Up The Stairs And Take A Left

I have visited a few blogs where people have put together house tours and taken pics of their "cribs". Well our crib is nothing spectacular, however it is ours and I have tried to make it different and trendier than what I feel the other houses in the neighborhood are like. I get a lot of inspiration from blogs and visiting hotels and restaurants and bathrooms and bars, the list goes on and on. Our master bedroom is pretty minimal, but that's the way we wanted it. I do want some nice artwork on the walls and eventually will add a sliding track door going into the bathroom as there is no door into the shower and vanity area. The color is Modern Gray from Sherwin Williams with dark, almost black stain on the bed, dresser, and floating nightstands. Oh by the way I built the bed and the nightstands. I got the tree tapestry from Urban Outfitters and had my Mom "quilt" it to a bedspread we already had. The pipe shelf is a recently finished project made from threaded galvanized pipe sprayed a flat black. The wood for the shelving is from a shelf that my dad built me when I was in like the 6th grade. I kept the wood almost the way it was dismantled with all the years of use and patina it had acquired. I sanded a few spots and filled in a few dings and knots but mostly just used it as is. It's a nice compliment to the dark stains and clean square lines.

As normal the pics aren't that great of quality, but I'm a builder not a photographer. So any of you photographer types that want to take awesome pics for your portfolio or trade services let me know, until then then you get what you get.

Say Hello To My Little Friend

I have been wanting a deer or moose or rhino or some sort of animal head for my basement for a little while. The other day there was a post about making a cruelty free deer head out of foam board from http://www.manmadediy.com/. It has a template you can download and all the steps. Some people spray paint them, some people cover it in contact or wrapping paper, and some boring people like myself just leave it white. The tutorial showed using x-acto blades to cut it out, but I decided to fire up my Dremel Trio and route it out and then lightly sand the edges. Seemed to work out fine to me, I do however want to enlarge the template and make a huge on of these in some sort of crazy color or pattern.

Second Hand Catch All

I've been all fired up with using wood tones and reclaimed wood and rustic pieces lately. Is it a trend? Maybe. Is it me getting older and trying to be more mature? Ummm could be and it's cheaper and not as dorky as a yellow convertible Corvette. Is it a true appreciation for repurposing and breathing new life into materials and pieces? I think that's most of it.

The basement has been a second hand room for as long as I can remember. Meaning we get new stuff up stairs and the basement gets the leftovers. However lately I have learned how to make these second hand and repurposed pieces work together. I was going for a modern lodge feel with wood tones and lighter colors. Sometimes it feels beachy and sometimes it feels lodgy(sp?). This coming weekend I am picking up a deer skull with antlers attached that will definitely drive home that lodge feel.

This a Restore find that my mom found for $20. It must have been from a hotel liquidation because you can tell it was a totally mass produced piece. I sprayed it a gloss steel gray color and it serves it's purpose well. You can't tell in the picture but it has a cool brass raised bar on the back of it, it's just hidden by the TV. I also made that little cabinet underneath to hold DVDs and whatever else. I put in on those furniture sliders because I couldn't find casters small enough to clear the bottom of the cabinet.

I know these aren't true mid century butterfly chairs but those are hard to come by and super expensive. I bought new canvas cream colored covers for them and painted the frames black.

Just a random view of the room. You've seen the wood wall on previous posts.

This is my weathered american flag find. It looks cool against the reclaimed wood on the wall.

The two pictures on the wall were from my parents. I remember these being around forever. My dad always had them in any of his designated rooms - office, instrument room, wood shop, etc. The other two are silhouettes of a moose. It's gloss black on flat black and I just outlined them with a gray colored pencil.

This chest was in out master bedroom for years. It works as a keepsake chest. Marriage stuff, Ki's stuff, just important memories stuff. Works so much better in the room though.

Kind of tough to see this picture to show this table. I made it from leftover 4x4 fence posts. I would love to make a dining table like this one day, though I would have to rent a small crane to move it.

This is some sort of army back pack. Not sure what it was used for, but now it used to hold blankets. One of those is my baby quilt and one of them is a quilt that the Hope Lodge made my dad while he was at Barnes in St Louis. The other is just a cool southwestern style blanket.

