Miniature Chest of Drawers Refurbishment

I bought this super beat up mini chest of drawers back in December.

 

Periodically since then I’ve been changing it around, the first thing to go was the ugly trim on the drawer faces:

Then the bottom molding:

I removed all the panels, and decided the top molding had to go to.

I asked Matt to take it off with his saw, which I thought would be neater. However after a week of waiting I got impatient and took a hacksaw to it in the middle of the night. Here it is sanded before trim removal and with some wood filler drying:

 

Here it is before and after staining:

 

I added some teal paint to the body of the chest and panels, and spraypainted the drawers white. I also added burlap to the drawer faces and finished the whole thing with new trim:

This was one of those projects that started out as a little cleaning and polishing and ended with a complete overhaul. I love the end result though! Here it is once more before and after:

What does the Ladies’ Home Journal 1938 and Cookies Have in Common?

I found this 1938 copy of the Ladies’ Home Journal at a thrift store about a year ago.

77 year doesn’t seem all that far away but looking through this magazine it feels like an alien civilization. It’s especially evident in the ads, look at this super sexist ad for canned fruit:

Or this cigarette ad advising you to smoke at least 6 packs of Camels to see the difference it makes in your nerves:

Even the more mundane ads are targeted at solving problems no woman has anymore:

One of the ads, however, caught my eye as it was a product I’ve seen in real life:

This cookie press made by Mirro is very similar to the one that I watched my Mom use every Christmas. Sure enough when I showed her the ad, she brought out the old box and it was made by Mirro all be it about 15 years later. The design is ever so slightly different, it no longer worked so she gave it to me.

Along with a variety of the old die plates:

I bought a donor press from the ARC a few weeks later, another Mirro press of an even later design:

Although a little frankenstein looking… together they work wonderfully.

To try out my press I used this recipe, and a simple glaze:

My Mom and my sister and I made spritz cookies with this press every year and it makes me very happy to think I will continue to do so.

How to Create Earring Hooks

I’ve found some cool jewelry at thrift stores in the last few weeks. This bangle was $4 and I love the distressed look of it:

I also bought these chandelier/fish lure looking earrings, they make the prettiest chiming sound when they move:

Lastly the real subject of this post, I bought these vintage stone clip on earrings:

I have no idea how anyone could wear clip on earring for any amount of time, they hurt! Plenty of jewelry stores and craft stores sell earring hooks pre made and ready to use. However, if you already have the supplies it takes no time to make replacement wires.

That’s it! For my earrings I removed their clips by opening each jump ring. Here they are next to the brand new hooks:

All done:

Recognizing and Cleaning Marble

In my last post I showed you my new little thrifted marble topped plant stand:

The wood legs and base are in decent shape, but the wood top in between the marble and legs has significant water damage.

The marble top was badly scratched, had several deep water mark and was generally yellowed. Since I don’t know yet what I will be doing to the wood base, I thought I would at least tackle getting the marble clean.

Although it’s usually pretty easy to decide if something is made of stone, sometimes the type of stone isn’t apparent. I could already tell the stone was marble on my plant stand. However, if you are unsure if your stone is marble or granite the easiest test is to try to scratch it in an inconspicuous area. If it scratches easily it’s marble. Granite is much harder, you can also inspect the pattern for the characteristic speckles (salt and pepper look) of granite. Marble is going to have more swirls and veins. Granite left and marble right:

Marble is a metamorphic rock, it contains calcium carbonate which means that it reacts to acids. This is why marble countertops are sensitive to lemon juice, vinegar etc and why knowing a stone is marble should change how you clean it.

I tried to get a picture of the scratches and water marks on my stone in the sunlight, you can kinda see the water marks:

The first thing I tried was a paste of baking soda and water. It did clean up the surface and had a slight whitening effect but didn’t budge the tougher stains. I think for newer stains or well cared for marble this would be a good option.

For my scratched, stained and yellowed marble more drastic action was needed. I took 220 sandpaper in little circles all over, I was amazed at how easy it was to get all the scratches and marks out. It probably took less than an half hour. The hardest part was changing sandpaper often enough as the dust is very fine and coggles the paper quickly.

I tried to do a before and after of the micro scratches, which you can sort of see

Here is another comparison, you can really see how much whiter it is after a little sanding. Before:

After:

I want to get some stone sealer to protect my newly revealed surface, but for now I think it’s a huge improvement.

