mac-grove 2019.

Published on by Quandie24 Comments

We had the most beautiful day for garage saling on Saturday.  It was sunny with low humidity and cooler temps in the 70’s.

I didn’t come home with tons of treasures, but I found a few good things.  You might be surprised by the item I’ve chosen as my ‘find of the day’, but you’ll have to read to the end to find out what it is.

Before I get to the ‘finds’ though, I have to tell you guys that the garage sales themselves are really only part of the reason why I love these neighborhood garage sales.  The other part is getting to drive around these gorgeous neighborhoods and snoop.

This particular neighborhood is in St. Paul and is bordered on one side by the Mississippi River.  The homes along Mississippi River Boulevard are especially fab.  Isn’t that row of hydrangeas spectacular?

I was totally envious of the hydrangea tree (on left) in front of this next house.

Who wouldn’t love to live in a pretty little cottage like this next one?

But let’s get back to the finds.

First up, Shelly suggested I show you my sister Debbie’s finds this time.  I aim to please, so here they are.

She spent less than $10 and came home with some Scandinavian style Christmas linens, a cookbook and a piece of blue carnival glass, which she non-collects 😉

I think it’s fair to say that Debbie comes along for the sight-seeing and the scintillating company more so than the actual garage saling (right Deb?).  But she usually finds a couple of things to buy.

I came home with a couple of things to add to my own non-collections.

Including just one solitary Christmas ornament and some bluebird china.

I also purchased a gorgeous vintage tablecloth.  The colors in it were just so vibrant.

You may remember that I pared down my non-collection of these earlier this year, so it was silly to buy another … but at $10, I just couldn’t pass it up.

Somehow I also can’t seem to resist sweet painted china like this plate …

There’s really no market for these pieces right now and as a result they tend to be dirt cheap.  I paid $1 for this one.  I was thinking it would be pretty hung on the wall in my guest room.

I also picked up another enamelware coffee pot.

These have been selling well for me with the Prima Marketing transfers added to them, so I added some on this one too.

I also nabbed this mid-century glassware …

I think I’m going to use them as a prop for the mid-mod credenza that I’ll be sharing later this week.

Speaking of things one can’t resist, who can resist heading to a garage sale that uses the poop emoji on their sign?

I didn’t end up buying much from these ladies, just a pair of quail.

I’ve already given them a fresh new look with a coat of spray paint.  You’ll also see them again as props on that mid-century credenza, but here they are with their new paint job …

I also bought a few bigger pieces at Mac-Grove.

The three kid-sized wooden chairs will get makeovers eventually.  I have some ideas for those swimming around in my head.  Of course the washstand will also get a paint job and probably some new hardware since one pull is missing.

The bucket on the right would make a fantastic large planter, don’t you think?  It is really quite heavy and the seller told me that it’s an old ash bucket.  It would also be a great container for firewood if you’re lucky enough to have a wood burning fireplace.

Remember the secretary desk I shared last week with the Prima Marketing Parisian Letter transfer on it?  I mentioned that I couldn’t quite fit the entire transfer on the desk.  The remaining portion was perfect for this bucket.

It looks pretty awesome filled with Limelight hydrangeas, doesn’t it?

Now, you’re probably wondering, what about that ‘find of the day’?  Well, it’s actually not included in any of the photos so far but here it is …

Oh my gosh you guys, these cookies were so delicious that I just had to call them my find of the day.  The gal selling them is going to be opening a bakery in Northfield, MN.  She said that she uses a lot of old Swedish recipes for her baking.  These cookies might not look like much, but they had the most delicate crisp texture on the outside, with a chewy interior.  Plus they were the perfect almond flavor.  The gal also mentioned that she crushes the almonds by hand to make these.  If any of you are ever near Northfield, keep an eye out for this bakery.  You’ve got to try these cookies!

So, what’s your favorite among my finds this week?  Were you surprised that my ‘find of the day’ was a cookie?  Did you have your own fab finds last weekend?  Leave me a comment and let me know.

restyled tool box.

Published on by Quandie15 Comments

Earlier this summer I picked up an old wooden tool box at a garage sale.

Funny enough, I took that ‘before’ photo on my deck before Mr. Q cleaned it up, so there’s another good shot of where he started from on the deck.

Anyway, the tool box itself also got cleaned up and then I added a couple of coats of Dixie Belle paint in Midnight Sky.

Next I pulled out one of Prima Marketing’s Decor Moulds called Royalty.

I used their Modeling Material to make two of the crowns.  Next I used some wood glue to attach one to each end of the tool box.

I let them dry overnight and then painted them with the Midnight Sky as well.  Once the paint was dry, I rubbed on a little of Prima Marketing’s metallique wax in Bronze Age.

