Category: furniture.

I purchased a dresser from someone via craigslist a couple of weeks ago, and when I picked it up she said “oh, I also have the bed that goes with it, you can just have it if you want it.”

Um, yeah, OK.  I hate to turn down free furniture.

Not too many people use a full size bed in the master bedroom anymore, but they are great for a small guest room.  Or for a child’s bedroom.  Or maybe you only have enough room for a double bed at the cabin?

This would be perfect for all of the above.

I painted the bed with Annie Sloan chalk paint, Old White and Coco.  Then I added some vintage wallpaper border that I got from my friend Michelle to the foot board.

This bed has some charming details, but it’s not overly frilly.  More tailored.

The bed retains its original label, which is kind of cool.

For those of you who are local, perhaps you have heard of the Golden Rule?  It was a department store in St. Paul that opened in 1886.  Eventually it became Donaldson’s, which may spark memories for some locals who go back that far.  The Golden Rule building still stands in St. Paul, although it has been turned into offices.

It really is somewhat challenging to get interesting photos of a bed frame without a box spring, mattress and linens.  While painting this bed, I thought about how it would look fully made.  With pillows in front of the headboard, a good bit of the Coco will be covered up.  I think this bed would be gorgeous with crisp white vintage linens and then a pop of the Coco color with this throw from H & M.

But since I don’t have a spare box spring and mattress handy for a photo shoot, you’ll just have to use your imagination.

So, what do you think?

Going back and re-visiting some of my furniture rehabs from my pre-blog days has an added bonus.  I can correct the photos.  Such is the case with this one, a gorgeous dresser that I painted with MMSMP in Grain Sack last fall.

Those of you who are familiar with MMSMP know that Grain Sack is a white with grey undertones, some might even call it a very pale grey.  In my original photos the white balance was way off.  See …

Wow … looking back I can’t believe I was happy with these photos.  Yikes!

In the new and improved photos, you can see that the color is much more grey than cream.

This dresser has the most beautiful detail.  Is there an official term for that kind of swagged curtain?  Does anyone know?

The hardware was quite pretty as well.

This one ended up with just the right amount of chipping to look genuinely aged.

This dresser sold up at the Round Barn.  I think to the owner’s mom, if memory serves.  I hope she loves it and it is serving her well.

I picked up this petite server at the Highland Park garage sales.  It wasn’t in terrible shape aside from being a bit dinged up.  It really just needed a cosmetic makeover.  An updated look.

I went with Annie Sloan chalk paint in French Linen again.

I felt like the little detail below the drawers needed to be drawn out with some white paint.

 I freshened up the inside of the cupboard area with some dark charcoal grey ‘oops’ paint that I had on hand.

Although I have staged this piece as a server for the dining room, I think it would be perfect in a foyer as a place to drop the keys and mail.

You could put shoes or purses in the bottom cupboard, gloves and scarves in the drawer.

So, there you have it, a fun little makeover.

Don’t you just love a good mystery?  Here is a furniture mystery for you.

I picked up this cabinet at a lunchtime garage sale a few weeks back.  It was being sold by a darling little old lady (don’t tell her I called her old).  She said that she had bought it years ago and attempted to strip it, and just never finished the job.  Unfortunately, I have been a bad blogger again and neglected to take a ‘before’ shot.

But here is the ‘after’.

I’m calling it a mystery cabinet because I simply can’t fathom what its original purpose was.  It doesn’t seem to have much of a bottom, which makes me think it originally sat on top of something else.  Or perhaps it hung on the wall like a cabinet?  Or maybe it had legs.  And the back splash trim at the top is asymmetrical.  Why?  Was this part of a pair?  Does anyone out there have a clue what this might be?

In one of the world’s strangest coincidences, someone has a very similar piece listed on craigslist at the moment.  Here is the picture from their ad.

The ‘before’ condition of my mystery cabinet was very similar to this one.  A sort of mostly stripped off paint look.  Obviously this is not an exact match to mine, but the similarity is striking, don’t you think?  And FYI, the seller is asking $175!  Wowza.  According to their ad, their cupboard is about an inch larger than mine in every direction.  They speculate that it was part of a larger run of cabinets.  You can see that they don’t have the same trim piece at the top that mine has.

Well, despite not knowing what it is, I decided it would be fabulous with a Quandie style makeover.

So I painted it with Sweetie Jane milk paint.  I was inspired by what appeared to be the original paint color that you can still see in spots.

Next I wallpapered the drawers using the same fab vintage wallpaper that I used inside my photo cottage cupboard drawers.  Do you guys love this stuff as much as I do?  It’s just so darn sweet.  I still have a bit left for another project coming soon.

Quick sidebar about the wallpaper because I’ve gotten questions on it before.  I adhered it with wallpaper paste that Mr. Q picked up at Home Depot for me.  I put the paste on the paper, book it for a couple of minutes (booking = folding pasted sides together lightly), apply it to the drawer, smooth it out with a squeegee, wipe off excess paste, let it dry.  I came back the following day and sanded the edges gently.  The paper seems to adhere quite securely.

I added new glass knobs because the piece came without any hardware.  Just between you and me, I like these a lot better than the deep blue anthropologie knobs on its $175 cousin, how about you?

A previous owner had painted the inside in a dark grey.  I left that as is, but also added some wallpaper to the inside of the door.

I staged the little cupboard with some glass jars and clothes pins.  I think it would be fabulous in a laundry room to hold your supplies.  Dryer sheets in the drawers, your laundry soap in a glass canister behind the door.

But then again, I could also see it in a bathroom holding the extra t.p. and other sundries.

Or maybe in your craft room?

The possibilities are endless if you use a little imagination.

Here’s one last picture of it so you can get a better feel for the size.

I’ll likely sell this one at the October Carriage House Sale, unless one of you wants to snatch it up first?

P.S.  my price will be no where near $175!

I have been struggling a bit with the milk paint lately.  I know it’s unpredictable, and it’s hard to control the chippy factor.  I know all about the color variations.  But this summer I seem to be getting one unexpected result after another.  This dresser is a case in point.

Let’s start at the beginning.

This one has lots of potential, right?  It has a little bit of veneer damage, and a chunk of the trim is missing at the bottom.  It’s the perfect candidate for a paint job.

I decided to go with my absolute fave MMSMP color, Kitchen Scale.  I hadn’t used this color for a while.  My own mirrored buffet is painted this color and I absolutely love it.

 It works fantastically with grey, the neutral of the moment.

So I decided it was time for a Kitchen Scale dresser.  I sanded this one quite vigorously because it was in rough shape, and I didn’t want a ton of chipping, just a subtle chippyness.  I have to note here that I did mix the paint a little bit thicker than usual.  I ignored the little voice in my head that was telling me to thin it down a bit more, which may have been a mistake.  I painted my first coat and closed up shop for the evening.  When I went back out the next day, I found a massive amount of crackling.  On every surface except for the sides of the dresser.  The sides didn’t crackle at all, go figure.  Massive, bad, over the top, too much crackling everywhere else.  I should have taken a picture for you, but I didn’t.  When I have issues like this, it generally puts me in a bad mood and photography doesn’t happen.

I will note here that I did not apply heat to the dresser, and it was not all that warm outside and I did not paint under the full sun.  Why the giant crackles?  Was it just the thickness of the paint?  No idea.

I decided to sand the heck out of it again, and try adding another coat of thinner paint.  It had the desired result.  It toned down the crackle.  Oh, it’s still there, for sure, but now it’s at an acceptable level.

Am I the only one who considers this an acceptable level?

Often people wonder if milk paint will continue to chip away down the road, and the answer is no, it shouldn’t.  As long as all of the loose chips were removed as part of the finishing process.  In this case, I sanded the dresser pretty thoroughly and then vacuumed it to remove any loose chips.  I put a final coat of hemp oil on it which also helps the paint remain adhered.  I can run my hand across this dresser pretty vigorously and no paint chips off.

Alternatively, some people choose to leave the chipping paint in place and seal it with a poly finish.  I’ve never tried this approach, but I can see where it would be a fabulous look in some cases.  Maybe down the road, if I get a good chipper, I’ll give this a try.

In the end, I think the dresser is quite lovely.  It has some fantastic details like the angled sides and the carved bits that really pop now.  I kept the original hardware because it is quite charming.  This dresser is definitely distressed and has an aged appearance, but there are plenty of us out there who love that look, right?

Please say yes.

The moral to my story, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again.  You can always sand something down and add a little more paint.

After all, ending up with something that looks like this is not an altogether bad thing.

Anyone out there in the market for a gorgeous distressed dresser in my favorite shade of milk paint?

 If so, leave me a comment and I will get back to you.  Ooops!  Sorry, this one is SOLD.

I painted this gorgeous hutch last summer.  I wish I had a ‘before’ pic for you!  I knew the moment I saw the craigslist ad that this would be gorgeous painted.  It wasn’t horrible, but it was rather outdated looking in its original state with a rather orange-y stain.

I loved the Gothic arches in the glass door and the detail at the top of the cabinet.  I have to admit, this is still one that I look at and think “why didn’t I keep that?”

You can see that I lined the inside with pages from an old Swedish bible.  I hand painted the ‘1863.’ at the top.  It’s not a stencil, I just printed the image off my computer, traced it onto the cabinet using tracing paper, and then painted it in with a small brush.

Yep, she was a beauty.  I sent this one up to the Round Barn and it is long gone.  Sniff, sniff.

I picked this nightstand up at the Highland Park garage sales.  It was pre-prepped for me, meaning the person selling it had intended to refinish it herself, but she never completed it.  She had sanded it and removed the knobs (unfortunately, she didn’t have them anymore).

It was so nice of her to take care of the boring parts of the process for me!  All I had to do was focus on the creative, ie. fun, part.

A while back I made a trade with my friend Michelle.  I found some darling mid-century Italian tole wall sconces at a garage sale that I knew would be perfect for Michelle, and I had been admiring a roll of fab mid-century wallpaper that she had stashed in her studio.  An easy trade.

What I love about this wallpaper?  The colors are perfect, aqua, pink and white with that little touch of metallic gold and black.  Feminine, without being flowery.  Geometric all-over pattern that isn’t difficult to line up.  It’s perfect for my needs.  I was hanging on to it just waiting for the right mid-century piece to use it on.  And I knew this nightstand was it.  So let’s pop into the photo cottage and see how it turned out!

Yep, pretty fab, right?

I painted this with Annie Sloan’s Provence.  Then I added the wallpaper to the back of the cubby area, and the front of the drawer.

A couple of my friends really pushed me to find a more classically mid-century knob for this piece, but after perusing Etsy and finding the knobs I liked to be rather pricey, I opted to go with some vintage milk glass knobs that I already had on hand.  They aren’t typical mid-century.  They were not stark white, but had a bit of an aqua tint.

Classic mid-century base.

 I think the combination of the very mid-century style of the nightstand, the mid-century wallpaper and vintage milk glass knobs comes together nicely to create a ‘mid-century meets vintage’ look.

I’ll leave you with one last b & a.

 What do you think?  A good combo of mid-century and vintage?

Since deciding to spend Saturday sitting beside my bff’s pool drinking special Fresca’s (that’s Fresca with vodka, don’t knock it til you try it, it is very refreshing), I’ve been feeling guilty because I don’t have any fabulous new content for the blog.  I have several projects underway in the Carriage House, but none are quite finished.  I didn’t want to bore you with another gardening post (although I do have one coming soon).  So I came up with a brilliant plan!  I’ll begin a new ‘column’ on the blog sharing some of my furniture rehabs from the pre-blog days.

I’m starting with this darling radio cabinet that became a wine cabinet.

Unfortunately, prior to the blog I often neglected to take before pics.  But this was your basic gutted radio cabinet.  It was empty inside and was open in the back.  Originally there would have been a huge radio inside (‘cuz back in the day, they were huge.  Remember when we thought boomboxes were portable, ha!)?  I think there may have been a turntable inside as well because the top opened.

I bribed Ken into helping me with this one, probably with wine.  He built the shelves which were modeled after the wine storage in my pantry (which he also built).  He was able to tuck them into place with the top off.  Once that was done, he attached the top permanently using dowels and glue.

I tested this out and one could store over two dozen bottles of wine in here.  Not bad.

I used one of my fave stencils on the front.

