q is for quandie

so fickle.

Published on October 26, 2015October 30, 2015 by Quandie20 Comments

Who remembers way back in January 2014 when my blog was still fairly new, and I posted about the trend towards gold? I mentioned how I couldn’t imagine ever being drawn to using gold again, having lived through it once in the 80’s. However, I also knew myself well enough to say “never say never.” Let’s face it, tastes change … or shall I just admit that I am fickle?

Now here it is almost two years later and I’ve got a stash of gorgeous metallic paint from Fusion’s new Matthew Mead Studio Metallics line. What is a girl to do?

Find a chair to paint, that’s what!

So I found this chair on craigslist and sent Mr. Q off to pick it up.

gold chair before

I would have preferred a chair that wasn’t already painted, but I really liked the details on this one and the price was right. Plus sometimes I’m just not patient enough to wait for the exactly perfect piece to come along.

I removed the seat and sanded the life out of this chair with my palm sander. I knew that when I distressed it later I wasn’t going to want to just see that white under it, so I tried to get most of the edges back down to the wood. Then I started painting. It took three coats with the Pale Gold Fusion paint to get that white covered up. I might have gotten by with two coats if I was painting over a darker wood. By the way, the first coat really looked like crap. So if you are going to do some experimenting with this paint, don’t panic if it doesn’t seem to cover at first.

After three coats, here is how the chair looked.

gold chair fresh

Not really a look that works for me. A little too bright and too clean. I like things that have a bit more age to them. So I sanded the edges and then added some of Miss Mustard Seed’s dark wax.

gold closeup

Ahhhh, so much better. The wax highlights the texture a bit more giving the gold more depth.

Now remember, this is Fusion paint, so you don’t have to wax it if you don’t want to. But in this case I was waxing to get a certain look, not to protect the finish. If you are wondering if the wax goes on the same, I would say that the Fusion paint is less ‘absorbent’ than milk paint or chalk paint so the wax goes on a little more smoothly, if that makes any sense. It doesn’t soak in as much. Clear wax also doesn’t alter the color as much with Fusion as it does with the other paints. It’s also easier to work with the dark wax because you can buff it back out more easily if you over-apply.

With the painting done, I moved on to the chair seat. I tried a number of different fabrics that I pretty much hated with the gold. I finally decided to go with a faux grain sack look. I used some drop cloth material and painted on some grain sack stripes and then added a stencil.

gold chair seat

I think that the more rustic look of the faux grain sack provides a nice balance for the gold paint.

gold chair 2

I’ve staged it with an old Swift’s Silver Leaf Brand bucket that I bought at a garage sale a few weeks ago.

And some old gold frames …

gold frames

So, what do you think? Do you need a touch of gold in your life?

gold chair full

This chair is available if you are local. Leave me a comment if you are interested in getting the details.

Sharing at: French Country Cottage and The Curator’s Collection

glensheen.

Published on October 23, 2015October 22, 2015 by Quandie13 Comments

I promised to share some details of our tour of Glensheen in Duluth. I’m not always good about following through on such promises, but today you are in luck (or maybe not if you were hoping for another furniture makeover post)!

Glensheen

Glensheen is a mansion that was completed in 1908 at a cost of $854,000 which was a lot of moolah back then. Wait, it still is, but back then it was really a lot! It was built by Chester and Clara Congdon. It sounds to me like Chester Congdon mostly made his money by making smart investments mainly in land speculation up in the Iron Range of Minnesota. Chester and Clara were both the offspring of clergymen, so I’m pretty sure neither of them started out with much money.

The landscape around Glensheen was designed by a New York City landscape architect named Charles Wellford Leavitt, Jr. He was instructed to maintain as much of the natural beauty of the property as possible, and he seems to have done a fine job of that.

bridge

garden stairs

But there are some more formal areas of the garden as well.

formal garden

And of course, this property does sit right on the shore of Lake Superior.

In addition to snooping all around the grounds, we took the Expanded Tour of the inside. It’s the so-called Expanded Tour because you get to see a bit more on this tour as opposed to the Standard Tour, including the 3rd floor and attic. Another side benefit of taking this tour is that it is limited to 10 people at a time due to the tight space in the attic. Bonus! Less people to crowd around and make it impossible to hear your guide.