If you want to sand your own marble, go slowly with very fine paper. I would go back through with 400 grit before sealing the stone. If your marble is very large like a countertop remember that you will have to go over the whole thing. The sanded area will not blend easily with the rest of the stone, especially if it was sealed or polished to a shiny surface.

Projects in Progress

Have you noticed that the amount of project posts have been right around 0 lately? Well that isn’t for lack of working on some, it’s more a lack of finishing any. So I thought I would do a little roundup of all the projects I’ve been working on around the house which will eventually turn into awesome posts.

You might have seen the hideous faux brick back wall of my kitchen in this post, which I have been laboring over. Here it is with the removal started.

If it were me I would rip ALL of the nasty bricks down but… Matt likes them. We decided to keep all the bricks around the sliding door, painted white of course. I’ve cut a line through the edge bricks to even them out, and applied multiple coats of drywall mud to the rest of the wall. There is still some sanding and painting left to do and we need to pick out some kind of wood/metal molding/trim end piece to finish the bricks off.

I have also been experimenting with paper mache clay. I am trying to make a custom floor vase out of this cardboard vase for the branch display I made. Here is how it looks now:

There is quite a bit of dry time on the clay, so it’s been slowly getting to this stage for a few weeks now. I want to do another full coat to even out the texture and then I’m not sure about color or pattern for the finished product.

I have also been fitting in a little thrifting, I found this today:

It’s a vintage plant stand, with a marble top. The whole thing has some pretty bad water damage, but I love the legs and it was only $15.

I also found this lovely little vase last weekend that looks so pretty filled to brim with carnations:

It’s similar to the large round vase that usually gets to sit on my coffee table:

If you have read any of my posts the last few months, then you have definitely heard about The Great Wave. I didn’t like the orange background on my blue walls and have subsequently been repainting it every other week:

It is currently this salmon color:

Maybe I would like it better red.

I have also been taking care of lots of little things around the house. For instance patching the huge hole in the bathroom wall where we moved the plumbing and hanging this mirror which has sat against the wall since we moved in a year ago.

Have you ever seen the tiny succulent display’s at Home Depot, they are all $2.50 and I can never resist picking up a new baby cactus. Which it why I needed to do some repotting today:

Although this gorgeous fabric wasn’t from a thrift store, it is vintage.

My wonderful aunt took me around a bunch of awesome handmade/vintage/indie type stores that she lives next to in Denver last week. So many cool ideas, sooooo many things I want to go back and buy. I want to make a blousy tank top with lace straps out of this fabric.

In addition to all my real world projects, I’m in the middle of redesigning my blog into a new website which I thought would take me days and is quickly turning into months.

Anywho, I really should get to work on at least one of these projects so I’ll leave you with my tired basset hound looking styling in my sitting room:

The Saga of My Basket Pendent Light

Basket lights have been all over the home decor scene lately. From left to right, a DIY job from Young House Love, a $600 Currey and Company option on Amazon, and another DIY this time with a wire basket from Hello Lidy:

   

I had been on the look out for a cool basket to turn into a light when this actual basket light caught my eye a few weeks back for $6 at the ARC. You may have seen it hanging out in the sitting room.

As you can see on the left the wiring was in terrible shape, and the ugly chain it came with… sucked. I cleaned the wood and wicker by spritzing it with water in my bathtub and using an old toothbrush I got the crevices clean. I hung it up to dry and it was as good as new! It’s important in cleaning wicker that it doesn’t get too wet, and dries quickly! I bought a cheap new light cord set from IKEA, to replace the old wiring, and chopped it down to size:A plain cord going up to the ceiling plate was too unimaginative for me. I googled cool ideas other people have come up with like this fabric cover, wrapped rope and wood beads. I bought a couple different types of wood beads from Hobby Lobby, and two larger wooden knobs to be the end caps.

The end cap balls were unfinished so I gave them a coat of left over red oak stain after drilling a hole through them.

I tried the circle beads first, with out end caps:

But I ended up liking the other beads more, here they are with the end caps in place (the bottom circle bead is a spacer, so you can see more of the large ball when it’s hanging up):

I wired the new cord to the junction box on the ceiling and screwed in the brass ceiling plate (which was an unused part from this light fixture terrarium project) All done:

Or it would have been if I liked how it looked… I didn’t. The brass looked wrong and dated and ugly. So after a few days of trying to come up with a solution that didn’t involve spray paint, my kitchen cupboard yielded this:

I used the brass plate as a template for where the screw holes needed to go:

And strung everything back up, minus a couple beads since the new ceiling plate (or ceiling bowl lol) adds a few more inches of drop, rewired the light and:

I think it matches everything nicely. Plus it cost me nothing, which is of course the best kind of solution! $6 for the basket light, $5 for the cord, $5 in wood beads (after coupons) and a $4 globe bulb and I have a lovely $20 mid-century basket pendent light. What do you think of the basket light trend? Love the texture, or think they belong on the ground?

