q is for quandie

a quick folding chair makeover.

Published on April 4, 2016April 3, 2016 by Quandie37 Comments

Last year I purchased these painted folding chairs at one of my favorite neighborhood garage sales, Bryn Mawr.

bryn mawr chairs (2)

They are fairly small, not the typical size of today’s folding chairs. I liked the colors, but I didn’t especially like the way the vinyl seats were painted. I knew from experience how to re-cover these though, so I thought I’d share that process with you today.

blue metal chair before

Here’s a close up of the seat.

blue metal chair seat before

Since normally I’m a fan of crackly and chippy paint treatments, I can’t really explain why this seat wasn’t working for me. It was a little too far gone maybe.

If you flip one of these chairs over, you’ll see that the seat ‘cushions’ (I put that in quotes because these are hardly cushion-y, but what else should I call them?) are held in place by little metal tabs that are folded over.

blue chair tabs

It’s easy to just pry those upwards using a screwdriver and then take the seat right off.

blue chair without seat

I had some pretty vintage tea towels on hand that I also purchased at a garage sale to use recovering these chairs. So I pulled one out and cut it to fit.

blue chair supplies

Normally I would pull out a staple gun for recovering a chair seat, but in this case the seat was made out of cardboard! So instead I pulled out some tape and I just used my gift wrapping skills to cover the seat.

blue chair seat tape

By the way, when you have a seat cushion that is curved in the front and only goes on one way, try to pay attention if your fabric also has a ‘top’ and a ‘bottom’. I was reminded of that when I put the cushion back in place.

blue chair backwards

Ooops. That doesn’t look right!

I took it all apart and switched it around.

Ahhhh, better.

blue chair final

What do you think? I haven’t done the pair of green chairs yet. I’m debating, will they be more marketable with a paint job? Do I leave them green and recover the seats with vintage fabric? Or do I remove the seats entirely and turn them into chalkboards, like these …

chalkboard pair

What would you do if you were me?

miniature budapest.

Published on April 1, 2016March 30, 2016 by Quandie8 Comments

Today I thought I would share with you a really special project I’ve been working on lately, a 1″ scale model of Budapest’s Castle Hill!

mini budapest street

Bwa ha ha ha … April Fools! Did I have you going for maybe just a split second?

Of course that’s actually the real Budapest, but I’ve used a new ‘effect’ available on PicMonkey to make it look miniature.

I’ve mentioned before that I do most of my photo editing on PicMonkey (I am not affiliated with them in any way, and this post is not sponsored by them). They have a free version, but I pay the extra $33 per year for the Royale version which gives me access to extra features such as this one. It’s worth every. single. penny.

They frequently come out with new stuff. Either new fonts, such as the Lato (budapest in) and Coffeebreak (miniature) that I used on this photo …

mini budapest

… or new effects that are just plain fun to play around with.

Recently they added the ‘miniature’ effect. Maybe you’ve seen this effect on TV commercials, where they make something normal size look like a miniature scene. Well, you know me and my uncontrollable attraction to anything miniature! So I pulled up some of the photos from my trip to Budapest in 2014 and started experimenting. I didn’t even save my first couple of attempts and I was ready to chuck it entirely, but then I read some of the tips (yes, when all else fails, read the instructions); use a photo with good depth (one that has a foreground and background) and is taken from slightly above the scene. As it turns out, I didn’t have very many photos that perfectly fit that description. This train photo turned out pretty cool, but doesn’t quite look miniature to me. If I had taken this from a little higher vantage point, it would have been awesome.

mini budapest train

But this one is pretty cool, right? Those look like toy cars on a bridge.

mini budapest bridge

This is so much fun!

mini budapest at dusk

Here is Spitz in miniature …

mini spitz

How about mini Passau?

mini Passau

And mini Melk …

mini melk

Am I the only one who finds these highly entertaining?

If you find yourself with a little extra time on your hands this weekend, maybe you can make some mini-photos of your own!

a garden chair.

Published on March 30, 2016March 29, 2016 by Quandie10 Comments

The fun continues with the freebies from my friend Terri’s uncle. Today we have a sweet little garden chair.

garden chair 1

It didn’t start out as a sweet little garden chair though.

garden chair before

This poor thing was a little rough for the wear. I suspect it was used in the garage as a workshop chair. It had lots of oily looking stains.

garden chair seat before

Take a look at how dark those two front legs are. They appeared to be almost saturated with some sort of oil. Or maybe it’s just really greasy dirt. I scrubbed the chair good with some TSP substitute (which is a de-greaser), and then I decided to just go for it. Either I’d paint it and the paint would just all bubble off, or it would stick. I was willing to take a chance on it sticking. After all, the chair was a freebie. It likely would have ended up in the trash if I didn’t take it.

