lake superior blue.

Published on by Quandie43 Comments

lake superior blue title

A little while ago I told you about the Fusion custom color contest.  After some confusion about when the deadline was for submitting colors, I can confirm that it has definitely been extended to March 31, 2016 (instead of February 29).  Which means I had some time to get my act together and submit a piece myself.

To participate in the contest, you have to create your own custom color by mixing together two or more existing Fusion colors.  Then you have to name your color and paint something in it.  Check out their Facebook page for more details.

custom color contest

When my sister was over for my hatbox party the other day, she played around with mixing some colors and she came up with a gorgeous dark teal blue by combining equal parts of Homestead Blue and Liberty Blue.

debbies colors

So I asked her if she wanted to team up with me to paint a piece to submit to the contest using her color and my painting skills.  We even went halfsies on the paint.  She had a jar of Liberty Blue and I had a jar of Homestead Blue.  We mixed our two paints until we got a color that we thought was perfect.  Our recipe ended up being 3 parts Liberty Blue to 2 parts Homestead Blue and it leans a little more towards blue than Debbie’s original half and half mix (although it certainly doesn’t look that way in the jar!)

lake superior blue

Debbie hadn’t come up with a name for her color though, so I gave it some thought.  I wanted to name it something that reflected our partnership, but also described the color.  I thought about our trip to Duluth last fall and came up with Lake Superior Blue.

vintage Duluth postcard

I knew this color would be the perfect choice for updating this piece …

lake superior before

This was another freebie from my friend Terri’s Uncle Don.  The finish was in terrible shape and the bottom drawer was completely stuck.  Poor Mr. Q spent quite a long time getting that thing out.

Although the top of the credenza had numerous stains (I think someone probably kept house plants on it at one time), I decided to attempt to stain it rather than paint it.  I wanted the warmth of some wood to pair with the cool Lake Superior Blue.  The existing finish on this one was so dried out that I was able to easily sand it off with just a couple of passes with the palm sander.  Also, it was so nice out last weekend that I was able to work on it right there outside on the deck so creating a bunch of dust wasn’t an issue.  I sanded it down first, then I decided to try bleaching some of the heavier stains.  I used a q-tip to apply bleach just to the dark stains, then left the piece out in the sun for an hour or two.  Then I sanded some more.  I wasn’t able to eliminate all of the stains entirely, so I stained the top with in a dark walnut to camouflage them a bit more.  I then added a wipe on poly in a satin finish.

ls top

This was the darkest stain and although I didn’t remove it entirely, in the scheme of things it blends in fairly well.

ls stain mark

Here are the knobs that I ended up with on this piece.  It took me a while to land on this choice.  I’ll be posting more detail about this choice on Wednesday, so be sure to check back!

ls knobs

That brings me to the trim detail on the two upper drawers.

That’s metal.  I debated removing it and filling the groove with wood putty, but I think it would have been difficult to disguise it completely.  I also considered just painting over it.  The Fusion would have stuck to it, and that would have been a very reasonable choice.  But ultimately I decided to work with it.  It was a brassy gold to begin with, but I added some gold rub ‘n buff to give it a more of a gold leaf look.

ls front

I purchased this India board game box on eBay many years ago.  The colors worked beautifully with the credenza, but I had a lot of trouble with glare on it in my photos.  I originally tried hanging it on the wall, but for some of the shots I had to angle it in strange ways in order to not just get a shiny blank in the photos.  So for some final shots, I just took it down from the wall.

ls India

And voila!  Here is the Lake Superior Blue credenza!

lake superior blue credenza

What do you think of our Lake Superior Blue?

Voting for the contest begins in April so I may have to call on you guys to go and vote for us!

Sharing at Friday’s Furniture Fix!

a shabby stool.

Published on by Quandie17 Comments

I’m always a little sad when I find an already shabby, painted piece that is just not quite right.  Let’s face it, as much as we try to recreate an authentic chippy, shabby, aged finish using all of the fabulous products available to us, we are still only approximating the look of a genuinely aged piece.  But those genuinely aged painted pieces are hard to come by.  If they were a dime a dozen, people like me would be out of work (or out of a hobby might be more accurate).  And when we do find them, many times they cross the line from fantastically shabby chic to just plain shabby.

shabby stool before

Such was the case with this stool.  It’s so close to being fabulously chippy, but darn those cigarette burns!  They just aren’t charming at all!  I had to deal with cigarette burns once before (on this piece) and they can be seriously frustrating.  On that earlier piece I sanded and I bleached, and in the end I used a dark stain to try and disguise them.  On this stool I went in a different direction.  I wanted to clean things up just a bit, without losing the chippy vintage paint job entirely.

First I pulled out the Fusion Colour Blocker, which I just discovered has a new name, Concealer.