I also added one of my favorite stencils to the front of the box.  I’d love to share a source for this particular stencil, but I purchased it on Etsy from a vendor that no longer sells there.

I filled the toolbox with some ironstone, some old silverware and a beautiful monogrammed tablecloth.

I just love old white on white embroidered linens.

I actually completed and photographed this project quite some time ago.  In fact, it was way back when the peonies were in bloom.

I just never got around to sharing it with you until now.

Although I got two pieces of furniture finished this week, I never found time to photograph them.  So I needed a quick blog post to fill today’s spot, but I’ll be back next week with some more furniture transformations.

In the meantime, tomorrow is one of my favorite neighborhood garage sales, MacGrove.  Keeping my fingers crossed that I come across some fab finds there!  How about you?  Got any fun weekend plans?

going au natural.

Published on by Quandie36 Comments

Welcome to the third installment of my house tour.  I had originally planned to go in order with the rooms (because I tend to be a organized, linear sort of thinker) , which would have meant that the piano room was next.

But I have a big project planned for that room in the coming weeks, so instead today I’m going to share my ‘outside room’ otherwise known as the deck.

Do you have a wooden deck?  I’m not gonna lie, I think maintaining a wood deck is one of the most annoying chores.  Our deck is made out of cedar and we’ve tried several different sealer/weather-proofing products over the years and none of them have lived up to my expectations.

Now, granted, Minnesota weather can be pretty harsh.  And we enter our house via the deck, so it gets a lot of wear and tear year round.

But so far every product we have used has looked not so great within a year, and downright crappy within two.

So this year we decided to go back to basics.  Mr. Q put in hours and hours of stripping, power washing and using brighteners to un-do the damage caused by the various products we’d applied over the years.  Before you get all excited and think that I’m about to reveal a miracle deck product that you should all run out and buy, think again.  In fact, once he had finished all of that work, we decided to just try going au natural this time around.

We are accepting our own limitations, following the maxim ‘know thyself’, knowing full well that we won’t keep up with the regular maintenance required for a good looking finish on our deck.  Since our deck is made of cedar though, we are going to just let it weather naturally for a year and see how we feel about that look.  After all, if we end up hating it, we can always get out the pressure washer and do it all over again.

In addition to Mr. Q cleaning up the wood decking itself, I also freshened up the patio furniture this summer.

You’ve already seen the Adirondack chairs that our handyman/neighbor Ken made for us.  One is brand new, and one we’ve had for several years, but I gave both of them a fresh coat of RustOleum spray paint in a color called Eden.

Oh hey, speaking of the chairs, here’s a photo I shared after painting them back at the beginning of July and it shows the ‘before’ state of the decking.  That gives you an idea of where Mr. Q was starting.

Yeah, definitely not great, huh?

And here are the chairs on the newly stripped decking.

Definitely an improvement.

In addition to having a great eye when it comes to garage sale finds, my picker Sue can also sew.  So I asked her to sew up some simple drop cloth slipcovers for my cushions for the dining set on my deck this summer as well.  They are just simple pillow sham style covers that allow me to slip the cushions in and out which makes it easy to wash them if necessary.

Initially I was going to stencil them with some of my European grain sack style stencils.  However, the throw pillows that I already had for the chairs have French writing on them so it seemed like that would be a bit much.  Instead I simply stenciled them with just the grain sack stripes.

I used Dixie Belle paint in Gravel Road, a grain sack stripe stencil and a fabulously large stencil brush from the Prima Marketing re.design line.

That brush with its big ball handle is easy to hold and the size made quick work of stenciling that wide stripe.

And I love how they turned out.

Now the chairs are much more ‘me’.

The throw pillows came from Restoration Hardware quite a few years back.  They had a bit of a story behind them too.  I purchased them online at a sale price without really paying attention to the measurements.  As it turned out they were far too wide for my chairs.  So once again Sue came to my rescue and modified them to fit.

They’ve held up pretty well over the years, all except this one.

I store these upstairs in the carriage house over the winter, and last spring when I pulled them out this one had this gaping hole.  I hate to say it, but I suspect mice chewed that hole.

So while I was working on the slip covers for the seats, I decided to create a patch for this hole.  I started by stenciling a scrap of the same drop cloth fabric used for the cushions.

Then I just sewed it in place behind the hole.

I’m quite sure that some of you are going to think I’m totally nuts, but now this is my favorite of the pillows.  I adore that little union jack patch job.  Unfortunately, it barely even shows when the pillow is in place on a chair.

Oh well.  I know it’s there, maybe that’s all that counts, right?

You may have noticed that I moved my rusty planters up to either side of the door.  It’s easier to see their fabulously rusty patina up on the deck.

I still have my house number plate hanging below the porch light.