For those of you who are not local and have never heard of Glensheen, it has a dark past. In 1977 Chester and Clara Congdon’s daughter Elisabeth still lived in Glensheen. She was 83 years old at the time and was somewhat of an invalid. She was murdered in her sleep by her son-in-law, but her own adopted daughter Marjorie is the suspected mastermind behind the crime. The daughter is still alive by the way and she was never convicted for any connection to the murder. She has done time for other unrelated crimes however, and most people suspect she has gotten away with at least one and possibly two additional murders as well.

As if to mimic the dark history of the house, the first floor is rather dark and gloomy. Such was the style back in the early 1900’s. Lots of heavy dark wood paneling, deep rich colors and ornate furnishings. All designed to impress guests, of course. It makes picture taking somewhat challenging. but I think I may have captured Elisabeth’s ghost in this mirror. See her, there on the right side of the mirror?

Glensheen living room

The main staircase is quite spectacular.

Glensheen staircase

Can I help it if I really just want to paint some of that dark wood paneling?

The leaded glass window and the view beyond it couldn’t possibly be improved upon though.

Glensheen window

The first room we visited on the 2nd floor felt like a breath of fresh air. Finally we were seeing some rooms that spoke to me.

marjorie's room 2

This is Marjorie’s room (for added confusion, this is the Marjorie that was Elisabeth’s sister and for whom Elisabeth’s murdering daughter was named). We were told that each of the Congdon children were allowed to decorate their rooms as they wished. Although calling them ‘children’ is misleading, all but the youngest two children were adults who no longer actually lived at home when the mansion was finished. So Marjorie never actually lived in the room, but she would have stayed here when she visited as an adult.

So kudos to Marjorie who decorated her room with gorgeous white woodwork paired with a lovely soft blue.

marjorie's room

And just check out this sweet little room. You entered into the room where I am standing to take the photo, but the bed and desk are in a little alcove of sorts through the arched opening.

sweet room

Isn’t this painted furniture totally charming?

sweet dresser

Now, you are probably going to think I’m goofy, but I was really most drawn to the bathrooms!

bathroom

I’m sure that many people find them quite utilitarian, but there is so much that I love about them. The white tile on the walls, the fabulous sink, the gorgeous grille over the radiator … and did you notice? a blue ceiling! Yeah, baby.

I love the hexagon floor tile in this one, and how about those subway tile walls? Over 100 years later and these features still have a timeless appeal.

bathroom 2

What I was truly amazed by though were the stand alone showers!

shower

What the what?! It was 1908! My house was built in 1904 and there definitely wasn’t a shower of any kind, just a tub. And are you checking out all of the body spray nozzles, and can you just see the giant rain shower head at the top of the photo? These people were definitely ahead of the game on the shower front.

Interestingly enough, in this mansion the servants also had rooms on the 2nd floor, unlike Downton Abby where the servants were all relegated to the attic. At the end of the hallway was a door that opened into the servant’s area. Granted, things were not as posh, but they definitely had some light filled rooms with beautiful views.

maids room

After touring the 2nd floor, we headed up to floor number 3. That was where the boys rooms were.

boys room

They were filled with classic items that most boys love, a telescope, hunting trophies, games …

games

And you can imagine that a little drool escaped me when I spied all of the cameras and movie making equipment.

cameras

But further down the hall, here is what really had me drooling …

luggage

Oh my goodness! A storage room full of vintage luggage. Be still my heart.

We next made our way up to the attic which was far too gloomy for photos, but lets just say it was filled with cast off furniture that I would have loved to get my hands on!

We then headed back to the main floor where we visited the kitchen which didn’t retain much of its original fixtures, but had a couple of fun details like the system for summoning the servants …

buzzer

and the original intercom system …

intercom

The tour ended in the basement laundry room. I’d love to get my hands on that laundry table …

laundry room

And that indoor drying rack system would be incredibly handy here in Minnesota in the winter.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of Glensheen. If you are local and are ever in Duluth, it’s definitely worth a visit.

Meanwhile, I’ve got several pieces of furniture underway this week and hope to get them completed this weekend, so be sure to check back on Monday!

the Pinocchio hutch.

Published on October 19, 2015October 18, 2015 by Quandie19 Comments

Remember the Humpty Dumpty dresser? All the kings horses and all the kings men may not have been able to put it back together again, but Ken was!

