q is for quandie

tiny cupboards.

Published on October 3, 2014October 2, 2014 by Quandie4 Comments

In the wine, makes me feel happy, makes me feel fine. Bubbles, cupboards … get it? Oh never mind.

It has been the summer of the tiny cupboard. Sometimes it goes this way, there is a particular unique item that keeps reappearing at multiple garage sales. This summer it was the tiny cupboard.

I bought this one first, and painted it in Sweetie Jane milk paint, remember?

When I bought this one, I had never seen anything like it before. I thought it was doll furniture. I could tell that it had some age to it, but I wasn’t sure how much. This one has a mirrored back and little lights inside. I thought it was completely unique.

So, imagine my surprise when I found its twin sister at the Lake of Isles garage sales! It’s twin does not have mirrors or lights, but otherwise is pretty identical. I actually wasn’t going to purchase the twin, but the seller wouldn’t let me walk away. He kept lowering his price until I simply had to say yes.

Not only that, but he also insisted I purchase its companion. Yet another tiny cupboard!

I know this one is very ‘grandma’s tea cup collection’, but I took it home thinking that perhaps I could give it a fab makeover.

I gave it a coat of MMSMP in Trophy, which went a long way towards improving it. A little distressing helped give it some character. Then I covered the mirror at the back with a page out of an old plat book for Washington County. I staged it with some of my old cameras and my painted books, and voila!

grey cupboard

As for Sweetie Jane’s twin, I painted it in MMS milk paint in Apron Strings.

apron strings cabinet

I used a bit more of my vintage wallpaper stash to line the shelves.

apron strings cabinet 2

Later, at the Falcon Heights garage sales, what did I find but yet ANOTHER cupboard exactly like this. Only this time the seller wanted $40 for it! Ha. As if. I did not buy that one! But out of curiosity, I did a little googling. And I found a slew … well, OK, three … of these on eBay. One that sold for $80! I didn’t find much information on them, but from what I see, I think these were always intended to just house collectibles for display, not as doll furniture. I doubt they are valuable or anything, but they are vintage. I think they are the perfect size for American Girl Dolls and would be fun play furniture for them.

These tiny cupboards, plus this one from last spring, will all be available at the Carriage House Sale!

tiny hutch after

wall o’ plates.

Published on October 2, 2014September 30, 2014 by Quandie3 Comments

We return to pinterest for some more inspiration today.

Have you considered adding a wall of plates in your home? I love this look and have been stockpiling plates for years. I used to keep them all on display in my summer house, but now that I have converted it to a photo cottage, I just don’t have a home for all of these plates. Therefore, I’m selling a lot of them at my Carriage House Sale. And the prices are dirt cheap at $3 to $6 each.

So, how about some ideas for plate walls?

One of my favorites is this one that includes a customized house number plate.

Use number decals to add the numbers! Or just add a touch of whimsy above a chalkboard with number plates (click on the photo below to link directly to love grows wild’s post about how to add the numbers with a Silhouette machine).

Or you could update the look with a more asymmetrical design such as this one.

Or like this charming display for the kitchen.

One of my all time favorites is this display that mirrors the shape of the headboard.

I don’t happen to have any fish plates at my sale, but I am loving this look for a cabin or lodge.

You could take a lesson from Miss Mustard Seed and arrange monochromatic platters from large to small.

One last clever idea, add word decals and use for a wedding reception!

Let’s face it, there are a lot of fun ways to use pretty vintage plates. Stock up on some at the Carriage House Sale!

it had to be yellow.

Published on October 1, 2014October 1, 2014 by Quandie15 Comments

Last week my co-workers Sue & Cathy and I went garage saling over our lunch hour, and I picked up this dresser.

yellow dresser before

It was pretty beat up, as you can sort of see in the ‘before’ picture. But on the plus side, it had all of the original hardware, the drawers all worked well, and I knew it would be much cuter painted.

I really thought about painting it in MMS Kitchen Scale, but in the back of my mind I just kept seeing it painted yellow. Then I realized why. It’s basically the same style as this famous piece by Miss Mustard herself.

MMS yellow dresser

In fact, take a close look, aside from the shape (tall v. wide), it is the same dresser. I assume they are the gentlemen’s and ladies’ version of the same bedroom set.

In the end I decided, why fight it? I can only see it painted yellow, so yellow it shall be. I will call it an homage to the incredible style of Miss Mustard herself.

yellow dresser after

Let’s go ahead and point out how my version pales in comparison to Miss Mustard. First, the pattern on the top drawers. You can see that this pattern was there originally. I don’t think it was an actual inlay, but just stained to look like an inlay. Once painted, I could barely even see the outline. I very much admire Marian’s ability to paint designs like this free-hand on her drawer fronts, but I do not have that skill. So my upper drawers remained plain.