A New Sofa and a Fortuitous Wall Art Find

A while back I saw a crazy barrel shaped couch and love seat set on Craigslist. After taking a while to decide finally, that the reaction I had to them was love and not hate, we bought them. However they really weren’t cutting it in the new sitting room:

Way too big and bulky, although a unique set and quite comfy for watching TV. Soooo we bought a much more proportional sofa a few days ago. Again I was browsing Craigslist, and this little mid century gem had just about everything on my wishlist, wood frame, light colored upholstery, and minimalist lines.

(The barrels have been banished to the very unfinished basement TV cave)

I just needed to find something to go above it… a big piece of art, a mirror, lots of smaller pictures gallery style. I had plenty of ideas I wasn’t committing to yet, you should after all, acquire art slowly. When while out thrift store shopping yesterday I found this:

A rather representational painting of Hokusai’s 1830 The Great Wave off Kanagawa woodcut. Insidently, did you know that while The Great Wave is arguably his most famous work it is actually part of a series of woodblocks. There are 36 that make up his Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series all of which depict as you might have guessed scenes from around Japan with a view of Mt. Fuji.

I think my painting might have been someones art school project. There is lots of technical skill but also a lot of shortcuts. Here you can see on the left he/she used spray paint to finish off the background (it’s now cracking).On the right you can see errant pencils lines. Plus here at the bottom right of the painting is the back end of a boat that never got painted in:

The sort of things you might ignore when your deadline was coming up. However it’s absolutely huge at 61″ X 48″, and looks fantastic on the Deep Twilight Blue. I think I might try to do a bit of restoration work to it, the strange change of sheen on the spray painted portion looks glaringly off in bright light. Do you think a can of matte or gloss sealer would even out the sheen if applied over the whole thing? I’m not sure… though you can bet I will find out ;)

Vintage Beaded Clutch Refurbishment

I made a resolution about a month ago, not to take on any more projects. I have far too many as it is. On the whole it has been great, I’m finishing plenty of old forgotten things. Unfortunately, a few days ago I saw a small, beat up, beaded clutch at an ARC thrift store. I tried to resist it. I swear to you, I tried. I looked it over, it need bead work, the lining was terribly stained, it was misshapen. I didn’t buy it, I walked out of ARC and spent the night thinking about. The next morning I went back, and bought the damn thing. Here it is:

It was missing quite a bit of beading along the top. It was also discolored. The lining was terribly stained.

However, I could see how beautiful and glamorous looking it would be if restored to its former glory. So I jumped enthusiastically into fixing this bedraggled clutch.

Firstly, I removed the metal hardware from the bag, then the terrible old satin lining.

 

 

At this point I cleaned the beaded outer shell in tepid water with a bit of soap and minimal agitation. I did all the cleaning and rinsing in a bucket just in case I lost some beads. I also cleaned and polished the metal hardware. If you have an old beaded bag you want to clean, make sure there is no cardboard inside the lining, use tepid water and minimal soap. A soft toothbrush can help remove dirt and grime from between the beads. To dry the bag use small hand-towels inside to maintain the right shape, and check occasionally to insure it is drying correctly.

Back to my bag, the outer shell was missing plenty of beads, most from the top where someone would grip the clutch. There were three types of beads all an opaque milky white, but the only ones I could find at Hobby Lobby that matched were the tiny 11/0 seed beads. I decided to change the pattern on the top designs and fill them in with the tiny seed beads. In this way I could remove the remaining large beads and use them to fill in the pattern on the rest of the bag. Here are my beading supplies:

As you can see I bought beige colored cotton thread, because the original thread was discolored and this matched better than bright white thread would. Here are a couple of links that explain how to bead onto fabric:

• A pdf from Timeless Creations, which explains the basic procedure and supplies to bead on fabric: here.
• A video, and link to printable instructions on how to bead from Beads East: here.
• Another pdf, that goes over types of beads for sewing with and other tips from Sewing.org: here.
• Instructions for crocheting with beads from Dummies.com: here.
• Instructions for cross-stitching (scroll down the page a little) with beads from Thread Needle Street: here.

