q is for quandie

the aftermath.

Published on June 14, 2014June 13, 2014 by Quandie19 Comments

Thank you so much to everyone who turned up for the Carriage House sale! We had a great time, we sold lots of fabulous vintage stuff and overall it was a great success. I didn’t get a lot of picture taking accomplished, but I did snap some quick ones here and there.

Here is a picture of the garden section. Lots of the garden stuff sold.

I painted up a couple of ‘planter chairs’ for the sale. These always sell well.

This second one is painted in MMSMP in Mustard Seed Yellow.

I had a few fairy garden items too, some tiny pots and a few miniature hostas split from the ones in my own fairy garden.

The garden area was rounded out with my chippy green and white dresser, which sadly did not sell, nor did the cute little chair painted in Luckett’s Green or the green suitcase. The camper birdhouse went quickly though, as did the vintage jar with the green lid and the green garden frogs.

Wicker usually goes fast if the price is right. I was selling this wicker chair from my potting shed in anticipation of turning it into my furniture photo studio. The mirrored sconces with green tea cups also came from the potting shed and sold quickly. I still have the little green table though. Doesn’t anyone need a cute little green table?

This next picture was taken on day 2 of the sale, and a lot of these items never did sell. Sue painted up a number of Kitchen and Laundry signs that were really darling, and she sold quite a few of them, but not all. My painted suitcases all sold except for this one.

I’ve had this stack of wicker cases for a while now, and they never seem to sell. Am I the only one who thinks these are kind of fab? They would be great for storing craft supplies and stacked somewhere.

The turquoise chair and painted suitcase both sold, as did all of the martini shakers, but the credenza did not. I’ve got it listed on craigslist now, so hopefully the right buyer will find it there.

And that is about it for photos from the sale. I’m am going to sleep for two days now to recover, and then I have to get out there and get my workshop put back together so I can resume my furniture makeovers!

I’ll leave you with this parting shot. The sign up list for my sale emails was on the radio cabinet, and a visual Thank You for everyone that came to the sale!

your guide to the carriage house sale.

Published on June 10, 2014June 9, 2014 by Quandie7 Comments

Are you coming to the Carriage House Sale? First, the important details.

Time: Thursday, June 12 from 5 pm to 8 pm & Friday, June 13 from 9 am to 2 pm.

Place: 6041 47th St N, Oakdale

Details: We take CASH only at our sale. We are a low budget affair. That’s how we keep our prices so incredibly low. We have no overhead. No credit card processing, no check bouncing, no fancy locale. Just great vintage stuff at great prices, so bring your secret stash of cash! Come on, we all have one, don’t we?

With those details out of the way, I thought I would present a guide to help you plan your shopping strategy.

First of all, please note that no one gets in early. We rope off the driveway and let everyone in at precisely 5 pm. So, do you need to get there early? Well, that depends. Parking can be a problem. The earlier you get there, the closer you can park. But, we have carry out help and you can always pull your car up to load your purchases if you are parked farther away. The only real advantage to arriving early is that you’ll be at the front of the crowd. Does that matter to you? If so, then get here early. Otherwise, no need.

One tip, as you come down the driveway grab a box to fill with your stuff (available while they last). Or better yet, bring your own reusable shopping bag or two.

As for the layout, the ‘garden area’ is always to the left of the driveway near the big rock. This year we have several vintage motel chairs, lots of planters both traditional and creative, some tuteurs that Ken built, plenty of garden decor and of course some actual plants. Both Sue and I are avid gardeners, so we have divisions from our own gardens to share. You might also find this basket full of vintage floral platters priced at $3 to $4 each in the garden area.

Why pretty china in the garden area? I happen to think it adds a little extra something to window boxes. I have some in all of mine. See?

We’ll certainly have items along the driveway, especially if it isn’t raining. I’m hoping to have a mid-century section with the turquoise credenza and chair shown here.

As for inside the Carriage House itself, we tend to organize by color. The right side (as you are facing it) is the dark side, and the left side is the light side.

On the dark side you’ll find black, grey, silver, gold, dark green. Looking for some fab vintage silverplate? This is the side for you. Black painted books, yep, on the right. Vintage cameras, scales and bingo cards. Got ’em.

You’ll also find the apothicaire desk on the right hand side.

Stenciled cutting boards? Also on the right side.

You’ll also find this fab cane back sofa on the right side, it’s priced at $200 (pillows sold separately).

On the light side, you’ll find pink, aqua, yellow, lavender and white.

Much lighter, more feminine items. Like these gorgeous chairs that Sue is selling for a mere $25 each.

