q is for quandie

sunny side table.

Published on May 9, 2014May 8, 2014 by Quandie8 Comments

I picked up this sweet little table at the Bryn Mawr garage sales and decided it would be lovely in a sunny yellow. This is MMSMP in Mustard Seed Yellow mixed with a little Linen. I didn’t exactly measure, which is kind of how I usually cook too.

It got nicely chippy. Not too much, but enough to look properly vintage.

I debated adding the stencil. I have to confess, I hesitated because I overheard someone at Junk Bonanza say “I wish everything didn’t say Paris on it!” Has this ever happened to you? It made me question my use … or overuse? … of stencils. But in the end I decided that my furniture doesn’t have to please everyone. I love the stencils, so I will keep on using them. So there.

It’s just a sweet little sunny side table.

The perfect shade of yellow for my chintzware teapot.

This one will be part of the inventory for my summer Carriage House Sale.

chillin’ on the porch.

Published on May 7, 2014May 4, 2014 by Quandie19 Comments

One of the rituals that tells me spring is here is the opening of my front porch. As soon as we start getting warmer days, I clean it out, open the windows for some fresh air and Mr Q and I start spending evenings out there.

The Adirondack is his, the wicker chaise is mine. I catch up on magazines, or both of us just read. I may consume a fair amount of wine out here too.

There used to be a matching wicker chair for Mr. Q, but you know I have given up matching furniture. Plus, he wanted the Adirondack because it’s really quite comfortable. I have a pair of them, the other one is outside. Ken, a.k.a. handyman extraordinaire, made them. Just to explain how skilled he is, he just took an old Adirondack chair and used it to make a template for building more chairs. He then made quite a few of these, I did sell several at my occasional sales.

Nearly everything else on the front porch is a garage sale find. One of my favorite finds is the glass globe on the ceiling light.

When we moved into our house there weren’t very many original light fixtures left (my house was built in 1904). The one on the front porch was fab though. It had that vintage schoolhouse look. But it got broken in an unfortunate mishap with an extension cord, don’t ask me how, I wasn’t there. Anyway, a while back I found this globe at a garage sale. I think I paid $12 for it. I knew it was a gamble because it might have ended up not fitting the fixture, but it worked like a charm.

The light is just outside the door into the house.

The cabinet on the end came from a garage sale. This was one of my earliest furniture rehab projects, from back in the day when I painted pretty much everything white. I recently repainted the inside aqua. It used to be pink. This summer I plan to change it up with something different in the ovals panels on the sides. I decoupaged them with map paper, but it has faded badly. Not sure what I will do instead.

I have some of my aqua pottery and chintzware inside, plus some lovely vintage aqua glasses. To be honest, I ultimately wouldn’t mind switching this entire cabinet up for something else. When I come across just the right thing, I think I’ll know it.

Just next to the door is this oak washstand which was a craigslist find. I’d like to repaint this with Miss Mustard Seed sometime this summer. We’ll see if I get around to it.

The New Orleans watercolor hanging above it has always been a favorite of mine.

This set of small TV trays was another garage sale find. I can’t even remember what color they were originally, but I painted them black and numbered them. I originally planned to put them in my Carriage House Sale, but they are so darn useful for holding glasses or wine, or cups of coffee.

You may have noticed my black and white floor. I painted this myself, and in fact this is my second version of a checkerboard floor on the porch. The first time I painted it in shades of green.

My process was to just paint the entire floor white, then draw the lines for the squares using a yard stick, a square and a pencil. You can see I ran a chalk line down the center to help keep them straight. Then I just painted in the black squares by hand. I have a pretty steady hand. It would have driven me nuts to tape all of those squares. I know I broke some rules by not centering the squares from one side wall to the other, but oh well, sometimes I’m a rule breaker.

I am really fond of this floor, although sometimes I wish I had gone for a more subtle combination of grey and white. I might try that on another floor somewhere … who knows.

And I almost missed sharing one of my favorite things on the porch! The quote above the front windows.

A good reminder for those lazy summer evenings spent drinking wine and reading a good book.

duck egg.

