'the cobbler's children have no shoes' part 2

....in other words, our furniture has gone unfinished while I've refinished pieces for my business!  For part 1 click HERE.  I've been working at getting some projects completed for our home lately in between furniture I refinish for sale.  Here are two more projects I completed for Matt and I.

I've always loved this first table...it's farmhousey and has that great shelf (I'm a sucker for tables with shelves).

before (needing repairs):

after:

 

This second one is a bookcase that I inherited from my grandmother.  It never ceases to amaze me how paint can update a piece of furniture.  The bookcase now sits in our study and is filled with books, magazines and vintage finds.  I took some pics of how it looks now but the mismatch of books etc. looks less than appealing in photos:

How do bookcases always look so uniform and nice on pinterest? (cause the REAL books are hidden right?):

Haha it's tempting to turn them all around so only the nice creamy pages show but that would drive Matt crazy!  Oh the days when books were all pretty with solid coloured covers and gold writing!

Below is how the bookcase looked all clean and fresh after painting.  My old turquoise glass water jug (U.S. estate sale find) sits beside it and the grey filing cabinet you can catch a bit of to the right (inherited from my grandfather) is going to be white and on big black casters come spray painting weather.

Before:

 

After this 'part 2' post you're probably getting the idea that our house is filled with nothing but creamy white furniture ...well that's mostly correct!  I prefer light neutrals and like to bring in colour with accessories which can be changed easily and as frequently as I wish.  Although, as you can see HERE, we do have yellowy green walls in our family room!  But I love the colour and never tire of it ('Anjou Pear' by Benjamin Moore).

xo Tanya

fun finds!

First I thought I'd share one of my favorite rescues from Matt's co-worker's dad when he moved into a retirement home (from now on let's refer to this generous fellow as Mr. H - you'll be seeing a lot of things I received from him in the future!).  It made an appearance HERE.  It's a nice small size and has just the right amount of rust and scratches (you get the appeal right?  it's not just me?!)...

I love the sticker with the 10 on it and the little pop up shelf inside.  I gave it a good scrub-down so it's good to go.  I'm not sure what I'm going to store in it yet or where I'd like to display it but I know it will come in handy at some point!

Finds from last weekend:

Smallish sized milk glass urn...

Large mixing bowl.  I'm accumulating these to use as serving bowls at our wedding...

Cute summer top...

A second possible beach-casual wedding dress.  I would add some panels to the bottom to make it floor length (and iron it!)...

Lastly, a lambswool poncho (the colours look much softer in person).  This'll be great for wearing on top of batwing sweaters which get bunched up in the armpits when you try to wear a normal coat!

We're heading to the states on a day trip Saturday so we'll see if I come home with some new furniture to paint this time!  That's usually the initial goal when hitting up thrift shops - oops!

xo Tanya

square Bombay & Co. coffee table

I fell in love with the legs on this table the second I saw them.  Aren't they great?  And a good, attractive square coffee table seems hard to come by in my experience.  I'm craving painting a coloured piece after all this white lately but this just had to be white!  I love that it has two drawers - one on each side.  I lined them with some new drawer liner.  Umm...is drawer liner difficult for anyone else to use?  Those darn bubbles can take some time to get out.  Granted, the drawers on this don't come out so I had to tuck my hands under and into the back of the drawers which was no easy feat!  I usually work with wallpaper but I have to say, not having to cut up and fiddle with double-sided tape was a nice change (it can be hard to get the backing off the little pieces).  Here she is (before pic at bottom)...

Before:

*SOLD*

Linking up with Thoughts From Alice for Sundays At Home.

xo Tanya

fun finds!

Last weekend Matt and I helped a friend of his move a sofa into his father's place (well, I watched, Matt helped!) and we took his old sofa to V.V.  You know what that meant of course?!...I got to do a little thrifting!  I happened to score on - you guessed it - milk glass! I also found a long white summer dress to potentially wear for our casual outdoor wedding in June.  Here are the fun finds I picked up:

Medium sized patterned milk glass bowl...

Large milk glass mixing bowl...

Set of four milk glass tea cups...

Long, white summer dress...

Matt's friend who we helped has been downsizing as he prepares to move into a condo from a house.  He has a lot of old 'junk' from his father, who we had inherited a ton of 'rusty gold' from when he moved into a care home last year.  We were lucky enough to once again sort through the goodies and put dibs on what we liked.  Here are some of the fun finds we were given (in another post I'll share a bunch of other treasures we've received from his father).

Tiny collectable 'tea cards' that came with Red Rose tea/coffee from 1959-1975...

 

There were 17 annual series produced 10 of which are below eg:  Birds of North America, Dinosaurs, The Space Age.  Very fun!

The cards were stored in this interesting 'Sacred Heart Dime-A-Week' club box...

Old calipers...

An old clock to add to my collection...

Pretty tins for storage of...?

Very amusing 1950s bumper stickers!...

And last but not least, a stack of 1950's postcards some of which are below...

I hope you enjoyed this little trip back in time ;)

xo Tanya

shabby chic doll crib

Here's a sweet little doll crib I recently refinished.  It's hand built out of solid wood and is extremely sturdy.  I love the heart cut outs on each end!  I sealed the knots with primer first so they wouldn't bleed through then painted it in soft pink 'Antoinette' ASCP, distressed and sealed it with clear wax.  This cutie also matches the vintage vanity HERE perfectly ;)  In addition to a doll crib it could be used to store books, small toys etc.  If you're interested in purchasing it visit my For Sale page HERE for measurements and pricing.

 

Before:

xo Tanya