garden beds.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

Who remembers this bed from spring 2014?

workshop bed

It needed a lot of work!  One of the legs was broken off the headboard.  The veneer was coming off everywhere.  The foot board needed to have its topper reattached.  So, in true Quandie fashion, I kept pushing it to the back of the line because it needed so much help.  After two years of that, I finally got it finished.

Bed painted with Annie Sloan Duck Egg

In the end, after getting help fixing all of its problems, I gave it a simple paint job with Annie Sloan’s Duck Egg.

bed corner

It is structurally sound now because Ken did a bang up job repairing the leg.  I ended up removing all of the veneer from the bottom trim on the foot board, but you’d never know it with it painted.

bed close up

The bed has side rails and bottoms slats that go with it.  I just love a curved foot board, don’t you?

antique bed painted in Annie Sloan Duck Egg

And since we’re already in the garden, I thought I would share a quick tour of what’s blooming this week in Minnesota.  Some of my favorites are in full bloom right now, like the Allium.  I never grew these until I saw then in nnK’s garden a few years ago.  Did you know they are bulbs?  If you want some in your garden next spring, plant them this fall.  They are as simple to plant as tulips.  I add a few more every fall.  They mostly die back to the ground a month or so after blooming, so plant them among other plants that will hide the leaves as they die back, such as hostas or peonies.  You can see that mine are planted among the peonies here.

allium

This photo doesn’t really show how tall and statuesque the Allium really are.

The irises are also starting to open up.

iris

As much as I love the flower, I’m not as fond of the plants themselves after the flowers are done.  They tend to look a little messy in the garden.  I’ve been slowly reducing the number of irises in my gardens.  I gave away a bunch of yellow ones last year and I’d be happy to give away some more.  If any of my locals readers would like some, let me know.

A bunch of my woodland plants are blooming now, the Columbine and the Anemones.

blooming collage

I added some Sweet Woodruff to the garden last year, and that is looking fab.

sweet woodruff

Like pretty much everything else in my home, I buy a lot of my plants at garage sales.  There are a number of ‘pros’ to doing this.  First of all, you know you are getting a plant that does well in your area.  If it’s growing so well that the seller has enough to divide, it must grow well in your area.  Second, I find that divisions from someone’s garden tend to establish faster than nursery plants.  Maybe that is just my imagination, does anyone else find this to be the case?  And third, of course, they are much less expensive!

However, I will caution you to do a little research into plants before you add them to your garden.  You’ll also find that many of the plants being sold at garage sales are invasive.  Sweet woodruff is one such plant.  I’ll keep an eye on it, and try to keep it in check.  I don’t mind if it fills in a large chunk of my shade garden though.  Perennial geranium is another such plant.  It is the sea of purplish blooms that you can see behind and to the left of the bed in a couple of photos.

Some more of my favorite hostas are looking really lovely right now as well.   Here is my newest addition, Dream Weaver.

hosta dream weaver

And one of my all time faves, June.

hosta june

And I’m fairly certain that this one is Liberty, but the tag has gone missing.

hosta liberty

And in case you were wondering, my annuals did survive the cold snap we had just after they were planted.  I’ve added my own wordy plate to one of my galvanized boiler window boxes.

grow plate

Coming soon in the garden; peonies, clematis and then roses.  But let’s not rush things, shall we?

Meanwhile, the garden bed is for sale at $225.  If it doesn’t go sooner, it will be available at my upcoming sale.  Please note, this is a full size bed.  There is no such thing as an antique queen or king sized bed, these sizes weren’t manufactured until the mid-1950’s.  But if you like to snuggle up close with your significant other, or if you sleep alone, a full might be perfect for you.  Otherwise, it’s a great size for the kids or the guest room.  You guests won’t be comfy enough to overstay their welcome.

Sidebar:  Remember the dueling mid-century bureaus?  My sis painted one, and I painted one.  Well, Debbie is gloating all the way to the bank as hers sold already and mine remains on craigslist!  Drat!  She wins!

eat your words.

