Friday, March 28, 2014
BombDiggedyTastic
Squeaky chair makeover complete. Would I do this again? Probably. Although I had to let this one sit around awhile until it was nice enough to spray paint outside, it actually only took a couple of hours-well, maybe a couple of couple of hours- and one smallish mistake which required some paint remover. I'm calling it a success.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Squeaky Chair-part deux
Sooo...got that chair all taken apart AFTER I took pics of how it should go back together (kiss my brain) cleaned off the rusticles and schmootz, and am now waiting for the fabric to arrive. I found the most amazing fabric site, which just makes me wish that I knew how to sew more than a straight line (If I'd only paid more attention to Mrs. Cho back in 7th grade home ec.-I blame myself). Proudly, I even remembered to trace the (nasty) vinyl seat and back portions onto some kraft paper to make a pattern. KMB again! I'm certain that Mrs. Cho would be proud of owning that small bit. She suffered, that woman. God love her heart.
For my sew-worthy friends, the site is www.spoonflower.com , but you probably already know about the site, since I'm the ultimate fabric newb an you are not.
I don't think I've ever posted a photo of my fabulous sewing machine, so here it is in all of its tur-qua glory. I will never love another:
For my sew-worthy friends, the site is www.spoonflower.com , but you probably already know about the site, since I'm the ultimate fabric newb an you are not.
I don't think I've ever posted a photo of my fabulous sewing machine, so here it is in all of its tur-qua glory. I will never love another:
Saturday, December 28, 2013
More RETRO Whimsy!
In my area, we have many, many, Facebook sites dedicated to "Trash and Treasure", as in "One man's trash...". I am pretty sure I have subscribed to all of them within a 50 mile radius, because, hey, I like old crap. What I like even better about old crap is making something cool out of old crap. It makes me feel all ecologically friendly and fuzzy inside.
My latest score is this bomb-diggety Cosco step-stool chair-one like I grew up with on visits to my sweet grammy's house. Dang, how those step thingies squeaked when you pulled them out. This one does not disappoint either. Squ-eeee-k-tastic!
My latest score is this bomb-diggety Cosco step-stool chair-one like I grew up with on visits to my sweet grammy's house. Dang, how those step thingies squeaked when you pulled them out. This one does not disappoint either. Squ-eeee-k-tastic!
Once I get the gunk scrubbed off and the legs all shinied up, I think it's getting a makeover. I see something different for the seat-mebbe some red? Or an IU logo? Or, OMG, I cannot wait to get going on this baby tomorrow!
Monday, June 3, 2013
DiY Bar Part 2
I just now realized I forgot to post the "during" and "after" pics of the former console/current bar. It only took one afternoon and some mad measuring skills and cutting devices-thanks hubs! Also, he clearly does not trust me with power tools, especially HIS power tools. Fearing that I would lop off a digit, or worse, he was kind enough to help me out with the saw. And we only very minorly disagreed that my staining skills need some improvement.
First, a look at its record player. See the filth? I really wanted to take the hose to it, but thought better of that and just wiped it down with a damp cloth and some Pledge.
I labeled this pic ickdirt: Self-explanatory.ICK.
First, a look at its record player. See the filth? I really wanted to take the hose to it, but thought better of that and just wiped it down with a damp cloth and some Pledge.
I labeled this pic ickdirt: Self-explanatory.ICK.
Oddly, I didn't take a photo of the coolest feature of this furniture. The left one-third of the unit has this slide in record bin kind of thing. It's sort of delicate, being 50 year old plastic and all, but I am using it to hold all of the cocktail napkins, shot glasses, and other drinking paraphernalia that one accumulates over time.
The bar is OPEN!
But wait! It needed a little something....
Some groovy, schmoovy 60's rocks glasses...Thank you Ebay!
But wait! There's more...
Ambience lighting!! SHAGADELIC!
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Mad skills-DiY Bar-Day 1
Welcome back! It's been about a year, and I almost forgot I even had a blog until I was ready to delve into this fun(ky) project and thought about pinning it to Pinterest. Then I was like, "Oh, the photos should link to a webpage or something", and then, "Oh, yeah. I have that BlogSpot thing" and then, "Sweet"!
And so I will begin again. At the beginning.
THE BEGINNING was really the end. More precisely, the end of my father's life. The summer I became an orphan, we had to decide what to do with his earthly goods, and aside from the obvious Goodwill, homeless shelter, and food pantry donations, we were unsure what to do with the rest. I really needed some dining room furniture so we hauled his set 900 miles home and put it in a storage unit since my then-home was too small to accommodate it. My brain now wants to go off onto a Storage Wars tangent, but I'm cutting it off at the knees. Coincidentally, the year my dad died was the same year that Mad Men premiered-2007.
MAD MEN. I am seriously in love with this show. The whole era of the early to mid 60's is so unfathomable to me. Why did the women have those impossibly styled hair-dos, and how did they maintain them? Why did they torture themselves with girdles? What was with those patterns? What happened to the fedoras and cigarette cases? Did people really drink like that at work? Could they smoke anywhere they damned well pleased-the train, the plane, the doctor's office for crissakes? I watch this show primarily for entertainment, but also with the scrutiny of some historical anthropologist looking for clues to a lost civilization. Those people were not us...but yet they were.