Fusion color blocker

Just so you know, this product is not a stain blocker or a primer.  Concealer is made from 100% recycled waste pigments.  It costs about half as much as the paint.  The idea is that when you want to paint a dark piece white, you can start with a coat of two of Concealer first and then follow that up with another coat (or potentially two) of your final shade of white thus saving some money on your paint costs.  In my case, I used this product much like its name implies.  I used it to conceal those black burn marks.  I used a small brush and put about 4 coats of Concealer just over the marks.

Once the Concealer was dry, I mixed up some random Miss Mustard Seed whites.  I had several already opened pouches with just a little powder left in them, so I mixed up about a tablespoon each of Ironstone, Grain Sack and Linen.  I painted on two coats of milk paint.  I did not paint carefully or try to fully cover the entire stool.  In fact, I specifically avoided the large area of chipped away paint on the top of the stool.  One the milk paint was dry, I sanded the stool fairly haphazardly to ding it back up again.

And voila!

stool after

Burn marks are gone, gross drippy marks are gone … but the shabby looks is retained.

stool

I’m choosing to forgo a top coat of any kind on this stool.  I want to see how the milk paint wears over time without one.

stool 2

So, the next time you see a painted piece that has crossed the line into just plain shabby, consider giving it a milk paint makeover!

stool with books and clock

two degrees of separation.

Published on by Quandie27 Comments

two degrees title

You’ve all heard of the concept of six degrees of separation, right?  This is the theory that absolutely everyone is connected by no more than six other people.  This led to the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”.  Any other Footloose fans out there?

Well anyway, today I am officially two degrees of separation away from one of my earliest decorating idols, Rachel Ashwell!

ashwell

Yep, I’m definitely a fan from way back …

ashwell books 2

I’ve got all of her books …

ashwell books

And now we are separated by just two short degrees!

A while back I was contacted by Chantelle from Bungalow 47.  They are the distributors for Rachel Ashwell’s new line of chalk and clay paint.

ashwell paint

She asked if I would be interested in sampling this new line of paint products.  My answer was “Um, YES!  Where do I sign?”  After all, Rachel’s shabby chic movement was what prompted me to begin painting furniture in the first place!

So I picked out a color, Caribbean Sea, and Bungalow 47 sent it off to me along with a can of their Clear Primer and their Clear Coat.

The next step was trickier.  It was finding just the right piece to paint!  I hemmed and hawed, and went round and round with myself.  I had a couple of dressers lined up to paint, including the ‘battle scar dresser’ from last week, but none of them seemed “Rachel” enough.  I also knew that I wanted to add some vintage wallpaper into the mix, so I needed a piece that had a spot for wallpaper.  I debated painting my own armoire, but decided it just wasn’t ‘vintage’ enough.  And then I came across this piece …

ashwell dresser before

A lovely linen press with two doors in front that would provide the perfect spot for some vintage wallpaper.  It looks as though at some point these doors had embellishments of some kind on them.  You can see a ghost of them, but whatever was there is long gone.

Painting the dresser was a breeze.  I followed my usual m.o. of cleaning my piece with some TSP substitute first.  Then I painted my first coat of paint straight up out of the can.  Once dried, I could see that I needed just a light second coat to get perfect coverage.  Bungalow 47 suggests dipping your brush into the paint first and then into water to get a thinner coat of paint, but I went ahead and actually poured some paint into a small container (another empty Talenti ice cream container if you must know) and thinned it out by mixing water directly with the paint.

After the second thin coat, the coverage was perfect.  Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic paint is a chalk and clay paint, and much like other chalk paints it dries to a very matte finish.  At this point I had some options about a top coat.  According to the instructions from Bungalow 47, I could have gone without a top coat if this piece didn’t need much protection from wear.  In that case their instructions are to buff the finish with a clean dry towel.

I also could have waxed this piece.  The Rachel Ashwell line doesn’t include a wax yet (they are working on developing one), but you can use another brand of wax with it.  The Miss Mustard Seed wax is my personal favorite.  But I’m all out at the moment.

So in the end I decided I should just try the Rachel Ashwell Clear Coat since they had taken the trouble to send it to me.  I don’t normally use a clear coat, so I have very little experience with them.  Chantelle had warned me about the potential for water based clear top coats to draw stain from under paint.  Are you aware of this?  I was not.  I should have listened to her when she explained this the first time, but you know me, I always prefer to learn things the hard way!  So, I went ahead and added two coats of Clear Coat to my dresser.  The next evening I proceeded with adding the wallpaper to the doors (to read more about how to wallpaper furniture, check out this post).  As I was doing that I noticed that there was some discoloration around the edge of one of the doors.  I thought maybe I’d gotten a little messy with the wallpaper paste, but then it wouldn’t wipe off.  A closer inspection revealed that I did indeed have stain bleeding through my paint.

ashwell stain bleed

The next day I ran home on my lunch break from the day job so that I could inspect the dresser in the light of day.  Sure enough, I had stain bleed thru in a few other spots too.  Yikes!