Published on May 5, 2014May 5, 2014 by Quandie19 Comments

Remember this dresser that was in the line up to be painted?

Well, I chose to paint him with Annie Sloan chalk paint in Duck Egg. It is a gorgeous color. Although Miss Mustard Seed has some very lovely blues in her milk paint, she doesn’t quite have one with this same muted blue/green feel to it. Her Eulalie’s Sky is close, but I think it leans a little more towards blue and it’s also a little brighter. The robin’s egg blue that I custom mixed came closer, but was still a little more blue. So since I’d purchased some Duck Egg at Junk Bonanza, I decided to break it out and paint this guy.

I even went whole hog and painted the inside shelves behind the two little doors.

The original hardware for this piece was brass, and I didn’t think the gold tone would play well with this cool color, so I was going to change it out. Then I thought about it and realized that since there were no missing pieces, I should try painting it instead. I think the chalk paint works better for this than the milk paint. It worked like a charm.

I added just a little white to highlight these details.

I do believe I am quite in love with this guy. Don’t tell Mr. Q!

This would be an excellent piece for storing my vintage tablecloths.

Unfortunately I simply have no where to put him. Therefore he will be up for sale.

~~I’ll be posting him on craigslist soon, but in the meantime, if you are local to the Twin Cities and interested in purchasing this dresser, please leave me a comment.~~ Woops! You missed it, this one is SOLD!

bryn mawr.

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

We look forward to the Bryn Mawr neighborhood sale every year. Probably because it’s the first big Minneapolis neighborhood sale of the season. And also because we always come home with a truck load of goodies.

This year we had the truck filled by 10 a.m.

Now most people might have called it quits when the truck was full, but not us. We are gluttons for punishment. And sad thing is, we found almost nothing else after 10 a.m. We may as well have gone home and taken naps after that.

But still, it was a fantastic day. We are more than happy with our finds.

It was a vintage luggage-palooza! All of the suitcases came from one sale. These days prices have gone up on vintage suitcases. Sadly, I think the days of finding them for $3 each are long gone. But this seller gave me a package deal on 4. Now I have to decide, do I leave them as is, or do I paint them? Any thoughts?

I know this dresser and desk combo will be painted! No question there. It’s just a matter of what colors. I won’t keep them as a matched set. If you’ve read my blog for long, you’ll know that I am opposed to matched sets of furniture. Likely these two will go to separate homes, and they will be painted different colors.

So, now I seriously need to get crackin’ and paint some furniture! It’s going to be sunny and warmer here today, so maybe I can actually get a few pieces painted in the Carriage House!

my new avatar.

Published on May 3, 2014April 30, 2014 by Quandie1 Comment

Did you notice I have a new avatar?

If not, meet Quandie!

My new avatar is compliments of Monica a.k.a. Kit Kat. Does this girl have some talent or what?

She brought this for me the last time we went garage saling.

Are you digging the blonde hair? The jaunty scarf? The fabulous multi-colored tail held at a proud angle?

I love them all, but my absolute fav part are the wings. Hello! Yep, I’ve got wings!

and the winner is.

Published on May 2, 2014 by Quandie1 Comment

The results of my highly unscientific drawing for my ‘pay it forward giveaway’ are in … and the winner is … drum roll please … Victoria!

Congrats Victoria!

another quandie quickie.

Published on May 1, 2014April 30, 2014 by Quandie7 Comments

I found this old cupboard door at a garage sale in the MacGrove neighborhood a couple of years ago. I originally painted the inset with chalkboard paint, added a chalk pencil design and put it in my occasional sale for $22.

Nobody bought it the first year.

Nobody bought it the 2nd year.

I had a couple of people ask, is that design permanent? No, it isn’t. I think that was the wrong answer. Or maybe it was the right answer, but they didn’t want chalkboard? I’m not sure.

Either way, it didn’t sell.

OK, I can take a hint. And I was bored last night so I decided to restyle it. I sanded it down and casually slapped on a few layers of milk paint. I don’t normally paint over existing paint, so this was an experiment for me. I got a lot of chipping over the original paint, but not much at all over the chalkboard paint. Interesting. I had mixed the final coat of Linen a bit thicker than usual and dried it with a blow dryer to get some crackle going on.

But, I was aiming for super chippy, layers of ‘age’ and slightly grungy. A little scraping, sanding and dark wax later, and that is pretty much what I got.

I added a French Market stencil and presto chango, a fab new sign.

I’m kind of loving it in my own kitchen. I might just have to keep it now.

paying it forward giveaway.

Published on April 29, 2014 by Quandie48 Comments

Yesterday I came home from work to find a small package in the mail addressed to me. It seems so rare these days to get an unexpected package in the mail! The return address was that of my friend LeeAnn a.k.a. Annie in New York. Since I know that LeeAnn is a super talented artist, I knew there had to be something fab in that little box!

And look, there was!

Aren’t these lovely earrings? Handmade by Annie, and one pair in my favorite color, aqua! I just love them.

But better than the earrings was the lovely card that accompanied them. The artwork on the front is by Annie herself by the way, but what meant the most to me were the words inside. She sent the earrings just to let me know how much she enjoys my blog!

How fab is that?

It was funny timing, because I had just been thinking that perhaps my blog had gotten a little stale. Yet another painted dresser, ho hum, yawn. Don’t I have anything interesting to say? Isn’t my life more exciting than this? Does anyone really care what color I decide to use on a desk or how many vintage alarm clocks I have? Sometimes I wonder.

But, now I am reminded that someone other than me gets some enjoyment out of this thing.

And so, I want to pay it forward. Would you enjoy receiving a small box in the mail with a treasure inside? How about these earrings I made using vintage religious medals?

And also these cute Scottie dog hair pins made out of vintage buttons?

All you have to do to put your name in the running for this giveaway is to leave me a comment on this post by Friday, May 2 at noon.

Don’t know how to leave a comment? It’s easy! Just click on the little dialogue balloon that is to the right of the title of the post, “paying it forward giveaway.”

I will pick a random winner using the very scientific ‘names in a hat’ approach on Friday. Good luck!

my brief flirtation with the cubist period.

Published on April 27, 2014May 28, 2014 by Quandie12 Comments

Yesterday started the neighborhood garage sale season in the Twin Cities. I was so looking forward to it! I’d been suffering serious garage sale withdrawal all winter. Every year the Diamond Path neighborhood is the first big neighborhood sale. They had over 100 homes in a fairly small area that were participating.

We’ve been going to this sale for many years and we know what to expect. Crowds of people happy that spring is here, amazing homemade eggrolls for $1, but not a lot of fabulous finds. We don’t usually come home with much of a haul, although last year we found quite a few things for Bees Knees new apartment.

Here’s what I came home with.

Definitely not a haul. At the same time, I feel like each of these is a little treasure. The little metal measuring cup with a lid is just like the one my mom always uses to make gravy. I think I’ll use it to mix paint! The little books are from 1905 and were a quarter each. How do you pass that up? The hand-painted creamer and sugar were $1 for the pair. And look how pretty they are. I still have a weakness for floral china, I just can’t help myself.

Underneath the china is a pair of embroidered pillowcases.

They are made out of the most delicious linen, you know, that heavy vintage stuff that you never find in new pillowcases. And they are embroidered in white. I looked all last year for white on white embroidered pillowcases and didn’t find any. Now I have this pair for $2. I’m guessing that these were never used, and likely never even washed because they still have the blue lines of the design under the stitching. Those should wash out.

The chintzware teapot was a total find at $10. It will be added to my collection. I’ll post about that later.

There is one thing that I came home with that isn’t pictured. A mid-century Lane cubist credenza. I found it early in the day. I hesitated about buying it. Why? Mainly because it looked heavy. Yep, this is the way my mind works sometimes. It looked heavy, and I knew that if I bought it I’d be moving it around a bit. Into the truck, out of the truck, into the garage to store, into a better spot for painting, into another spot to take after pics … you get the idea … I move furniture around A LOT. But the price was right, $20! And mid-century is SO hot right now. Plus I knew it would be fantastic painted. So I whipped out my $20 and bought it and asked if I could come pick it up at the end of the day.

Well … here’s what happened. When we went back to load it up, there was a note taped on top. Someone “really” wanted it and would pay “good money” if I would sell it to him. Hmmmm. Interesting.

We loaded it up (and as suspected, it is very heavy) and drove home.

I tried to do a little research and found that similar mid-century credenzas were selling for anywhere from $500 to $1,200 online. But, I couldn’t find this exact style. Also, the pieces on line were in good shape for those prices. This one was really beat up.

I have since found the exact piece online, and here it is.

I am sure that if there are any mid-century aficionados reading this, your little hearts are beating a little faster now knowing that I paid $20 for one of these.

In the end, I decided to pay it forward. I’m not a mid-century expert. I don’t have any mid-century dealers in my rolodex. I suppose I could have put this on craigslist and sold it for more without doing anything to it at all, other than moving it around and taking pictures, but instead I texted the guy and said I would take $175 for it.

He wins, I win. I make a tidy profit for nothing more than being the first person to spot this.

Does he wish he’d seen it first for $20? I’m sure he does. But is he thrilled he got it for $175, probably so. Does the original seller wish he’d realized the worth and priced it higher than $20, I’m sure he does. But is he happy he got rid of a heavy piece of furniture that he didn’t want to move again? I’m sure he is.

Do I wish I’d asked for something closer to $300 or $400? Maybe a little. And to be honest, I was kind of looking forward to transforming this with paint. But am I happy that I don’t have to move this heavy piece around and around, definitely. And who can complain about making a little extra money in a span of less than 8 hours?

And thus, my brief flirtation with the cubist period comes to a close. But you can bet I will snatch the next one up much more quickly, even if it does look a bit heavy!

Update on 5/28/14: Just saw an ad on craigslist for this credenza asking $550 at a shop in Minneapolis. Do I think it’s the same one I sold? Yes, I do. Does it sting a little that the buyer lied to me and said it was for his own home? Yes, it does. And it’s unfortunate because both the dealer and I could have benefited from making a connection. When I find future mid century pieces, I won’t be calling this guy.

on the bench.

Published on April 25, 2014April 24, 2014 by Quandie3 Comments

Remember the little mismatched bench that came with this vanity?

It didn’t really match. And upon closer inspection, I realized that because it is wider than the opening, it was getting pretty beat up where it would hit against the sides of the vanity. Clearly, it’s not a good match. So I decided to experiment on it. Eeek! Sounds slightly evil, doesn’t it?

First, I decided to paint it in a 50/50 mix of MMSMP in Shutter Grey and Grain Sack. I was hoping for a lovely pale Gustavian sort of grey. I got the right amount of paleness, but maybe it’s not quite warm enough. The Shutter Grey has so much blue that it gives a definite coolness to the grey. Also, just look at how much chipping I got!

Wowza!

Likely the result of little to no sanding. I just hate sanding round spindly bits.

After knocking back the paint chips and adding some antique wax, I am left with this.

A very chippy look for sure. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I know some of us love this look for its very chippyness.

But the next decision is what to use to upholster the seat.

First I tried a colorful vintage 50’s fabric.

Hmmmm. Very shabby chic. But to me, this fabric and this paint job do not belong together.

Next option, some vintage white cotton with some cut work.

Too crisp and dainty for the rustic paint job?

How about a patched grain sack?

I think the grain sack color is too warm next to the cool tone on the bench. Otherwise, I like the idea of the grainsack, and I even like the patch on it. It’s the perfect amount of scruffy to work with the chippy paint job.

Next, I tried just a generic scrap of linen that I figured I could add a stencil to later.

Definitely not very exciting. Although a stencil would add some pizzazz, I just don’t think this is quite the right choice either.

In the end, I decided to put the bench aside and wait for the perfect fabric. But then, as I was cleaning up the kitchen I came across the tea towel that I bought from H & M. Hello! I thought it just might be perfect.