I pulled out the second sample color of Shabby Chic paint I received from Bungalow 47, Green Fields, which is a lovely pale, pale green. I painted it on straight from the can without watering it down. I somehow felt like I’d need a good thick coat of paint to cover this thing.

I was super impressed when two coats did the trick.

Even on those legs!

garden chair leg

I was worried that those greasy stains would bleed through the paint, but I only had trouble with that in one spot on the seat. If you were being very particular about your finish, this wouldn’t be good enough (in which case I would have used the Shabby Chic Clear Primer first) …

garden chair stain

But since I was going for a distressed look on this chair, I decided it was OK to leave that as is. I specifically choose not to use the Shabby Chic Clear Coat this time around because I didn’t want to draw any more of those stains through the paint. Instead I waxed this with Miss Mustard Seed furniture wax.

garden chair distressed

I could have gone without a top coat of any kind, but when I am distressing heavily like this I prefer to use a wax. The wax darkens up those bare wood edges and makes them look more ‘believable’, like they have worn away over time, not just been freshly sanded.

Did you notice that I applied some rub-on numbers to my chair?

garden chair books

I like the touch of whimsy that they add.

garden chair full

In the end, this chair is rather wobbly and most people would feel a bit insecure sitting on it. It will have to be more for looks rather than function. But I think it would be darling as a bedside perch for books. Or use it in your potting shed to hold a stack of clay pots. If you are local, this chair went to Reclaiming Beautiful last week!

french provincial.

Published on March 28, 2016March 27, 2016 by Quandie47 Comments

I think there are three categories of blog readers. First there are the ones who just look at the pictures, but don’t really read anything I write (come on, I know they are out there … but they probably aren’t reading this, so I’m safe). Then there are those that read my text and look at the photos, hopefully finding both at least slightly entertaining. The last category are those that also read the comments. I know Mr. Q reads comments, as does my sister. How about you? If you don’t, you are missing out! I have quite a few regulars that leave insightful and often funny comments. By the way, if you don’t know how to read the comments, you just click on the little ‘conversation bubble’ that is to the right of the title of the post. Hopefully there is a number in the bubble, because that is the number of comments.

You also might get a little sneak peek into my future projects by reading the comments. In this case, I’m referring to a comment left a while back on one of my posts from Skip. Skip was asking whether or not I’d be interested in some free furniture, all I had to do was drive to St. Cloud to pick it up (about 1.5 hours from here). She later sent me some photos by email, and I was in!

Although originally Skip had offered me a buffet/sideboard and dining room table pair, when I got to St. Cloud she had a couple more pieces that she was parting with and one of them was this sweet little french provincial end table.

fp before

Of course I threw this in the truck! I love those graceful legs and the pretty hardware. I knew that some paint would help bring out its charm.

fp 1

See?

I knew exactly what colors I wanted on this one. I painted the body of the table in Fusion’s Inglenook and the drawer front in Fusion’s Limestone. French provincial, Inglenook and gold hardware make a great combo. I figured this out last year when I painted this lovely french provincial piece …

french nightstand

I love the way this little table turned out.

fp 5

I distressed the edges just a little, because that’s the way I like ’em. Plus I always feel like if your piece is purposely distressed, than a couple more unintentional distress marks will just blend right in.

fp 3

This table has a leather insert in the top. I just painted right over it. I’ve done this before using milk paint

fp top

Once the paint is cured (in about 21 days), I expect this to be quite durable.

I spruced up the hardware by adding a little gold rub ‘n buff. You could get this same effect using the Gold Leaf Goat Stick (I just couldn’t find mine, I think it rolled under the cupboard in my Q Branch and I still need to dig it out).

fp 4

This little table is the perfect spot for your cup of tea.

fp cup of tea

Do you need a spot for your tea? Check out my ‘available for local sale’ tab to find out if this piece is still available.

fp table collage

bloom where you are planted.

Published on March 25, 2016March 24, 2016 by Quandie19 Comments

bloom where you are

I’m ending out the week with another garden themed post. I have tulips, scilla and crocuses coming up in my garden. Just you never mind that we got a snow storm on Wednesday! It’s mostly melted now, so it’s safe to start thinking about what annuals to plant this year, what perennials need to be divided, which garden beds need to be revamped, and what new things can I use to ‘decorate’ my gardens.

