dying to try out and this seemed like the perfect piece.
So off we went.
I wanted to do something a little bit different with this. So the top received a good sanding, new stain and a very soft grey paint that was distressed to really look worn down. 

Isn't it just perfect? 
I am really loving the grey with the yellow.. 
 And of course I updated the hardware. The knobs were replaced with these sweet ceramic balls I found at hobby lobby.
 The handles were painted and highlighted
I think they bring the top and the body together. 
And of course the sweet legs :) 

Now I have to introduce my desk. Well it's mine for right now. 
I've started work on it but it's not finished. I just couldn't wait to show you.
 It's in rough shape...but can't you vision the finished product?? I'm just sooooooooo excited by this.

 Yup...it has some rough spots...but fear not. It's solid and wonderful!
 Should I add the casters back on?


Can't wait to post the finished product early next week! 
Have a wonderful weekend :) 

Sharing here:
From my Front Porch to Yours
Miss Mustard Seed 
Domestically Speaking 
  

Monday 8 April 2013

What a great weekend!

Good Monday morning :) 
Hope everyone had a fantabulous weekend. 
I was able to have the kids over for supper last night (will share more about that when I'm allowed to) 
I seriously loving having adult kids. 
Do I miss the stomping and running and giggles of children under my feet? You bet I do. But at the same time, I love watching my grown kids lead lives of their own and making my heart melt to see what wonderful people they have become :) 

Saturday was a busy busy day. 
Here in Ontario, yard sale season is just starting. Normally I head out Saturday mornings with my handy list of yard sales I want to hit and cross my fingers that there will be more on the way. 
BUT there were not a lot of yard sales going on, and those that were, were self describing as "lots of little girls thing" etc. 
Not the best places for finding furniture treasures. 
So I decided to NOT yard sale. 
My husband and I instead went into town (we were at the cottage and town is 7km away) 
There is an antique furniture dealer there that I often stop in at and I find great things there. 
On our way there was an "indoor" yard sale that was not advertized. YEAH! So we stopped. 
 OMG...I was in love.
This baby is solid wood with NO veneer. I'm going to love working on her. She is even on her original casters! How sweet is that? 
We then proceeded to finish our errands and then headed home. 
We stopped to see how much ice was still on the lake, helped push a little car out of the soft sand and left. We hit another home run when we spotted more furniture! 
woo hoo. We ran to the cottage and dropped our secretary off and went back to have a closer look and then nab two more dressers. There was more there but these are the ones I wanted. 


Solid wood mid century and in wonderful shape. YEAH! So happy! 
Not bad for a day where I didn't "plan" on doing any yard sailing! :) 
Ohhh and I also picked up these in the past week or so. 



The table is just about done and is sold! 
Now I'm home again and can't wait to get back to the cottage to work on these beauties.