Flag again. I just really like this for some reason.

Here is a coffee table that my was given to me. I think it was used as a chicken coop back in the day. It has a glass top on it so none of it hidden and you can see the hinges door on top. I put some small steel casters on the bottom to get it off the floor.

Hopefully the next picture will be the deer head. Can't wait to get that nasty thing on the wall.

Pipes, Pine, & Paint

Got a nice little project in the works with these 3 elements. Should finish it up this weekend.

Over A Month...Really? C'mon!

I hate that it's been over a month since my last post, and that wasn't even my post, just something I found interesting. I said it before that I had a lot of projects going on and was having a hard time finding the strength and inspiration to blog...cry cry cry. Excuses be no more!! I got a new phone with fun camera apps and it's super fast and I hope to be able to blog on the fly.

Here is one of the past redesign projects that has been going on. Our living room is starting to look like something and more will be added as time goes on, but it's a start.

This wall was inspired by the 25 most important mid century designs. Thanks to curbly.com for the free download and thanks to my mind and corner wall that needed some pizazz.

This is my 6 dollar chair rebuild. A little cleaning and a fresh coat of teak oil and this thing looked brand new. I found a faux fur throw to dress it up a bit for 2 dollars and it turned out pretty cool. Not bad for an 8 dollar splurge. I saw one yesterday just like it in an antique store for 300 bucks, that makes me feel pretty good about it.

You guys remember this right? 20 bucks. It's what started this whole love affair with mid century design.

Here is the "wow" factor of the room. I thought it would be the first thing people see when they walk in but it usually takes a little time and then BAM! 25 dollars at habitat, a little cleaning and construction cone orange spray paint is all it took. 

This was a gift from the ladies that help us out around the house. Carolyn and Jamie are the best and we get them little gifts throughout the year to show our appreciation and they bring us awesome baked goods around the holidays and this. A retro orange foot stool that is so perfect. I remember walking in one day and wondering where in the hell this thing came from. Talk about being thoughtful, this blew me away. 

I was searching and searching for a round glass coffee table forever and could not find one. I ran across this on craigslist for 10 bucks and decided it may work. I ended up being boring and just painting it a gloss black enamel. It works for now until I can build what I want.

And this is the view from up above in the kitchen over looking the living room. This pic could or needs to be better, but it gets the idea across pretty good. So far, so good. 

My "Console"ation Prize

Remember a while back when I saw that console, record player, stereo cabinet thing with the louvered sides. Well I ended up buying it for $20 bucks. Killer right? Right! I Got it home and instantly got to work on it. Mainly just cleaning it up, but I also sanded down the top to get some of the real deep scratches out of it and then gave it a mix of espresso and walnut stain all over to bring back it back to life. I am extremely happy with it and love the way it has helped me change my design ways to a more collective approach, rather than a matchy matchy box store vibe.

Here is the before, I think it felt kind of like the new kid in school that everybody talked about because it didn't quite fit in.

And here it is all cleaned up, looking so fresh and so clean clean (outkast). Check out those legs, so choice.

     

It has already made so many new friends including a new sectional, some RUSH and Willie Nelson vinyl, some family pics, a new lamp ( dope lamp right?), and an Ipod which took some getting used to. It couldn't figure out how all those songs could fit on a little black and silver gizmo and be played by hooking it up to two dusty inputs on the back. Welcome to the future my friend, you're going to love it here. 

More to come.........

Orange You Glad You Stopped By?

So one of my new favorite stops is our local Restore, the Habitat For Humanity store that sells used and new donated home goods. I stopped by last Monday and saw these stacks of chairs and pretty much decided right then and there I needed them. As I always do, I left empty handed to think about these chairs for a few days and let it bother me that I didn't just buy them on the spot. I went back yesterday and grabbed up two orange ones to clean up and put into the decor rotation that is happening in our house at the moment.

Here is what they looked like in a dusty, cluttered warehouse setting.