Miss Mustard also painted some of the bands around the front legs of her dresser white, and I did not think to do that.

As for the top, Miss Mustard stripped and stained the top of her dresser in Dark Walnut. I just stripped and added a dark wax to mine. I think her’s is better. Although I will say that I think if someone is looking for a more rustic, aged look, mine fits that bill.

yellow dresser top

Now let’s get a close up look at the gorgeous chippy finish I ended up with on this dresser.

And that right there is why I love Miss Mustard Seed milk paint. In a nutshell. You simply won’t get this look with a chalk paint. This dresser has the perfect amount of chippyness to look authentic without it being over the top. I love it when that happens! Standing next to this dresser in person, one would really be tempted to believe this is an authentic 75 year old finish.

Here are the boring painting details for those of you who want to know (everyone else can skip this part). I stripped the top, sanded the body lightly, painted three coats of MMS milk paint in Mustard Seed Yellow on the body, and three coats of MMS milk paint in Linen on the details. It took three coats to get full coverage on this piece, and I didn’t want a streaky look. I waxed the body with MMS clear wax, and I waxed the top with two coats of my own custom blend dark wax.

This very charming yellow dresser will be available at the Carriage House Sale on Saturday. Hope you can stop by!

yellow b and a collage

P.S. One little housekeeping note here. Do any of you blog in wordpress? I have been really frustrated by how fuzzy my photos seem once I load them on the blog. Recently I discovered that if you click on the photo and bring it up in another tab, you lose the fuzziness. Maybe all of you already knew this? Anyway, my tip to you if you want to see a picture in more detail with less fuzziness, just click on it (or right click, select ‘open in a new tab’). And if any of you know why this happens, or if there is a way that I can correct it, please let me know!

vintage sleds.

Published on September 30, 2014September 29, 2014 by Quandie11 Comments

I just happen to have three vintage sleds for sale at the Carriage House on Saturday. Are you wondering what you can do with a vintage sled? Besides sledding, that is. I visited pinterest for some inspiration to share with you today.

First, there is your basic winter decoration idea (I happen to also have a sweet red & green tin box for sale!). I pinned this last year mainly because I think the picture is gorgeous, but wouldn’t something like this be fab on your front porch to greet your holiday guests?

Or, you could think outside the box and do something creative with your sled, like re-purpose it as a pot rack.

Or perhaps you are pretty handy and can turn it into a clever shelf for displaying your vintage stuff.

Might be fun to paint it a fab turquoise.

Maybe you should buy all three and stack them for impact!

Or, if you just want to display it outside your front door, you can just purchase this one that is ready to go, complete with ice skates.

There are lots of fab ways to use an old sled. Maybe you can pick one (or three) up at the Carriage House Sale this weekend!

phew.

Published on September 29, 2014September 28, 2014 by Quandie13 Comments

This past weekend I put my nose to the grindstone to get ready for my sale. The weather in Minnesota totally cooperated by giving me 3 straights days (I also took Friday off at the day job) of solid sunshine and highs of 80. Definitely not our normal late September weather; it was divine.

On Friday I finished up three pieces of furniture. Yep, it was a marathon. I just couldn’t help it, I wanted to get them done for the sale. I’ll post each of them individually with before & after pics later on, but for now, here are all three.

The yellow dresser is $225, the rustic farm table is $60 (vintage typewriter: $40, chair: $12), the book case is $165.

I don’t feel like the pictures do justice to any of these pieces. The perfect chippy-ness that had been eluding me all summer was back in all of its glory on all three of these. You must see them in person for the full effect, so I hope you can make it to my sale!

On Saturday I completely emptied out the Carriage House, went through with the shop vac to beat back the cobwebs and swept out a summer’s worth of paint dust. Next, I figured out where to place all of the furniture. Fortunately, Mr Q helps me with the heavy lifting. I got a fantastic break from the work on Saturday evening when my BFF had us over for fondue night. We fondued steak in red wine, vegies with batter in oil. Her mom & dad were in town, so her dad made his famous Brandy Alexanders for dessert. Delish! Mr. Q and I really feel like part of the family at her house. All three of her adult children were home, her mom & dad, her sister. It was awesome.

Sunday morning I was back at it. Arranging all of the rest of my things in the Carriage House, making sure everything had a price tag. Finding little bits and pieces that needed tweaking. Then setting up a little preview photo shoot of the goods as a teaser for you all.