Luckily all was not lost at this point.  You can use the Clear Primer to solve this problem.  I painted a coat of the Clear Primer over the areas where I had bleed thru.  In my case, this was just on the sides and the right door of this piece, the top and the drawer fronts were fine.  Once the Clear Primer was dry, I painted another coat of paint, and then finished with another coat of Clear Coat.  Problem solved.

ashwell linen press cornr

So here’s the thing, even though I had to learn about this the hard way, you don’t have to!  You can just pay attention now and not make this mistake yourself.  Here are your options:

Option no. 1 –  Just start out with the Clear Primer.  If you know you are going to use Clear Coat or a similar water based sealer, then seal your piece first.  In addition, if you have a piece that you are pretty sure is going to be a bleeder even without the Clear Coat, one with a very dark stain, or a very red stain, just hedge your bets and start with Clear Primer.  Yes, you can also use shellac or a stain blocking primer for this purpose.  The benefit of the Clear Primer over shellac is that it can be cleaned up with soap and water and it isn’t as stinky.  The benefit of the Clear Primer over a stain blocking primer such as Zinsser or Kilz is that it’s clear.  If you are going to distress your piece, you probably don’t want to see a white primer underneath your paint color.

Option no. 2 – Wax your piece instead of using Clear Coat.  If your piece is painted and there is no bleed thru yet, you will be fine with wax.  The wax will not draw out the stain if it hasn’t already bled through.  The downsides of wax are that it takes some elbow grease to apply and it is not as durable as a clear coat.  If you are working on a dresser or similar piece of furniture that isn’t going to be subject to a lot of wear, wax is awesome.  Personally I prefer wax over other top coat options most of the time.

So, to recap, Clear Primer and Clear Coat together, or wax.  Got it?  I know I do now!

And after all of that, what do you think of the finished dresser?

ashwell linen press

Oh, and hey, did you notice?  Anybody?  I’m back in the photo cottage!  Spring has sprung here in Minnesota, for the moment anyway.  The snow has mostly melted and I can be out in the photo cottage without freezing my buns off.  It’s always a happy day for me when I get to head out there again.

By the way, I call this piece a ‘linen press’ because of the drawers that are behind the doors.

ashwell linen press interior

Once upon a time I read somewhere that these drawers were intended for storing linens and these pieces are called linen presses.  I kind of love that name, so I go with it.  I love the idea of storing one’s linens in a piece like this rather than in a closet in the hallway.

ashwell linen press angle

Did you notice that this color is almost exactly the same color as my new favorite vintage typewriter?

ashwell blue

There are 9 other equally lovely colors in the Rachel Ashwell line up.

ashwell wallpaper

If you are interested in learning more about the Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic paint line, or if you’d like to order it online simply visit Bungalow 47.

If you are local and are interested in purchasing this lovely linen press, leave me a comment and I will email you with the details!

battle scars.

Published on by Quandie61 Comments

battle scars

Mr. Q and I drove to Apple Valley to pick up this sweet antique serpentine dresser a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately I have once again neglected to take a ‘before’ photo, drat!  But I can tell you that someone had ‘refinished’ this dresser by applying a thick, drippy and very shiny coat of polyurethane to the entire thing.

The ad clearly stated that the dresser had some additional issues (you’ve got to admire honest people!).  Both of the two lower drawers had holes in the bottoms.  They were caused over time by the drawer bottoms rubbing on the metal drawer stops.  I assumed that the drawers were rubbing because the stops weren’t pounded in far enough to clear the drawer bottoms, easy enough to fix.  In hindsight, I should have realized the problem was more significant.  But luckily I have a secret weapon in my back pocket, or should I say next door?  Ken the handyman to the rescue!

Whenever I bring home a dresser that needs repairs I call Ken to come over for a confab.  We start with trying to figure out what is causing the problem.  In this case, the drawer runners were worn down from years of use as were the bottoms of the sides of each drawer.

Those worn down parts meant that each drawer would sort of fall down about ¼” in the back.  So when the drawer was pushed in all the way, the back of the drawer was sitting about ¼” lower than the front.  That’s why it rubbed on the drawer stops.  It also meant that the drawer fronts would be a little angled and not sit in the openings properly.  I hope this description is making some sense to you.

So, not only did the drawer bottoms themselves need to be replaced, but we needed to build up the bottoms of each side of the drawer where they were worn down.  And by “we”, I really mean Ken.  Here is what he came up with.

drawer bottom

He trimmed the sides down so that they were even and level with the back.  He replaced the drawer bottom, and then he build up new “sides” for the drawer to rest on.

drawer bottom 2

Next, he added extensions onto the runners inside the body of the dresser.

drawer runner

Now the drawers remain level, they slide in and out easily and they don’t rub on the stops.  And they have fresh new bottoms!

