love 'em and leave 'em

In case anyone labors under the mistaken impression that I bring home everything I like from thrift stores and estate sales, I occasionally like to show-and-tell some of the stuff what didn't get brought.

Let's start with a French pressure cell press. My love for industrial machinery knows no logic, but at least I talked myself out of actually bringing it home. And it's a good thing; I don't need any membranes disrupted.

This mid-century lamp is interesting to me. What's that screened bit for in the middle?

It's hinged, so something can be put inside, but what? Incense? Spare bulbs? Is it an ashtray? Intriguing. But I don't need more lamps right now.

Love these chairs. Love them. Except for the upholstery. Just two problems: 1) We have enough chairs. 2) Even if I'd brought home the pair of them, the arms (I love the arms!) would make them unsuitable for using at the dining room table. The kitchen/dining room is on the small side, and these wouldn't scoot in, making for less room to maneuver around them.

 More industrial equipment. I love the name "Cleantron".

Someone put a papasan chair on top of this antique table. Of course, at this particular store, they also write prices inside of antique books in pen, so it's not really too surprising.

I love the way this thing was built. It's gorgeous, and probably legitimately an antique. It was also pretty big. We have a train table in our living room at the moment, though, and by the time I thought of using it as a patio table, someone else had snapped it up. I think it was $7.00 or something. Will it haunt me till the day I die? No, but probably for another few weeks, anyway.

Ooh! Staircase shelves! These would work well with a bunkbed, I think. Traffic was brisk the day I went in; someone swooped in an left with one of the pair about ten minutes after I snapped this picture.

Oddly attracted to this, or the legs anyway. The top had a cheap looking veneer, but I did love the legs.

I used a couple of valets as t-shirt displays at the bookstore, back in the day. I still have one of the pair, in fact, but I've never seen one built as part of a chair. 

I can't remember what the project was, but something I saw on Pinterest made me shoot this picture of a 2-tiered end table.

Last but not least, a little polka-dot chair. Probably a contemporary piece, but maybe from the late 40s or early 50s. I'd sit in it.

And there you have it! See, I told you I didn't buy every cool thing I see! 

Thanks for reading!

fun dinettes at the re - building store

If I was in the market for a dining solution, one of these hip yellow mid-century foldable diner dinettes would have fit the bill.

Double so because of the price tag. Seating for four for $75? This would be so awesome in a small eat-in kitchen like mine.

They had several of these out at Bring this week; not sure how many are left, but I snapped these photos earlier today, so maybe if you were to call them up first thing in the morning . . .

Me, I have a too-large dining room table filling up my space. Today I was pining for one of these. What's in your dining room?


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)

new chairs for thanksgiving dinner : under $25

Our beautiful dining room table was wedding gift from one of my sets of parents. It has now filled two too-small kitchen dining spaces with its gorgeous girth.

When planning to have the in-laws over for Thanksgiving dinner this year, our lack of comparably solid, beautiful chairs became more noticeable. Up until now, we've had a folding chair and four little Ikea Stefan chairs I bought on clearance three years ago. Cute, yes, and mostly serviceable, though as a salesperson pointed out, built to support the weight of your average Swede. A climbing toddler can topple one of those suckers without even trying (although he does try, and frequently).

I headed to the Habitat for Humanity Restore and the Goodwill (toddler in tow, for topple-testing!), and found two solid-wood-constructed, heavy-duty chairs. Both were half-price on different sale days, and they didn't match. Different upholstery, different wood finishes and different builds. My mission? To make them look a little more like a "set".

Before: Stained upholstery, battered finishes.






After: New upholstery, new finishes.






To replicate this project:

1) Remove extraneous padding (like the back pad on the first chair, which was held in place with staples and hot glue) and toss.




2) Turn your chairs over and remove the screws that hold the upholstered seats in place. Set aside the screws, and take the seat off of the chair

3) If the chairs have been previously re-covered, remove the excess layers of fabric and staples. Set aside the seats and the screws.




4) Stretch new fabric over the seats. Turn face down, fold fabric edge under to prevent fraying, and shoot a few staples along that edge of the new fabric, making sure the staples go through all layers of fabric and into the wooden seat bottom. Pull tightly, and tack down the opposing edge in the same manner.

5) Repeat for other two edges. At corners, some people use a "package fold" but I don't prefer the square-ish edges this leaves. Instead, I make about a dozen tiny folds and overlaps, sort of gathering the fabric with my fingers as I staple. Set seats aside.

6) Sand or de-gloss the chair frames outside, then paint with a spray-paint/primer in one, using even strokes and building up several light layers. These dry more quickly than a single, heavy layer, and also leave a nicer finish.

7) Let dry / cure / air-out for a couple of days. Then bring back inside and reassemble to the newly upholstered seat bottoms.

Ta-dum! New dinner chairs. The kiddo loves them, and so do I!

You can find the fabric here, courtesy of Spoonflower (more about that in a future post). It's meant to be a stuffed animal kit.

The spray finish is a color called oil-rubbed-bronze, a brownish black with a very subtle gleam of metal flake. It's a satin finish.












Any questions about my process? Leave them in the comments section below and I'll do my best to answer.


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)



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