THE CONNECTION between the two is that I became addicted to nostalgia-60's nostalgia. Mostly in terms of décor, but in other ways too-I can rock a jello salad like nobody's business. When we moved into our newer and bigger home, which could accommodate my 60's era Drexel dining room set, I began searching Craigslist for a matching china cabinet and found one (!!!). I helped my husband replace the dining room light fixture with a retro-looking pendant chandelier-the installation of which almost divorced us and lives on as our top one worst DIY project ever. Oxymoronically, if you search for this light on the Lowe's website, it shows up under the category of "Modern Lighting". Everything old is new again sometime.
THERE WAS SOMETHING MISSING. Liquor. And lots of it. Don Draper, while fictional, must have had the liver of a bull moose to carry on the way he did back in the day. That man could drank! I decided that what I needed in my little haven was a bar. But not just any bar, you know. A 60's bar. A bar like the one D.D. keeps behind his desk for noontime nippage. A very credenza-like bar which by day looked like furniture, but by night transformed into and adult beverage oasis. I needed more furniture. Something crazy different and something I could make happen as cheaply as possible. I'm a thrifty girl after all.
THE SEARCH. This part is painfully boring, so I'm not even going to write about it. Suffice to say, it involved lots of thrift stores which aggravated my allergies, and trips to various local websites. In the end, it cost more than I wanted it to, but it was truly beautiful.
THE REVEAL is going to be breathtaking because it mixes form with function. This thing I had searched for had been a staple in all long ago living rooms. It was now extinct from humanity except for the few which had survived, collecting dust and cobwebs in barns, sheds, and musty wet basements. If you have reached your fortieth birthday, you may still remember...the stereo console. It looked like this:
And so I will begin again. At the beginning.
THE BEGINNING was really the end. More precisely, the end of my father's life. The summer I became an orphan, we had to decide what to do with his earthly goods, and aside from the obvious Goodwill, homeless shelter, and food pantry donations, we were unsure what to do with the rest. I really needed some dining room furniture so we hauled his set 900 miles home and put it in a storage unit since my then-home was too small to accommodate it. My brain now wants to go off onto a Storage Wars tangent, but I'm cutting it off at the knees. Coincidentally, the year my dad died was the same year that Mad Men premiered-2007.
MAD MEN. I am seriously in love with this show. The whole era of the early to mid 60's is so unfathomable to me. Why did the women have those impossibly styled hair-dos, and how did they maintain them? Why did they torture themselves with girdles? What was with those patterns? What happened to the fedoras and cigarette cases? Did people really drink like that at work? Could they smoke anywhere they damned well pleased-the train, the plane, the doctor's office for crissakes? I watch this show primarily for entertainment, but also with the scrutiny of some historical anthropologist looking for clues to a lost civilization. Those people were not us...but yet they were.
THE CONNECTION between the two is that I became addicted to nostalgia-60's nostalgia. Mostly in terms of décor, but in other ways too-I can rock a jello salad like nobody's business. When we moved into our newer and bigger home, which could accommodate my 60's era Drexel dining room set, I began searching Craigslist for a matching china cabinet and found one (!!!). I helped my husband replace the dining room light fixture with a retro-looking pendant chandelier-the installation of which almost divorced us and lives on as our top one worst DIY project ever. Oxymoronically, if you search for this light on the Lowe's website, it shows up under the category of "Modern Lighting". Everything old is new again sometime.
THERE WAS SOMETHING MISSING. Liquor. And lots of it. Don Draper, while fictional, must have had the liver of a bull moose to carry on the way he did back in the day. That man could drank! I decided that what I needed in my little haven was a bar. But not just any bar, you know. A 60's bar. A bar like the one D.D. keeps behind his desk for noontime nippage. A very credenza-like bar which by day looked like furniture, but by night transformed into and adult beverage oasis. I needed more furniture. Something crazy different and something I could make happen as cheaply as possible. I'm a thrifty girl after all.
THE SEARCH. This part is painfully boring, so I'm not even going to write about it. Suffice to say, it involved lots of thrift stores which aggravated my allergies, and trips to various local websites. In the end, it cost more than I wanted it to, but it was truly beautiful.
THE REVEAL is going to be breathtaking because it mixes form with function. This thing I had searched for had been a staple in all long ago living rooms. It was now extinct from humanity except for the few which had survived, collecting dust and cobwebs in barns, sheds, and musty wet basements. If you have reached your fortieth birthday, you may still remember...the stereo console. It looked like this:
All you had to do was lift up its wooden lid, and inside lived a record player, an AM/FM stereo, and maybe if you were really, really lucky, an 8 track tape player. But I don't think those arrived until the '70s. If you don't know what a record is, Google it. If you know what this is, then you remember that records came in different sizes. I found this one in with my console today. I'm going to figure out how to incorporate it into my finished design.
Below is my treasure. I have to clean the crud out of its insides, remove the dry rotted wires, record player and stereo parts, add some shelves here and there, and slap on about 3 coats of trusty Old English furniture polish, but in the end, will be perfect for my needs. By the way, the absolute best store in the area for this kind of stuff is the Habitat For Humanity ReStore in Williamsburg and Newport News:
Tomorrow: DAY 2-The teardown
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)