Ken really did all of the hard work on this one!  Once he was done with the repairs, I stripped the top of the dresser and waxed it with Cece Caldwell’s aging cream.  Let’s talk about that for a minute.  I am sure there are going to be a few of you who think I should have done something about the stains, gouges and unevenness of this dresser top.  Since the top is solid wood and not a veneer, I could have sanded the life out of it to create a smooth and blemish free top.  But I happen to love those battle scars, and when I say “sanded the life out of it” I mean it literally.  I like seeing some history on my pieces.  As long as these flaws don’t compromise the functionality of the piece (like the drawer issues did), I like to keep them.  I know this philosophy isn’t shared by all.  Wouldn’t the world be a boring place if we all liked the same thing?

battle scars top

Once I’d made the decision to strip and wax the top, I decided to go with chalk paint on the body instead of milk paint.  Remember that very shiny coat of poly that I didn’t get a photo of?  Had I gone with milk paint I probably would have gotten some significant chipping.  Yes, I love a good chippy piece.  But I felt like a smoother chalk paint finish would be a nice juxtaposition with the rustic top on this one.  I also could have gone with a more feminine paint color to play up the curvy-ness, but instead I went with a masculine medium grey (this is Annie Sloans’ French Linen).

Before I move on, I should also mention that this dresser did not come with its original hardware.  I’m sure that was long gone.  Instead there were some of these Early American style drawer pulls on it …

early american drawer pulls

I am not a fan of these.  So I removed them and filled the extra holes with wood putty.  I gave this dresser some lovely glass knobs instead.

glass knobs

I staged this piece with the radio I snagged at a garage sale last summer and of course I had to include Annie Sloan’s Room Recipes for Style and Color.  This is an awesome book, if you haven’t already seen it.

battle scars radio

I also used my grandfather’s water color.  I haven’t used this in a photo shoot in quite a while, so there are probably some of you who have never seen it.

grandpa's watercolor

I have two watercolors that my grandfather painted.  They both have a fab mid-century feel, but this one is my favorite.

french linen dresser

 I love the yin and yang of this dresser.  Feminine curves with a masculine color, battle scarred top with a smoother paint finish and pretty glass knobs.  These choices all create a nice balance, don’t you think?

This dresser is currently available for sale.  If you are local and interested, leave me a comment and I will get back to you with the details.

In other news, since it appears that Ken now needs his own fan club, I decided to get going on a virtual t-shirt design.

fan club t-shirt

What do you think so far?

Linking up with Friday’s Furniture Fix!

bright and sunny.

Published on by Quandie25 Comments

Last Saturday dawned bright and sunny here in the Twin Cities.

bright and sunny

Kind of crazy for us to have sunshine and highs of 60 in February!  But not to worry, we returned to snow, clouds and highs in the 30’s on Sunday.  It seems that the beautiful spring-like day was special ordered just for my hat box party.  Sunlight was streaming in through the windows, we even had them open to add a breath of fresh air.

I had everything all set up and ready to go for my guests.  Everyone received printed instructions and a tiny hatbox that was ready to have the paper removed from the transfers.

hat box directions

hat box supplies

Quarters were a little tight unfortunately.  I wish I had a ton of space for stuff like this, but I just don’t.  I had made the decision to include all 9 of the ladies who wanted to attend rather than limit the numbers.  We squeezed in and made do.

hatbox class

hatbox party 2

Everyone started out by painting their hatboxes with Fusion paint.  I had a few options for colors including Bedford, Linen, Champlain, Lamp White, Limestone, and even Laurentien.

hat box party 1

(thanks for the photos Kim!)

Once the paint was dry we used Fusion’s Transfer Gel to apply the transfers.  From that point, the gel has to dry for six to 12 hours, so I pulled out a hatbox I had prepped the night before and gave a demo on how to remove the paper.

hat box transfer demo

Just look at the rapt attention on their faces!  They were all very diligent students!

Once I demonstrated how to remove the paper, everyone got the chance to remove the paper from their tiny hatbox samples.  These turned out so cute!

tiny hatboxes

In addition to playing around with hatboxes, I also had a bunch of tester pots of Fusion paint colors available.

fusion paints

I wanted to give people the opportunity to play around with some color mixing and maybe create their own custom color for Fusion’s contest.

custom color contest

Unfortunately, I kind of missed the fine print on the contest not realizing that it ended on Monday.

Update:  due to some confusion over the deadline for submitting your custom color, the contest has been extended.  You now have until March 31, 2016 to submit the recipe for your color, the name of your color and a photo of something painted in it.  Submit your entries on Fusion’s facebook page here.

Fusion paints 2

Woops!  Oh well, my sister came up with some nice blues anyway …

debbies colors

I think the highlight of the class was that everyone got to meet my favorite handyman Ken!