Well, I thought I would add another fairy tale piece to my line up, so I’m calling this one the Pinocchio hutch. You all know the story of Pinocchio right? The puppet that wanted to be a real boy.

pin phones

Well first of all, this was one of those Craigslist transactions that wasn’t quite a smooth as it could have been. The gal selling it was only available during strange small windows of time. Between 11 and 1 on Thursday, for example. In the end, I had to send Mr. Q on his own. When he got there, the seller said she wouldn’t be able to help load it, and it was on the 2nd floor of an apartment building without an elevator. Egads. That might have been something she should have mentioned in advance, do you think? Fortunately, she also had another buyer coming at the same time for a sofa, and he was a nice guy. Mr. Q helped with the sofa, and then he helped with this hutch.

hutch before

The piece was advertised on Craigslist as an ‘antique hutch’. It looked pretty fab in the photos, but I’ll admit I was a little suspicious of the ‘antique’ part. Of course, some people think that items from the 1970’s are antiques now. For the record, if we’re talking furniture, they are not! If this was a car, you could get away with calling it an antique, but furniture needs to be at least 100 years old to be ‘antique’ and this one definitely isn’t.

I had also asked the seller if this piece was real wood before sending Mr. Q, and she assured me that it was.

Had I been with Mr. Q when he picked this up, I would have nixed the purchase. Why? Because it was made out of that … well … I’m not really knowledgeable enough to know what this stuff is called. It’s definitely a thin veneer of something on top of what is likely a cheap wood or possibly even particle board. I’m not sure what that veneer is made out of, but it doesn’t feel like real wood, it doesn’t look like real wood, and it doesn’t hold paint like real wood. It’s not quite the same as a plastic laminate though. So what is it? Does anyone know? I think some of the veneer might be real wood, but a lot of the parts definitely are not real wood.

pin before inside

So anyway, yes, this hutch is akin to the puppet that wanted to be a real boy! It wanted to be real wood, but most of it just isn’t.

The biggest problem with this sort of material is that it doesn’t hold on to paint like real wood does. So, had I been there, I would have said ‘no’ to it because it is a lot more work to paint than is practical for me (which is not to say that it can’t be done!) But since I wasn’t there, and Mr. Q thought it looked pretty good, it came home with him. Fortunately, it does have some good lines. I love the simple triangular pediment at the top, and the details on the sides of the bottom. It has a very classic appeal.

Flash forward several months. With winter just around the corner, I knew I had to get this one done while I could still work on it in the unheated Carriage House. I also decided this was an ideal opportunity to try Fusion’s Ultra Grip primer. Please follow this link to Fusions’ own blog post about this product if you want to read the details about how it works.

I decided I should probably follow all of the rules on this one, just to be sure I was getting the best end result possible. To begin, I sanded everything … which seemed to take forever. There are nine shelves! Sanded top and bottom. Three drawers. Hutch top inside and out, plus a base. Once sanded, I wiped everything down with TSP substitute. Next I painted a coat of the Ultra Grip on everything. Then I had to wait 12 hours. Which in my world really meant the next day.

Meanwhile, I removed the chicken wire from the doors. It was coming loose in spots anyway, so I knew we (and by we, I mean Ken) would have to remove the stops to fix that anyway. It was easy to coat the chicken wire with some off-white spray paint once it was removed.

pin chickenwire door

OK, so once the Ultra Grip had met its official drying time, I next painted two coats of Fusion’s Limestone on the outside. Yep, two coats did the trick. I had to wait for the Limestone to be completely dry before moving on to the Inglenook for the inside of the cabinet. Why? Because I was using tape to get a clean line where the Limestone met the Inglenook in some spots. I then painted two coats of the Inglenook on the inside of the hutch, and on all of the shelves.

pin inside

Are you tired yet? This was definitely one of those projects that takes a lot of time, but most of it is spent waiting for things to dry. Painting one side of each shelf took about 5 minutes, but then I had to wait several hours before adding a second coat. Then, another several hours before flipping them over to repeat the process on the other side. Have I sufficiently driven home the point that this was a much more lengthy process than usual for me?

So, after all of that, here is the finished product.

pin after

A massive improvement over the original. At least I think so.

