Junking: The 3 Week Binge

3 weekends of junking in a row!
My hubby, myself and our friend (who showed us a whole whack of junk shops that we had not yet discovered) went junking 2 weeks in a row, followed by another with just my hubby and me.

This is a piece that will certainly need some work, but I have big plans for it.
The artwork inside is garbage, but that isn't why I bought it.

Holiday DIY: You Cone Do It - 2

Yesterday, I made a pine cone wreath.You can find it here: Holiday DIY: You Cone Do It

Problem is that I collected way too many pine cones.
Now I have all of these extras, and decided I needed to do something with them.

Holiday DIY: You Cone Do It.

I have not done this since I was 10 or so, but what a fun way to decorate the house during the holidays!

Back in October, my hubby and I went to the local park and picked up all of the fantastic cones that were falling. So what to do with them? Make a pine cone wreath, of course!

Retro TV Tray Rendition

We, like many other families in the Western world, don't eat at the dinner table. There I said it.
Our dirty little secret is that we sometimes eat dinner in front of the TV.
Does this make us bad people?
Yes, but in an effort to make it easier to be bad people, I found some TV trays!!
Now we can eat in front of the TV in STYLE!

I Love Lamp: Vintage Task Light

Remember this dusty thing from one of my antiquing trips?
If not, check it out in this post.

Repurposed Suitcase: Table the Discussion

Although I have been working on some projects, I have not been able to photograph them because it is getting so dark out so early. AND I have a stupid job now. pffft. Stupid job; it is affecting my blogging time!

Boring TV Wall Part 1: Chalked full of fun

This is the plain wall that the TV is in front of. Hence this room is called "the TV room".
Weird, eh?

I Love Lamp: Abacus Table Lamp

You might remember reading my blog about finding this lamp a month ago when we went garage-saling.

Antiquing Finds: A great day!

We had an amazing day antiquing today. My husband is convinced this officially makes us old, but secretly, he really enjoys the hunt.

Chair Reveal: Mid-century modern

I originally spoke of this chair back in the post: Chair-palooza.

Autumnal Awesomeness: Shopping

Of course I am always on the lookout for items that are vintage, or just plain cool....
And usually that takes me straight down the furniture path.

However, some truly divine kitschy stuff catches my eye too.

For example, check out this amazing Vintage owl Salt & Pepper shakers! Amazing!
If you can't live without these cuties, you can find them through Etsy vendor, Danika Malovic.

For some reason pottery always makes me think of Autumn as well.
Potter, Kaitlyn Brennan not only makes great earthen and stone ware, but she also makes the most unique and thought provoking pieces I have ever seen. Check her out!

Product Testing: Turtle Wax Headlight Lens Restorer

Our VW Jetta is almost 10 years old, and thanks to it being a diesel, it is really just starting its engine life.
Unfortunately, the headlights didn't get the memo!

So, I tried a lens restorer by Turtle Wax. It certainly takes a little elbow grease since you are essentially sanding the lens 4 times.

First, you use the clarifying compound, and depending on your damage (just yellowing?) you only have to do that step. With ours, the surface is actually gritty due to sand and weather hitting it, so we had to proceed to the sanding phases.

Although it is not perfect, it has made an incredible difference in the look of the headlights.
Total work time: 25 minutes
Cost: $12 CDN

Reclaimed Window: Following the Curve

As you will remember, we brought home an old door from a neighbour who was renovating. A few days later, I realized that they put out a large window as well!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here in Canada, it is Thanksgiving.
It has been a wonderful weekend! We went to the movie Looper (if you are thinking of going... do!), we had an early TG dinner at a friend's house with 10 other people, and that was loads of fun.

Today, we are overdosing on tryptophan and I am doing all I can to keep my husband from taking his pants off and sleeping starfish on the middle of the floor. :)

Of course today, we had our full traditional/regional dinner of turkey, mash, stuffing, & neeps and carrots.

... with the usual accompaniment of buns and gravy too.

Mmmmm, I love Thanksgiving!

Homemade whip cream!!
I hope everyone else had a great holiday weekend.

Holiday Decor: All Hallows Eve - Inspiration

Holiday decorating is very Martha Stewart, but gosh can it ever be extremely creative and fun.

First inspiration is from The Gnarled Branch.

Trunk Treatment: Sneak Peak

What a Find!

