July 2014 – Page 2 – q is for quandie

photo cottage final reveal.

Published on July 16, 2014July 15, 2014 by Quandie15 Comments

I can’t tell you how happy I am with my decision to turn my summer house into a photo studio, now aptly named the ‘photo cottage’ (thanks Darrielle!).

I am having a great time staging my furniture makeovers in the cottage and getting great pics. I have found that I have to time it properly. Morning light is much better than evening light because it’s not reflecting off of my red carriage house. Bright sunshine is best, but I can fake it a little if there are clouds. My next goal is to research my artificial lighting options so my timing can be more flexible. Since I have a day job masquerading as an accountant, morning photo shoots might be few and far between.

I thought I would pull the makeover all together into one final post for you. First, a quick ‘before’ collage of the summer house.

It was charming and lovely, but sadly underutilized. So let’s head on in and check out the new look!

The door handle on the cottage is an old hand held garden tool that Ken affixed to the door. To the side of the door is my planter and watering can on a pulley. Those poor begonias look pretty sad. I never have luck with them! I usually don’t buy them, but these were just such a gorgeous deep pink.

The bricks that make up the stoop are from an old brick patio that used to be in front of my deck. We pulled them up a while back to make the patio larger and we replaced them with flagstone. I saved the brick and have been using it to edge my gardens and I also used it here. Honestly, the bricks are just stacked in place. No mortar or anything. They have held up quite well though.

After painting the inside walls and floor white, adding a grey diamond pattern to the floor, and having Ken build a faux wall insert for the back window, I now have the perfect canvas for furniture photo shoots.

And on the other side of the room, I have a cozy seating area in case I ever do want to just relax out there and read a book (ha, as if I really ever do that!). Plus, I finally came up with the perfect spot for the Paris sign that I purchased from Curious Sofa.

You may recognize the chair. It was a makeover from last winter. I brought it to Junk Bonanza, but there were no takers. I also had it out for my Carriage House Sale, but again, no go. Sometimes things are just meant to be mine! This chair is quite comfy too, especially with the added pillow which is covered in one of my favorite vintage monogrammed pillow cases.

I used the space above the window to display some of my chippy green garden tools.

And across from the chair is the cupboard for storing my photo props.

For a little better perspective, here is a shot of that entire side of the cottage.

It’s not a large space at all, but it has just enough room to make a perfect stage for freshly revamped furniture! I know I will get a lot more use out of this space now. You are sure to see a lot of it on q is for quandie!

seeing red.

Published on July 15, 2014July 14, 2014 by Quandie12 Comments

A while back my pal Cathy texted and said she picked up a FREE dresser for me!

Woo hoo! Free!

Then she dropped it off.

Yikes. No wonder it was free. It came complete with a horrible paint job and some half removed stickers.

Then I got the brilliant idea that this would be a good candidate for attempting to strip paint. You may remember that learning how to strip was my goal for this summer (not that kind of stripping, get your mind out of the gutter). So far I have mainly just stripped varnish and stain, not paint.

After all, this dresser has decent bones, and those knobs are rather fab so why not give it a go?

All I can say is, wow, what a mess. I didn’t take photos because it was so disgusting and messy, I didn’t want to go anywhere near it with a camera. It took three passes with the stripper to get the paint off. Everything was covered in paint/stripper goo. My tools, my driveway, my apron, my shoes, my legs. Egads! And after all of that, the stain underneath that paint was one of those horrible red bleeding stains. No amount of paint will cover that stuff.

Well, when you can’t beat ’em, you just paint ’em red.

This is Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Tricycle. I waxed with a custom blend of clear wax and dark wax.

There are still shadowy areas in the finish that are a result of that stain bleeding through mostly on the top drawer front.

But that just adds to the character of this one.

Those knobs are pretty cute, and the base definitely has some charm.

This dresser would be great in a kids room, or maybe in a mudroom or laundry room for a pop of color.

I’m passing the savings on to the buyer with this one and pricing it at a mere $125. If you need a cute red dresser, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you with an email.

P.S. After a very productive weekend, the finished pieces are piled up like cord wood. I’ll be posting something fab every day this week. Stay tuned!

crackled linen dresser.

Published on July 14, 2014September 14, 2014 by Quandie9 Comments

Mr. Q and I picked up this beautiful antique dresser on the other side of the city a couple of weeks ago.

The seller was a very nice gentleman, but as soon as we stepped inside his house I knew he wouldn’t be happy that I was going to paint it. It was probably because the house was full of lovingly refinished antiques. Lots of shiny wood. Everywhere.