I changed out the hardware to try and add some more charm. I used glass knobs on all of the drawers, but I couldn’t use them on the cupboard doors because they lie flush against the dividers that are behind them and the glass knobs have a screw with a nut that extends out the back side of a drawer or door. So for those I used some cool vintage brass knobs that I had in my stash.

pin inside corner

While writing this post, I kept waffling about what I should call this piece. I settled on hutch, but technically this is a desk! Yep. It has a pull out desk top.

pin desk top

As I was staging it for these photos, I realized this would make an awesome scrapbooking station. You could keep all of your supplies in it, and then just pull out the desktop when you are ready to create!

pin scrapbooking

The shelves are adjustable, which can be handy.

pin angle

If not being used as a scrapbook station, this could be used in the kitchen filled with your ironstone collection and cookbooks. Or put it in your study where you can put your computer on the pull out top and write your memoirs. So many possibilities for this piece!

As for the Ultra Grip, so far it is looking really good. I have inserted and removed the shelves several times and that hasn’t resulted in a single scratch. I slid books onto and off of the shelves, and ditto, no scratching. The desk top slides in and out of place, and no scratches have resulted from that either. Of course, only the true test of time and regular use can really tell, but so far I am impressed with the how the paint is adhering.

pin before and after

This hutch/bookshelf/desk is for sale. If any of you local readers are interested, leave me a comment and I can get back to you with the details. And FYI, it does come apart into two separate pieces for easy transport.

pin books

the drop leaf table.

Published on October 16, 2015October 15, 2015 by Quandie20 Comments

I’ve mentioned this table in a couple of posts now. I picked it up at a garage sale on my lunch hour. Well, technically I purchased it on my lunch hour, but sent Mr. Q to pick it up later in the truck.

farm table 1 before

It was a little wonky when I got it. Two of the legs were wobbly, plus the top of the table had a big gap in the center. I suspect it used to have some leaves for making it bigger, but those were long gone. So Ken took it over to his workshop to shore it up. He is a fan of taking a piece completely apart and then putting it back together the ‘right’ way. With glue and pegs. And that is what happened with this piece. He took it all apart and then put it back together again. It couldn’t be sturdier now.

I already posted about having Ken permanently remove the leaves, which became Farmer’s Market signs.

drop leaf green

My original plan for the table was to paint just the base and leave the top as is. I thought the finish looked fairly good. Rustic and beat up, but in a good way.

So, I painted a base coat of MMS milk paint in Boxwood, then added two coats of Shutter Grey on top of that. I should mention at this point that my preferred method of painting table bases is to flip the table upside down on some horses and paint it that way. When I had the painting all done and I flipped the table back over … well … I just wasn’t loving the way the original finish on the top worked with the paint. It was too orange-y and too shiny. That meant I had to strip the top after all. So I carefully stripped it with some citrus stripper. Once stripped, I sanded it down and add a coat of clear wax followed by a coat of MMS white wax.

I really prefer the lighter colored top with the Shutter Grey on the base.

drop leaf table 2

I also think the way the table is put together with mismatched grain on each plank of wood is very charming. There are still a few dings and gouges that show the age of this piece, and the original casters are still in place. They work quite well too.

table top

This is another piece that would work great as a desk, or even as a large bedside table

drop leaf table 1

How about it? Any of you in need of a desk? Or a table? This one is available.

the most wonderful time of the year.

Published on October 14, 2015October 13, 2015 by Quandie14 Comments

I know Andy Williams would have us believe that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but I beg to differ. I say it’s Autumn.

fall title

First of all the scenery is simple stunning, especially if you have been lucky enough to plan a trip to Duluth at the peak of fall color.

Gooseberry Falls State Park

Second of all, the weather is frequently absolutely perfect in fall. Not too hot, not too cold, not at all humid, and often bright and sunny.

vintage Duluth postcard

My sister, niece, Mr. Q and I drove up to Duluth last Friday morning to take in some of this amazing fall bounty. Duluth is about a 2 1/2 hour drive north from the Twin Cities.

We visited Canal Park to see the lighthouse, the maritime museum and to watch the lift bridge go up and down a couple of times (snore).

canal park lighthouse

If you aren’t from around here, Duluth is situated on the shore of Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world. That’s right people, the whole world! It has 2,980 miles of shoreline. We tried to figure out how long it would take to drive all the way around the lake and ended up concluding that it would take longer than we would want to be in a car.

And gosh darn it, I should have known there would be love locks in Duluth!

Duluth love locks

Why didn’t Mr. Q and I bring a spare padlock along? Oh that’s right, I decided these were a bad idea and have given them up, remember?

We popped into a few shops and found Mr. Q’s namesake beverage.

Mr. Q's beverage

None of us were particularly excited about trying a sparking cucumber beverage though, so we didn’t actually buy any.

We stayed in a gorgeous two bedroom condo right on the lake. My sister was kind enough to knock on my door at some god awful hour on Saturday morning to make sure I got up to see the sunrise.

sunrise

It was pretty amazing, so I tried not to hold it against her for the rest of the day.

After the bright and early wake up call and some free breakfast at our resort, we hopped in the car to head even further north. After a brief stop in Two Harbors, we continued on to Split Rock Lighthouse. After briefly joining a guided tour and deciding there were way too many people on it, we left the group and headed down the trail to the shore.

split rock hiking

It involved this staircase …

split rock staircase

That’s Mr. Q down there near the bottom!

Down there is where I was able to get the most beautiful shots of the lighthouse.

Split Rock Lighthouse

We did eventually make it back up to the top and waited in line to see inside the lighthouse. Personally, I didn’t think it was worth it, but Mr. Q was pretty fascinated by the mechanical workings of the light itself.

After leaving Split Rock, we headed back south again to Gooseberry Falls State Park. Somehow we managed to be fairly oblivious to the fact that it was the most crowded weekend of the year to visit this park. I just assumed most people visited State Parks in the summer. I was very wrong. Gooseberry was absolutely jam (pardon the pun, gooseberry, jam, get it?) packed with people.

Gooseberry falls

Despite the crowds, it was still gorgeous scenery.

Gooseberry falls 2

It almost had a ‘Disney fake’ vibe to it. Everything was so clean and well kept. The trails were all immaculately maintained.

Gooseberry falls steps

These trails were all originally laid out in the 1930’s by the CCC. Are you familiar with that bit of history? The CCC, or Civilian Conservation Corps were developed to provide jobs for young, unmarried, unemployed men as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal during the Great Depression. In the case of Gooseberry Falls, as many as 200 young men lived in barracks in the park and developed all of the infrastructure for the park. You can read more about it, and see some great photos here. I bet those guys had some great times living and working in this beautiful setting.

After we’d hiked around Gooseberry Falls for a couple of hours, we were all pretty much wiped out. We drove back to Duluth, had a lovely dinner at the Black Woods Grill and then returned to our condo to put our feet up.

You’ll have to stay tuned next week to read about the conclusion of our Duluth trip and our visit to Glensheen Mansion.

Glensheen

Meanwhile, check back on Friday to see the drop leaf table transformed!

metallurgy.

Published on October 12, 2015October 12, 2015 by Quandie23 Comments

Fusion is coming out with a new line of paint colors! The Matthew Mead Studio Metallics. When they offered to send me some free samples to try out, how could I resist?

metal paints

When they came in the mail I was sort of drooling over them, but I wasn’t prepared yet. I have a great plan in mind for the Copper color, but haven’t got everything I need for that project yet. But I really wanted to try the paint on something!

So I went out into the Carriage House to see what I could find that needed painting and I came across this clock.

Who else remembers the heyday of sponge painting? Gack! What were we thinking?

Of course, when it was done well it looked better than this clock. I like to think that when I sponge painted, it didn’t look this hideous. But I could just be kidding myself, seeing the past through rose colored glasses and all of that.

Well, anyway, my friend Cathy brought this clock to the last Carriage House sale with a price tag of $10 on it. I’m not sure what she was thinking (she’s a regular reader of my blog, so I’m sure she’s going to give me crap for saying this out loud). I think we all can see why it didn’t sell though. It’s pretty much butt ugly. When it didn’t sell (surprise, surprise) she left it behind. Well, anything left behind is fair game. So when I saw it hanging out there a little light bulb went off. This was the perfect candidate for some metallurgy.

