A Genuine Treasure!

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful and healthy Christmas!  The flu bug has been lingering around our household now since my husband brought it home the day before Christmas Eve, yuck!  So far 3 out of us 7 have been knocked down with it.  Hoping I can hold out till New Years before I get it. As many of you mothers know, there is not enough time for us to be sick!!
Any way, things have been crazy busy around the house and the shop.  Today I'd like to share with you one of the treasures I was lucky enough to fall upon, a 100 year old 8 foot long harvest table.  Yes, it's true!  I usually get most of my furniture through Craigslist or by word of mouth, but one night as I was searching for furniture on the net, I came across a local auction site that you could bid on things and then pick it up at a warehouse that wasn't far from me.  As I scanned the items, nothing really caught my eye until I came to a picture of this massive table, complete with drawers!  My heart began to race as I bid on it hoping no one else would catch on to this beauty and outbid me.
I waited impatiently for that week to go by and YES, no one else wanted this hidden jewel, so at last it was mine!  When I picked it up, I was a little disappointed to see that the top was veneer and was peeling up a bit, but the solid brass feet and knobs made up for that.  I could hardly wait to get this "beast" as we called it around here,  home to start its restoration.
Has anyone ever tried to remove veneer?  Yeah, not so fun.  It took 4 of us with heat guns and putty knives to do it, but after 6 back breaking hours, the solid oak wood beneath was finally exposed! It was wonderfully distressed with all kinds of awesome knicks and bashes from many years of use!  I sanded it down a bit and stained it with a dark walnut stain which I thought looked perfect for a rustic aged look, and applied 2 coats of polyurethane for protection and easy cleaning.  The legs and sides were in great condition, so besides just reinforcing the legs a bit and the drawers, the bottom half of the table just got a lemon oil treatment, revealing its former beauty of what I think may have been quarter sawn oak!
After the work was finished on the table, I was in search for chairs to complete the set.  At first I thought maybe a mix match set would look good, but then at my very first live auction, I came upon six 4 feet tall antique rush bottom chairs in perfect condition, and my search was over.  After my husband reinforced them, I cleaned them with lemon oil and voila, a complete SET!
So now it was time to haul the beast and chairs to the shop.  When I picked the table up at the holding warehouse, the legs were not attached for easy moving, but being the "yes I can" kind of woman, haha, I said let do it!  And so, with my very strong husband, we carried this 250 + pound table in the shop and I set it up just so!  I made a burlap runner to put down the middle and on that stood 5 old milk jars holding fresh white daisies,  ahh, it was simple yet beautiful:)

Well I didn't think it would be around long, and I was right. The Harvest table sold after only 2 days on the shop floor! Some lucky family enjoyed their Christmas feast on that wonderful "beast" of a table! They however didn't need the chairs, but I'm sure they too will find home soon enough:)

Size doesn't matter!

Now a days it seems like everything is just so big! I'm talking about things from houses to cars and of course furniture.  I've seen china cabinets take up an entire wall, but that wall of course was huge as well so it had to have a piece that big to make it look smaller, make sense?
As I was looking for a set to refurbish on craigslist, I came across this 1920's set made up of a dining table, 4 chairs, china cabinet and buffet.  It was cute in the pictures, but I could tell it needed some lovin!  So, I called the number and arranged a time to pick up.  When I arrived at the seller's home and saw that set, I was in love with it's petite size and cuteness!  I have never seen furniture of this style and size.  In the old days, homes were not so big, so furniture of course wasn't either.  Although it's not huge by today's standards, this adorable set is going to look fabulous in some one's home where space is perhaps limited or maybe in a kitchen breakfast nook!

With its dark wood color and hideous puke green(sorry but true) paint that was painted as star burst on the tops of the table, buffet and china cabinet and even on the chairs, I thought a pretty light color would make it appear bigger, yet still look as if it belongs in a cute cottage in the woods or in a beach house.  So I chose Annie Sloan's Old Ochre, but decided to refinished the wood tops of each piece in a dark walnut.  After stripping that old finish off and sanding it down, I could already see the beauty of the wood grain and was totally excited to put on the stain and poly!  I then distressed the whole set to make it appear like it's been loved for ages, very cottage chic.
It took some time to finish, but this set turned out just as I imagined, completely adorable!