I wasn’t going to mention that I would be painting it, but he asked me outright what I was going to do to it, and since it was already loaded in the truck at that point, I figured it was safe to admit that it would be painted. Sure enough, his response was “oh, I wish I hadn’t asked!”

I should have kept his contact information though because I like to think that he would be happy with the end result. True, it’s painted, but I got the most lovely crackled finish on this one. I feel like it almost looks more authentic painted than it did with its former semi-shiny poly finish.

What originally drew me to this piece was this trim on the sides. I knew it would just pop with a little paint and distressing.

The top of this dresser was already stripped when I got it, and it looked so nice that I decided to just wax it.

The body of the dresser got a base coat of Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Eulalie’s Sky, followed by two coats of MMSMP in Linen. I was hoping for some chipping to reveal the base coat, but got very little. You can see it peeking out just a little in some spots, but it is subtle.

I finished with MMS furniture wax.

I also painted the hardware. That is milk paint, and I did not use the bonding agent. So, as you can see, milk paint will stick to metal. Not always! But in this case it did. All I did to prep the hardware was wash it with dish soap and a toothbrush. Not only did this dresser have all of its drawer pulls, but it even had all of the keyhole escutcheons. That is extremely rare with most of the stuff I work with (in other words, lower priced pieces, lol).

I staged this guy with some lovely hydrangea that I picked up at my local Bachmans. I wish I could say these grew in my garden, but no.

I added some vintage wallpaper as a backdrop for my first photo shoot.

Then I thought perhaps I should try some shots with the window.

Now I have managed to provide myself with another conundrum. With window, or without?

Both lovely. At least I think so. What do you think?

~~This lovely antique dresser is for sale for $245.~~ Ooops, this one is sold.

minty fresh.

Published on July 11, 2014July 10, 2014 by Quandie24 Comments

If you are a Miss Mustard Seed follower (as I am), you’ll have seen her recent post about inventing a new minty color for her friend Layla.

It was great timing because I had also recently pinned this fabulous minty chair.

And I was contemplating a fresh new color for the vanity table I was about to paint. You’ll remember this vanity, I posted about it many moons ago and said I needed to get around to painting it.

Well, I finally got around to it.

I don’t know what I was waiting for. I could say that I was waiting to find the time, but the really honest answer is that I knew I had to deal with some veneer issues and that was holding me back because repairs aren’t my favorite thing to do. I like to just get on with the painting. In the end, the repairs were really simple and didn’t take much time at all. I simply removed all of the remaining veneer from the decorative scrolly bits at the bottom of the drawers on each side. It came off very easily. The scrolly bit on the left side of the mirror was a bit more work. Ken had to rebuild a portion of it and then I had to do some gluing and patching.

But once all of those little tasks were completed, I was able to get to my favorite part. Painting.

I used Miss Mustard’s recipe for Layla’s Mint, but then I added a little extra Eulalie’s Sky. I wanted my mint to lean a bit more towards the aqua end of the spectrum.

For clarification, or if you are trying to match it, here is my exact recipe using Miss Mustard Seed milk paint:

This made more than enough paint for the vanity. But when I am custom mixing like this, I always err on the side of extra paint. I know it would be difficult to match it exactly with a second batch if I run out of paint, and this would be a serious bummer. I plan to use the excess to paint an oak chair, and I can always add a touch of something more if I don’t have quite enough for the chair.

OK, so, enough of this babbling. What do you think?

Once again I did not get any chipping, bit I did get some great crackling.

I should back up and explain that I was painting this vanity in the Carriage House during a thunderstorm. So we are talking some major moisture in the air. The milk paint was not drying nearly as quickly as it did in the middle of winter inside my heated house. So when I had painted the entire thing once, and realized the drawers I started on still weren’t dry, I got out the blow dryer. I know that blow drying leads to crackling, but this piece was starting to crackle even before the dryer came out.

You may also have noticed that there is vintage wallpaper peeking out from underneath this piece. I thought it would add a touch of fabulosity, but I was hoping it would be a little more noticeable. My friend Sue says it’s sexy to have just a little bit showing like this, so I’m going with that!

I have some more of this wallpaper left and I think it’s gorgeous. I’m sure it’s going to make its way onto another piece of furniture in the future.

Meanwhile, this minty fresh vanity is ready to go!

Wait! One last thing. Did you notice? My first real photo shoot in the new studio. I’m loving that floor! And the faux wall is perfect behind the vanity (a window would have been very strange). If you are wondering how I took this shot without appearing in the mirror, it was a combination of cirque du soleil style contortion-ism and being able to open the lower half of my door while leaving the top half closed. Those Dutch doors are very handy!

when is a window not a window?