One tip that really saved me from frustration, was to apply tape to one finger on my left hand. It makes picking up and threading multiple seed beads infinitely easier.

Here are close up shots of one of the top medallions that I re-beaded.

 

 

It took a couple of days to finish re-beading the bag. I was very happy with the results. The new bead configuration is hardly noticeable and all the beads are tacked down securely. Plus I have tons of seed beads left over… beaded tank top neck maybe??

For the lining, I used the old pieces of satin as a pattern and cut new pieces out of some lovely houndstooth patterned wool I bought second-hand a few months ago.

I chose not to add pockets, partly because the clutch is so small I feared pockets would pull at the sides too much and because wool pockets would be very chunky. In the next pictures you can see I reinforced the sides of the lining with fusible interfacing, but I hated the way they shaped the bag, and I removed them later.

 

Here the lining is pinned and then hand-stitched to the beaded bag shell.

  

The metal hardware was originally covered with satin and then the satin was stitched onto the bag. To make the task roughly a billion percent easier I wrapped the metal with thin black ribbon. This way I didn’t have to sew on fabric, or cut holes for the clasp, or anything! I just hot glued the end of the ribbon on to the metal and started wrapping.

The hardest part of this refurbishment by far, was hand sewing the hardware back into the bag. It required a lot of re-positioning, since I couldn’t pin it to anything and the bag had to be stretched as I sewed to cover the metal correctly. However, in the end I managed it. The finished clutch:

 

I love how just a thin line of black can be seen when the bag is shut, and I love the luxurious feel of the wool lining. Another plus about the wool, it’s so plush that you can’t see the shape of the items in the bag. I can’t wait to carry this thing around with me, hopefully it will serve the dual purpose of reminding me not to take on anymore superfluous projects and being absolutely gorgeous.

Love this project? Like vintage beaded bags? Trying to fix one of your own? Tell me about it, by leaving a comment!

Denim, Dye, and Doilies

I’ve really been digging the denim shirt look lately. Especially the oversized or “boyfriend” ones, throw it over a pair of leggings and bam! Cute outfit. I bought the one below the other day at ARC for only $2.

The fit is exactly what I wanted, but the color… It’s a little too regular blue jeans for me. I considered dyeing it darker. However my shirt like chambray shirts are woven with white thread as well as blue. So if dyed all the thread will end up dark blue, and the denim look will be lost. Maybe I’ll use bleach to distress it? However it ends up I think I will be adding lace accents as well.

If thrift stores or diy projects aren’t your thing, here are a couple of examples of the cute denim shirts out there (click the image to go to their origin site). 1. Faded Denim Shirt, $59.00 2. Two Tone Denim Shirt, $27.80 3. Polka-doted Chambray Shirt, $59.00.

        

I also recently bought this strange little dress. It has a very asymmetrical hem, and is composed of 10 different fabrics. It’s missing most of its tags, and the one it does have is in Korean. It is however interestingly compelling. As you can see in the pics below, it’s got a bunch of types of lace on it, an overlay in two different fabrics, and some buttons.

Again something cool to wear over leggings, I might have to even out the hem just a little though.

I bought this super cheap hippie skirt at ARC for a dollar and some change. It’s a bit big for me, because I want to turn it into a comfy tent dress, hopefully with some cool deep pockets.

With all the clothes I buy at thrift stores, I like to give them an odor removing first wash. Too often the perfume/other people/warehouse/dirt aroma of newly purchased thrift items doesn’t get removed with a regular wash. So I like to fill the bath tub with 5 inches of cool water, throw in a cup or two of white vinegar and let my new things soak. After wringing out, I hang them up to dry and while the vinegar evaporates it takes the smells with it. To finish up I put anything that I can in the washing machine, and hand rinse delicate items.

Well I was doing just as I described, and had added my denim shirt and dress to the bath and put the hippie skirt in. I turned around to put the vinegar away and when I turned back radiating out from the skirt was tons of purple dye. I quickly pulled the other items out of the bath, and wrung out the skirt as best I could. 

I rinsed the skirt in cold water to try to stop the bleeding, but bucket after bucket of cool water and the skirt still poured dye. I eventually just let it dry. I’m not sure what happened there. It was a cheap skirt even new, and the tag just says “made in india, hand wash.” Maybe it was the vinegar, or maybe it had been dyed and never rinsed. As far as I can tell the skirt hasn’t faded, even though it leaked all the dye. I might try a dye fixative product so I don’t have to separately hand wash this thing every time.