I did this ages ago.  I used my Cricut machine to cut the ‘no. 6041’ out of adhesive vinyl and then stuck it to an ironstone platter.  I have to confess, I’m surprised it has held up as beautifully as it has.  I leave it there year round, take it down and wash it occasionally, and it still looks just like it did on day one.

Speaking of whether or not things hold up, remember the metal picnic basket that I added a Prima Marketing transfer to?  It’s also holding up quite well out in the elements despite not being sealed with anything at all.

I think how well the transfers hold up outdoors is entirely dependent upon what kind of surface you put them on.  This is a very smooth metal surface, although it is rusting in spots, the finish isn’t peeling or flaking underneath the transfer.  Plus I got a really good seal (ie. no air bubbles at all) with the transfer over the smooth surface of the metal.  I think a transfer on glass (or on a china plate) would also hold up really well outside.  However, you might get a different result with a transfer placed over a rougher surface like painted wood, unfinished barn wood or something like that.

That monster of a shrub beside the deck is a Limelight hydrangea.

Well, technically it’s two of them.  I planted them there to provide some extra privacy for our dining area and I never expected them to get so huge.    They provide a ‘wall’ on that end of the deck which makes it feel secluded and cozy.  As an added bonus it provides tons of dried hydrangeas to use in my window boxes for fall and winter.

You may have noticed that lump of something on one of the chairs in the photo above.

Lucy is once again up to her photo bombing ways.  She likes sleeping out here almost as much as the front porch.  She seems to be drawn like a magnet to anything that is freshly upholstered.

By the way, in case you are wondering why the Limelight hydrangea flowers look so green on the bush, while the ones in the ironstone pitcher on the table look creamier, that’s because the ones in the pitcher are Vanilla Strawberry hydrangeas.  I have one of those over by the carriage house.  The flowers start out fairly white but turn pinker over time.

Mr. Q and I have quite a few dinners out on our deck in the summer so it’s nice to finally have it all spruced up.

Now we can just focus on relaxing and enjoying it for the rest of the summer, while it lasts.

Next on our tour I’ll take you inside the photo cottage, so be sure to check back next Wednesday.

mid mod trash to treasure.

Published on by Quandie18 Comments

Today’s piece is a true trash to treasure story.

A couple of weeks ago Mr. Q and I were headed out for our daily walk in a nearby park when I spotted some furniture at the curb with a ‘free’ sign.  Most of the pieces were trashed beyond my level of repair, but this dresser had potential.

Now, you might be thinking ‘jeesh Quandie, could you take a straight photo already!’, but FYI, this is a straight photo.  It’s the dresser that’s crooked.  The front leg on the left is about 2″ shorter than the rest.  At some point a portion of it either broke off or just rotted away, I’m not sure which.

You could also possibly be thinking ‘egads, that thing is kinda hideous’, which is a fair assessment I think.  But just wait until you see how it turned out.

Naturally my handyman/neighbor Ken made quick work of that repair.  So quick in fact that I never even got photos for you.  But he basically cut the bad leg off a bit higher than the damage, cut a new bottom half of the leg, and then attached it using a dowel pin to make sure it was stable.  I then used a little Dixie Belle Mud to fill the seams.  Once painted, unless you know it has been repaired, I don’t think you would even notice.

Once the leg was repaired I simply sanded and cleaned the piece and then painted it in Dixie Belle’s Bunker Hill Blue.

This deep, rich blue is really difficult to capture well in photos.  It’s one of those chameleon sort of colors that changes depending on the light, sometimes just looking like navy blue and other times looking more cobalt.  Nonetheless, it’s perfect for a mid-mod piece, don’t you think?

Once the paint was dry I added clear wax over the top and used Buffy (my Black & Decker car buffer) to give it a little sheen.

I thought the drawer pulls on this piece were fairly unique.

There is a cut out piece of veneer-like material behind the pull that was originally black.  I pulled those out when I removed the pulls and painted them all in the same RustOleum Mirror Finish gold spray paint that I used on the lamp in my living room.

I love how the gold pops with the rich cobalt blue.

I’m not usually one for lining drawers, but these were pretty stained and unattractive so they needed to be either lined or painted.  I just happened to have some blue gingham paper on hand, and enough to line all four drawers so I went with it.

By the way, the modern painting I’m using in my photos belongs to nnK and normally hangs in her living room.  But I found it at a garage sale in Minneapolis several years ago and passed it on to her.  It has the perfect colors in it for her house.

Wouldn’t this piece be amazing in a downtown loft?

Or perfect for a boy’s room.  Or an adult’s room for that matter.  In fact, it would be perfect for providing a pop of gorgeous, deep blue to any room!

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle for providing the Bunker Hill Blue paint, the Mud filler, and the clear wax that I used for this project.

If you’re wondering where to buy the Dixie Belle products, you can shop with them directly online or find a retailer near you.

And if you happen to be local (Twin Cities, MN) and in need of a brilliant blue mid mod dresser, check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details.

a sweet serpentine secretary desk.

Published on by Quandie37 Comments

As a reminder, here is the pretty little secretary desk that I shared with you guys on Monday.  I picked this up at an ‘epic’ garage sale while out driving around in Wisconsin.

Just check out that curvy serpentine front and those fabulous claw feet.  Ignore the not so great hardware and the incredibly beat up finish.

You’ll also have to ignore the Blue Cross/Blue Shield information sticker inside, plus the bent and disconnected hinge.  Not to mention all of that dust.

I knew that behind those flaws was a gorgeous piece of furniture.

I started work on this piece by removing the inside piece.

Did you know that sometimes these just come right out?  Unfortunately that’s not true of all secretary desks.  Plus someone had added a couple of screws to this one to hold it in place, but once I removed those it slid right out.  It couldn’t be any more convenient for painting.

Once I had it out I removed the sticker, then the little knobs.  I cleaned it up and then sprayed it with Rustoleum Chalked spray paint in Charcoal.  With all of those slats it would have been a bear to paint with a brush.  After sanding some edges to distress, I sealed the spray paint with the Rustoleum spray matte clear sealer as well.  Finally I put the original knobs back on again.

Much improved.

Next I sanded and cleaned the outside of the desk.  As I was cleaning it, the water was turning decidedly orange-ish in color.  That was a good indication that this piece was going to be a bleeder and since I was going to paint the outside in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth (a creamy white), I needed to find out for sure.

So I painted just one of the drawers as a test.  Yep, definitely a bleeder.  In other words, the orange-y colored stain on this piece was bleeding through my creamy white paint.  I’m sure many of you are familiar with this phenomenon, but in case you aren’t, when this happens you have to seal your piece with a stain blocking sealer before you can proceed with painting.  It doesn’t matter how many coats of paint you put over bleeding stain, that stuff will just continue to bleed thru.

So I brought out the Dixie Bell BOSS.

This product comes in both a clear version and a white version.  I think the clear version is more versatile since I don’t always want to see white under my paint color when I distress the edges, although the white version would have worked fine for this particular piece.

I painted the outside of the desk with just one coat of the BOSS and then I let it dry for 24 hours.  I’ve learned in the past that extra drying time can make a big difference with this product, so I now always let it dry for at least 24 hours.

And here is the difference using the BOSS made.

Ha!  Yep, I wasn’t kidding when I said this one was a bleeder!  The top drawer is my test drawer without the BOSS.  The bottom one is another drawer with one coat of BOSS followed by two coats of Drop Cloth.  That’s some pretty good blocking power.

Now, you do have some other options for sealing a bleeder.  You can use shellac.  But that stuff is smelly and it’s a pain to clean your brush afterwards.  You can use spray shellac and sometimes I do pull that out for spot treatments, but you can only use that outside (unless you want to gas your family).  You also can use a stain blocking primer from your local DIY store, but I have yet to see those available in a clear version.

So, BOSS gets my vote.  It has very little odor and you can clean up with soapy water.

Once I had the rest of the piece painted with two coats of Drop Cloth I had to wait for the next step.  I knew I had the perfect transfer coming from Prima Marketing, but it wasn’t here yet.  I’m not very good at waiting … tick tock, tick tock … but this one was definitely worth the wait!

Now, I have to say, I don’t know why Prima chose to call this one Parisian Letter because there is only one small line of French on it, and it’s a the very bottom and didn’t fit on my desk.  Obviously there’s also a little Latin on that crest, but otherwise all of the writing on this one is in English.

But that doesn’t make it any less gorgeous.

Most of the writing seems to have something to do with the quantities and prices of things, and a lot of it isn’t terribly legible.  But that isn’t the point, the point is to look pretty not to impart a message of any kind.

I’m not sure if you noticed, but I changed out the drawer pulls.  I really wasn’t loving the original hardware, plus it’s always my preference to let the transfer be the star of the show.  Clear glass knobs from D Lawless sort of fade away, but yet also look appropriate to the piece.

This sweet serpentine secretary desk would be perfect to use bedside instead of a nightstand.  You could keep all of your reading material inside.  It would even be quite simple to set up some sort of charging station inside by cutting a hole in the back to allow cords to go through.

Of course, you could just use it as a desk.  My handyman Ken repaired and reinforced the hinges that support the desk top so it is perfectly functional.  Of course I wouldn’t put something super heavy on it, but it would easily hold a lap top.

But it would also be a great spot for dropping your keys and mail in the foyer.  You could fill the drawers with hats, scarves and gloves.

So many possibilities!

As always, many thanks to Dixie Belle for providing the BOSS sealer, the paint and the clear wax, and to Prima Marketing for providing the transfer for this project.

If you’re wondering where to purchase the Prima Marketing transfers check out their ‘where to buy’ page.

If you’re wondering where to buy the Dixie Belle Drop Cloth, you can shop with them directly online or find a retailer near you.

And finally, if you happen to be local (Twin Cities, MN) and in need of a sweet serpentine secretary desk, check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details.

let’s head inside.

Published on by Quandie26 Comments

Last Wednesday I posted the first in what I’m planning as a series of posts touring my house.  I hadn’t updated the ‘tour my house’ page here on the blog in quite some time and rather than try to do it all at once I’m going to do one room at a time until we get through them all.

So today let’s head inside.

I painted the stairs and added ‘please watch your step’ several years ago (you can see that here).  In an attempt at full disclosure, the treads got ruined when I had my upstairs floors refinished two years ago.  The floor guys tracked the new finish all over the upper stairs and they look kind of awful.

I’m also not entirely happy with the all black treads anyway.  I love the way they look during the daylight, but in the middle of the night with no lights on, when you have to go downstairs to find the bathroom, they look like a black hole in space.  It’s rather frightening.

So one of these days I’m going to repaint them, but that’s a winter job.  Something to take care of when I can’t be outside instead.

This spot is at the foot of those stairs.

This is where my little cupboard with the IOD transfer resides.

And here is the view from the living room into the front hallway.

This is one of my favorite views in the whole house.  I just love the way the arched opening frames out the front hall.  I hung the Farmers Market bed rail sign above the arch when I re-did the living room last winter and it was a perfect fit.

Now, let’s get real for a minute.  Just to the left is our big flat screen TV.  I know a lot of people try to hide their TV’s in cupboards, but the reality is we pretty much only use this room for watching TV so there’s no point in hiding it.

Instead I have it sitting on an old rustic handmade bench.  My handyman Ken added the lower shelf so that we could put the DVD player somewhere other than on the floor.  Painting the walls dark really helped that big black screen fade into the background a bit when it’s not on.

Above the TV is another project I worked on recently but haven’t yet shared here on the blog (I’ve got a few small project posts that I’ve got photographed and written but haven’t found a time slot for yet).

Here’s a view of the room taken from the front hall.

Not much has changed since we redecorated back in February.  The sectional isn’t exactly in keeping with the rest of my style but it has turned out to be a very functional choice for us.  It has plenty of room for Mr. Q and I to both stretch out while watching a movie.  It maximizes the seating in a rather small and awkward room.

I do what I can to style it up with faux grain sack pillows.

The side tables that I painted last spring are still working out well in here.

I hadn’t planned on keeping them, but they were such a perfect fit in the room so they stayed.

If you were reading my blog back in February you may remember that I started out with a different standing lamp in the corner.  It looked great, but it was a reading lamp that didn’t add much light overall to the room.  So I brought back my old lamp but added a shade from Light Reading.  This lamp was chrome, and since it was February I couldn’t really spray paint it at the time.  I have since spray painted it gold to match the other fixture in the room.

I used the RustOleum Mirror Effect spray paint in Gold and it worked perfectly.

I’m still loving the restyled look on my living room shelves.

I’ve tweaked them a little bit here and there, like when I added part of Prima Marketing’s Somewhere in France transfer to the black toolbox.

If you’re wondering whether or not the dark walls were a good choice, I have to say that we absolutely love them.  The room feels warm and cozy in the winter, but cool and shady in the summer.  Down the road I’d love to repaint my q branch walls in this same color.  We’ll see if I get to that or not.  Maybe next winter, along with the stairs.

So, there you have our living room.

I hope you enjoyed the tour.  I’m not sure exactly which room I’ll be sharing next week, but be sure to stay tuned for that.  And in the meantime, check back on Friday to see what I did with that gorgeous serpentine secretary desk!

P.S.  For curious minds that want to know, I sold last Friday’s mid-mod piece yesterday.  I posted it on Facebook Marketplace in the morning and by the end of the day I had 4 inquiries so I changed the status to pending.  The first buyer was supposed to show up at 5:45 pm on Friday.  She canceled at 4:30 saying that she had only just checked the measurements and it was too big for her space.  I moved on to buyer no. 2 who agreed to come at noon on Saturday.  She then contacted me a couple of hours before noon and rescheduled to Sunday evening at 7 pm, but then was a no show on Sunday.  No apology, no message, no response to my message, no nothing.  I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt when they need to reschedule.  Some of my absolute best customers have been known to reschedule a time or two and I really don’t mind.  We all have busy lives and things come up, so I try to be flexible for people.  But it really is frustrating when someone strings you along for the entire weekend and then doesn’t even bother to let you know they’ve changed their mind.  This is a big part of selling online though, so I really work hard at not letting this sort of thing frustrate me too much (it’s a work in progress, obviously).

In the end, buyer no. 3 came through with flying colors.  She and her husband showed up on time, had cash in hand and a trailer to load the piece into.  That transaction couldn’t have gone more smoothly.  So it was definitely a case of 3 times is the charm and I’m happy that the piece has gone to a good home 🙂

surely not everybody was kung fu fighting.

Published on by Quandie29 Comments

A couple of weeks back my sister, niece and I decided to take a ‘Sunday drive’ on a beautiful, sunny Saturday.  We didn’t have a specific destination in mind.  It was a gorgeous day and I am lucky enough to drive a VW Beetle convertible, so we headed out with the top down.

We decided to cross over the new Stillwater bridge into Wisconsin first because my niece had yet to cross over it.

This bridge was finished in 2017 and was quite the controversy.  People had very strong opinions about whether or not (and where, and how) it should be built, and thus it took years and years for it to happen.  However, the old Stillwater lift bridge was built in 1931 and was definitely on its last legs.  After the tragedy of the 35W bridge collapse, I was certainly a little leery of driving over that creaky old bridge!

You can barely see the old lift bridge off in the distance in this photo taken from the new bridge …

The old bridge is in the more historical downtown part of Stillwater, which is where Mr. Q and I went for drinks on our anniversary back in June.

The new bridge is in the more commercial part of town, so the modern aesthetic makes a little more sense here.

We still had to decide which way to head after crossing over?  North?  or South?

My niece came up with a plan for letting fate decide.  If the next car we saw had a Minnesota license plate we were going to head north, and if it was a Wisconsin plate we were going south.  I’m not sure what we would have done if it was neither!  But it was a Wisconsin plate, so we headed south.

We hadn’t gone far when I spotted a bright pink sign that said “Epic Sale!”  Well, if it’s epic you pretty much have to stop, right?

And that’s where I found this piece …

Clearly it was meant to be and the universe was guiding me towards this particular desk 😉

I am almost done with this piece now, but I’m waiting for a particular Prima Marketing transfer to arrive to finish it up, so I’ll be sharing that later this week.  For today, I’ll just finish my Sunday drive on a Saturday story.

After stopping at the sale (and texting Mr. Q to come and pick up the desk I purchased), we headed into Hudson, WI for lunch at the Smiling Moose where I had the St. Croix Chicken Salad which was absolutely delicious.

Next we decided to check out Willow River State Park.

I’ve lived in the Twin Cities for over 30 years and had never made the hike to the falls on Willow River.

You’ve all seen those photos of people frolicking in the Dunn’s River Falls in Jamaica right …

I’ve always wanted to do that, it looks so refreshing.

Well little did I know that I could have been doing that right here in my own backyard all along.

After hiking down a fairly steep trail (which we were dreading having to climb back up again) we came to the falls.  And there were already a few other people there.  Ha!  Yep, apparently everybody else in the Twin Cities already knew about this place.

Unfortunately we hadn’t brought swimsuits or towels, so we didn’t go in the water this time.  But now we know about this not-so-hidden gem, so maybe we’ll make it back there for a swim next time.

After exploring more of the park and doing a lit bit more hiking, we returned to the car and decided to head back north towards home.  We were tooling along on a country road when we came across a sign that had us all laughing out loud.  I just had to stop the car and get a photo.

Surely not everybody was kung fu fighting.  After all, how could they be?  They were all swimming at Willow River Falls!

After that photo stop we came across a sign that said ‘Rustic Road’.

We had no idea what qualified as a Rustic Road, but we were intrigued and decided we really needed to check it out.  So we turned off and headed down Trout Brook Road.  I wish I’d taken the time to stop and get a few pictures, but I didn’t.  Suffice to say it was a lovely drive, perfect for a sunny afternoon in a convertible.

I have since googled it and found the website that explains Wisconsin’s Rustic Road program:

The Rustic Roads program was created over 40 years ago to provide hikers, bicyclists and motorists an opportunity to leisurely travel through the state’s scenic countryside. Today, there are 120 designated Rustic Roads spanning more than 724 miles through 59 counties. They are beautiful in every season.

What is a Rustic Road?

Every Rustic Road is unique, but all:

  • have outstanding natural features along its borders such as rugged terrain, native vegetation, native wildlife or include open areas with agricultural vistas.
  • are lightly traveled local access roads, serving the adjacent property owners and those wishing to travel by auto, bicycle, or hiking for purposes of recreational enjoyment.
  • are not scheduled nor anticipated for major improvements which would change their rustic characteristics.
  • are at least two miles long and often provide a completed closure or loop, or connect to major highways at both ends of the route.