Along those lines, I’ve dropped off a load of garden decor items at Reclaiming Beautiful, including a whole new crop of plates with words.

grow plate in box

I did a few of these last year and they were a big hit, so I’m doing more. If you’d like more details about how I create these, check out {this post}.

You can tuck these plates into a wooden crate with some vintage garden tools for display in your potting shed or on your porch. Or you can add them to a planter, like this example.

grow plate

I kept this plate in my boiler pot window box all summer and the vinyl letters held up just fine. I’ll be putting it back out again this year.

I found some sweet plates at an antique shop in Buffalo, MN a week or so ago when we went out there to see my niece’s school play, The Wizard of Oz. These were perfect for turning into garden plates.

bloom plate

But these plates that I purchased at the Macalester Groveland neighborhood garage sale last year are my absolute favorites.

Isn’t the detail on these plates just gorgeous? And I just love the colors.

grow plate detail

How about hanging this larger platter outside your front door?

welcome plate

I’ve also done up a couple of garden quotes on plates …

bloom plates 1

earth laughs

After I took these photos, I switched out the font I used for the “flowers” on that last plate. I wasn’t loving how that one turned out. I don’t have a photo to share though, I forgot to take another one before I sent them off to the shop.

In addition to the plates, I’ve also added ‘grow.’ to this old enamelware pot. I used a large nail and a hammer to pound some holes into the bottom of it so that it has drainage. You could plant some bright red geraniums right in the pot. Or perhaps you’re more partial to petunias!

grow pot

And this enamelware plate is probably my favorite of all. I really was thinking about keeping this one.

enamelware grow plate

There’s just something about the rustic, farmhouse style simplicity of this one that appeals to me. I can picture it added to a planter made out of an old galvanized tub, can’t you?

Are you starting to think about spring gardening where you are?

the potting shed.

Published on March 23, 2016March 22, 2016 by Quandie14 Comments

Back in the day long before it became the photo cottage, the summer house in my backyard was known as the potting shed.

photo cottage

I actually had it all decked out with a workbench for potting up plants. In reality, it did not make a very efficient potting shed. Potting plants is messy work, I’m better off doing it right outside where I can just brush the dirt away onto the lawn. Still, it was fun to stage today’s piece out there as though it still were a potting shed.

the potting shed

If I didn’t get so much use out of the photo cottage as is, I’d be tempted to turn it back into a potting shed now.

green garden books I have lots of fab garden-y props, all in lovely shades of green.

green scale This green box usually resides in my pantry holding cleaning supplies.

green garden box 2

But the real reason for this post is the dresser. This is another one that Mr. Q picked up for me via Craigslist.

porch swing before

This was an interesting piece. The style says ‘old’, and inside it looks old, but there were some things that were throwing me off. For one thing, the casters are new. The drawers pulls are new too. And the finish was very plastic-y and shiny, like new. Someone worked really hard to take the “old” out of this piece, which I found to be a little bit sad. Obviously it was up to me to put the ‘old’ back in!

I got off to a bit of a false start with this one. I painted it with Little Billy Goat’s Porch Swing, which is a lovely green (in fact, a very similar green to the wood box with the handle in my photos). But it did not work out. I’m still doing some research into where I went wrong, and when I have some answers I’ll share that with you. In the meantime, let’s just say I knew I had to go back to the drawing board. I decided to paint over the green with white milk paint. I purposely added some wax around the edges first so that some of the white would chip away to reveal the green. This is the same mix of MMS whites that I used on the chalkboard frame from Monday, by the way.

Perfection! In the end, maybe this was meant to be. Just a hint of green rather than a sea of green.

potting shed dresser angle

As you may have noticed, I replaced the brass drawer pulls with some glass knobs. These are the 1 1/2″ glass knobs from D Lawless Hardware. They are the larger size glass knobs, and I think the scale of these was just right for this piece.

potting shed dresser 2

potting shed dresser 3

I took about six hundred photos of this thing. Some with the window …

potting shed dresser 4

Some with my false wall in place. If you don’t know about my false wall, you can read about that {here}.

potting shed dresser 1

I think this dresser would be perfect in a farmhouse style kitchen, or maybe on a covered porch. Or perhaps beside the bed in place of a nightstand.

potting shed dresser collage

This one is for sale (local sales only, no shipping available), so if you’re interested in more details feel free to leave me a comment or shoot me an email at qisforquandie@gmail.com.

going green.