My husband and I drove down to Lansdowne, ON, yesterday and on our way back drove up the back roads. The foliage this time of year in Ontario is just breath-taking.

We drove through the many villages and towns along the way, and happened to come across an antique store in Lyndhurst. Out front were 2 trunks. We took the bigger of the two. It is a 100 year old (at least) hump-back trunk.

Haunted Attic Chair: Reveal

Before we moved into our home, we had to have vermiculite removed from the attic. While they were up there, we also had them re-insulate the attic to avoid issues later on (winter). The guys pulled a bunch of items from the attic including files from 1961, a vintage light-up lawn snowman, Tupperware, and finally a box full of wood pieces. The wood was in a plastic bin that had water in it, leaving the ends of some of them moldy.

Reclaimed/Repurposed Door Reveal

This is the easiest project I have ever worked on.
In a previous post, I discuss lugging this solid wood door about six blocks home on my head. Not the smartest idea I have ever had, but what a great find.

Luckily, one of our neighbours is renovating, so there were cabinets and windows and doors. I am even considering going back to inspect some of the windows...

Art Deco Hutch - Part 1

We found a hutch at our favorite second-hand furniture store.

It is a waterfall front Art Deco piece that just needs a little bit of love.

The biggest issue with the hutch, is the hazing on the top. The hazing can likely be buffed out using super fine steel wool. That is really dependent on how deep the haze goes, though. Hazing is usually caused by moisture or heat.

Artwork: Garage-Sale/Sail-boats find a home!

I bought these fantastic sailboat watercolours at a garage sale... I spoke a bit about them in this post.

I bought the artwork just because I thought the line work in it was phenomenal, and the watercolour was good. Also, each of the works were fairly local to here. When I got home, I started to do some research on Ben Babelowsky. Turns out he is a well-known Ottawa artist, and has work in collections throughout the world. Soooo Yay me! This four-part is called "Tall Ships" from 1984.

Reclaimed Wood Door

Women in developing countries who carry things on their heads, are remarkably strong! How do I say this with such conviction? I just carried a solid wood door 6 blocks on my head and I thought my neck was going to snap like a twig.

On a side note; I discovered another use for my roller derby helmet...

This is my new (old) door:

So what am I going to do with it? Well there is an awful lot of inspiration to draw from on the internets.
Click 'read more' below to see some of them.

Garage Sale Finds

Today we went to our local garage sales, and managed to find a few really cool and fun pieces.

The first item I found was this box full of DIY books. They range from Basic Home Repairs, to Basic Wiring Techniques, to (my favorite) Furniture Repair & Refinishing. Can't go wrong for only $3 for the entire box.

Boring Side Table Re-do

I found this great little side table at a second-hand furniture store.

 
Unfortunately, I forgot to take a before photo.
If you look at the drawer, however, you can see the boring fake wood that it used to be. As well as the original drawer pulls.

To get started, I decided to paint the entire piece grey.
(I have a guest room that is grey, yellow and black)
That was a little too boring for me, so I taped off a border on the top, and drew a quatre foil pattern in pencil.

Teepee Coat Rack

We need a coat rack.
I don't really want to spend $75 on a sub-par and boring one, so I figured I would make a simple one myself.

This is what I started with: 1" dowels, twine, and paint.

Then, I used the twine to test the placement, and to see how far the feet would spread.

Haunted Attic Chair Sneak Peak

Hi all,

I am absolutely dying to show you our haunted attic chair, but I am missing only one component in order to finish it.

Until I get that piece, I can't post it... BUT I can give you a sneak peak at where it started. The photo below is just after I cleaned the pieces and began to puzzle it together.

This is a bit of the background:

Before we moved into our home, we had to have vermiculite removed from the attic. While they were up there, we also had them re-insulate the attic to avoid issues later on (winter). The guys pulled a bunch of items from the attic including files from 1961, a vintage light-up lawn snowman, Tupperware, and finally a box full of wood pieces. The wood was in a plastic bin that had water in it, leaving the ends of some of them moldy.

 After cleaning the wood pieces with vinegar and water, I thought I might have a rocking chair on my hands.
At this point, my husband protested! He said, "If that is a rocking chair, and it gets assembled, and it starts rocking on its own one day... I'm outta here!"

Soooo....
Stay tuned to see if is haunted or not...........

Fan Fun

I found this fun little Caframo fan at Value Village for a couple of bucks. On a whim I decided to buy it.
Despite its small size, it pushes a significant amount of air, and its quirky triangular stand is appealing to me.