Published on by Quandie33 Comments

If you have been following me for a while, you may remember that prior to my fall sale last year I was trying to convince people that there were lots of fun things to do with pretty plates, besides eating on them.  Despite my efforts, my big stack of pretty floral platters and plates still sat untouched after the sale.

plates

Even with woefully low prices on them of $3 and $4.

So I am giving them one last chance at a new life.

I saw this idea at the 2011 Bachman’s Idea House.  I borrowed this photo from pinterest, but it originated on Itsy Bits and Pieces, and you can read more about the Bachman’s Idea House there.  But anyway, this idea totally struck me at the time and I’ve been wanting to try it myself ever since.

Bachmans idea house

So I dug out my plates and platters, my Cricut machine and some vinyl.  I picked a quote and started cutting.

plates with words

I learned a trick to keeping your letters straight a while back.  You cut them on the ‘kiss cut’ setting, then you place a piece of painters tape over the letters before you remove them from the backing.

cricut trick step 1

Then you use the tape to pull the letters away from the backing, but keeping them all in a straight line and evenly spaced.  Carefully place them onto your surface, in this case a platter.

cricut trick step 2

Pull the tape away without taking the letters with it.  This can be a little tricky, so go slowly.  Also, a tip, make sure your tape is smaller than your letters.  If your tape overlaps your letters entirely, it’s difficult to get it off without also removing the letters.

cricut trick step 3

And voila!  Straight letters.

cricut trick step 4

So I used a couple of different fonts to write one of my favorite gardening quotes on my pretty floral plates.  I added some plate hangers and hung them on the Carriage House.

plate quote on wall

I love how they turned out!

plate quote close up

plate quote

If you have a stack of mismatched vintage china and a Cricut machine sitting around, you should make one of your own!

Since I had the Cricut machine warmed up, I kind of went a little Cricut crazy.  I added a simple word to a small enamelware saucer that can be tucked into a planter.

cricut enamelware grow

And then I filled an old flour sifter with succulents and added a word of encouragement to that as well.

cricut flour sifter

And finally, I used white vinyl to add some words to this old globe.

cricut globe

I hope to get a few more things ‘Cricut-ed’ before my sale next week so if you can’t make your own, come to my sale and buy one of mine!

Linking up with the Thrifty & Vintage Finds Party at Dagmar’s Home.

hale, page and diamond lake.

Published on by Quandie5 Comments

My sister and I ventured out to the Hale, Page and Diamond Lake neighborhood garage sales on Saturday.  The listing showed nearly 100 sales!

hale page

We really had trouble finding them though.  I know that sounds crazy, and we didn’t expect it at all.  But many of the sales were in alleys and they didn’t have any signs!  I’m sure people felt like since they were on the map, they didn’t need a sign.  I’m here to tell you, au contraire people!  A sign at the end of your alley is still super helpful.  Especially if there isn’t a lot of foot traffic.  We peered down so many alleys trying to figure out if there was a sale down there.  We’re sure we didn’t hit even half of the sales.

But we still came home with some fun stuff.  The super tall plant stands are mine.  They are really unique and I liked the height.  I’ve already found homes for them, one on the deck and one in the garden.  The little sleigh is my sister’s.  She plans to paint it red and use it to decorate her apartment balcony at Christmas time.  I suggested she put a small tree full of twinkle lights in it.  The two metal corner shelves are my sister’s as well.  They were $3 each!  For that price, how could you pass them up?  They will tuck into corners in her new apartment and hold plants or books or whatever.

I snagged some french cheese plates and a little glass cloche.

dl french plates

And some vintage jars and kitchen utensils.

dl jars and vintage kitchen items

I’m calling this lovely vintage radio my find of the day.

dl find of the day

I just loved the vintage look of it.  Can’t you just picture a family gathered around this radio listening to news from the front during WWII?  Or maybe a sweet young couple dancing to some Glenn Miller on the porch on a sultry summer evening?