Lastly, I’ve been buying lots of doilies.

I want to turn them into an eclectic looking lampshade, like the examples below (click the pictures to go to their origin site). 1. A Beautiful Mess 2. Apartment Therapy 3. Shannon South.

  

Spoon & Fork Rings

Exactly how silverware rings first came to exist is a mystery. Although many people think that in Medieval Europe poor servants stole away pieces of their masters flatware to make into wedding rings. I’ve also read sailors did the same with silver from their ship. In any case, these rings have been made for centuries. In the 70’s utensil jewelry had a great resurgence, and continues to be popular today.

I found the idea to make rings out of flatware through Pinterest. This overview image of the process, from More Design Please, has been all over that site. Do you ever feel like everyone on Pinterest is pinning ideas, but not trying them? I’ve seen that same image on how to make one of these rings a thousand times, but never another person’s attempt. Anyway, the original tutorial on how to make these rings comes from the blog Through the Front Door, check out that post here. It takes a couple of practice tries to get a nice ring, so don’t use your grandmother’s heirloom silver on your first attempt.

For this project you will need:

Flatware which is either sterling silver or silver plated, stainless steel is not suitable, because it is too hard to bend. From what I have read sterling silver is the easiest to work with, but can be hard to find for cheap. I used silver plated pieces, some of which I found for 10 cents, and others for $1 at various thrift stores. When looking for pieces, remember that the thinner they are, the easier they will be to bend. This is why butter knifes, serving spoons, and the like aren’t used, they’re just too thick.

Metal saw or snips, my husband sawed through the first few spoons for me, but I later used heavy-duty snips to score a line where I wanted the cut, and was able to bend the spoon head so broke off at my line.

Sandpaper or metal file, to polish the cut end. If you accidentally score the silverware during bending, use sandpaper to smooth it out as well.

Butane torch, and butane. I bought the same one that was featured on Through the Front Door. It was $7 at Home Depot, and extra butane was $3. If you have a heavier duty torch, that will work too, just be careful not to melt the silverware!

Ring mandrel, which a metal tool used to shape rings. You can also use a dowel or socket that is close to your ring size as an aid in shaping your silverware.

Rubber mallet, to aid in the shaping of the ring. A regular hammer wrapped in several layers of leather scraps or a thick dishtowel, and secured with a rubber-band will also work.

Pliers, ones without ridges are better since they won’t leave indents on the silverware. I wrapped leather scraps around the ends of the ones I used.

Protective gloves, if you have them use welding gloves, if not, thick work gloves will protect your hands while heating the silverware.

Here are some of the pieces I used, all were silver plated:

I also had another fork in the same pattern as the one on the far right, and two other spoons… all of which are now a tangled mess:

The procedure I followed that worked well and resulted in a nice shaped ring:

1. Measure the finger you want to wear the ring on, use paper like Through the Front Door did, or string.

2. Use your finger measurement to mark on the utensil where the cut will be.

3. Either saw the top off the utensil or score the mark deeply with snips, then bend the top until it breaks off at the score line.

4. Sand down the raw edge:

5. Hold the tip of the utensil with pliers, and apply heat with the torch. Use gloves, as the pliers are likely to heat up as well. I applied heat for around 20 minutes, since in my past attempts the metal did not become pliable with lesser exposure. If you are using a heavy-duty torch, the time to heat it up will be considerably less.

6. Douse the metal in cool water. I ran cool water from my tap over the metal, still held in the pliers. Here is my spoon after heating and cooling, as you can see the finish has changed colors:

7. Once the metal is completely cool, hold both ends with a set of pliers, and shape. I used a wooden dowel slightly larger than my ring size, so I could adjust down when I had the proper shape. I made my ring overlapping, you can also make it spiral up the finger, as shown on Through the Front Door.

8. Sand down any roughness, or scratches, and polish.

It takes some time to perfect your technique. I tried to bend them without heat at first but they wouldn’t curve nicely, they stayed very angular. I also tried to bend the metal while it was hot. However, the utensils tended to break at their thinnest point. I think because the metal was cooling unevenly, creating stress points. Once you find a system that works for you, it only takes a few dollars and a few minutes to create a lovely piece of silver jewelry, good luck!!