Wouldn’t this vintage baby shoe be darling on a shelf in a nursery? It’s $4.

Remember this cute wonky stool I painted in Eulalie’s Sky? It’s on the left side at the back.

Mary is selling jewelry and a few other things, and all of her proceeds will help her pay for college in Winona next year. Her junkalicious necklaces are a mere $18 each!

All of Mary’s items can be identified by her giraffe in a top hat tags!

So there you have it, how to shop the Carriage House Sale.

I hope you’ll throw on some jewels, pack your painted vintage suitcase full of cash and head on over!

Hope to see you there, rain or shine.

mid-century madness.

Published on June 9, 2014June 8, 2014 by Quandie20 Comments

I was overcome by mid-century madness this past week and the end result was not one, but two fabulous mid-century pieces!

I just can’t help myself, I always envision mid-century pieces in turquoise. In this case, I used Annie Sloan’s Provence on both.

The first one finished was your typical mid-century blonde bureau. We’ve all seen these before (sorry, no before pic), I even had one in my room growing up although my mom ‘antiqued’ mine in lime green. I had toyed with the idea of painting the dresser white and orange, but in the end, the turquoise won out.

I loved the curve to the top drawers on right and left. And can we just take a moment to admire the hardware? Seriously. I’m pretty sure the Jetson’s had furniture like this (am I dating myself here or what?)

I purposely did not add much distressing at all to this piece. I thought it worked better with a clean solid finish.

This dresser is an absolute bombshell. She is gorgeous in person. Wouldn’t she work well with a wide screen TV on top? And you could store a ton of stuff in all of these drawers, there are 8 of them.

My resident mid-century fan, nnK, loves this one!

The 2nd mid-century piece is this credenza.

I snapped this up on craigslist despite massive competition. Luckily I was the first one to email the seller, and the seller was one of those people who believe in dibs to the first person. It probably helped that I could send Mr. Q to pick it up right away. I just knew this one would be gorgeous painted.

I used a combination of Provence and Old White, both Annie Sloan chalk paint. I love the legs/base on this piece.

I kept the original hardware on this one too, I just painted the bamboo-ish portion of the pulls.

So there you have it, my fling with mid-century madness.

Both of these will be at my Carriage House Sale on Thursday evening. I wish I could say that Don Draper will be there too, but sadly not. We do have some hip mid-century cocktail shakers, and that fantastic turquoise chair you see in the pictures of the credenza though.

ECCO super sale.

Published on June 8, 2014June 7, 2014 by Quandie11 Comments

Yesterday was the ‘ECCO Super Sale’. At least that is what they call it. You know, I have been going to this sale for years, but I have no idea what the extra ‘C’ stands for. I know it’s the East Calhoun neighborhood, I think the ‘o’ at the end is for organization … but that extra ‘c’ … no idea.

And I’m not so sure about the ‘Super Sale’ part. There were 58 houses participating this year, but I don’t know if it was super. It poured rain the entire time! Luckily my companion and I both wore fabulous rain boots. We didn’t go around puddles, we just went right through them! I haven’t been that soaked in a long time. My raincoat turned out to not be so waterproof after all. My ball cap was dripping wet by the end. But we still had a great time, and even in the rain that neighborhood has some gorgeous houses, not to mention an awesome homemade taco stand. Delicious!

Here is my tiny haul after a morning of slogging through the rain.

The table is quite rustic, in a good way. I’m know I definitely won’t paint the top, but I’m toying with the idea of painting just the base. I have another of these tables in the workshop at the moment, and I took the leaves off that one. With the leaves off, one can use these as a small desk. I’m going to have to study this one for a bit before I decide what to do with it.

I found a few nice glass pieces. A large Pottery Barn bowl that would be great for serving salads or popcorn. Another nice glass canister (Terri, do you need another one of these?), a square jar with a great green lid, and an awesome mid-century cocktail mixer. I also came home with a pair of vintage green binoculars. I’m thinking of keeping them as a prop for future furniture photo shoots.

This seems to be the year of the doll sized furniture. In this case, a bow front china cabinet. I don’t think it’s old, but is seems fairly well made. I grabbed it mainly because I think it will be charming painted.

I love buying perennials at garage sales. I have filled quite a bit of space in my garden with garage sale plants. When you buy them this way, you can be fairly sure that they thrive in your climate, otherwise the seller wouldn’t have extras to sell. Generally they also tend to be plants that spread for the same reason. So, buyer beware, these things might take over your garden! As might be the case with the Sweet Woodruff I purchased today. I will plant it in my shade garden and hope it doesn’t take over too much territory. And at 3 plants for $5, it’s hard to go wrong.