 

Seriously, how cool is that?  You can bet there will be more Rustic Road travels in our future. I bet they are beautiful in the fall

or even in winter.

Do you have a Rustic Road program where you are?  Or have you traveled on some of Wisconsin’s Rustic Roads?  If so I’d love to hear about it in the comments.  And be sure to check back on Wednesday to continue the tour of my home, or on Friday to see what I’ve done with that fabulous secretary desk!

buffy, the furniture slayer.

Published on by Quandie31 Comments

Recently I shared the story of a pair of mid-mod pieces I picked up at a garage sale.  I painted the taller piece in my favorite millennial pink shade of paint …

Here is the matching low boy …

I decided to go in a completely different direction with this piece.

I started by stripping the drawer fronts.  I thought the veneer on them was quite pretty.  Even though there were some damaged spots, I thought I could minimize them with some stain-able filler.

Knowing what I know now, I’m not sure I’d make this same choice again.  Not because of the veneer damage, I do think I successfully downplayed that damage.  But there were a lot of steps involved in refinishing these drawers.   It took three passes with the stripper to get all of the shiny varnish off, then gluing and filling damaged veneer spots with filler, then sanding, then two coats of Minwax Wood Finish Penetrating Stain in Special Walnut, then two coats of Minwax water based matte Polycrylic  with a light sanding with 400 grit in between.

In other words, it took a lot more work (and drying time in between) than just painting.  This is just something to keep in mind if you are refinishing furniture to sell.

The drawer fronts are pretty now though.  It remains to be seen whether or not I can sell this piece for a good enough price to make the effort worthwhile.

In addition to refinishing the drawers, I painted the body of the piece in Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road.  That part was fairly simple.  Things went wrong a bit when I tried to top coat it with the Polycrylic.  My initial thought was that having the same sheen on the paint (ie. matte) as on the drawers fronts would be a good move.  However, the poly ended up looking really streaky over the dark grey.  I’m not sure if my technique was faulty, or possibly the matte finish of the poly doesn’t work well over the dark grey color.  Regardless, to fix the problem I painted back over it with the Gravel Road.  Then I top coated it with a product I am much more familiar with, Dixie Belle’s clear Best Dang Wax.  I probably should have just done that in the first place.

This gave me a good opportunity to try out my new buffer.

Mr. Q ordered this from Amazon for me and he decided we should name it Buffy.  I have to say, it does make quick work of buffing a waxed finish.  It’s also quite light and rather quiet for a power tool.  I have no idea how well Buffy will hold up over time, and how many of those pads I’ll go through, but for now I am loving her.

I really liked the style of the original hardware that came with this piece, but the brassy gold color wasn’t really working for me.  So I got out the Prima Marketing Art Alchemy Metallique wax in Bronze Age.

This stuff did a fantastic job of warming up the color of the hardware and it works so much better with the stain color on the drawer fronts.

After many trials and tribulations, this piece is finally done.  I know this style isn’t to everyone’s taste.  Well, to be quite honest, it’s not to my taste either.  But there is a market out there for these pieces so sometimes it’s fun to step outside of my comfort zone and work on something like this.

I’ve got a couple more mid-mod pieces waiting in the workshop too.  But I also have some pieces that are more ‘me’, so be sure to stay tuned.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle for providing the paint and the wax for this project, and to Prima Marketing for providing the Metallique wax.

for sale.

Published on by Quandie15 Comments

Hey guys!  I don’t usually have a Thursday post, but today I’m going to shamelessly promote myself.

Last night I brought a huge load of goodies to Reclaiming Beautiful, the shop were I sell on consignment in Stillwater.  So this post is mainly for the benefit of my local readers.

I thought I’d share a few of the things that will be available this morning in the shop starting with all of these goodies from the estate sale …

If you’ve always wondered what kind of prices I put on things, the little measuring cup is $6, the set of 3 Bobbsey Twins books is $9 and the coffee pot is $22.

I also brought in the ironstone pitcher for $25.

The wood box I painted a while back went to the shop and is priced at $22.

I brought in a few stenciled pillows at $32 each.

This adorable milk painted chair is $28.

We’ll see if these upcycled cupboard doors sell at $38 each.

I priced the chippy blue scale at $22.  I have a few other scales in the shop priced higher and they aren’t moving so I thought I’d try something a little lower on this one.

I’m also bringing in a few things that I haven’t had the chance to share here on the blog yet including this black wooden tool box at $32 …

and this cupboard door turned into a tray for $28 …

I still plan to put together some blog posts about these in the coming weeks, but I just haven’t gotten around to that.

