Our Playroom

Our shop is where my husband and I hang out and play.  We play at fixing and revamping furniture, creating stuff and things, and working on our cars (OK the last is really "Mr. in the Styx's" thing).  We just got done adding some decorations to it, totally my husband's idea, so I thought it would be a good time to show it off.

Revamped Bookcase for a New Home

My sister and brother-in-law just moved into their brand new house.  It is beautiful and just right for them.  They downsized from a four story home to a rancher, so they needed to also downsize their furniture.  This bookcase caused a little bit of contention.  He said is was a piece of junk (and should just give it to me to revamp & sell), she loved it and new just where it would fit in the new house.  Well you know who won this one, of course.  I held on to it through the summer until she decided how she wanted it refinished.  Her new decor is leaning toward the peacock blue & green tones, and she also has a large brown leather sectional.  She wanted this painted an aqua or teal to go with everything.  I suggested that we leave the gorgeous front pieces and the top stained to tie in with the couch.  I didn't get the before shot, but here is some during pics.

Halloween Table

Happy Halloween!  

I'm already into my first big bag of candy and am sure I will need to get a second before the 31st.  Of course Halloween is just an excuse to have candy around the house since we don't get any trick-or-treaters up here in the styxs. 

 

A couple of months ago I revamped a great mid-century modern table, you can see it here two very different tables.  I mixed up some homemade chalk paint in Behr's "glowing firelight" and finished it with a satin poly.  My husband thought I was nuts and didn't think it would sell.  Boy was he wrong!  Not only did it sell fast, but I had quite a few people in afterward wanting to buy it, so I new I had to find another MCM table to paint orange.  I picked up this little cutie at a garage sale for cheap.  Sorry, I didn't get any before pictures, but the table tops were in that 60's veneer that looked more like wood grained contact paper, and the legs and spacers were pretty scratched up.  I started sanding it and realized the legs and spacers weren't veneered and the wood was pretty cool, so I refinished them with Minwax Jacobean.  I primed and painted the tops and then finished the whole thing with a gloss polyurethane.  I don't usually use a gloss finish, but everyone loved the finish of the other table even though the shine was the glass tops.  So what do you think?  Sorry about the fuzzy picture, you're probably wondering what the little sign says.  It says "You say I'm a witch like it's a bad thing".  Cute huh.

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funky junk interiors  

Wood Pilates and a Desk

Wood Pilates?  I'll get to that, but first let me show you my little desk.  Last February I revamped this desk chair that you can see here the rusty leopard.  I brought it in to sell and it is still sitting there, so I thought maybe if I could bundle it with a desk it might go.  I found the desk at a garage sale for $10.  It needed some re-gluing, one of the drawer spacers was completely off, and it was missing a pull.  It had a kind of weird paint-stain job on it that needed redone (sorry no before pictures).  I thought maybe I would paint everything but the top, but my hubby got to the sander before me and ground down a little to much on top.  What he did reveal were these great drawers.  See the dark detailing and distressing, I didn't do any of that, it was already there.  All we did on the drawers was wipe them down with about 3 coats of MMS hemp oil.  The rest of the base I finished the same as the chair with a soft black paint, and Martha Stewart dark coffee glaze.  Oh yeah, I also put some casters on the chair (probably why it hasn't sold).  I think they look pretty good together, I have them marked as a set, not sold separately so hopefully someone will love them.

Now for the wood Pilates:

Who needs a gym when God gives you all this!

Linking Up at:

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Bunny's Bling

My mother-in-law Bunny, is in an assisted living facility awaiting a hip replacement.  The public areas are beautifully decorated but they leave the residents rooms pretty simple so they can add their own touch.  Bunny had already changed out the bedding to a happier floral print, and added a few other bright accessories.  Her space is pretty cramped, and there has to be room to move around with a wheel chair, so she was using the bed table for all of her makeup which gave her no room for her kindle or snacks or anything else.   My sister-in-law Carmen found this school desk that she thought would work in the corner, the only problem was that it was really ugly.

Two Very Different Tables

The great thing about buying, revamping, and selling furniture is that you get to work on pieces that aren't really your style.  Take these two side tables, one is a little too early American, and the other mid century modern, neither fit into my eclectic mix.

Little White Cabinet

I almost drove by the yard sale where I found this great little cabinet.  It looked like it was going to be one of those sales that is all toys and clothes, which is great for moms with young children, but not usually so good for a picker like me.  I'm not sure what it was supposed to be used for originally, the guy I bought it from said his mom used it in Japan as her sewing cabinet, but I thought it would make a great little kitchen cabinet. 

Reading to Olivia

My sister-in-law and her husband are getting ready to move into a new house, and in the process they are getting rid of some of their furniture.  She made me a great deal - she gave me a really big old dresser in exchange for painting this bookcase for her granddaughter Olivia, and refinishing another bookcase for herself.  She wanted a gloss white for the main part and then do whatever else I wanted to it. 

Kona

Doesn't it seem like once in a while the garage sale gods are on your side?  I found this chair at a community sale in newer housing addition. I don't normally have very good luck at these type of sales because they are younger families and have mostly children's clothes, toys and nick knacks, but this time was different.  I got this chair for $5.  The husband said they had just marked it down from $10, so it must be my lucky day.  Now it wasn't in the best of shape, but it was structurally solid (sigh of relief from my husband), but it looked like a cat had used it for it's scratching post.  The rattan was good, but the wicker was shredded in quite a few spots, luckily not all the way through anywhere.

Reading by Lamp Light

I named this post "Reading by Lamp Light", I should have added "sort of".  Our power goes out a lot here in the styx of Idaho so we have quite a few Colman lanterns for back up lighting, plus a few here and there just for looks.  After going to the Farm Chicks this year I had an idea of what I wanted to do with one, but didn't want to sacrifice one we already had in case it didn't work out.  Garage sale to the rescue!  I found this one (sorry, no before pics) for 75 cents, so no problem tearing it apart.