Ken

I happened to have a dresser on hand that he had recently fixed for me (come back on Friday to see it finished), and as I was talking about the amazing work he does a couple of ladies said they’d love to meet him.  So I phoned him and ask him to pop over.  I think he was torn between mortification at being the center of attention, and being a little bit tickled about all the attention!  I told him that he now officially has a fan club!

I think that everyone had a great time.  Most of the attendees have reported back that their hatboxes turned out great once the paper was removed the next day.  A huge thank you goes out to Fusion for providing the paint and transfer gel that we used, plus some extras for door prizes.  And a big thank you to all of the ladies who attended, it was a really fun afternoon!

the haunted typewriter.

Published on by Quandie18 Comments

Do any of you remember my post about the dresser that my friend Terri gave me?  I titled the post “another one bites the dust” and then went on to tell about how her uncle had died and left a house full of vintage goodies behind.  The title of the post referred to one of my Christmas ornaments that rolled off the dresser while I was taking pictures and bit the dust.  It never even occurred to me as I was writing the post that it might seem like the title referred to Terri’s uncle!

Duh!  Sometimes I’m a little dense that way.  But a number of you noticed it and commented.  Luckily Terri saw the comedy in the situation and didn’t take it the wrong way.

This is especially lucky because when she came to my hatbox party this past weekend she gifted me with a few more goodies from her uncle’s house including a haunted typewriter!

haunted typewriter

Why haunted?  This fabulous little blue Royal typewriter came in a case.  When Terri opened the case she found that there was a piece of paper in the typewriter and here is what it said …

gone

(insert creepy soundtrack music here)

No lie people!  I think Uncle Don left us a message from the grave.

But I don’t care if this baby is the veritable Ouija board of typewriters …

royal close up

it’s perfect in my eyes.

This is actually typewriter no. 2 from the uncle’s house.  You’ve already seen the first one, this sweet little ivory colored Remington …

desks

The Remington also came in a case and when Terri first told me about it she said she thought it was blue.  I swooned a little when she said that because as you may know pale 50’s aqua blue is ‘my color’.  When I opened the case and found the ivory typewriter I’ll admit that I was a little disappointed.  The feeling didn’t last long though, because this is a pretty sweet typewriter in its own right.

So when Terri showed up on Saturday with another typewriter from Uncle Don’s house, and this time it really was blue, well, I couldn’t have been more tickled.

typewriter on desk

vintage typewriters

And then to make it even more fabulous, she also gave me Uncle Don’s old camera!

Spartus camera

The Spartus Full-Vue will join his brethren in my non-collection of vintage cameras.

vintage cameras

Uncle Don may be ‘gone’, but his fabulous things will live on under my care.  Thanks a million Terri!

Check back on Wednesday for a synopsis of the hatbox party, which was great fun.  I’m also nearly done with a fab antique dresser, so I hope to be posting about that at the end of the week.  Stay tuned!

suburbia.

Published on by Quandie4 Comments

It seemed like an appropriate choice to celebrate Mr. Q’s birthday at the Minnesota History Center’s Suburbia exhibit this year along with my sister and my niece.  After all, this exhibit begins with an exploration of the post-WWII building boom and the birth of the suburb.  OK, that era pre-dates Mr. Q just a tad, but he and I (and my sister as well of course) are not far behind that at the tail end of the baby boomers.  We didn’t find the first segment of the exhibit all that exciting, it was slightly interesting in a school history lesson sort of way.  But the next section of the exhibit, Living in Suburbia, was more fun for us.  Well, most of us.  I think my niece was bored throughout the entire thing.  But since the rest of us grew up in the 60’s and 70’s, many of the articles on display here really spoke to us.

Like this ranch style kitchen …

1-suburban kitchen

Both my sister and I spotted these chrome cannisters straight off.  Not only did my mom have a set of these, but she passed it on to my sister who has them still.

1-suburbia cannisters

In fact, wait a minute … I have photographic evidence.  Here is my mom circa 1961 (I’m pretty sure she is pregnant with my sister in this photo) and there are her canisters.  At first glance it appears as though she had quite a few more than the History Center’s set, but I think that’s just a reflection in the matching chrome bread box (where obviously we kept the Wonder Bread!).

vintage mom

And here is Debbie now, channeling her inner Vanna White …

1-suburbia freezer

Do any of the rest of you remember when freezers where this size and you had to defrost them regularly?  I know new neighbor Karen does, because for her it was just two months ago (she’s almost done with a major kitchen remodel).

I loved this display of vintage bar-ware.

1-barware

Have you ever heard of a wall mounted refrigerator?

1-wall fridge

Yep, that’s a fridge.  I guess they never became popular, but I bet there were plenty of people who just had to have them at the time.

This display totally cracked me up …

1-suburbia keys

Do you know what this bowl of keys refers to?  Here’s a hint …

1-suburbia key exhibit

I’m fairly certain that my parents never participated in any “key” parties, but then again, who knows?  Do you think I should ask my mom now?