I brought the six legged table in as well.

In addition to my stuff, the shop is also opening up their backroom this weekend which is full of bargains!  So if you’re local be sure to stop in to Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater this weekend.

And for the rest of you, be sure to check back tomorrow when I’ll be posting my latest finished piece of furniture.

don’t take life (or decorating) too seriously.

Published on by Quandie28 Comments

Back when I began blogging I added a page on my blog called ‘tour my house’.  Although I have updated it sporadically over time, I haven’t really kept up on it.

I’ve also attempted to do ‘house tour’ posts at Christmas, but haven’t managed that either.

Quite honestly, I’m completely overwhelmed by the idea of cleaning/tidying my entire house and then photographing it all in one go.  So I decided to set a goal for myself of doing just one room per week until the whole house is done.

That being said, welcome to the first post of my home tour series!

It would seem logical to start with the outside, but Mr. Q and I are in the middle of a spruce up to our deck area, so I’m going to hold off on that for now.  Instead let’s begin at the front of the house on our three season porch.

I hand painted the black & white checkerboard pattern on the floor several years ago.  It was actually the 2nd time I’d painted a checkerboard floor out here.  The first time it was in shades of green.  I love the drama of the black & white, but kind of wish I’d gone for a more subtle look with grey & white.

If you’ve always longed for a painted floor, I will warn you that they get scratched up over time.  I did use Behr Porch & Patio Floor paint, which is formulated specifically for floors.  Nonetheless, the floor no longer looks pristine.  My advice to you is don’t paint your floors unless you are OK with an imperfect, worn over time, sort of look.

The most recent addition to my front porch is the updated farmhouse table that I shared last week along with the giant flour bin I purchased at the estate sale last weekend.

Looking at that photo you may be wondering ‘who in the world still has a wall mounted telephone?’, well, not me.  That a bakelite Masterphone.

When I purchased it (at a garage sale naturally) I thought it was some sort of phone for calling the servants since there’s no dial.  So I hung it in an ironic sort of way, because clearly we don’t have any servants.  Turns out these were really used on switchboards.

Just on the other side of the front door is my black cupboard.  I added a Prima Marketing transfer to the inside back in June.

I had been planning to sell the cupboard until I fell in love with the transfer inside, so for now it stays.

Way, way back in the day I had a complete set of matching wicker furniture on this porch that included a chaise, a matching chair, a matching foot stool, a matching table and a matching plant stand.  I was a matching fool when I was young.

I came to my senses over time and got rid of all of the pieces one by one except for this chaise.

Originally all of the associated cushions were floral in shades of peach and green (it was the 80’s after all).  But many years ago my friend Sue made me a simple linen slipcover for the chaise cushion.

Fortunately the cover is washable because in reality this chaise lounge really just functions as a large cat bed.

On most summer days you will find Lucy sleeping out here on the chaise.  Since it’s the most well lit room in the house she has to put her arm across her face to get a little shut eye.  Maybe she needs one of those eye mask thingies.

The pillow behind her is encased in one of my favorite finds ever, a gorgeous monogrammed pillow case.

Sadly, it has deteriorated over time and ripped quite a bit.  I need to take the time to repair and reinforce it, that doesn’t seem to be near the top of my very long to-do list though.

This bird house that I purchased many years ago at Oronoco Gold Rush perches on my Norwegian blue stool in the corner.

I’ve never wanted to actually put this outside and allow birds to live in it.  I don’t think it would hold up in the elements and I’d hate to see it ruined.

The 2nd seating option on the porch is another Adirondack chair that my handyman Ken made for us.  Mr. Q loves this chair and this is his spot on the porch.

The black pillows are from H & M Home several years ago.

This chippy blue stool adds a pop of color next to Mr. Q’s chair.

It also makes a convenient spot for a beverage when it’s not holding a tiny Spode creamer filled with flowers.

This trunk serves as another repository for drinks in between the two seats in the room.

The chippy paint job is original but I added the stencil.  One of these days I’d like to re-do this piece and use a transfer on the front.  But I don’t know, is three too many transfers for one room?

Well, make that four if you count the Bugs Bunny quote that I put above the windows.  Technically this is also a transfer.

I’ve always felt like this is a good reminder.  But I’ll take it one step further and say don’t take decorating too seriously either.

If you’re sensing any kind of theme in this room at all, it’s that almost everything is reused, re-purposed and/or restyled.  All of the items were purchased inexpensively at garage sales, or handmade.  I have lots of other things I’d rather spend my hard earned money on (travel!), so I decorate on the cheap.

Next Wednesday we’ll head inside the house and check out the living room, so be sure to stay tuned!