Antique Screen Door Turned Headboard!

Hello, everyone!

I have been so busy that I haven't been able to take on any projects for a while. However, I did manage to squeeze this one in, and it's a really exciting one!

My mom found this old Victorian wooden screen door on an abandoned house in Portsmouth, VA about 20 years ago, and never did anything with it. Her dream had always been to use it as a headboard for their king size bed. After all this time had passed, and the door had been under a layer of dust in the attic, I finally decided to get it out and bring it back to life.

I wanted to use it as a headboard myself or a wall hanging of some kind. My mom didn't want it any more so she gave me the go ahead to do whatever I pleased with it. So I ripped out the screen, sanded any splinters off (the finish was pretty much gone anyway) and then I painted one layer of rustic looking pastel sky colored paint. Then I gave it a light distressing with sand paper. This was a really easy makeover, there wasn't a whole lot of surface to cover.

I tried hanging the door sideways like a headboard, but because of the handle (which I thought looked cool so I didn't want to remove) it wouldn't lay flat. I felt like I just couldn't keep it up on the wall securely enough to sleep well at night. I would not want to awaken to that thing falling on our heads! So I stood it up behind the bed and hung a votive candle holder shaped like a branch in the space, and I think it looks really cool the way it is! I love the spindles on the door, typical Victorian accents. Here are some photos-

Double chair makeover- red under black

Hello, all!  This is a makeover that I did for a friend of the family- my first paying job!  She wanted these two chairs made over with black paint over red paint, and then distressed so the red shows through underneath.  It took me a long time to get these done, due to the fact that they had the double paint colors and of course..there were two.  I think they came out really amazing, though!  She liked them enough to ask me to makeover another piece of her furniture, so I guess I did OK. I never saw the seats, but I think she is going to use something with a bold print.  I thought they would look cool with a bright colorful print of some sort.   Take a look-

 This is when one chair already had two colors on it, and the other was about to turn black.  just wanted to show the red underneath.

These are the chairs before.  Just blond wood, light finish.  Definitely more stylish now, I would say. ;)

Chippy Black Kitchen Table

I finally got our table painted!!  This table is only several months old, and is from the Target website....everything I can't STAND in a piece of furniture.  But it was the right style and is very sturdy, so I felt that given a romunky makeover (I made up a new word- it's romantic+funky,) this table could actually look cute.  So I sanded the plasticky finish down and painted it black, then distressed it to look like the paint was peeling.  I used sandpaper, but also one of those hand held cheese graters.  It worked great!  Then I put a coat of clear satin poly on it and it was done.  This was actually easy- it only took about 2-3 hours.  Here are the pictures!

Before- Blonde (cringe) wood with a shiny plasticky (cringe again) finish:

AFTER!!!!

For the Love of Wooden Chairs

Ok, if you all haven't noticed by now....I am addicted to chairs. Specifically wooden ones, and more specifically OLD wooden ones. So I have been on a journey over the past year now to find the perfect set of antique wooden dining chairs. The table has also been part of the journey, but for some reason I have more of an obsession with chairs than tables. So, as you may have read in a previous post, I painted a mismatched set of chairs for our dining area (soon to be an actual dining ROOM after we move). All of these chairs were green or white, and all were distress painted. It turns out that some of them ended up working for us and others didn't. We still have the old chair which I painted mint green that I found in my grandparents attic (seen in my post "My Day As An American Picker.") I also still have one distressed light sage green reproduction pressback chair, which is the only non-vintage chair now, but looks so awesome that I had to keep it. We moved the white ladder back (painted in an earlier post) into our bedroom because the arms were just too cumbersome at our small table, and gained an old spindled kitchen country chair which I found at a consignment shop. I painted the legs and spindles an antique red and then distressed. I wanted to leave the worn wood seat and back for some more variation. And finally, I finished another old chair from my grandparents garage which is probably from the 1900's-1920's and added that one to the collection. This one is old dark wood, rubbed with oil and the missing woven seat is covered in a traditional cardboard covering and upholstery tacks. I am very satisfied with the way things look now. I love a little dark wood mixed in with the lighter paint. I am now trying to decide what color to paint the table...it is not old and you can SO tell. It's an old country style, but it looks like it was dipped in plastic at a factory, which is probably what happened. I am torn between black distressed and antique white distressed. I am leaning towards white. Anyway, the only change I could possibly make to the chairs is if I come across an actual antique pressback, and then the reproduction would have to move over for the real thing. Until then, enjoy some pictures of some fabulous old chairs...( sorry if the photo quality is iffy, I can't figure out how to upload pics from my iPad onto Blogger, for some reason it is not letting me.)

First of all, these are the three old chairs I found in my grandparents' garage and attic.  The one in the front actually was just redone by me for my mom, I will show you pictures another day.  The other two you will spot in the following photos, if you can recognize them....

And here's one of my reproduction pressback looking springy...

Looooove this chair, it looks old and the only thing that will make me happier is a REAL antique pressback (my mom has two but she's not giving them up, and I don't blame her.)  Speaking of pressbacks, I thought you chair lovers might like to read this article, about the the pressback method.

