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.........

Get Ready For Some Tooting!!

Lately I have had some pretty decent projects happening around the casa. Lots of inspiration from some of my favorite blogs, lots of ideas from places I have eaten, and now just trying to tie it all together. My problem used to be that I really didn't have a direction so I would just buy a bunch of crap on clearance that I didn't or couldn't use and be unhappy with the space. I've been hearing people say buy a "WOW" piece and design around that, sooooo thats what I'm trying to do. I'm also getting very jealous of all the nice photos that people take, the right lighting, the right time of day, the right mood, obviously the right camera helps a ton too. This weekends project is to work on getting some pics of the stuff that I have been doing and get it on here. Toot my horn so to speak, it's sometimes hard to do, but hey isn't that why we blog anyway, to virtually toot our horn. Next week I promise lots of tooting and more toot worthy pics and projects.

Until the tooting begins check out these cool videos.


RUSH / skate now from RUSH on Vimeo.


Pedalhard: Sac Town comp. from CHOP EM DOWN on Vimeo.

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.  

Lay Your Head Down

Recently I've been noticing some cool throw and accent pillows around the land of design. I saw these on an Etsy tweet the other day and they have been stuck in my mind ever since. I am really starting to like the sepia or neutral tone with one pop of color similar to the crosses on these pillows.






How about this chair and deer head print and rug and throw and everything else in this picture.

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.

Dude....Nice

This pretty much sums up the way it feels to build and work with wood. I think for this year I am going to focus on learning the old styles of building, less paint and more grain. We'll see how it goes.

Enjoy -

Grain & Gram: Blair Sligar, Woodworker from Grain & Gram on Vimeo.

Welcome To HELLTRACK

I remember constantly nagging my Mom to rent this movie every time we were are at our little country market in the town I grew up in. The kind of market that has a film of dust and stale cigarette smoke smell on everything from old to new. The "VCR" rental wire rack in the corner of the market where they had about 16 Fatal Attractions, 9 Top Guns, and the most glorious BMX/Freestyle movie ever RAD. I remember getting home and after watching the opening and ending credits I would immediately go out and grab my hot pink Torker 280 Air with white Skyway mags and pink matching Tioga tires and ride all afternoon. Trying to emulate everything the pros did in those clips, from the way they dressed to the way they would over dramatically perform a trick. Here's to 80's freestyle at it's finest....CRU is RAD.