It wasn’t a super bargain at $20 (in garage sale terms), but I had to have it.  I think it will definitely make its way into some future furniture photo shoots.  But in the meantime, I’ve made a home for it in the cupboard on my front porch along with all of my old cameras.

dl radio

After Debbie and I gave up on trying to find more sales, we popped over to Stillwater to get some more annuals for my planters.  We ended up in Rose Floral which unbeknownst to me has a huge selection of fairy garden supplies.  My fairy garden needed a new look for this year, so I purchased a few new plants and a sweet little pergola.

fairy garden 1

 After revamping the fairy garden a bit, I remembered that I purchased some fairy lights for it a while back, so I dug them out and strung them in my little tree.  Here is a shot I took a little later in the evening to try and get the lights to show up.

fairy garden 2

For those of you who are new to my blog, my fairy garden is in a cracked bird bath.  It no longer holds water so I decided it would make an excellent fairy garden container.  You can see what it looked like last year here.

I do have a fairy in residence.  Can you see her there in the very front hiding under the hosta?

fairy in the garden

The rest of my weekend was spent prepping for my upcoming Carriage House sale!  I worked on a couple of fun projects that I’ll share with you over the next few days, so stay tuned!

perfectly sweet armoire.

Published on by Quandie16 Comments

I’ve been using a lot of blue lately, both in my own home and in pieces I paint to sell.  I love blue, and blue is hot right now.  But there is still a warm place in my heart for green.

armoire staging

When Mr. Q brought home this charming pint sized armoire, I knew I wanted to put some vintage wallpaper on the door.

armoire before

I didn’t have a piece that was large enough, so that is what prompted me to place an order from Hannah’s Treasures on Etsy recently.  I debated going with a more distinctly juvenile pattern, but in the end I thought I would do something just a little more versatile.  This armoire would be perfectly sweet for a baby girl’s nursery, but could also grow with her into her teens.

armoire 1

I added a two color paint job to match the wallpaper.  The entire armoire was first painted in MMS Luckett’s Green milk paint, and then all but the knobs got two coats of Linen.  This time I tried a Vaseline resist (adding a little Vaseline to spots you want to distress after painting the undercoat) and it worked fantastically well.

armoire closeup

When this piece first came to me, it needed to have the back and the bottom replaced.  It had gotten some water damage at some point.  So Ken replaced both.  Now the inside is practically all new, so I didn’t paint it.

armoire 3

It has a sweet little slide out bar for hanging tiny clothes like these gorgeous handmade baby dresses.

baby dresses

My Carriage House sale co-host, Sue, has a stash of these beautiful dresses and they will be for sale at the Carriage House sale ($10 each).  The hand stitching on these is a work of art.  I think they would be lovely hung on a wall in a child’s room, like this pin from Cedar Hill Farmhouse.

cedar hill farmhouse

I also staged the armoire with the last of the lilacs.  They go so fast.  I wish they lasted longer.

armoire lilacs

What do you think?  Didn’t it turn out perfectly sweet?

perfectly sweet armoire painted in MMS milk paint.

This armoire is for sale at $245.  If you are interested in it, or in the baby dresses, leave a comment or email me at oakdalecarriagehouse@gmail.com.

And in case you are wondering how I managed to crank out all of these pieces lately, I have to mention that I took a couple of days off at the day job last week.  I’ve got just a couple more to finish up before the Carriage House sale, which takes place on Thursday, June 11 from 5 pm to 7 pm and Friday, June 12 from 9 am to 2 pm.

Linking up with Finding Silver Pennies.

bohemian rhapsody.

Published on by Quandie16 Comments

I’ve been seeing a lot of bohemian style out there lately, how about you?  Apartment Therapy has this to say about bohemian style:  A true Bohemian room should look like it’s been furnished over decades of globetrotting and a lifetime of creative scavenging and upcycling.  Follow the link to read their full article, but I’ll emphasis point no. 3, if you’re lucky enough to have actual furniture, it should be distressed.  Amen to that!

I was feeling decidedly bohemian when I decided to go with a distressed saturated blue on this desk.

Desk painted in MMS Flow Blue milk paint

But let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Mr. Q and I picked this desk up a while back.  It was another craigslist buy.

desk before

It’s gorgeous, but up close it had some issues.  There is some trim missing on one of the drawers, and there are a few nicks and chips in the veneer.  There was even this big chunk of veneer missing on the side, and it appears as though someone attempted to sand the rough edges, doing a lot more damage in the process.

desk side patch

You get the idea, it is a lovely piece, but a good candidate for painting because of some damage.