They look pretty cute in the tiny wagon I purchased, don’t they?

We called it quits a little earlier than usual due to being soaking wet, not to mention that I had plenty to do back here at home to get ready for the Carriage House Sale! Here’s hoping that I have better weather for that!

wallpapered linen press dresser.

Published on June 6, 2014June 5, 2014 by Quandie52 Comments

Is it possible to be in love with a dresser? Because I think I am in love with this one.

I know, I’ve said it before. And I’ll probably say it again, but this is one of my all time favs.

I’ve wanted to try using vintage wallpaper on a dresser for a while. You’ll remember that I purchased some from my new friend Michelle at Junk Bonanza. There it is, in the back on the right. I also purchased the Annie Sloan Duck Egg paint at the same time.

All I needed was the perfect piece of furniture to use it on.

And I found it. A lovely linen press dresser.

This was one of those pieces that was actually in decent shape to begin with, although it had some damage on one of the inside drawers. I knew that the areas framed in with trim would be perfect for the wallpaper.

My process on this dresser in a nutshell was this. I painted the entire thing with the Annie Sloan paint in Duck Egg. Then, I used wallpaper paste to adhere the wallpaper. It was slightly frail, and back in the day wallpaper was not pre-pasted. I went back to my former wallpapering days and followed the same rules. I ‘booked’ my wallpaper by spreading it with wallpaper paste and gently folding the piece in half, pasted sides together. I waited a couple of minutes and then opened it back up and applied it to the dresser. I smoothed out any bubbles and excess paste, trimmed around the edges with a razor blade, and cleaned off excess paste that had oozed out. Once the wallpaper was dry, I waxed the painted portions of the dresser. I did not wax the wallpaper. I don’t think wax and vintage wallpaper would have mixed well.

What makes this dresser a linen press are the drawers inside that were intended for storing linens.

I added some label holders to the drawers. They currently just have some of the vintage wallpaper in them, but one could change that to paper labels that show the contents of each drawer.

Imagine how pretty it would be to have all of your linens neatly stored inside this dresser.

I staged the drawer with some white quilted Euro pillow shams that will be available at my sale.

I have to tell you, it was ridiculously windy when I was trying to take these pictures. The doors kept blowing closed. The lilac on top was fluttering madly. Seeds kept falling out of the trees onto the top of the dresser. It was pure madness I tell you! You can see the movement in the lilac in this next photo.

I once again painted the original knobs on this piece. I had planned to change them out for glass knobs, but because of those interior drawers, I couldn’t have the screws on the glass knobs sticking out on the back side of the doors. I could have cut the screws off, and counter-sunk the nuts, but that would have been quite a job. I decided to just keep the originals instead.

Although you see casters on this dresser in the pictures, in the end I had to take them off. They weren’t very sturdy, they kept falling out, and one broke off after the photo shoot! Luckily I was able to repair the leg, but I wouldn’t recommend using casters on this piece. In fact, I am learning to remove the casters from any older pieces that have slender legs like this one. I love the look of the casters, but the reality is that they usually aren’t strong enough to handle rolling the dresser around on them. And people are tempted to do just that if they are there. I am warning all of you now, don’t roll your vintage dresser around on its antique casters. You are inviting disaster.

So there it is, my vintage wallpapered linen press dresser. This will be available at the Carriage House Sale!

the patriot.

Published on June 4, 2014June 3, 2014 by Quandie13 Comments

I don’t know why this dresser makes me feel patriotic. I suspect it’s because it feels early American to me. I have no idea if it is. I’ve seen similiar dressers identified as the Eastlake style online, but I always thought Eastlake was a little more decorative than this, with some spoon carving or other detailing. Any Eastlake experts out there? Does this qualify?

Either way, I went with a patriotic color. I painted it with MMSMP in Artissimo, which is a navy/indigo. I finished it with hemp oil, which makes the color nice and dark. This is my 4th dresser in Artissimo. I used it on the Hudson and the 1890’s dresser, but it is also one of the first MMS colors I ever used. Way back when I was a newbie. And I’ll confess, I thought there was no way I would ever use it again. I didn’t know about the hemp oil back then and I over-waxed it with Briwax resulting in a rather shiny finish. But, I’ve learned since then, and now I love working with this color.

It also is Ken the handyman’s favorite of all the colors I’ve used. Actually, it would truly be more accurate to say that this is the only color I use that Ken likes at all (except black, as he says). He really doesn’t get the whole furniture painting thing. That’s OK, he doesn’t have to like ’em, he just has to fix ’em.

You can see that I didn’t really get any chipping on this one. I think that I have lost my touch when it comes to the chippy. I’ve painted numerous pieces in the last couple of weeks, and none have chipped. At all. Nada. Is it me? Is it the weather? I’ve wondered if it’s the humidity. All winter I was painting in the house with the heat on, and I got chipping galore.

My neighbor, nnK, thinks this one would look great in someone’s cabin. I agree. You could keep all the towels and swimsuits in it, or maybe your sweaters for those chilly days at the lake. It would look awesome in a rustic room with a patriotic color scheme of red, white and blue.

I once again tried my hand at stripping the top and just waxing it. I used Citristrip to strip it, sanded it and then waxed with my own combination of Johnson’s Paste Wax and a dark Briwax. There were some pretty major discolorations on top of this dresser, and I didn’t want it to end up looking perfect. I wanted it to show its age. I am starting to get the hang of this stripping thing, which was one of my goals for this summer. It’s good to meet your goals.

I replaced the knobs that came on the dresser with some that look old, but are faux old. I feel pretty certain that the white porcelain knobs that came with it are not original. The scale and the style were all wrong for this guy.

I will have this dresser at my occasional sale unless someone wants to snatch it up sooner than that.

Even if you don’t think you need a new dresser, wouldn’t it be fun to freshen up one of your rooms with this one? You can always sell your old one on craigslist!

garden tour.

Published on June 2, 2014June 1, 2014 by Quandie15 Comments

Minnesota has what I consider to be the ideal climate for gardening. You scoff, I know. Especially those of you in more southerly climes. But, let me explain. Our growing season is pretty short. We can’t plant our annuals until at least May 15, and this year it was even later. Our average first frost is in late September. That’s it. Four and a half months. That is about perfect for me. By mid-August I am already growing bored with gardening and I’m ready to be done for the year. Apparently my gardening attention span is really short as well. It’s a perfect fit.

I am quite fine with letting my garden slumber under mountains of snow for half of the year. It makes you appreciate it that much more when it is green and lovely.

Today I thought I would take you, dear reader, on a short tour of my garden.

The lilac above is part of a lilac hedge I am working on along my rear property line. I put these in 3 years ago, and they are just starting to get nice and tall. I need them to fill in a lot more though, so I’m hoping to prune them this year and encourage them to get bushier.

I garden mostly in the shade. I have a lot of really large trees in my yard, which works well for me. I much prefer shade, and not having central a/c in my house means the trees help us stay cooler inside.

My buddha was purchased at Home Goods a few years back. He is holding up pretty well outside and has developed a nice patina. He is nestled in with my Maidenhair Ferns. I love these because they are so delicate and airy looking.

This is Cossetta. I purchased her at a garage sale of course! She seemed pricey in garage sale money at $80, but truly she was a bargain. She is wearing her tiara and presiding over the hostas and bleeding hearts.

I just purchased this bleeding heart. It has the bright chartreuse foliage that I love. I don’t know the official name of it off the top of my head, but if anyone is wondering, leave me a comment and I’ll go read the tag. As I was editing my photos for this post, it became apparent to me just how much I love bright lime green.

This is partly because I love the color, but also because these bright colors really pop in a shady garden. If you look closely at these photos, you can see that I use Cocoa Bean mulch in my gardens. I like how dark it gets, which also makes my bright green foliage stand out. It can get moldy in damp weather though, which can be slightly unpleasant.

I focus much more on foliage than I do on flowers. Most perennials have such a short blooming season, so I pick plants for their foliage so they look good all summer. Of course, I do have some favorite blooms too, like peonies, hydrangeas and irises … none of which are blooming quite yet. I have a cutting garden out behind the carriage house that is full of these. When they bloom, I don’t feel guilty cutting and bringing them inside because that’s what they’re there for!

The foamflower is blooming now though.

My sedum is gradually taking over my patio. I planted it to spill over the garden edge, and it is definitely spilling.

This gargoyle is guarding the brunnera. I love the delicate blue flowers on this plant. Too bad they are nearly done for the season already. This is supposed to be Brunnera Jack Frost. If any of you know plants, you are now wondering why this doesn’t look like Jack Frost. Turns out you are supposed to keep cutting back the leaves that revert to the original green of brunnera. I didn’t know that, and never cut them back and now I have nothing but plain green. Do any of you grow the Jack Frost? Has the same thing happened to you?

My friend Sue brought the gargoyle back from a trip down south. She had purchased one for herself, and she just knew I would want one too. She was right of course.