Leaving the ranch style home exhibit we were able to hop into the station wagon and head over the the last section of the exhibit.

1-car

Honestly just sitting in this car was a blast from the past.  Cars without seat belts?  A bench seat?  Windows that had to be rolled up and down?

Shopping in Suburbia, the last segment of the exhibit, focused on the advent of the shopping mall.  For those of you that are not from around here, did you know that the first fully enclosed shopping center was right here in Minnesota?  It makes complete sense considering our climate, right?  This was a no-brainer.  Southdale Shopping Center opened in 1956 and was developed by the Dayton Company.  I bet I’m not the only Minnesotan who still misses Dayton’s Jubilee Sale, am I?  Also, did you know that the Dayton’s also opened the first Target store in Roseville in 1962?  Target was intended to be the ‘discount version’ of Dayton’s.

When was the last time you saw a woman dressed up like this for shopping at the mall?

1-shopping

The coolest part of this exhibit for us was the drag and drop multi-media table.  It featured aerial photos of six shopping malls in the Twin Cities area dating from when they were first developed to the present day.  You could zoom in, zoom out, move sideways, all while also moving the timeline from then until now.  What made this especially interesting for us is that our house isn’t all that far from Maplewood Mall, which was one of the six shopping centers included.  We were able to manipulate the images to show our house from way back in the early 1900’s up until now.  In the earliest photos our house is the only one standing.  For those of you who don’t already know this, Mr. Q and I live in a 1904 farmhouse that has since been swallowed up by suburbia.  Now our neighborhood consists of 50’s and 60’s ranch style houses with a few 70’s split levels thrown in for good measure, plus our 1904 farmhouse.

I thought this display as you’re leaving the exhibit was terribly clever.

1-question

What a great way to raise extra funds.  I think there might be just a few more no’s than yes’s.  What’s your answer?  Is suburbia your American dream?

By the way, the Suburbia exhibit is just one of many exhibits at the History Center.  While there, I had to make sure that my niece experienced the tornado in the weather exhibit, which is one of the permanent exhibits.  The tornado alarm goes off and everyone heads to the ‘basement’ which has been recreated based on a typical 1960’s home.  You hunker down in the basement and listen to news reports of the oncoming storm.  You watch the sky turn orange and then green through one of those tiny basement windows typical of back then.  The wind picks up, the power goes out, a tree falls outside the window, you can hear things crashing around upstairs and the whole room vibrates with the power of the tornado.  Once the storm passes the vintage TV comes back on and shows actual footage from a series of tornadoes that struck in Fridley, MN in 1965.  It’s really well done and a good reminder of how dangerous nature can be.

My sister was fascinated by the small exhibit on the collapse of the 35W bridge in 2007.  I am sure that every single Minnesotan remembers that day, and I bet that each one of us had at least one (if not more) friend or family member that we knew commuted across that bridge that time of day.  For me it was my bff, Vonda.  I was so relieved when I called her and she told me she hadn’t been on the bridge at that time.  Ironically, in 2007 my sister still lived in New Jersey of course, and she was the one who called me about the bridge collapse.  I was out in the driveway washing my car.  I still remember her calling and asking me if I had heard about it.  I hadn’t, so she’d learned of it before me!

If you are local, you should consider a trip to the History Center.  Just for the record, I am not affiliated with the History Center in any way and I am not being compensated for this post.  I paid my $12 to get in just like everyone else (except members, who get in for free I believe).

Well, that’s enough history for today.  Let’s look forward to what’s coming up soon here on q is for quandie.

My hatbox party is tomorrow!  I’ve been cranking out hatboxes right and left.  I wanted to be sure that I had a good handle on how the Fusion transfer gel works so I made up a few more hatboxes.  Sure enough, it worked great on light colors.  I even got better results with my Paris opera graphic on this one.

opera hatbox

I wish I could tell you that it worked on the black hatboxes too, but I could not get it to work using pale grey printed graphics.  I tried it 4 times and each one was a fail.  Maybe I’m doing it wrong.  Maybe the graphic I chose doesn’t work with pale ink?  I even tried it on both black chalkboard paint and Fusion’s black paint.  I’m not really sure what the deal is, but FYI, I couldn’t get it to work.

Also, I discovered that the Graphics Fairy has a whole bunch of mirror image graphics that are perfect for the hatboxes (or any other transfer image projects).  If you don’t already know about the Graphics Fairy, be sure to check that out here.  This fab graphic is from her site …

hatbox graphic

As is the one on the front of this box.

hatbox graphic 2

Meanwhile, even though I haven’t been painting any furniture lately, I’ve been picking up furniture right and left.  I plan to get started painting some on Sunday.  I’m going to begin with the piece that I picked out for the Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic paint and the vintage wallpaper from Hannah’s Treasures.

coming soon

I have gone around and around on this project.  I felt like I needed to have just the right piece for this paint.  Not because the paint isn’t versatile, but because I wanted the piece to be worthy of THE Rachel Ashwell paint.  I was originally going to paint the armoire in my own bedroom, but in the end I just wasn’t feeling it.

Then I brought home another gorgeous dresser that I was sure would get the Rachel paint.  But in the end I decided that milk paint would be better for that one.

But now I have the perfect piece.  A lovely linen press that Mr. Q picked up for me.  I paid a little more than usual for it, but I think it will have been worth it.  The planned treatment for it is very similar to this linen press that I painted way back in June 2014 …

wallpaper 1

So stay tuned, I hope to have it posted here soon!

a vintage suitcase collection.

Published on by Quandie21 Comments

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time you might know that I tend to insist that I am not a ‘collector’, which frankly is total crap.  The true story is that I am in denial.

I do have one basic rule about collecting though, which is that I never spend a lot of money on my ‘collectibles’.  OK, no, I don’t always stick to the rule either.  But I have been around the block enough times to know that I will grow tired of my collection at some point and by then no one else will really want it either.  It’s highly unlikely that I will ever get any money back out of it.

Case in point, my chintzware collection.  Vintage chintzware saw a resurgence in the 80’s and 90’s.  I loved it at the time and I purchased it whenever I found it.  But over the past several years I’ve moved away from the flowery-ness of it.  So now I’ve sold most of it.

chintz on porch closeup

Even though many of my pieces had been purchased at garage sales, there were a few that I paid top dollar for at shops or online.  I know I didn’t get my money back out of those and that taught me a valuable lesson; collectibles go out of style and lose their value.  Usually right about the same time that you get tired of them, everyone else does too.

Or maybe that’s just me?  What can I say, I am highly influenced by trends.

So when I collect things it’s just because I love them, not because I think they’ll be valuable one day.  Which brings me to my latest collection, vintage suitcases.

vintage luggage

I just added a new one.  I recently stopped into La Garage on my lunch hour and purchased this for $23.50.

vintage suitcase new

I loved the camel color leather trim and handle.  Plus the fact that it’s called the “Travel Joy” doesn’t hurt either!

travel joy

I’ve mentioned La Garage before, it’s a shop just a few blocks away from me (in No St Paul) that buys out estates.  So it’s like an estate sale in a shop.  Their furniture is always priced too high for me to buy it, paint it, and resell it ($269 for a dresser).  But the pieces they have are all in great shape and don’t appear to need repairs or refinishing.  If you like unpainted vintage pieces, La Garage might be a great resource for you.

Although it’s lower than what you might pay in a vintage shop, the $23.50 is a bit on the high end of what I normally pay for a vintage suitcase.  For example, sometimes I get really lucky and find a stash of vintage cases at a garage sale for $2 to $3 each.

mac grove vintage luggage title

In the past several people have asked me where I find all of my vintage suitcases.  In addition to La Garage and garage sales, I’ve also found a few nice ones at occasional sales like this pair that I purchased for $12 each last summer.

lucky vintage luggage

Currently I am stacking all of my vintage cases next to the Welsh cupboard in my dining room.  The stack is growing!

stack of vintage suitcases

So, in case you are keeping track, although I’m not really a collector, besides vintage suitcases I also don’t really collect ironstone …

hutch ironstone

tiny dressers …

q branch wall quote

vintage alarm clocks …

clocks 7

vintage cameras …

cameras

blue bird china …

bluebird china 2

oh, and let’s not forget the vintage Christmas ornaments …

ornaments 4

Good grief!  Maybe I need a 12-step program after all.

How about you, do you ‘not really’ collect anything?

tgif.

Published on by Quandie23 Comments

So, here it is Friday and I got nothin’ to blog about.  Yikes!  Usually I am overflowing with stuff to post about.  But somehow, despite the fact that I had a four day weekend last weekend, I haven’t managed to actually complete a project (aside from my squarely modern chair) and get pictures of it in time for today’s post.  I didn’t want to leave you all hanging on a Friday though, so I thought I’d share some pictures of the hatbox kits that are all ready to be popped in the mail for the two lucky winners, Wendy & Lori.

hatbox kit

They will each get a hatbox, instructions for how to dress it up and a selection of reverse images to transfer.

hatbox instructions

They’ll get the two colors of Fusion paint, plus a jar of Fusion’s Transfer Gel …

hatbox paint

While I was picking up the hatboxes at Hobby Lobby I came across these funky mounted deer heads and I couldn’t resist them.  So I threw one in each kit.

hatbox kit

Wendy and Lori can paint them however they like.

By the way, if you are considering making a hatbox of your own, they are on sale through tomorrow at Hobby Lobby for 50% off.  It’s a great time to stock up!  If you would like a copy of my instructions, leave me a comment and I will email them to you.