Published on July 9, 2014July 8, 2014 by Quandie7 Comments

When is a window not a window?

When it’s a wall!

Abracadabra. It’s a window again.

The solution to my rear window conundrum? To have Ken build a faux wall that I can put in and take out on a whim.

How cool is that? I can have my cake, and eat it too!

That Ken is so clever. He built an insert to match the existing wall that fits just inside the window opening. Then he added little handles on the back so I can slide it into place easily from behind the shed. He also added a hook to the window so I can hook it up and out of the way when the “wall” is in place. The window, by the way, was already on hinges at the top.

I’m so happy with this solution. When I want to take photos of furniture I have the option of a solid wall backdrop, or a window backdrop. And one day, when I get tired of revamping furniture for a hobby, I will still have the fab window in my shed.

Coming soon, some ‘minty freshness’ followed by a wrap up post showing some final photo studio ‘after’ pics. Stay tuned!

fab furniture photo studio, cabinet.

Published on July 7, 2014July 6, 2014 by Quandie7 Comments

Remember the old cabinet that was in the summerhouse before I began transforming it into a photo studio?

Well, there is a bit of history behind this cupboard. When we moved into our house, the bottom half of this was in the Carriage House and it was pretty filthy and beat up. Not that I mind beat up, but I can do without filthy.

The top half of it was in the kitchen. That’s why the top half is so freshly painted. It fit perfectly on top of the radiator, and the radiator itself was enclosed by a faux cabinet bottom that made it look somewhat like a piece of furniture. Except the bottom part was poorly constructed, and it had terrible doors with inserts that were meant to let the heat flow out. And a horrible formica top.

So, when we revamped the kitchen, we decided to remove it all and just add a small shelf to the top of the radiator, see …

Much better.

Anyway, when we removed the upper cabinet, it occurred to me that maybe it would fit on the shabby cabinet that was out in the Carriage House. Not only did it fit, but it appeared to be original to the piece. There are grooves in the lower cabinet that perfectly match the upper cabinet. I was bringing them back together again!

I moved it into the summer house and it has been there ever since.

As part of my photo studio revamp, I decided to clean it up a bit and use it to store photo props.

I knew that adding a little vintage wallpaper here and there would up the fab factor.

So I ordered some from Hannah’s Treasures on Etsy and then added it inside the drawers.

And I ordered some more from Rosies Wallpaper on Etsy and added it to the lower shelves.

If you’ve noticed that the glue along the front edge isn’t quite dry, please ignore that. I’m too impatient and it is so humid here today that it just isn’t drying on my time schedule.

You’ll notice that I used different wallpaper on the shelves from that in the drawers. Yeah, I know. I could have matched them, but what would be the fun in that? This way I get to enjoy two fabulous vintage patterns. Also, before I move on, I have to say that both of these Etsy shopkeepers were fab. I received both of my orders within days and they were packaged very nicely. The colors on their Etsy page were spot on, and the paper was in excellent condition. I was impressed (and I am in no way being compensated for this tidbit, just wanted to give them credit where credit is due).

As you can see below, I also repainted the interior of the top section with Annie Sloan’s Duck Egg. I knew it would work beautifully with the vintage wallpaper.

I also changed out the hardware on the upper cabinet. It did have some very nice glass knobs, but I wanted something a bit more rustic looking, so I switched them out for these.

Next came the fun part, filling it up with photo props! I’ve been accumulating a pile of photo props for a while. I’d like to not have to remove everything from my house each time I stage a piece of furniture.

At this point, you are probably thinking to yourself “hey, wait a minute, I thought those walls weren’t pink anymore?!” They aren’t. This is one of two things, either a reflection from the giant wall of my red Carriage House which is right behind me while I’m taking this photo, or a reflection off the red shirt I had on. I’m going to have to work on this problem. Do you think Mr. Q would be OK with a plan to paint just that one side of the Carriage House white?

But meanwhile, the cabinet is full of my photo props with room for more as I find them.

So there you have it. A slightly revamped cupboard full of vintage fabulousness.

Next up; how Ken and I deal with that back wall!

fab furniture photo studio, phase one.

Published on July 6, 2014July 5, 2014 by Quandie11 Comments

The potting shed is well on its way to becoming a fab photo studio!

First up, I scraped the existing pink walls and then used the hose to power wash the interior.

At that point, I realized that there was yet more scraping to be done. Sigh. I hate prep work.

Next came two coats of white over everything.

This is some serious whiteness.

Time to add some interest to the floor. I contemplated a damask stencil, but in the end I just had to go with my standby fave, a diamond pattern.

Out came the tools of the trade.

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like to tape when I paint a floor. The taping takes so much time, and you go through so much tape. You also have to deal with bleed thru. Of course, you could tape it all, then paint with the base color again to prevent paint bleeding under the tape. But, then that is another step as well. Personally, I’d rather just draw the pattern on the floor and paint it in freehand. I have a pretty steady hand for this, but a good angled brush makes it fairly easy. Also, it really doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect in here.

I started by finding the exact center of my floor, and then I started measuring out from there, using a square to keep the lines nice and straight.

If you look closely, you can see that I originally drew a smaller square, but then decided I wanted them a little larger.

After several hours of back breaking work (seriously, I am getting too old for crawling around on the floor for 4 hours), I have a fab floor that I totally love!

I think this is going to make an awesome backdrop for furniture photo shoots. As I have found with my grey and white striped walls in the house, pretty much any color furniture looks great with this combo. And on the rare occasion when it just doesn’t work, I can always throw a rug down.

Just for kicks, I decided to do a trial run photo shoot.

As I hoped, the studio does work like a big walk in light box.

So far, so good. Next up, Ken and I came up with a great solution for that back window. We’re going to work on it next week.

I also am revamping the cabinet that will go back in here and contain my photo props. Stay tuned!

Sue’s pop up vintage sale.

Published on July 4, 2014July 3, 2014 by Quandie7 Comments

Are you headed up north for the holiday weekend? Maybe to your lake home? or your cabin in the woods?

If so, lucky you! If not, you are also in luck because Sue is having a pop up vintage sale!

On a whim she decided to host a small sale at her house in her fabulous dining room … you remember her fabulous dining room right?

Well, now you have a chance to see it up close and personal with the added benefit of lots of lovely things for sale.

And I am guessing that you could easily take a quick spin around her garden in the back and she wouldn’t mind.

Need some ironstone?

Maybe some white platters?

Or perhaps some fabulous vintage linens?

This floral oil painting is simply gorgeous (please squint a little to try and ignore the reflection of me in my striped jacket taking this photo!)

There is some black to punctuate all of the white (and oh no, more of my stripes, clearly this was a bad clothing choice for taking photos).

And some lovely florals.

I even saw this guy poking his head out from a pile of stuff for sale.

The main reason Sue decided to have this sale was to offer up some of her gorgeous china. The pieces are priced individually, so if you don’t want a whole set, but just some gorgeous plates to eat dinner on … or maybe a lovely set of dishes for serving just dessert, then this is perfect for you. And omg, you can even see those stripes reflected in the platter! Good gracious.

There are several lovely patterns to choose from. Wouldn’t that small bowl be perfect on your dressing table to hold your bracelets?

So, if you’ll be in town this weekend why not plan to swing by Sue’s house on Saturday morning? I’m sure you’ll find something lovely to add to your home, and if nothing else just being near Sue’s gorgeous gardens and lovely home will inspire you!

Here are the details:

so many projects, so little time.

Published on July 2, 2014June 29, 2014 by Quandie16 Comments

Sometimes I bite off way more than I can chew. I have all of these ideas, but no time for the execution. That darn day job really eats into my time.

Remember the front hallway from last winter? We got as far as ripping off the carpet and I meant to get it painted before spring, but the opportunity to participate in Junk Bonanza came up, and it got pushed to the bottom of the list.

Then, I had a brilliant plan to turn the summerhouse into a furniture photo studio. I was optimistic and thought I could have it done before my Carriage House Sale. As if. Instead I barely got the furniture out of there and cleaned up to sell. It’s sitting there vacant at the moment waiting for a paint job.

I’m also debating how to deal with that rear wall. The plan, as you may remember, is to turn this into a furniture photo studio. That back wall will be the backdrop. Do I create a fake solid wall back there? Do I remove the window and create a real solid wall back there? Do I devise multiple interchangeable backdrops? Do I paint the floor, or leave it bare wood and use various rugs in my photos? So many possibilities.

Then there is this dresser that my friend Cathy nabbed for me. FREE. Needs a lot of work!

I am planning to strip it because I really want to give it a MMSMP chippy finish, and I don’t want the current horrid color to show through. I have no idea if it will have been worth so much effort, but aren’t those knobs pretty darling? I’d love to paint this one red, but since my first red dresser still hasn’t sold after 9 months I’m hesitant to do any more red.

I also think it would be fantastic in yellow, so I might just do that.

I also want to revamp this cupboard that was in the summerhouse.

There is a bit of a story behind this guy, I’ll share it with you when I post the before & after. But for now, just know I’m thinking of adding some vintage wallpaper and trying to make the top look a little less fresh.