Works in Progress

So, I am really excited that I have almost completed a number of projects that I have had on the go. I made my husband a promise that I wouldn't take on any new projects until I have completed and found homes for my current projects. This is SO HARD for me to do! I love to go to estate sales and thrift stores, scour Kijiji and Craigslist for that super vintage chair, table, or frame that I just KNOW I can do something really cool with! I get really excited over little things like buttons ( I am currently working on a vintage button display in the coolest old patinaed frame). I spend a lot of time imagining different ways to use different materials like vintage lace or textiles. I come up with so many ideas and I feel like I just HAVE to get started RIGHT NOW! I can not fall asleep very easily these days either; I am like a kid at Christmas, but it is not the sugar plum faries dancing in my head...it is the  colors and patterns of upholstery fabric and the colors of paint in distress or high gloss glory. But, alas, I must FOCUS! Work on one thing until I get it done! Not five things all neck and neck racing for the finish line. Well, I managed to finish polishing up a cool silver vintage tray that I had upcycled by painting the tray surface with chalkboard paint and I listed that baby on my Etsy shop today! Please take a boo (like my halloween humor ; )
http://www.etsy.com/shop/VintageRevised2011?ref=ss_profile
Soon to be posted are the retro diner chair and the retro chrome.
Please keep visiting me here on my Blog! Have a wonderful day!
Nicole

Pictures of my projects!

Well, it has been another long night at my house. My 8 month old son has a cold and has pretty much screamed at the top of his lungs for the last 4 nights. I am tired but, with coffee in hand, I am ready to get blogging as I am excited to show you what I am currently working on! REMEMBER: These are BEFORE photos.

Kings Throne
This chair is only about 20 years old. Usually I like to work on projects that are more mid-century but I could not walk away from this one. The design of this char is so beautiful and unique; I could not let this one get away. Although, my husband was not thrilled when I told him he needed to take the truck and go pick up a chair for me because I could not fit it in my car! LOL! The piant on this chair was a bit tattered and it had some gouges in the wood; so, I filled the gouges up with wood filler and sanded the frame to prepare it for a beautiful new coat of paint. Well, It has had two different brown colors on it now and I can't say that I am that impressed with the current one. I have left this one so that I come back to it with a fresh eye.

Retro chrome
This chair caught my eye immediately as well. You don't see them like this anymore! Right now this chair is almost finished. It has been recovered with a red snake skin vinyl and the frame has been polished up. The only thing holding me back on this one is that the wood on this chair is SO old and HARD that my finishing tacks on the back are bending everytime I try to nail them in! I am leaving this one up to my husband to figure out : )

Retro Diner
This chair did not capture me at first glance. As you can see it is pretty ugly! But,as I looked around I started to have visions of what I could do with this one, and for $4.00 I thought I would take the gamble. This one is also almost completed. I have sanded and repainted the frame and recovered the seat and back with some funky black and white upholstery fabric. I just had to wait to screw the seat back on the frame before I could finish the back.

The German Ladies
I LOVE these chairs! My friend Kari says that they remind her of Germany, she should know, she went to boarding school in Europe. So, I have decided to call these chairs the "German Ladies" - as they are also super curvy ; ) Well, these chairs definitely needed a new finish. I didn't want to paint them because I loved the grain in the wood and I didn't want to rob them of their original beauty. I sanded and sanded until I couldn't sand anymore and I realized I needed to take a chemical stripper to them. What a mess that stuff is. If you knew my husband you would know that he was not really impressed with all of the goo that ended up on the floor of the garage and driveway. LOL. Even with all of the stripper I could not get all of the laquer off of these babies! So, I made my best investment yet: an electric hand sander; and I have now sanded off MOST of the finish on these chairs. Now, to stain...I can't wait to see them after their makeover!




Well, I have a LOT more projects on the go but I will leave you with this for today. If my son gets over this nasty cold soon I could finish something and get some AFTER photos up. Stay tuned!

Welcome to my FIRST BLOG POST!

Hello everyone, I am so glad you chose to check out my new Blog!
First off, I just have to say that I am not a professional "writer". I may have slept though half of high school english - or skipped it entirely! I have recently finished a university english course and I have to say I learned a lot, but mostly that I suck at punctuation. I did pass the course (and I got an A on my final paper) but that is because I got to sit in front of my paper and edit it for weeks before submitting it. On my blog, that is not the case... SO, if you notice that I am really clueless about where I place my commas and notice that I use a semi-colon when I should have used a colon, please forgive me, and I hope my content will be engaging enough that maybe no one will notice! LOL!