Since hatboxes were on sale, I bought a few extra myself and tried a couple of different looks.

hatbox options

I had seen a black hatbox on pinterest that I really liked, so I painted one in black chalkboard paint.  I added the wording using stencils.  I’m not sure whether or not the transfer method would work on black.  Maybe if you printed something in a pale grey ink?  I may have to experiment with that a little.

hatbox options 2

If you look closely at the smaller hatbox (which is painted in Fusion’s Cathedral Taupe by the way) you can see that my transfer didn’t work so well towards the bottom.  That was my fault, I scrubbed a little too hard while removing the paper and ended up removing ink as well.  This can happen, especially with a more detailed/delicate graphic, so use caution if you are trying this yourself.  Personally I like a distressed look, so I’m OK with it.

While I had my paint out, I painted up a bunch of tiny boxes for my upcoming party.  I’ll go ahead and finish these through letting the transfers dry and then my guests can practice removing the paper.

hatbox samples

I’ve got a lot on my plate this weekend including a trip to the Minnesota History Center with my sister and niece to see their Suburbia exhibit.

surburbia

We’ll also be celebrating Mr. Q’s birthday!

So I’m just warning you, I may not have anything worthwhile to post next week either.  But stay tuned, I have a couple of great pieces of furniture coming up soon!

fab finds on craigslist.

Published on by Quandie23 Comments

Before I get on with today’s post, I want to congratulate Wendy and Lori, the winners of the hatbox kits.  I have sent them both emails and will be sending out their hatbox kits later this week.

fab finds on craigslist

Now, let’s talk craigslist.  Usually I am just looking for furniture on craigslist, but lately there have been slim ‘pickins.  The pieces that I like are priced too high, and the pieces at decent prices are just not worthy of a makeover.  So in a moment of desperation last week I decided to troll the ‘antiques’ section.  I usually avoid that category because I find that most people who have ‘antiques’ want big bucks for them.

I was just quickly scrolling through the ads when a photo of this caught my eye.

ironstone soap dish

It’s a little ironstone covered soap dish.  I have been looking for one of these for more than a year now!  I’ve wanted one to store my Miss Mustard Seed brush soap next to my kitchen sink.  You know you clean a lot of paintbrushes when you need to keep your brush soap this handy.  And when I say “looking for”, what I really mean is that I keep an eye out for them when I happen to be in an antique store or vintage shop, and I would snatch it up if I happened to see it at a garage sale (obviously this hasn’t happened).  It also means that I’ve looked at them on Etsy, where they tend to be priced around $50 plus shipping.  In other words, way out of my price range.

This one was $12.  I should point out that it does not have the strainer inside for keeping the soap dry, which can bump up the price.  I saw a really lovely one with a strainer on Etsy for $68.  Yikes!

So clearly I was super excited when I saw it and immediately made arrangements to pick it up.  The seller was located in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood of Minneapolis, one of my favorite garage sale neighborhoods.  For even more fun, he said he had a few other pieces for sale as well.

Mr. Q and I drove out last Friday evening and when all was said and done, I came home with all of this (plus one more item I’m saving for last).

ironstone

The most expensive piece was the little covered casserole in the back at $36.  But isn’t it sweet?

ironstone casserole

I couldn’t resist it.  It has such beautiful details on the handles and the shape is unique.  Speaking of beautiful details …

transferware tea pot top

This brown transferware teapot was a super bargain at a mere $5.  But, there was a reason for that, it has a large crack in it.

brown transferware tea pot

This poor teapot will never hold water again.  There is a trick to using pieces like this as vases though, just put a smaller watertight container inside.  It’s also suitable for display of course.  And I just happened to already have the matching creamer …

brown transferware set

The gentleman who was selling these was very knowledgeable about antique china.  He said that he acquired his first ironstone platter when he was 5 years old!  He had some really lovely antiques in his home as well.  I was seriously coveting some beautiful small oil paintings that he had on the walls, and Mr. Q really enjoyed seeing an amazing antique clock that had all wooden parts except for one brass gear.

As we were getting ready to leave, he showed us a couple of other transferware pieces that he had in his dining room.  While standing there, a piece that he had in his china cabinet totally caught my eye.  Those of you who know me by now won’t be at all surprised when you see what is was!

mini soup tureen

A teeny tiny soup tureen.  Complete with a teeny tiny ladle.  Good grief, that thing was calling my name.  So based on my ‘it never hurts to ask’ philosophy I asked if he would consider selling it.  Sure enough, he was game!

And it looks right at home on one of my tiny dressers, don’t you think?  The thing is only about 4″ tall.

mini tureen on dresser

So, all in all I ended up with some pretty fab finds from that craigslist ad.  How about you?  What’s the most fab thing you’ve ever purchased on craigslist?