Back in the day, I mainly painted with homemade chalk paint.  Basically flat or satin latex mixed with Plaster of Paris and a little water.  I had great success with it, and I still use it some times.  It won’t give you the chippyness of milk paint, but it is budget friendly and you have endless choices for color.

I love the detail at the bottom of this cabinet.  It needed to be glued up a bit when I got it.

So the next time you see a beat up radio cabinet at a garage sale (or heaven forbid, at the curb), think outside the box and turn it into wine storage!

Usually when I mention to co-workers or acquaintances that I buy furniture on craigslist and fix it up, they make a pained face and mention serial killers.  As if it is somehow a horrible prospect to them that I would actually go to stranger’s homes on a regular basis.

The reality (for me at least) is that 99.9% of the people I have met via craigslist have been super nice, friendly folks.  Maybe it is because we’re talking vintage and antique furniture here.  Probably not a lot of wackos out there selling grandma’s old dresser (knock on wood, literally).

None the less, I practice ‘safe craigslisting’.  I always have someone with me when I go to purchase an item, either Mr. Q or my neighbor nnK in a pinch.  I also always make sure that someone else is around when I am having a buyer over to see a piece that I have finished.

Sometimes we just really enjoy the people we meet via craigslist, and the seller of this mid-century dresser was one of those people.  He was scrupulously honest about the condition of the dresser.  He had the dresser pulled out of the garage and ready to go when we got to his house, which was immaculately maintained, by the way.  He and Mr. Q had a great time quoting old ’80’s movies.  We also learned some interesting stuff about his neighborhood off McKnight Road in St. Paul that was originally developed for employees of 3M, or as those who remember it from back in the day, ‘the mining’.

It was really just a pleasant way to spend a part of the evening, and as a bonus I got to come home with this.

Fun, right?

How many of you out there are mid-century fans?

I’ll admit, I’m not really a fan in so far as I will probably never do mid-century in my own home.  That being said, I love the look in other people’s homes.

I took some inspiration from pinterest and tried some color blocking on this one.   I was going to use my standby fave color, aqua, but then I saw a dresser painted in grey, yellow and white and decided to venture a bit outside my normal color comfort zone.  And I LOVE it!

I revamped this with a mishmash of products.  The grey is an ‘oops’ paint from Home Depot.  It was $2.  I mixed it with plaster of paris and water to create my own chalk paint.  I wanted a deep, rich grey and this one was perfect.  The yellow is a Behr sample.  I could have used the MMSMP in Mustard Seed Yellow because they are very close to the same color.  In fact, I could have done this entire piece in MMSMP using Trophy for the grey and Linen for the white.  However, I definitely didn’t want this one to get chippy, so I opted for homemade chalk paint for the yellow as well, and Annie Sloan’s Old White for the top two drawers.

I used 3 different waxes on this one too.  Never let it be said that I am not detail oriented, and possibly a bit picky about my results.  The grey is waxed in a custom mix of dark Briwax and clear paste wax (the cheap stuff, SC Johnson).  The dark wax gave a little more depth to the grey and reduced the blue tint a bit.  The yellow is waxed in clear SC Johnson.  For the white however, I have found that you have to pull out the big guns to avoid yellowing your whites, and that is Miss Mustard Seed’s clear furniture wax.  Not a bit of yellowing with that one.

I had considered staging this one with some fab mid-century stuff borrowed from some friends, Mike and Meg.  They have the most fabulous ranch home that is completely decked out in classic mid-century modern.  Even all of their poolside patio furniture is collector quality mid-century.  But in the end, I was too impatient.  I wanted to catch the light in the photo cottage while I had it, so I staged it very simply with some of my own stuff.

The water color was drawn by my grandfather.  I have a pair of his watercolors, and they are on the list of stuff I’ll never part with.  The book, Welcoming Home:  Creating a House that Says Hello, was written by a friend, Michaela Mahady.  Her husband, John, and Mr. Q are coffee shop buddies.  Michaela is an architect at SALA and does gorgeous work.  She and John also do beautiful stained glass work through their Pegasus Studio.

But, I digress.  The color blocked mid-century modern dresser was a fun departure from my usual style and I really enjoyed the process.  And it looks great in my photo cottage, don’t you think?

So, mid-century, are you in or out?  Grey, yellow and white?  You love it, or it’s not your cup of tea?