Published on March 21, 2016March 20, 2016 by Quandie21 Comments

First things first, congrats to Cindy Brown who won the pair of Goat Sticks from last week’s giveaway. I will be getting those out in the mail to her this week, but now, on with today’s post.

One thing that I have definitely learned in my 52 years of living is that tastes change. Or at least mine do. I hope yours do too. I’ve written about this before, like back in October when I painted a chair gold after having said a year earlier that I didn’t think I’d ever like gold.

I’ll be so sure that I am never going like something, and then it grows on me and the next thing I know, I love it.

Such is the case with green chalkboards.

If you’ve read my blog for a while, then you know I love a good chalkboard.

chalkboard 2

Some people are starting to say that chalkboards are so over, but not me.

wall chair

Not only do I have a total of five at my house, but I often switch out mirrors for chalkboards and sell them to others who obviously still love chalkboards too.

Sometimes I make chalkboards out of foot boards …

chalkboard 1

Or out of doors …

Or out of chairs …

q branch chalkboard chair

I like little chalkboards too …

plant a garden slate

But have you noticed something that all of my chalkboards have in common? They are all black. In fact, I’ve always thought green chalkboards just didn’t cut the mustard (pardon the pun that will be apparent shortly). I even painted over a green one with black once.

Then a year or so ago I shared my friend Meggan’s house with you all, and she had a green chalkboard that looked pretty fab.

Meggan chalkboard

And that started me thinking that maybe green wasn’t so bad after all.

Recently Miss Mustard Seed posted the most amazing chalkboard. Did you see it? If not, check it out {here}. And it’s green! Apparently a green chalkboard does cut the mustard 😉

Her chalkboard is painted in MMS milk paint in a combination of Boxwood (green) and Artissimo (dark blue). Wowza! I love it! Miss Mustard actually copied the recipe from Allison at The Golden Sycamore. It’s 2 parts Artissimo to 3 parts Boxwood. I just happened to have those colors on hand, so I knew I had to try this myself.

I started with a mirror that I had removed from a dresser. The harp that held it in place had come apart, but even if it was still intact I probably wouldn’t have left it on the dresser.

garden chalkboard frame before

I had taken the mirror glass out of the frame already, so all I needed to do was ask Ken to cut a piece of hardboard to fit the opening.

Next I painted the mirror frame with MMS milk paint in a blend of whites (Linen, Grain Sack & Ironstone). But wait, before we get that far, take a look a this …

green chalkboard frame before detail

Sometimes it’s just funny what people will do to ‘repair’ something. Ken and I shake our heads over this sort of thing all the time. Ken is always flabbergasted when people try to repair something with nails instead of glue. I have to say that this example really takes the cake.

Anyway, I painted the frame in my mix of Mustard Seed whites (painting right over those nail heads). I did not use bonding agent (would have been happy to get some chipping, but really didn’t) and I didn’t add a top coat of any kind.

green chalkboard detail

I also mixed up the ‘recipe’ for the chalkboard green and painted my hardboard. I did three coats for extra good coverage. Once dry, I sanded lightly to make it smooth and then I seasoned the chalk board by rubbing chalk all over it and then wiping it away. And voila, I have a chalkboard!

green chalkboard

I used some of my new chalkboard skills to add a little spring-like message.

green chalkboard final

I’ve been in a green and garden-y mood lately, maybe since yesterday was the official first day of spring.

So stay tuned this week because there will be a few more garden themed goodies coming your way!

a quandie quickie.

Published on March 18, 2016March 17, 2016 by Quandie7 Comments

I really enjoy quick little projects to just dress something up. Improvements that don’t take long, but totally change the look of something.

I purchased this green metal box a while back. I liked the lid, and that the box was quite heavy duty, but I didn’t love the forest green color. Not to mention the fact that it looked decidedly ‘spray painted’.

green box before

I knew this piece could benefit from a makeover. I started by sanding it rather well. Partially to allow the new coat of paint to adhere well, but also partially to remove that spray paint texture. I then painted it with two coats of Fusion’s Lily Pond, a pretty paler green.

green box painted

Next I used sand paper to distress the box. I distress almost everything I paint. I think distressing is what brings an item to life. It gives it a sense of history. It keeps the piece from looking ‘freshly painted’ and too bland. It has a secondary function that I also like. When a piece is distressed it doesn’t matter down the road if it gets a few more dings. They just blend in with the intentional distressing.