The desk sat patiently waiting for inspiration to strike.  I had a couple of plans for it that got scrapped.  One involved leaving the drawer fronts in the original finish and just painting the body of the desk.  Another was to go black.  But then the idea of bright blue stuck.  To balance the bright blue color, I decided to leave the top unpainted.  I stripped it, then used Varathane’s Dark Walnut gel stain on it.  This desktop is a walnut veneer by the way.  I finished with a Wipe on Poly with a satin finish. The top is now really lovely.

Desk painted in MMS Flow Blue.

Isn’t the original hardware on this one pretty?  I didn’t do anything to it, just put it right back on.

As for the paint job, this is the same technique I used on my own Rooster cupboard.  I painted a base coat of MMS milk paint in Artissimo.  Then I added two coats of MMS Flow Blue.  This one is finished with hemp oil though (I used dark wax on my cupboard).

You can see some hints of the darker Artissimo in spots.

desk close up

One of the prettiest details on this desk is this little bit at the bottom.

desk details

And the legs are quite lovely as well.

So what do you think?  Bohemian, yea or nay?

bohemian rhapsody

 This desk is for sale for $225.  If interested, feel free to email me at oakdalecarriagehouse@gmail.com.

dueling bureaus.

Published on by Quandie33 Comments

A while back my number one craigslist spotter, nnK, forwarded an ad to me for two ‘bureaus’.  We’re pretty sure that these didn’t get snatched up more quickly because they were only called ‘bureaus’.  The ad said nothing about ‘dressers’, or ‘chest of drawers’, or ‘credenza’, or ‘midcentury modern’.  If any of those keywords had been used, I’m sure these would have been long gone.  But I don’t think there are too many people out there searching for ‘bureaus’ these days.

As happy as I was to get the opportunity to make these mine, some serious sweat equity went into acquiring them.  We had to call in the big guns.  Mr. Q’s friend Gene that is.  He is the guy we call when there is going to be some heavy lifting.  In this case, these two bureaus were in the attic of a typical 1940’s style bungalow.  In other words, up a very narrow staircase with a turn at the top.  Yikes!  The seller had been sure to tell me that I had to bring my own manpower to get them out of there, so I did.  Mr. Q and his friend were real troopers getting these babies into the truck!

MCM before 1

I only took a ‘before’ shot of one, but I have two and they are identical.  I’m fairly certain that the owner of these bought them new, tucked them up in the finished attic and has used them for storage for 50 years or so.  She mentioned that she had lived in the house since the 60’s.  They weren’t in terrible shape, but slightly beat up from years of use.  The finish was also very dried out.

MCM before close up 2

I had actually been hanging onto this pair until my sister got here.  Why?  I decided to play dueling bureaus with her (insert music here)!  Since she is living with me for two months until her new apartment is ready, I decided to put her to work as my apprentice.  Her first assignment was to work side by side with me, with each of us making over one of these.  I let her pick her own colors, and I picked mine.  I decided we should work in Fusion paint because it is the easiest to use, and no topcoat is required!

To begin with, we stripped the flat raised fronts of our drawers.  Once stripped, we sanded them lightly and then used Varathane’s Dark Walnut gel stain on them.  Once dry, we each added two coats of  Minwax Wipe on Poly in satin.  Then, after sanding the rest of the piece lightly, Debbie painted hers in Liberty and I painted mine in Ash.

Here is the Ash.

MCM ash title

 Doesn’t the wood just look so much richer in this darker stain?

And here is the Liberty.

MCM dresser painted in Fusion's "Liberty"

Now, I have to tell you, my sister has never done this before!  She’s never stripped or painted furniture.  Ever.  And she did this.  All by herself.  Granted, I showed her the ropes and gave her some tips along the way.  Still, if she can do it, so can you!  So if you are someone who has been reading my blog for a while and thinking about trying some furniture refinishing on your own, dive in!  As Nike says, just do it!

