Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Mustard chippy milk paint book table

I loved the quirky shape of this little bookstand/library table.  It was in pretty rough (and very dirty) shape when I got a hold of it.

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I gave it a good scrubbing with some white vinegar to prepare for painting.  I knew I wanted to embrace the primitive nature of this little table, so I picked up some Yellow Ochre Milk Paint from The Real Milk Paint Co. and went for it.  It turned out just how I wanted, perfectly chippy and awesome!

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I’ve been collecting a bunch of cute, vintage, hardback books to bring down to the Vintage Market, including a some of these Readers Digest Condensed Books.  I think they look so nice on a bookshelf!  Aren’t the covers just fab too?

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And (in my best Christ Traeger voice) this one is, literally, for the books. ;)

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Simple seat “reupholster” and project mania

I’ve been busily getting ready for the Junk In The Trunk Vintage Market at Scottsdale’s Westworld that’s sneaking up on us on November 9th.  Camryn (from Livy Lou’s) and I are bringing down some awesome furniture and vintage finds for the show.  I hope you can join us (and the other hundred of so vendors) if you’re in the area!

I was pretty excited about my resourcefulness with this first project.  I loved this realistic looking pleather vintage rolling chair when I spied it at the thrift store. 

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Overall, it was in good shape.  I could tell the wood legs needed refinishing, but that wasn’t a big deal to me. What made me stop and go hmmmmmm was the state of the seat cushion.

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Not great.  And, if you know me, you’ll know that I really loathe doing upholstery.  It’s something that I would love to get better at, but as of now, not something I’m good at so not something I like to do. 

But it was such a cool chair!  It reminded me of an old bomber jacket.  I had to figure out an easy way to fix up the seat.  So I stood there in the thrift store starting at the chair for way, way too long.  I’m sure I was making people uncomfortable. Then it came to me!  So I picked up a man’s tweed suit coat for a dollar and headed home.

I cut off the little covered buttons on the seat cushion, then cut off the entire back of the tweed jacket.

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The jacket I got didn’t have the center seam on the back of the coat, which worked perfectly for this!  I even used the bottom hem at the front edge of the seat for a nice clean finished look.

I got some thin, black, satin ribbon and basically did a big whip stitch to attach the tweed to the top of the seat cushion.

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It was tough to get the needle through the pleather and I had sore finger tips for days.  Once the tweed was stitched all the way around, I just re tufted the cushion using the same covered buttons in the same place as before.

The legs got a sand and stain and were good as new.  (Sorry about the crappy pictures I snapped just before taking it down to the shop.  You get the idea.)

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I love the manliness of the tweed and the worn leather look!

 

In my project mania getting ready for the market, I also made over this old, unusable, antique dresser mirror with by stripping off some of the reflective backing with some paint stripper and adding some vintage fabric behind the glass.  I painted and distressed the frame and finished it off with some hooks for keys or such along the bottom.  The glass makes a great dry erase board for family messages.

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Also did up a fun herringbone skeleton shade for a bright yellow vintage ceramic lamp I picked up.  Added a new Edison light bulb and this one’s ready to go too!

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Speaking of yellow, how great is this gold brocade vintage sofa I picked up?  Check out that carving!

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I also got a fantastic French Provincial China Cabinet the other day as well.  It’s in really great shape, so I think I’ll give a go at selling it in as-is condition first before I paint it.

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I’ve also been stocking up on vintage finds as well.  Bringing lots of salvage sign letters with me.

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I’ll be back soon with a fun little book stand side table I refinished yesterday with some chippy mustard milk paint.