You can really see the results of the distressing on the lid …

green box lid

Once the box was distressed, I went over it with some of Fusion’s beeswax just to get a richer sheen and to protect the areas that I distressed down to the metal.

Next, I glued on an enameled number plate using some E6000.

green box after

This box could be used to store all kinds of things. It’s a nice size for your extra toilet paper rolls in the bathroom.

green box for tp

I use boxes like these in my pantry to store things that aren’t in the greatest packaging on their own. Things like cat food, kleenex, cleaning products, etc.

smile jar

This was such a quick and easy update! Projects like this are perfect for the working gal like me, you can accomplish them in one evening between supper and bedtime, while doing a load of laundry in between coats of paints. Multi-tasking at its finest!

This weekend I plan to do some serious multi-tasking. I’m finishing up a dresser and a buffet, plus I have a couple of smaller projects to work on as well. But first my sister and I are going to attend the anniversary celebration at Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater this evening. If you didn’t see my post about that over on their blog, check it out {here}. Maybe I will see you there!

Mar reclaiming beautiful

playing with crayons.

Published on March 16, 2016March 15, 2016 by Quandie76 Comments

When I was a kid I always loved getting a new box of crayons. Especially if it was the box of 64 with the built in sharpener. You can probably guess some of my favorite colors; Sea Green, Robin Egg Blue, Cornflower.

Well recently Allie from Little Billy Goat offered to send me some of their products to try out. In addition to some paint and other supplies, she also sent me a bunch of their Goat Sticks. What’s a Goat Stick? It looks like a giant crayon …

goat sticks

But basically it’s a metallic wax (although there are a couple of non-metallic options as well) that comes in crayon form.

I used the Gold Leaf crayon on the knobs for my Lake Superior credenza.

ls knobs

Since the credenza already had some brassy gold trim on the top drawers (plus some brassy feet), I decided to stick with a gold metallic for the knobs. I originally purchased these knobs from Hobby Lobby …

hobby lobby lucite knobs

They really looked fabulous on the credenza. The gold worked beautifully with that trim. But they simply wouldn’t stay straight, no matter how much I tightened the base, that lucite and gold cross piece would always continue to turn. I could just imagine how annoying this would be to live with for the final owner of the credenza. So they are going back to the store.

When those didn’t work out, I remembered that I had these arrow knobs (also purchased at Hobby Lobby). But they weren’t gold, they were black-ish (they call it ‘bronze pewter’ on the Hobby Lobby website). No problem! I pulled out the Gold Leaf Goat Stick and got to work.

To begin with you have to remove the hard outer layer on the Goat Stick. You can sort of peel it away, but I just rubbed mine on some paper until I got to the softer wax underneath.

gold leaf goat stick

By the way, the Goat Sticks are self sealing after 24 hours, so you’ll do this each time you use it.

For my knobs, I then just ‘colored’ the gold right onto them with the crayon. However, I then found that it needed some additional blending so I used a q-tip to blend the wax and smooth it into the groves of the feather tips a bit more.

blending gold leaf

Since the Gold Leaf was so much fun to play with, I decided to try some of the other colors that Little Billy Goat sent me. I really love the Old Penny. With copper becoming so popular, I’m sure this will be a top seller. In hindsight, the copper would have been an awesome choice on my Lake Superior Blue credenza.

old penny goat stick

I experimented with Old Penny and a couple of other colors on some old lion’s head drawer pulls that I had on hand.

lion heads

That’s Silver Dollar, Gunmetal and Old Penny (from left to right).

I have to admit, I still enjoy playing with crayons!

One thing that I want to be sure and point out is that it takes about 24 hours for the wax to dry and seal itself. When you first put it on it is malleable and blend-able … which also can translate to ‘wipe-off-able’. When using it, be sure to blend it to the point where you like the result and then don’t mess with it for 24 hours because you can rub it off during that period.

In addition to metallics, the Goat Sticks also come in Cream and Saddle (a medium brown). They can be used on wood, plastic, metal, paper and fabric. You could use them on wood trim (I’m going to experiment with the Cream on some wood trim later this week). There are so many possibilities for these. If you are local, you can find them at Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater where they are priced at $14/each. If you’re not local, check out Little Billy Goat’s site to find a retailer near you.

Or better yet, I’m giving away a Saddle and a Gunmetal. So if you like to play with crayons too, leave me a comment by Friday at midnight and I’ll put your name in the hat to win this pair!

lake superior blue.

Published on March 14, 2016March 20, 2016 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