MCM collage

Debbie is very proud of her first furniture makeover ever!  She is well on her way to finishing her next project, her $10 table and benches, so stay tuned to see those soon.

debbie with MCM

all good things come to an end.

Published on by Quandie8 Comments

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but for those of you who are local and haven’t already heard, Round Barn Potting Co. in Andover will be closing its doors at the end of June.  As they say, all good things come to an end.  As you may know, I have sold furniture (as well as other small things) there on consignment for several years.  I also taught a couple of Miss Mustard Seed milk paint workshops up there.  Lori (Round Barn’s owner) and I also partnered a booth at Junk Bonanza last year, and we attended Miss Mustard Seed retailer training together in Madison.

Round Barn Potting Co. has always been one of my favorite places to shop.  She has such a unique selection of both vintage and new merchandise.  And of course, I’ve been buying my milk paint there since she started to carry it.  It will be a sad day when Lori closes her doors for good.

Lori will be having 4 sales in June to sell off the entire contents of the shop.  On June 4th she’ll begin with 50% off everything in the place!

green books and wallpaper

Since everything in the store will be drastically reduced in the coming month, I needed to bring the last two pieces of furniture that I had up there home again.  The first piece is this striped dresser that I painted before I even started this blog.

cottage stripes title

This piece has such cottage style.  I can also easily see it in a cozy farmhouse bedroom under the eaves.

cottage stripes close up

I painted this with homemade chalk paint back in the days before I had tried the real thing, and long before I tried milk paint.  I replaced the hardware with some pretty green glass knobs.

cottage stripes close up

The second piece I brought home is this mirrored dresser with wallpapered drawer fronts.

vintage wallpaper dresser full

I did this one last fall.  It’s painted with MMS milk paint in Eulalie’s Sky.  I have to say that the wallpaper has held up remarkably well.

vintage wallpaper title

These pieces are still for sale, and if they don’t sell sooner, they will find a place at my Carriage House sale.

But meanwhile, I hope that if you are local you can find the time to head up to Andover to get in one last visit to the Round Barn before it closes.  They will be open every Thursday thru Saturday in June from 10 am to 5 pm.  Stop up and say farewell.  And maybe stock up on Miss Mustard Seed products while they last!

plastic spoons and fake tattoos.

Published on by Quandie12 Comments

The Armitage and Kenny neighborhoods of Minneapolis always have their neighborhood garage sale on Memorial Day weekend.  Crazy, right?  And I usually go.  Even crazier.  This year my sister came along to share the fun.  Since it’s a holiday weekend, it is usually a very laid back, quiet sale.  Minimal traffic, plenty of street parking available, not a lot of shoppers.  It’s a different feel altogether from some of the other neighborhood sales.

armitage kenny

That being said, this year the pickin’s were pretty slim indeed.  An hour in and all I’d purchased was a bag of plastic spoons (for mixing paint), and some fake tattoos!

I’m not kidding about the fake tattoos.  I told Debbie she had to get one to show she’s a  Minnesotan now, and she said that I had to get one too then.

tattoo collage

So we paid $1 each for faux tattoos.

But just as I was joking about how ‘plastic spoons and fake tattoos’ was going to make for a great blog post title, we pulled up to a house with a lawn full of furniture.  Most of it ended up being fairly unappealing, but Debbie honed in on the large table with chunky legs.  She’s looking for a table for the craft room she’s setting up in her new apartment.  This table was the perfect size, it was quite solid, and if you looked past the shiny orange finish, it could be doctored up to pass for a pretty fab farmhouse style table.  Best of all, the table plus two matching benches was $10!  Yep, you read that right, $10 for all, making it our find of the day!

Aside from that, the only other item of note is the shabby chic chair.  I just love the details on this chair.

shabby chair

Initially I was going to leave the chair as is, but the more I think about it, I might have to paint it.  I may put it in my sale as is, and then if it doesn’t go, I’ll paint it.

That’s all I have for today folks!  Hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day.  Here in Minnesota it is supposed to be another rainy day and I plan to spend it in the Carriage House prepping for my upcoming sale!

so much fun.