So I sanded the clock lightly and wiped it clean with a damp rag. Then I painted on two coats of Brushed Steel. I didn’t tape off the glass, and I got paint all over it. Once dry, I just cleaned that up using a razor blade. I’ve found that this is really easy to do with the Fusion paint (assuming you do it right away). I also sanded the clock once dry. I wanted a distressed metal finish.

And here it is.

Ahhh, so much better, right?

Even up close and personal, it really does look like brushed steel.

You can see that the sanding I did gives it a more distressed look, but you wouldn’t have to distress it.

I love how easy it was to give this clock an updated look. Got anything hideous laying around at your house that could use a makeover?

Farmhouse Inspired in Hudson is going to be getting in a shipment of the new Fusion metallics any day now. They come in a 8.45 fl oz jar and will be priced at $22.95. The Brushed Steel that I used on the clock isn’t available quite yet, but they will have bronze, copper, pale gold, pearl and silver.

~~And hey, if you are local and you really love the clock, it’s available at Eye Candy ReFind for $28~~. Never mind, it sold in a flash!

dropping leaves.

Published on October 9, 2015October 7, 2015 by Quandie13 Comments

drop leaf title

Remember the vintage drop leaf table I purchased last week?

farm table 1 before

I sent it over to Ken’s workshop to be shored up, but Ken also kindly removed the drop leaf sides for me. I think these tables are so much more versatile without them.

So what do I do with the leaves? Well, remember my secret decorating trick from earlier in the week? When all else fails, hang it on the wall!

drop leaf green

I decided this was a good time to use up some of my mostly used bags of milk paint. So I began by painting the first leaf in a combo of Luckett’s Green with a little Kitchen Scale thrown in.

green drop leaf 2

I added a Farmer’s Market stencil that came from Donna at Funky Junk, and I just used a white craft paint for that.

The second leaf got a base coat of Kitchen Scale, followed by a second coat of Shutter Grey. And for those of you not familiar with Miss Mustard Seed milk paint, yes, the Shutter Grey really does look more like a cross between pale blue and grey.

You can just use the hinges that originally held the leaves in place to hang them on the wall.

blue drop leaf sign

So there you have it, some drop leaf signage. These are both for sale for $28 each at Eye Candy ReFind if anyone local is interested.

Meanwhile, the table itself is almost done. Stay tuned to see how it turned out!

the historic courthouse.

Published on October 7, 2015October 6, 2015 by Quandie11 Comments

In a comment last week, someone mentioned that I seemed to be making up for lost time now that my sister and niece live here in Minnesota … and that is absolutely right!

Whenever my niece has time off on a weekend, we make plans to do something. We have become tourists in our home town. This past weekend was no exception. We all went on the Nooks & Crannies tour of the historic courthouse in Stillwater, the birthplace of Minnesota.

courthouse group

The courthouse also just happens to be Mr. Q’s workplace. He’s only been working there for a few months now though, and I had never actually been inside. So this particular tour, which is only offered once a year, seemed like a great opportunity to see where he toils his days away. It also was the perfect outing for a gorgeous fall day.

courthouse

The cool thing about the Nooks & Crannies tour is that, well, you get to see all the nooks and crannies that you don’t see on the normal tours. We toured the cellar where we could barely stand up (we are all tall, except for my sister). I really enjoyed seeing the old jail cells. Why? Because they were painted the most awesome shade of vintage green. And they had left a bunch of circa 1970’s graffiti on the walls which was quite amusing.

jail cell

Our guide was very knowledgeable about the history of the building. It was fascinating to learn that the Sheriff’s house and the jail are actually attached to the courthouse. And get this, the Sheriff’s wife was responsible for cooking 3 meals a day for any prisoners, as well as doing all of the prison laundry and emptying the slop buckets! Can you imagine? Not only that, but she didn’t actually get a salary of her own for this work. The poor woman. She was in a prison all of her own!

But of course, the highlight of the tour is getting to go up in the cupola for a bird’s eye view of Stillwater.

courthouse cupola

It’s the perfect vantage point for a view of the St. Croix River. You can see that we don’t really have our fall colors yet. They are just around the corner though.

courthouse view 1

We also saw some great views of the surrounding steeples.

courthouse steeple view

Is it becoming apparent that I torture my poor family with lots of “OK, everybody get close, say cheese!”?

cupola group

It’s true. And every once in a blue moon I tell myself that I’m not going to take my camera. I’m just going to enjoy the day and not worry about taking photos. Then of course I have to pull out my phone and just end up disappointed because I only have bad photos from the day.