Here also are some photos of one of my mom's amaaaaaaazing Victorian pressback (it was my great grandmother's) hanging out with another reproduction which I painted a darker sage green and distressed.  I like to think they are friends..haha

Is this not the most beautiful chair ever??  I can't believe my mom won't let me have it!  Haha

I also wanted to show you this photo that I found randomly while researching...someone else took almost the exact photo I did of their gorgeous green antique pressback!  Great minds think alike!

Turquoise Antique Table

Hello!  I am actually kind of backed up...I have some projects that I am working on, some that are finished and haven't made it into the blog yet, and others that are waiting in the wings to get made over.  I had already done this little Victorian lamp table a few weeks ago...you might recall it had a funky multi-colored, heavily distressed finish.  Well, I started thinking about it and decided that I didn't really like it the way it was.  And I just had this feeling that it would look really good in a bright teal color.  I distressed it just a little, and topped it with a clear coat.  It looks so good that I want to keep it, but alas, I do not have room for it.  I'll be selling it for $25.  I should note that I also sawed the legs down shorter, closer to coffee table height, and took off the cross beams.  It looks a lot better and I think is more versatile now.

Here's how it looked before the distressing.  It was pretty bright (actually it still is.)

And here it is before I changed it, so you can compare.

A couple of small shabby makeovers

Here are two little pieces that I just finished.  One is a vintage night stand, selling for $25.  The other is a vintage 1940's end table, possibly being sold but actually it is being used by me at the moment.  Here are the photos:

This night stand was white when I got it, so I decided to make it a little more funky.  It is pretty old and had three layers of paint under the white, including blue and yellow.  Distressed lightly, topped with clear poly.

This end table was from my grandparents wedding furniture from the 40's.  It was painted this antiqued red by my mom in the 70's.   I mixed my own grey color using sage green, brown, and white and then distressed so the red showed through, and added a clear poly coat.

I loved this grey color so much that I decided our captains chair needed to be grey.  ;)

My Latest Batch of Vintage Finds!

Hello, everyone!  I wanted to make a post to show you some more of my vintage thrift store finds which I have collected over the past month or two.  I have been frequenting Goodwill, Salvation Army, and my favorite consignment shop filled with ALL vintage, BH&B (Better Homes and Bargains.)  I have had some really good luck lately finding the exact (or as close to exact as it can get) vintage items that I've been looking for.  Some of them are truly old, and others are reproductions or copies that had a cool, funky look.  I have said it before and I'll say it again, I was born in the wrong century!  I feel so much more at home in rooms full of repurposed items from bygone eras, I miss the charm and sophistication of having pride in a room full of antiques...I mean, did I seriously used to shop at Ikea?!  I did, and it wasn't "me."  So now I am feeling more and more at home in my own home.  (Even though we live in a student housing apartment that is technically not our home.)  I think since I know we are moving out of here, I have this weird reverse nesting thing happening...like I am nesting for the place we will settle into after we leave school.  Also, like most treasure seekers, I am addicted to the hunt. ;)

I found this old rocking chair already painted yellow!  I helped its distressed areas look more "artful" and added the red details, then a clear coat.  This is our new porch rocker.  Pretty funky cute!

I found these candle sconces for $2 a piece at Goodwill, and they are some from the 60's which happen to be almost identical to the ones my grandparents have in their living room.  Grandma chic, yeah!

This little mirror came from BH&B.

This is my little collection of mercury glass.  The candle holders are recently made, and have been frosted on the outside to be matte instead of shiny.  The other looks a little older.

Finally, I had been eyeing this chair in BH&B for weeks before giving in and buying it.  I am guessing it's from the 20's or 30's but I'm not sure.  We loved the vintage gold upholstery and the carved wood accents.  Pretty cool!

I will also add that I got the rug on the floor at Goodwill for $25.  It had the EXACT colors i a rug for which I had been on the hunt for months!  I had looked several places and nothing, and then...gotta love Goodwill!  Stay tuned for my next furniture project, a small 2 level table which I hope to finish when the weather warms up a little.

Shabby little antique folding table

I found this little table in my grandparents attic.  It's really old and was originally a little fold-out sewing table.  It is in almost perfect condition for its age (80-100 years old), but it was pretty boring as just a brown table.  So I tried something I have never tried before- I painted it a light periwinkle and then did some heavy distressing to the top to make it look really weathered.  Then I did some stenciling and faded them to look worn as well.  It came out even better than I anticipated.  I will definitely use this technique again!  All  I did was paint it, and then when it was not quite dry I ran the paintbrush over it and let it take some paint off in spots.  Then I used a green paint and did very light lines here and there to conjure the thoughts of moss on wood that was left outside for a while.  It is so charming, don't you think?  Selling this one for $25.  This is the perfect thing for the holidays or any time when you have company over and need more room for people to sit and eat.  It could also work for a kids (or adults) craft table, though I don't think it would survive toddlers or preschoolers.  It's sturdy, but couldn't be climbed on. ;)

Here was the table before: