q is for quandie

I’m beginning to think that Mr. Q has a soft spot when it comes to orphaned furniture.  People offer him something and he just can’t refuse.

Last summer he picked up some furniture for me at a garage sale.  While there, he was offered this chair for free and so it came home with him.

Ugh!  Is this thing ugly or what?  Just to be clear, this is vinyl you are looking at, not leather.  And that stuff hanging down underneath, I don’t even want to think about how many years of dust mites were accumulating under there.  It was so gross!  At first I thought I’d have to put this one at the curb with a free sign on it, but then I decided maybe it could be salvaged after all.

You may remember that last fall I did a little experiment with painting vinyl.  I painted the vinyl seat on a wheeled doctor’s stool.

It has held up remarkably well.  I sit on this stool to paint furniture, so it gets a fair amount of rough wear and so far it still looks just as good as day one.  So last weekend I decided to paint this freebie chair as well.

I cleaned it up really well using TSP substitute first and then I painted the vinyl with Annie Sloan’s chalk paint in Provence.  I taped off the square pattern in the center of the back and added some of Annie Sloan’s Old White.  By the way, I am totally aware that those are not technically ‘squares’ but rather rectangles, but “rectangularly modern” didn’t make nearly as catchy of a blog post title!

Next I painted the legs in Fusion’s Copper (from the Studio Mettallics line).

Once all of the paint was dry, I sanded the chalk painted vinyl with a fine (320 grade) sand paper allowing the edges to get lightly distressed.  Then I finished with a top coat of Fusion’s bees wax.

I also knew I needed to clean up the underside of this chair.  I pulled off the really disgustingly ratty previous fabric that lined the underneath of the chair.  It was hanging half off anyway, so removing it was pretty easy.  Then I dug through my fabric stash and found some remnants of the perfect vintage barkcloth to use on this chair.

Could those colors be any more perfect?  I kind of feel a little bit sad that this fabric is hidden away underneath the chair now.

But since the bottom of the chair kind of bulges out a bit I knew that just a hint of the fabric would show, so I wanted it to be pretty.

I totally faked it with this upholstery job using a staple gun and without any sewing.  The remnant I used had one pre-existing hemmed edge.  I started by placing that edge at the front of the chair and stapling it in place.

I just cut out around the legs and folded the excess fabric under.

By the way, the above photo shows what gives barkcloth it’s name, there is a sort of nubby, tree bark-like texture to the fabric.

The piece of fabric I had wasn’t quite large enough to do the whole chair, so I totally rigged up a fix by adding a different piece to the back of the chair and tucking it under.  I just left the raw edge as is, but I may still add a little bit of stick-on velcro there to make sure it doesn’t get saggy.  For the raw edges at the sides of the chair, I just rolled the fabric under as I stapled creating an edge that won’t fray.  So yeah, like I said, I totally faked it!

I staged the chair with some mid-century modern glassware that I snagged at the thrift store a while back.  I loved the copper metallic on gray geometric design on these glasses.  I wonder if these were originally black and faded to gray, or if they started out gray?  Either way, I love the gray now.

So, there you have it.  A little trash to treasure revamp using mainly paint and a bit of fabric.

On another note, I fell asleep long before midnight last night so haven’t had a chance to draw names for the hat box kits yet (check back on Wednesday for that).  However, there were six who wanted to join in the party so my plan is to just squeeze everyone in.  The more the merrier I hope.  I’ll just bring in an extra table and we’ll all get friendly.  If you left a comment indicating that you’d like to join, I’ll be sending out an email with the particulars!  So stay tuned.

Here is another bit of a sidebar for you as well.  My friend Kathy (this would be the same Kathy that came over to paint toolboxes) has now been bitten by the painting bug.  Recently she painted a wooden plant stand and she had to share it with me.  She was channeling her inner-Quandie, so she sent me ‘before’ and ‘after’ pics.

Kathy is a bit of a crack up though.  She wanted to stage her ‘after’ photo like I would, hence the vintage books, but she added a little bit of her own personality too. She added Mr. Lincoln in honor of President’s Day, so I’m sharing him with you too.  Enjoy!

One last bit of housekeeping news.  You may have noticed that I added a new page to my blog called “available for local sale.”  I thought it would be easier to have one place to send people to if they are looking for a piece of furniture to purchase.  I will keep that page updated (at least I’ll try my best) and it will list any pieces that are currently available as well as their price (including today’s squarely modern chair).  However, please always feel free to email me at qisforquandie@gmail.com if you are interested in purchasing any pieces you see on my blog.  I don’t ship, but if you are a local buyer I’d love to hear from you.  I will continue to maintain my ‘fab furniture’ page just as a spot to track all of the pieces I’ve done over time.

OK, that’s all the news for today.  Let me know what you think of the squarely modern chair, and those of you in the U.S., Happy President’s Day!

Sharing at the Making Broken Beautiful party at the Curator’s Collection.

Mr. Q crossed state lines (to Wisconsin) a week or two ago to pick up this desk for me.

I thought the vertical trim on the corners was lovely.  I knew that a little paint would really bring out those details.

First step was having Ken work on the structural integrity.  He glued up some joints and replaced all of the screws holding the top on.  He also had to re-glue a couple of the drawers.  Once that was done, I stripped the top.  You can see in this next photo that there was a shadow on the top of this desk.  I suspect that there was a desk pad in place for a long time and as a result the desk top faded all around it, but not under it.

After stripping, I sanded this some by hand.  Since it’s veneer, I didn’t want to sand too heavily and sand right through it.  If I had been able to completely eliminate that shadow, I would have then just waxed the top.  However, although it was diminished somewhat, I could still see it.  So I decided to stain the top to help even out the color.  I added two coats of Varathane gel stain in Dark Walnut.  Since I am far from being an expert wood stainer, I really like working with a gel stain.  They are super easy to apply, I just wear gloves to avoid staining my hands too, and then use an old t-shirt to rub the stain on.  I find that I can work the stain without it getting streaky or uneven.  I waited 24 hours and then added a couple of coats of  Minwax Wipe on Poly in clear satin using that same technique.  I don’t usually use a poly, but I do like it for desk tops that might get a fair amount of wear.

Unfortunately that shadow is still there.  Perhaps I should have tried bleaching that area a little.  Or, I cold have gone with a really dark stain like Java gel.  But although the shadow is obvious when the desk top is empty, once there are a few things on top it’s not so glaring.

Another problem this desk suffered from was ‘ring around the drawer pull’.

See that groove worn into the wood around the drawer pull?  That is from the pull being too loose and spinning around, thus wearing that groove into the wood.  So sad.  Usually when you see this problem it’s because the escutcheon pin is missing from the drawer pull.  On many old pieces of furniture with this type of pull, there is a tiny little nail that holds the back plate stationary so that it won’t spin.  Those are often long gone on older pieces.  However, in this case there were never any pins.  The handles had just been allowed to work loose over time and no one took the time to tighten them up.

I added a little wood filler to all of those circular grooves and then sanded them smooth so that when I painted the dresser they wouldn’t be quite as obvious.  You can still see them if you look closely, but they are far less obvious …

I sanded all of the flat surfaces lightly before painting, but I didn’t sand the detailed corners at all.  I was hoping for some chipping!  As it turns out I was hoping in vain; I didn’t get any chipping at all.  I even tried my masking tape trick (using tape to pull the paint off creating more chipping) and nada.  This is Miss Mustard Seed’s Typewriter milk paint by the way, and it’s finished with hemp oil.

I also painted the back of this desk.

The desk is trimmed out all the way around so that the back is presentable and could face out, so I went ahead and painted it too.  The middle piece of that back was positively calling out for a stencil, so I couldn’t resist using my new “Jardin de Fleurs” stencil there.

I used Martha Stewart acrylic craft paint in Grey Wolf.  I’ve mentioned this before, but when I stencil on black I don’t like to use white paint because the contrast is too heavy.  The Grey Wolf is actually a medium grey, but on the black it reads as ‘white’ without being too harsh.

One final fix that I thought I would share with you is replacing the doodads that keep the drawers from pushing in too far.  You  know, these things …

 I think I’ve established that I often don’t know the proper names of tools and other hardware.  I get a lot of funny looks at my local Menards store when I ask the employees if they have those ‘metal thingamajigs that keep the drawers from getting pushed in too far’ or ‘that tool with the slide-y thing on the ruler’.  I was never able to find these at any of my local hardware stores, but I did ultimately find them online at VanDyke’s Restorers.  And by the way, they are called ‘drawer stops’ (duh) and there are two different styles that I see fairly regularly in vintage furniture.

This desk has the type that are on the right.  You are better off replacing like with like because the grooves they go in are different sizes.

And here’s what it looks like when one is missing.

It’s quite simple to just pound another one into that groove.

I had a lot of the props from my photos of the faux card catalogue handy including my chalk board, so I used them again.

Don’t you love that sweet little chair?  Some of you might recognize it from previous posts (here, here or here).

It works perfectly with this desk, but unfortunately the cane seat is in very bad shape.  It would be cute with a little skirted seat cover, but I am sadly lacking in sewing skills!  I just keep the chair around to use as a prop with desks.

The jardin de fleurs desk is available for local sale.  If interested leave a comment and I’ll get back to you with the particulars.

Linking up with Making Broken Beautiful at The Curator’s Collection and Friday’s Furniture Fix at Patina Paradise.

On what proved to be the coldest day of the winter so far (windchills of more than 30 degrees below zero), my friend Meggan and I decided to do some thrifting.  I believe we officially qualify for ‘die hard’ status now, don’t you?  But our local thrift store was having a 50% off preview day for members only (we are members), so we had to check it out.  This piece proved to be the ‘find of the day’.

Can you see the giant flaw?  Lower right corner? A huge chunk of trim was ripped off.

But the price on this was really right at a mere $15.  And I could just picture using the same label cup pulls that I used on the book page dresser on it.  Most of all, I knew that my handyman neighbor Ken was up for the challenge of repairing that trim.

Sure enough, I sent it home with Ken and a few days later he sent it back over with this patch job …

Super impressive, right?  Honestly, this kind of repair just boggles my mind.  I don’t know how he does it, and I can’t even begin to explain it.  Let’s just reiterate how very lucky I am to have Ken living next door and leave it at that.

Once that repair was done, next I removed all of the knobs and filled the holes with wood filler.  The fill didn’t have to be perfect because the holes are behind the new label holder cup pulls.  With a ‘label’ in place, you can’t even see them, but if you take the book page paper labels out you can.  So I filled them.  I then sanded the whole piece.  The existing finish was a little shiny and I wasn’t sure how milk paint would react with it, so when in doubt I tend to sand.

Next came a simple paint job using two coats of Miss Mustard Seed’s Typewriter.  I sanded to distress and added a top coat of hemp oil.

Here is how that front repaired section looks after the paint job.

If you didn’t know it was there, I don’t think you would really notice it.  But it does stand out a little in so far as it isn’t as distressed as the rest of the piece.  Had I been really meticulous I should have stained the new wood first, then painted over it.

Once the paint job was finished it was time to attach the new label holder cup pulls.

Ken taught me a little trick to making sure they all lined up properly using a combination square.  Do you have one of these?  I bought mine at a garage sale for a couple of bucks, of course.  It looks like this …

Basically you loosen up the tightening thingie which allows the slide-y part to move along the ruler part (I’m so technical!).  In my case, I then decided exactly how far down from the top of the drawer I wanted to place the pulls.  Once you have that measurement, you tighten it back up.  Now it’s easy to measure for the placement of each pull …

Just rest the flat edge of the slide-y part along the top of your drawer, then butt your label pull up to the bottom of the ruler part.  You can slide the square along making sure that the pull is straight all the way across.  Does that make sense?  I then used a pencil to mark the holes for the screws, pre-drilled small holes, and then screwed the pulls on.

This worked great for the top to bottom placement, as for the side to side placement, I just eye-balled it.  That could probably have backfired for me, but I did it carefully and was able to keep each pull centered on it’s faux drawer.  I think I did a pretty good job keeping them all lined up.  When I mentioned this to Ken, he asked me if my arm hurt.  I thought he meant from having to attach so many pulls, which wasn’t really that hard, so I said “no, not really” and he said, “oh, I thought it might hurt from all that patting yourself on the back!”  Ha!  Yes, it’s true, I was overly proud of myself for getting these all on straight.

I used more Swedish bible book pages to fill the slots for labels.

Are you wondering what makes this a ‘faux’ card catalogue?  It’s because those aren’t really small drawers.  Each set of 4 across is really just one drawer.

So much more functional than lots of small drawers!  Although I did once see a real card catalogue turned into a wine cabinet.  Each drawer held one bottle of wine.  That was pretty cool.  But this piece is really just a small dresser.  I think it’s the perfect size to use as a bedside table.  It would also work great in a foyer or as a TV stand.  I also like the idea of using it in your home office with your printer on top and various office supplies inside.  There are so many possibilities for a small chest of this size.

How do you like my chalkboard?  This was a fun little project of its own!  The frame actually belonged to a mirror that came attached to the book page dresser.  I took it off the dresser.  The size wasn’t the right scale for it.  Plus it was poorly attached.  I had to wonder if it was even original to the dresser.  So, it never went back on.  Later I removed the mirror from the frame and replaced it with some hardboard painted with chalkboard paint.  Then I added a little brass number plate to the frame (at the bottom).  Next I got out the Complete Book of Chalk Lettering that my sister gave me for my birthday and did some more practicing.  I love how it turned out!

My chalkboard skills are slowly improving.

These make a great pair, don’t you think?

Both the chalkboard and the little chest of drawers are available for sale (chest of drawers is SOLD).  If interested, leave a comment and I’ll email you with details.