And here is how they turned out in their new home. They were so happy to be cleaned up and magic erasered and steel wooled and polished, you can actually see the curve of the smile in the seat. The actual legs are little rougher than I like so I may end up spray painting them a bronze or metallic color of some sort, but for now they are happy and so am I. 

P.S. I also came home with something else that I plan on working on this weekend. If all goes as planned you will be able to peep it here next week.  

Gettin' Thrifty With It

So last weekend I went with my Mom to her local Habitat For Humanity Restore. I went with some reservations wondering what I was going to walk into. I was pretty blown away at the stuff they had. Don't get me wrong, there was a lot of useless "junk" but amongst that junk was thrifty finds that could be cleaned up and put into a space immediately. Here are a few of the things I found, and you know what, I am actually getting into this whole "old becoming new" theory. It's kind of....no it is really fun.

These 2 chairs caught my eye as a possible recover project. Both were $13 each. I like the legs and detail in the second pic.

This console had a record player and stereo in it. They weren't sure if it worked or not but with a little homework and some teak oil this thing would have rocked. Last figure they gave me was $20, pretty confident I could have got them down to $10. I can't get this piece out of my mind even though I'm looking for a more sliding door with shelving option. How cool would it be to get the stereo and record player working again though.



These two chairs were perfect, clean, and ready to go. Loved them, just not sure were I would put them. For $6 each I'm definitely going back for them. Sorry Misty, I dig them too much not to have them live with us for a while.

Noise Pollution

My Aunt gave me this guitar and amp that she had had for a long time but never played it, pretty cool gift in my opinion. It's a Crate practice amp but the cabinet is made from a hardwood that has a waxed finished that gives it a super cool retro look. It also came with this canvas cover which explains why the amp looks brand new. When I hooked it all up it would make a horrible crackling, static ridden noise probably from just sitting around for years. I was playing the guitar one day and looked at this lonely amp that was just stuck in a corner behind the door. I wondered how it could be used to show it off but was unsure of how to make it work. I had built a simple side table that was open underneath for the possibility of making it a modern nesting table, just never got around to adding the nesting pieces. Curiosity then set in. Maybe that table could slide over the amp and Voila!! It's like they were made for each other.

This Little Light Of Mine

I bought this swag light a little while ago with thoughts of a redo. It is made of a lightweight canvas and had a horrible paisley pattern on it. I know what your thinking, why would I paint over a cool paisley print, because the colors were horrible that's why. Hideous bright lime green, hot pink, some yellows, and creams. I wish I had a before pic, but you are going to have to trust me. I started with a gray primer to kill the colors and followed with some vertical dry brushing to try and achieve a weathered wood look. It goes well with the new wall and the other changes that are taking place in that room. As always it looks better in person than in the pic.

I Think I Want This Room

I think I like the floors the best. Time to start looking for some old barns to tear down and reclaim the wood.

Photo - Courtesy of Crate & Barrel

Last Weekends Projects

We have been wanting to do away with the 10 year old honey oak that was in our kitchen for quite some time. After painting our cabinets a few years ago I finally got around to changing the handrail. Our house is a split level or split level(s) as our master bedroom is on one level. Kitchen, Ki's room, spare bedroom and bathroom is on another level. The living room and entryway on another level. The basement living room, bathroom, and office on another level. Each level had honey oak railings to accompany the stairs. I went back and forth on staining vs painting. I decided on black to match our cabinets and other decor througout the house. We are still debating on changing the spindles or I may just do some sort of paint treatment or may just leave them as they are. Next up is the floors which I am not looking forward to, but it will be nice to bring them into the present day.

That same weekend I painted the hallway and stairway the same as the rest of the living room. It was a chocolate brown color from a previous era that I was just so done with. With the help of a few nics and hand prints from my son it was a perfect time to change it. I also stumbled across a board and batten treatment for an otherwise useless hallway wall. Thank you http://www.centsationalgirl.com/ for the killer idea. It makes the hallway so much brighter and clean. Eventually I will find some hooks or knobs and hang some cool framed pics from them, but until then this is what it looks like.

Have a nice weekend and try to stay warm.