Don’t worry, even though I am in my ‘blue period’, not everything is blue!

I have to admit, I am totally exhausted. Why do I work this hard? Anyone know? There must be just a little ‘type A’ in my make up somewhere, pushing me to put on the best little occasional sale that I can muster up.

This is always the part of the process where I start to get pretty excited about the sale. I can’t believe all of the fab finds I have put together, and I don’t even have my sale partner’s stuff here yet. When Sue brings her stuff, it’s a little like Christmas as I get to unwrap all of her finds out in the Carriage House. I’ll try to share more pictures in a few days.

Meanwhile, I hope if you are nearby, you are saving the date!

my blue period.

Published on September 26, 2014September 25, 2014 by Quandie5 Comments

I figure if Picasso can have a blue period, then so can I. Right?

Of course, Picasso’s blue period works were somber and desolate. Plus, he had trouble selling them in his lifetime, it was only later that they became popular. Hopefully none of that will be true of my blue period!

Much like a lot of other furniture painters out there, I do seem to be drawn to blues of all kinds this year. From the deep, rich indigo of Miss Mustard Seed’s Artissimo …

to the gorgeous paler blue green of Annie Sloan’s Duck Egg …

I was inexplicably drawn to these blue motel chairs at a garage sale.

My recent attraction to blue even inspired the ‘save the date’ card for my upcoming sale.

And now I seem to be enamored with Annie Sloan’s Aubusson. First the little cupboard I salvaged, and now … the mirrored dresser that was part of the two-fer.

I have to say, I went around and around about what color to paint this dresser. There were just so many possibilities. MMSMP in Mustard Seed Yellow with white accents? Trophy with a stencil on the front? Another custom mixed Minty Green? Black?

In the end I had to tell myself to snap out of it and remember it was only a dresser, and it wasn’t the last one on the planet. Another dresser will come along to be painted, so for now, just pick a color for gosh sake!

And so, I picked Aubusson with the details highlighted in MMSMP in Linen. I knew that I wanted the eye to be drawn to this gorgeous detail at the top of the mirror.

I actually started with outdoor photos for this one, but the blue seems far too bright in these. It’s not that bright in person.

As you may notice in the before & after side by side, I changed out the hardware on the lower two drawers for some much prettier stuff that suited the dresser. The knobs it came with were definitely not original to the piece. And if you are wondering about that scroll-y trim around the bottom two drawers, the previous owners had removed all of it. What you are seeing is the shadow from where it was.

This dresser will be available at the Carriage House sale!

are you flippin’ kidding me?

Published on September 24, 2014September 23, 2014 by Quandie27 Comments

Remember my inadvertent mid-century flip from last spring? I purchased a Lane cubist credenza for $20 and sold it in the same day for $175. Only to find out later that the guy who purchased it was a dealer and had it listed in his shop for $550.

Well, I said ‘live and learn’, and I think I got a little smarter the next time around.

I purchased two American of Martinsville mid-century pieces (after nnK spotted them on CL) and I flipped them. I made a little nicer profit this time. Even so, the impossibly hip couple that bought the credenza told me they were going to take it to Manhattan. I have a feeling that they were going to make a tidy profit also.

Here are the pieces:

I’m definitely not a mid-century modern expert, but I know enough to sometimes recognize a good thing when I see it. And these were gorgeous.

The other day my friend Sue stopped off at a garage sale near our work. It was one of those “diamond in the rough” sort of sales. A lot of junk, a big dumpster in the driveway, nothing marked or even really set up, just piles of stuff. Luckily Sue is an intrepid garage saler. She goes beyond the surface. She asked if they were selling any furniture, and sure enough they said almost everything inside the house was for sale too. Sue happened to notice that they had a couple of mid-century pieces, so when she got back to work she told me about them.

Actually, to be precise, she left a note on my chair that I promptly sat on without noticing, how embarrassing.

I did finally get the message though, and I popped over to the sale myself. This story is becoming long winded at this point, but let’s just say several phone calls, 2 trips, some help from Mr Q’s strong heavy lifting friend and some sneaking around grandma later and I was the proud owner of these two pieces.

But the best part of the story is still to come. You see, hanging on the wall above the credenza was a large metal pom pom wall sculpture.

Classic 1970’s. On a lark, as part of my negotiations for the furniture, I asked if they would throw that in. Absolutely! They needed to have the entire house cleared out in 3 more days, “take it”, they said!

I’m pretty sure this is where Mr. Q earned sainthood. Picture him kneeling on top of the credenza trying to unscrew this thing from the wall with metal pom poms stabbing him from every angle. But, he did it, without a single complaint.

Turned out it was ridiculously heavy and nearly impossible to grab onto without getting stabbed, but we hauled it home where I promptly tossed it on the lawn and hosed off 35 years worth of dust. This was the point where I thought “what in the world is wrong with me? I am totally going to be stuck with this thing. What was I thinking?”

Actually, I had gone into it thinking I could just use this piece to stage future mid-century pieces, but in reality it was just far too heavy to even consider hanging it in the photo cottage. I was then tempted to put it at the curb with a free sign.

Instead, I googled it. After several attempts at trying to find something similar, I ended up finding Curtis Jere. And from there, I found the exact same piece for sale at 1stdibs online for … wait for it … drum roll please … is the suspense killing you? … $5,900.

Yep. I kid you not.

I did read online that it was imperative that the piece be signed. A true Curtis Jere was always signed. You should have seeing me going over that thing with a fine tooth comb looking for a signature. I thought for sure it would be on the back (although in hindsight, what artist signs his work on the back?), but I could not find a signature anywhere on the back. Finally Mr. Q said, “too bad, it’s just a knock off.”

But I did not give up. I flipped it over, and kept looking. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, there it was! A signature! Not just a signature, THE signature.

Yep, I have an authentic Curtis Jere mid-century metal pom pom wall sculpture worth $5,900. Are you flippin’ kidding me?

Now what?

painting on paint.

Published on September 22, 2014September 21, 2014 by Quandie5 Comments

I know others have a lot of success re-painting an already painted piece of furniture, but I really try to avoid it. I don’t like stripping paint, I find it time consuming and messy. I also don’t like painting over latex with milk paint. It can be done, but it gets even more unpredictable than usual. I’m also kind of picky about the color of an undercoat that is sure to show through whatever I put on top of it, at least on the distressed edges. So, keeping all of those factors in mind, I usually pass on already painted pieces.

However, last winter after probably one too many cocktails in Las Vegas, I texted Mr. Q and sent him off to pick up a dresser/nightstand combo while I was off visiting my mom. They were already painted white. But I thought I could work with the white.

Here is what they looked like when I got them.

They came as a pair, so I was stuck with the chunky nightstand, even though it obviously doesn’t really match the dresser and it’s not something I would normally grab. As for the dresser, the hardware was all wrong, the existing white paint job was poorly done and, you can’t see it here, but there is a coat of garish green under the white.

Upon returning from Las Vegas I took a look at them, and then promptly stored them in nnK’s garage for several months and forgot all about them (sorry nnK).

I brought them back over to my place earlier this summer though, and still couldn’t find the motivation to work on them. Finally, I told myself that I had to get these done before my sale. Nothing like a deadline to get my mojo going. I decided to work with the white by freshening it up with a coat of American Paint Company’s mineral/chalk paint in Navajo White. The next step was to add a stripe to the drawer fronts using Annie Sloan’s Louis Blue.

I started with the night stand. I used yellow Frog tape (the one for delicate surfaces), taped off some stripes on the drawer front, painted the blue, and pulled off the tape. Ack! The tape pulled the paint off right down the to wood. I am guessing this is because the original paint used on this piece was probably latex. And it didn’t stick. In the end, I just touched up the paint, added some Louis Blue to the top, added a vintage glass knob and called it good.

It has a sort of beachy vibe, don’t you think?

Definitely not my best work ever, but hopefully someone out there will want a beachy keen nightstand.

Meanwhile, there was no way I was going to try using tape on the dresser, so I went back to the drawing board. It then occurred to me that I should get out my stencils. Duh. Why didn’t I think of this sooner?

And voila! The finished dresser.

Seriously, isn’t it amazing what a fresh coat of chalk paint, some stenciling, and some new hardware can do for a dresser?

Here is a peek at the inside.

I’m thinking maybe I should have numbered those interior drawers.

What do you think? Should I add numbers?

You may have caught a glimpse of this tiny dresser that I used for staging …

Yes, my addiction to tiny furniture continues. I plan to paint this one too … but maybe after the Carriage House sale!

mac grove.

Published on September 21, 2014September 20, 2014 by Quandie8 Comments

And the award for most fashionable garage sale goes to …. drumroll please … MacGrove!

MacGrove is a charming neighborhood in St. Paul that includes Macalester College and St. Thomas University. Yesterday some of my garage sale pals and I spent the morning there for their neighborhood garage sale. It has a very collegiate vibe. They used to hold their sale in August, but for some reason they moved it to September this year. The most noticeable change was the quantity of students that were milling about near the schools.

Once again, we had picture perfect weather, and we found some great things. We also came upon the most fabulous garage sale set up of the season.

It was like a party!

And he had some very clever signage.

“These lamps don’t get paid … but that doesn’t mean they don’t work!”

We all enjoyed the festive atmosphere. Here is the crew, Sue, Jan & Cathy.

I also found my best find of the season at this very same sale. A fantastic vintage ice cream scale (who wants to weigh their ice cream? not me!) in my color, aqua.

I will be finding a prominent location in the pantry for this bad boy!

Unfortunately, I was so exhausted when I got home that most of my pictures of the rest of my finds turned out pretty awful. But here is a picture of a fantastic book shelf that Sue spotted for me, and I quickly snatched up.

Won’t this be a charmer once it is painted? Those details down the side are just going to pop with a little paint. I’m still contemplating what color I’ll use on it, but I know it will get milk paint.

Unfortunately, the pic is a little blurry and you can’t appreciate it properly, but the fabric that is folded on the shelf is vintage bark cloth with adorable farm scenes. I just couldn’t pass it up.

Here, you can see the detail a little better in this photo of some vintage light sconces that I also picked up.

I did come home with a nice little pile of great finds. Some will make their way into my own home, some will end up in my workshop to be revamped, and some will be headed to the Carriage House sale!

the fall window box.

Published on September 19, 2014September 18, 2014 by Quandie12 Comments

Remember I told you I have a short attention span when it comes to gardening? Yeah, I haven’t done a lick of gardening in weeks. Fortunately, we are seeing signs of fall everywhere here in Minnesota, so it’s OK. I can start tossing the summer annuals and throw in some fall updates and call it good.

First up, the front window box. As you may remember, I tried something new this year, a monochromatic look of all white and green. Here is how it looked when I planted it in May.

And here is how it looked by the end of August.

The Euphorbia ended up doing really well. In the end though, the white impatiens were the star of the show.

Then, the impatiens all kacked. I find that not many of my fellow gardeners are aware of this, but there is a virus that has been sweeping the nation and it attacks impatiens. One moment they are full of blooms and looking gorgeous, and a mere week later they are nearly dead. The flowers fall off first, then the leaves and you are left with nubbins of stems. You will be tempted to believe that some kind of creature came and ate them, but no, it is a disease. I hadn’t been planting impatiens for the last several years because of this, but last spring someone told me the virus had been ‘cured’. This was bad info. In reality, they have not found a cure. According to my super scientific google research, the virus remains in your soil and will infect any impatiens you plant in that spot next year. It also is airborne, infecting neighboring plants. The double whammy of plant viruses, I guess.

Well, live and learn. Next year, no more impatiens and I don’t think I’ll do the same monochromatic look. It looked great close up, but from the street it lacked punch and without the impatiens, it just didn’t have much impact.

So, I yanked all of the remaining stems (bagging, sealing and tossing as recommended) and replaced them with white mums and some white pumpkins in keeping with my monochromatic look. And here is how the window box looks for fall.

The ferns, ivy and caladium are still going strong, so they stayed. I added two white mums (flowers not quite open yet, and they better be white like the label says!), two white pumpkins, and some cut flowers from my Annabelle hydrangea. My Annabelle’s turn a lovely chartreuse in the fall, do yours?

It’s an interesting twist on fall, not the traditional fall colors of yellows and oranges, but I love it.

I found the mums, kale and white pumpkins at Menards this week. The mums were $3.98 each, the kale was $3.99, and the white pumpkins were $4.59 each. So for about $33, and with the help of my prolific hydrangea bushes, I was able to give a both my large window box, and my two galvanized boiler pot planters a pop of new life for fall.

Hey, wait a minute, I don’t think I’ve ever shown you these. Ken built them for me. Both of the boiler pots came from garage sales and were super cheap because the bottoms were rusted out. Ken added some wood slats, and then mounted them for me. One on the Carriage House and one on the Photo Cottage.

I used the kale in this planter and added some Strawberry Vanilla hydrangea blooms, some Sedum flower heads, and some dried Astilbe flower heads.

Here is a better look at the arrangement.

I really enjoy being able to use stuff from my gardens in my window boxes for both fall and winter. I’m hoping that these arrangements continue to look good for the next two months or so. Or at least until the Carriage House sale. Then sometime in early to mid-November I will switch them up again for winter. I’ll be sure to share them with you again then!