Upon getting it home, I realized that it has an un-polarized plug on it. That tells me that it has a little bit of age to it. Since I find history of things very interesting, I started googling Caframo and their products. This is what I know: Caframo started in 1955 and are Canadian.

Going Back To My Childhood

We were in an antique shop in July, and came across an old Arborite (or Formica?) table - 1950s.

Never in a million years would I have believed that I would deliberately BUY an Arborite table, but I gotta tell ya, this is the SEXIEST one I have ever seen.
Even my husband liked it!

So after managing to get it home on the roof of the Jetta, we set it up in the dining room, however, I suspect it will end up in the kitchen.




Here is the table in its original form, no polishing, no cleaning... and I guess THAT is why these table stand the test of time!

I Love Lamp: Articulating Floor Lamp

I found this little gem at my favorite second-hand furniture shop for $8. The shop is a little out of the way, but they often have some really great items. If you like something, however, you have to buy it on the spot, lest it get taken away by someone else.

Space Planning... for TV?

As a designer, I can tell you that floor plans and space planning is one of my favorite things.
That is exactly why I am so excited to stumble across Iñaki Aliste Lizarralde's webpage.
He has drawn the floor plans based on what you can see in popular sitcoms.

For example, Friends; Monica & Rachel's apartment and Joey & Chandler's apartment:

Then there is Frasier, of about the same era:

What to do with pine needles?

As previously mentioned, I live in a 128 year old home. The great thing about an old house is that they come with mature trees. One of those trees, however, distributes needles all over my deck and patio. Not that either are in great condition, but everyone wants their space to look as good as it can, right?

So here I am, sweeping up needles, to the point where I end up with an entire bin of them.

I started to wonder what I could possibly do with them.
To the Google machine!!

Cabinet Craze

I really need a place to put all of my sewing supplies, especially if I am going to continue to re-upholster furniture.

Enter this mid-century modern credenza that I found at a second-hand furniture store for $10.

It was functionally, fantastic.
Aesthetically, however, it needed some serious work.
The top had some bad staining, as did the inside.

 As such, the cabinet and doors needed to be sanded.

Chair Goes Pattern Crazy

Our neighbour put this and several other pieces of furniture out on the curb back in July.
My husband, who has been looking for a good chair to sit in for reading, thought this would be a great addition to our house.

I had to agree; I mean it was clean, in good shape, and definitely had potential. Heck, it even had the colour green, which is the colour accent we will be using in the room that this will be going in.

As soon as we brought it home, we pulled the skirt off of it to give it an instant modernization and clean look.

Chair-palooza!!

I am officially a dumpster diver!
Okay, so no dumpster was actually involved, but I did find these in front of a neighbour's house.
They were going to throw them out after saving them from an old hotel that was closing.
Unfortunately, the guy saved them, only to have them be left outside for a year.

I am excited to see what I can do with them.

This one is from around the 1930s.
It would have had a seat cushion and a back cushion, originally.

The wood is in great shape despite weathering the storm.

There are still original springs, also in fantastic condition, that will not only keep the new cushion in place but also make the chair comfortable.

*UPDATE* Mission Chair

Mid-century modern side chair.

Should be a fairly simple restoration.

The wood is a bit more weathered than the previous piece, but perhaps with a little sanding, I will be able to re-stain it back to its former glory

*UPDATE* Mid Century Modern

Another 1930s piece.

The seat cushion is missing. I mean, the cushion was there, but it was so water-logged and heavy, that we didn't want to put it in the car.
Plus, it had a bit of weeds growing out of it...

The wood (again) is a bit worse for wear, but we will see what can be done about that. If it comes down to it, it can be painted and turned into a real bold, dynamic piece.

The pièce de résistance is this last one.

It is mid-century modern.
Probably in the best shape out of the four.
The wood can easily be restored, the upholstery project will be the most difficult than the others, but will probably be the most rewarding.

I am so excited about these finds. I cannot wait to see what I can do with them.

I also have a chair that we found in the attic. It has already been assembled and painted, but until I find foam for the cushion, it as yet to be blogged about.
Stay tuned!

*UPDATE* Attic Chair

Mart Stam Chair Help

I found two Mart Stam chairs randomly at a second hand furniture store. The owner didn't seem to know what he had, so I scooped them up for cheap.