Published on by Quandie19 Comments

The other day one of my co-workers came to my office, pulled up a photo on her phone and said “would you by any chance want this?”

little cabinet before

Um, yes!  Definitely.  The price was right and I jumped on it.  In case you can’t tell from the photo, this little guy is about 44″ tall.  Meant for a child’s play house I think.

I suspect it was homemade by some dad or grandpa for a lucky little girl.  The wood on the back looks like it was scrap from the packaging for a refrigerator.

The wood on the front isn’t especially pretty, but I knew that some milk paint would give it some instant vintage charm.

I gave this piece a many layered paint job.  I started with a layer of MMS French Enamel, then added a layer of Luckett’s Green, then a layer of Linen on the doors and drawer fronts, and another layer of French Enamel on the body.  My intention was to add some faux age as though this little cupboard had been painted multiple times in its life.  And here is how it turned out.

little cabinet 1

Just imagine how much fun it would be to play with this little cabinet!  Now you can see why I was so excited to find that little vintage tea set at the Linden Hills sales.  I knew it would be perfect for this piece.

cupboard with china

vintage china close up

I lined the drawers with some October Afternoon paper with a rocket theme.  Not so girly, true, but still fun.

vintage toy phone

I recently ordered some more vintage wallpaper from Hannah’s Treasures on Etsy.  I just can’t help myself when it comes to this stuff.  I love using it in the background when staging my photos.  Please note, I am not compensated in any way by Hannah’s Treasures, I’m just sharing it because I love it.  Also, FYI, she ships it so quickly and safely.  This stuff is a bit delicate, after all it is 70 year old paper.  But it always arrives in good condition.  I ordered another pattern that I will be using on a piece of furniture coming up soon.

vintage wallpaper

As much as I love this little cupboard, I really can’t use it anywhere in my own home.  It is for sale at $95, dishes included (but not the fabulous phone)!

vintage cupboard

If no one snatches it up after seeing it here, it will likely be at the Carriage House sale!

 

a little slice of lemon.

Published on by Quandie8 Comments

Before I get to the lemon slice, if you haven’t already seen it, the winner of the Fusion giveaway was Lucy Auburn.  Congrats to Lucy!

I visited my favorite spot (Country Sun Farm in Lake Elmo) for buying my annuals last week and was really excited to find the Lemon Slice million bells.

Lemon Slice

I’d been admiring them in other people’s planters for the last couple of years, but hadn’t found them for my own.  Aren’t they fab?  I’m not usually a fan of yellow flowers, but these are so doggone charming they almost look fake.  So, I bought a bunch of them!  And while I was at it, I bought a bunch of other stuff too!

a little slice of lemon

I filled up my galvanized boiler window boxes.

boiler planter

And my rusty toolbox planter (see, I told you I don’t mind a little rust!)

rusty toolbox planter

While I was out planting, I took a moment to admire my May hosta.

May hosta

The color on this hosta is truly this vibrant.  It just glows.  It’s always so beautiful and pristine in the spring before it gets clobbered by hail or munched on by slugs, maybe that is why it’s called May.  If you are looking for a brilliant chartreuse hosta, I highly recommend it.  Here’s a hosta tip for you.  Even though hostas grow in the shade, you won’t get the most vibrant colors on them in full shade.  Those with more yellow tones will be brighter with a little sun.  This one is in a fairly sunny spot.  Blue toned hostas will do better in shade.

There are lots of things blooming in my May garden.  The bleeding heart is in full bloom.  This is a variety with chartreuse leaves called Gold Heart.  I have a lot of shade in my gardens and I love using bright chartreuse plants because they really pop out of the shadows.

bleeding heart

The foam flower is looking good.  This is also an amazing choice for the shade.  It blooms for quite a while, and even once it’s done blooming it is a pretty plant.

foam flower

I even still have some tulips blooming.  We’ve had cool weather lately and the tulips last forever when it stays cool.

tulips

And speaking of cool, last night we had temps forecast in the mid to upper 30’s.  I thought winter was over!  I had all of my new annuals, including my Lemon Slice million bells covered with sheets, I hope they made it!