Next time we play tourists, I’m bringing the real camera!

when all else fails.

Published on October 5, 2015October 4, 2015 by Quandie19 Comments

As you all probably know by now I love vintage stuff. But oftentimes I’ll pick something up just because I’m drawn to it, but I’ll have no idea what I’m going to do with it. So, I have a little trick up my sleeve and it’s this …

when all else fails, hang it on the wall

wall books

I really am not all that good at figuring out how to decorate my walls. At least not in a traditional sense. I don’t have any fabulous art hanging anywhere. Instead, I hang quirky vintage items.

For example, I purchased this fabulous toy hand truck (dolly) at Junk Bonanza. I loved the patina of the red metal, and the very worn black wheels. It was a splurge for me, but you know how I love my toy sized stuff! This little dolly is about 2 1/2 feet tall. After wandering around my house with it for several weeks wondering where to put it, I finally remembered … when all else fails, hang it on the wall! It makes a clever little shelf for my dad’s old Tarzan books.

wall hand truck

This old swing set seat that I purchased a while back makes a great magnet board when it’s hung on the wall.

wall swing set seat

I purchased this vintage India game board many years ago on eBay. Hanging old games boards on the wall is a great way to admire their charm on a daily basis. I used the 3M Command large picture hanging strips to hang the game board, the box lid and even the little number spinner.

wall games

Another favorite of mine is to turn child sized vintage folding chairs into chalkboards to hang on the wall. This one hangs in my kitchen.

wall chair

As a furniture painter, I sometimes have parts left over from furniture that I upcycle like old mirror frames. This frame was one of the very first things I ever painted in Miss Mustard Seed milk paint. It was left over from a dresser and I decided to use it as practice. I painted it in Artissimo first, but many months later I added a coat of Kitchen Scale. Now it hangs over my sofa with a map of Paris tacked to the wall inside it.

wall mirror frame

Small kid sized chairs are also perfect for hanging on the wall.

blue chair on the wall

And painted shoe trees can be hung on the wall as well.

shoe tree upcycled

Even old metal boxes can be hung on the wall.

apothicaire cabinet

So tell me, do you have something unique hanging on your walls? If not, I challenge you to give it a try!

a trip to the winery and a sneak peek.

Published on October 2, 2015October 1, 2015 by Quandie18 Comments

winery title

This past Saturday was absolutely gorgeous here in Minnesota. Blue, blue sky with plenty of sunshine and a high in the 70’s.

winery sign

Mr. Q, my sister Debbie and my niece Kristine and I decided to take a short road trip into Wisconsin for the Chateau St. Croix Winery’s Fall Harvest Festival.

winery group

Chateau St. Croix Winery is located in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin in the most bucolic of settings. You drive through the tiny town and then out into the countryside with farms on either side, so it’s a little bit comical when you pull into the winery and see the ‘faux chateau’ and all of their statuary. It kind of sticks out like a sore thumb.

winery lion

But they sure do have some tasty wine. I really liked the Wild River Rose and the Chateau Rouge. My favorite was a port though. The Jaune d’Or Port, a golden port aged in French oak caskets. They suggest serving it with creme brulee. My favorite dessert. Yum.

winery selfie

Hey, wait a minute, why am I the only one with a glass in my hand?

Well, it goes without saying that when I’m off sampling wine on a beautiful Saturday, that means I’m not in the workshop. So I have no more finished projects to share with you today. And furthermore, I have plans both days this coming weekend, so again, not much time for painting. However, here is a sneak peek of upcoming features.

First, I’m working on a giant hutch. I’ve been working on this one for several weeks now. It’s been a bear to paint! But it’s almost done, hopefully I’ll be able to share the finished product soon.

hutch before

Next, I just brought home two fabulous tables. A farmhouse table with leaves that will get a simple makeover.

farm table 1 before

And a possum belly table that needs just a little work, well OK, a bunch of work. Thank goodness for Ken.

possum belly table before

And finally, I have a mid-century coffee table that will be a fun makeover. I think the cane inserts have to go. Once they are gone, I have a great idea for a paint job.

mcm coffee table before