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. 

6 Bucks!!??? I Got 6 Bucks!!

Well, well, well. Here we are again, at Restore, with a fistful of dollars and a shopping list. We were visiting family this past weekend and after our Saturday morning breakfast outing decided to hit the Restore just so I could rest easy that same night about at least making an attempt to go and not worry about what I may have missed out on.

You see lately I have missed out some incredible furniture finds because in my little obscure working mind, I feel I am the only one looking for what I am looking for....Does that make sense. Let me explain. Say I was looking at a dresser to refinish and use as a media cabinet with storage and I find the perfect one. Well my brain says " Dude, don't worry, come back tomorrow after you have thought about it all night and day and pick it up." So my brain wins, I have multiple hours to mull this over and design the most awesomest media cabinet ever. There is excitement as I drive to pick it up. I am almost shaking thinking about how flipping fabulous my ideas are and how I should have my own show. As I walk through the doors I laugh quietly at the people that have no clue at how awesome I am and as I turn the corner I ..........wait, wait, oh they must have just moved it. I make my way around to the other isle feeling a teensy bit of anxiety......where the hell is it. I start quietly freaking out and frantically walk around the whole store until I run into a sales clerk and grab him by the collar and yell "WHERE IN THE HELL IS THAT DRESSER THAT WAS HERE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON!" "SOLD!!" "WHAT DO YOU MEAN SOLD, NO ONE WOULD PAY FOR THAT PIECE OF"........Ok it didn't quite go like that, but what I am trying to say is that it's depressing and a huge let down to miss a great deal on a great piece because of procrastination. Apparently I am not the only design star out there with great ideas or tastes, weird huh.

Well Saturday morning it didn't get the best of me. For you see I had some cash, I had a mission, and now I have an unbelievable chair for 6 bucks! It will get cleaned up and reupholstered and it will be loved by the many eyes that see it. give me a few weeks and it will be new again, be patient until then.

Here is Ki enjoying his donut in my new chair, funny thing is out of all those chairs this is the one he picked to enjoy a nice glazed donut in. I'm either brainwashing him or the kid has taste.

And a few more before pics.

Restore Finds

It's no secret that I have an addiction to our local Habitat Restore. And lately they have not been letting me down. Here are few pics of the coolness that I have been finding.

This chair is 10 bucks and it is actually a rocker/glider dealio. A fresh new stain or paint and modded out fabric would make this rocker rock.

This table can get huge if you let it. My idea is chop the legs down, clean it up, and it would make an awesome coffee table. Oh and its 30 bucks. It's also got these x shaped ivory like inlays that are right above the legs from the top view. Awesome

As I was leaving I walked past a box that said furniture legs, I opened it up and HOLY CRAP......look at these legs. 8 bucks. Now the idea is to salvage the legs from the table and use a set of these instead. Genius?....yeah I know.

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.