Saint Francis of Assisi hangs out in my fern glade. This is under a heavy canopy of trees and the ferns have filled in a large area over time. Works for me, I don’t have to do much with this area except keep beating the ferns back into submission. Saint Francis is watching over the ashes of our first dog, Buck.

This Japanese painted fern is across the driveway from St. Francis. Isn’t it gorgeous?

To conclude today’s tour, I’m sharing the topper on my fountain. My neighbor, nnK, gave me this. I think her mom brought it back from Mexico, or something like that. It just happened to fit perfectly at the top of my fountain.

This concludes today’s garden tour, I hope you enjoyed it. I’ll try to remember to take you on a few more over the course of the summer as the garden changes and new things are blooming.

For now, I am headed back to the workshop to paint a couple of mid-century pieces that have been patiently waiting for their make-overs.

another quandie quickie.

Published on May 31, 2014May 28, 2014 by Quandie10 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a quandie quickie. What is it? Just a quick makeover that you can do in no time.

In this case, it’s a fun mid-century magazine rack/drinks table that I updated with a quick spray paint job.

I picked this up at the Blaine garage sales, here it is before its makeover. See it? Down front, on the right.

It was pretty blah as is, but I knew it would pop with a fabulous color.

So I just cleaned it up with some soap and water, let it dry, and then gave it a couple of coats of Rustoleum in Lagoon.

Now it’s the perfect perch for a patio drink and some reading material.

If you start seeing pink elephants after a couple of drinks, then this is the perfect shot glass for you.

This magazine rack would add a fun pop to anyone’s mid-century style patio. It will be available at the Carriage House Sale!

back to my roots.

Published on May 30, 2014May 29, 2014 by Quandie15 Comments

When I first started painting furniture, I painted almost everything white. I went through a lot of white paint. I still have a few of those white pieces in my own house.

But lately I’ve been painting with a lot of color. All of the Miss Mustard colors. Some of the Annie Sloan colors. It makes painting more interesting for me, plus I love color.

But, I still love white too.

So when I was trying to decide what to do with this dresser, I decided to go white. But first I gave it an undercoat of pink. I was hoping for lots of chippy white over pink, but I didn’t get lots of chippy. Drat.

It’s still pretty though. There are some tiny hints of the pink.

I made my own pink using MMSMP in Linen with just a spoonful of Tricycle (red).

The pink is topped with two coats of MMSMP in Linen, finished with hemp oil.

The glass drawer pulls are from a set of 6 that I purchased on Etsy. I needed just one of them for a dresser I did last year that was missing just one (sigh, you know how I feel about missing just one!). I was quite happy to find this set on Etsy that matched perfectly because they aren’t your typical glass drawer pull, plus they weren’t too expensive. And now 4 more are being put to good use.

I staged the top of the dresser with some lilacs from my garden and some of my Shabby Chic books. Yes, I have them all, don’t you? There is a lot of white and pink in those books!

I gave this one some french flair with a subtle stencil.

I’ll admit, white taking the photos for this post I got totally sidetracked by how lovely my gardens are looking these days. But seriously, this is the full view, can you blame me?

It feels like everything just started blooming overnight. I have bleeding heart, foam flower, lilacs, bergenia, primrose, and allium blooming now. I even still have some tulips and some seriously late daffodils blooming at the moment.

I hope the garden still looks this good by the time my occasional sale rolls around in a couple of weeks!

Oh wait, I got so sidetracked I forgot to show a before and after!

This lovely white dresser is available for sale. If you are interested, leave me a comment.

coco.

Published on May 28, 2014June 1, 2014 by Quandie16 Comments

I never would have bought this color based on the sample chips. I also never would have found it appealing based on the Annie Sloan description, a ‘warm greyed brown’. Brown? Me? No way.

Then I saw a dresser painted in it. Yes way! Lovely. So I purchased a can of Annie Sloan’s Coco and brought it home.

And I decided to use it on the Bryn Mawr vanity. You remember, the orange-y companion to the dresser that I picked up in Bryn Mawr.

I wanted to get some more practice with stripping and staining, so I stripped the top and refinished it with the General Finishes Java gel.

It was the perfect pairing. The dark Java finish on top with the Coco on the bottom. I could just eat this one up.

I’m calling it a vanity, but I don’t have a mirror for it. Perhaps I should just call it a desk. It’s a nice petite size, which would be perfect tucked into the corner of a living room or bedroom.

I staged this with one of the alabaster lamps I picked up at the Linden Hills sales. I actually came home with three of them! And I happened to find the perfect shade for it in my stash.