2017 Vintage Fair

What a beautiful day and great turnout for the 2017 Walnut Creek Vintage Fair! I can’t believe it’s over with! My world has been revolving around June 24th for such a long time, I hardly know how to act now that it’s past.

I did manage to snap a few photos of my booth the morning of the fair, although they were taken in a hurry. So, here is a quick photo tour of my booth…

I learn something new every year at the fair..what to have more of, and less of..but it’s always a lot of fun!

I want to thank all of you that made it to the fair on Saturday and for those of you who couldn’t, there’s always the next one!

I’m looking forward already for the first ever Fall Fair that is coming up October 6th! It will be held at the same place as the spring one. (Walnut Creek Furniture)

Thanks for visiting my blog!

-Mary 

Repurposed Headboard

I’ve been doing a lot of furniture makeovers this spring, mostly in preparation for the Vintage Fair on Saturday. I always try to take before pictures of the pieces, but I admit I don’t get nearly all of it posted to my blog. This one I want to share because it is one of my favorite pieces.

It started out as an old head and foot board of a full sized bed..

Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures as I worked on the project, so I will explain a little on what I did.

I cut the footboard into two pieces, making so that the pieces were the correct depth for a bench. I usually don’t go for an exact measurement, I just eye it to make sure it looks okay.

I cut some of the post or leg length off, since the back would have been too high, had I left it.

After I had the correct size on everything, I fastened the sides using glue and screws, but before I did that, the headboard crashed to the floor, landing on top of my skilsaw. One of the back panels was split and broken. :( I was pretty bummed, since there was hardly a flaw on this piece before this happened. I debated trying to fix it with wood putty, but it was torn up too much and I knew I had to come up with something else. So.. I  cut a thin piece of plywood to fit into the broken panel to cover up the split. It ended up matching the wood seat and looked pretty good.

The final result..

I used my Sihouette Cameo to make the Abraham Lincoln quote, a favorite of mine..

Another angle..

I think this bench would look great on a porch, or as an entryway bench. It will be available to buy on Saturday at the fair, along with the flowers!

Happy Thursday, everyone!

-Mary

Hutch Makeover

Hi everyone! I want to share with you another piece that will be at the vintage fair on Saturday. Any posts this week will be short and sweet since I have a lot going on, but I want to take the time to show you some of the items that I will have in my booth on Saturday. I hope to see you all there!

Here are a few before pictures of a little hutch that I picked up at an auction last fall..

After some TLC..

The color of the piece is a light gray, lineny color that I mixed myself. It is very neutral and will go with about any color in your home. Here in the pictures, it is still missing the glass, but it will be getting some!

I added one of my favorite contact papers for the backing. The hardware received a coat of metallic gray spray paint.

Happy sunshiny Tuesday, you all! Thanks for stopping by!

-Mary

Paint Can Planters

I’ve always cringe a bit when tossing empty paint cans into the trash. I always have this feeling more could be done with them. After all, they have that charming, almost vintagey look, with their silver color; speckled with a few rust spots, and cute handle. But mine of course, are usually dripping with paint down the sides. Who wants to clean that up?

The past few days I have been fixing up a few flower pots for the upcoming Vintage Fair. I need something to dress up my booth and what better way to achieve that than with nature’s colors?

This was my set up in the basement. (I know, I’m strange like that, using the floor as a work space:))

After they were planted, I set them outside on a table, where instantly lil miss Pebbles made herself at home. :)

After fixing all these arrangements, I realized I still needed a few more pots. With all the painting I’m doing these days I decided to scrub a few empty paint cans and see how they would work.

I decided to paint one of them white and do some mod podging on the other. I masked off the handle with tape since I wanted to keep it silver. I then spray painted it a satin white using Rustoleum brand spray paint.

For the other one, I cut a vintage style scrapbooking paper in strips to fit around the can..

I cut out circles where the handle would be and applied mod podge to glue it into place.

I always have issues when using regular weight paper that I get wrinkles in it. For this project it will be ok, but it can be frustrating when I really don’t want any there. I think I remember reading somewhere that if you lightly mist the paper before applying the mod podge, it will help with wrinkles.

For the cans, I wanted to add an old looking label of some sort to them. I have this cool box that came from my great grandparents, that is filled with old letters, documents, books, etc. It is quite interesting to look through and see how little things cost back in the early 1900s! I use a lot of symbols, pictures, etc. out of that box for some of the things I design.

I opted to use a few pages of an old book for the cans, giving them a farmhouse look..I scanned and printed them out..

I mod podged these “labels” onto the cans. After the coat of glue was dry, I sanded the cans, labels and all, and applied another coat of mod podge.

As a final step, I drilled holes into the bottoms, since I want to use them as flower pots..

This is the final result..

A closer look..

 

I really enjoyed this project and I’m sure it won’t be the last time I’ll be re-purposing paint cans!

You may have noticed the ladder in the picture? It is also a mod podged project that I worked on the other day.

All these items will be available at the Vintage Fair on June 24th. Hope to see you there!

Thanks for visiting..

-Mary

Antique Chest Makeover

Once in awhile I will go to an estate auction, and every time I do, I think never again. First of all, it’s so hard to find a good bargain. I feel auctions are over rated in our area and that’s what makes it difficult to snag a good deal. After battling crowds of people and barely being able to see through all the sea of old men in overalls, the item is sold. And the few times I manage to make myself noticed and actually buy something, I can feel funny looks as I hold up my buyers number. I’m sure they’re all thinking what ever will she do with that piece of junk? After all, the things I buy usually look like junk, since that’s all I can afford. But, really, I don’t care as long as the bargain is worth it.

So it was that last Fall, I did manage to snag this old chest for a few dollars..

I was fairly rough looking, with pieces of the molding falling off. I removed it all and made quite the mess while doing it, but it needed to come off..

I sanded everything really well and gave it two coats of Spectral colored paint. I love how natural wood and white look together, so I left the lid the natural wood color. I also added a few words of inspiration on the front. So, here is the after…

Looks pretty different, doesn’t it?

Definitely worth the overalls, pot bellies, and funny looks. :)

I decided to do the letters in gold paint instead of my usual black.

Again, loving the combination of natural wood and white.

This piece will be at the vintage fair, so if you need a coffee table or a seat with a bit of character, this may be for you! Hope to see you there!

~ Mary