So see, just because it not huge by today's standards, when it come to the cuteness meter, this set is off the charts in my book:)
This set is now sits pretty in the shop awaiting its new home!

Here are some before and after pictures!
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BEFORE:

AND NOW!!

Knott So Shabby's Ribbon Cutting

There has been times in my life when I was over joyed with pride and emotion.  As a child, it was receiving MVP for volleyball or being selected for State Vocal Contest.  As a young women, it was the moment my husband proposed and walking down that church aisle. And of course each and every time my husband and I looked down at one of our children's faces as they arrived into this world.
Well, last night was another one of  those moments.  With my family and bestie Jen, we cut that red ribbon to my new shop in town, and it felt wonderful.  I've always been a hard worker and I try not to  let anything stand  in the way when achieving something.
What started out as a hobby kind of thing to bring in a few dollars a month out of our home, has turned into something I have secretly wanted for some time, my own place to showcase my furniture!  When I sold my work out of my home, it was great, but because there was a lot of traffic coming and going and with our young children being there with that, we decided it was best to get a place that could be a holding area or  "showroom" if you will,  of my furniture and home decor.  So it's official, hard work has paid off and my new shop
"Knott So Shabby" is now on the map in historic Columbia Illinois!

My wonderful husband 5 kiddos help me celebrate!
I will post the actual ribbon cutting soon!

"Knott So Shabby" for day 1!

After a month or so of preparing for my first day open, it finally arrived!  Some think the hardest part of this business is the painting...wrong.  For me the painting is like sweet therapy.  Between being a parent of 5 children, keeping house and paying the bills, I truly LOVE to get away in my shop and just chill and let my creative juices flow into my furniture.  Finding the furniture to paint on the other hand, is a whole other beast!  I hand pick every piece I paint and when doing so, I look for character and good quality the most (and reasonably priced of course!).  Sometimes that means I have to drive here and there to pick these pieces up.  So, when I decided to open a shop to "display" my work, I was like a mad woman driving all over God's creation looking and bargaining and begging!  I finally thought I could relax for a while when I had my entire inventory painted and beautifully displayed in my sparkly new shop...not so much.
Today, I went in thinking, it will be o.k. if I don't sell anything, I always have next week.  Well, my first customers came in around 10 a.m. and by 1 p.m., I had sold 7 pieces, yikes!  Now, I'm not complaining a bit, it's a good "yikes", but just when I thought I could take a breather after working so hard on setting up shop, I left my store today feeling happy, proud and quite honestly a little freaked out!  After every piece that was taken out today, I felt panic kicking in. I need more furniture, I need more furniture is all I was thinking. But, as always, I work best under pressure, so all will be well soon enough!  I am thankful for my wonderful husband who stayed home with the children for a whole day and soon found what it's like a day in my shoes, my very helpful teenage daughters for helping around the house with daily chores, and of course, for God who gives me strength, patience and guidance every day.

Ready for Business

It's been a long month of November, but I think I am finally ready to begin my new adventure in selling my refurbished pieces in my very own shop!  What started out as an idea or dream has become a reality overnight or month I should say.  Getting the inventory to fill a whole shop was one thing, but to take my time to pay attention to each individual piece and have it ready for the "Columbia Christmas Cruise", well let's just say I'm so happy it's all done and ready for new homes!  It started out nice and calm with my husband by my side in helping get the shop ready by giving it a new facelift inside and out.  Well that idea soon came to a crashing halt when my husband was called to service with his work in helping restore "Storm Sandy's" power.

So, for 3 long weeks I took on the duties of mom, dad, shop owner, refurbisher, handy woman and so on! I wanted to be open by this past Sunday for the Christmas Cruise, so with my BFF Jen by my side, I worked day and night to have it ready and lo and behold I did it!

Store front with new striped awning...my handy work on the stripes:)
But it was my amazing husband's engineering on how to make it work!

A sneak peak at the goodies inside:)

                                    

Look for new pieces to be in my "For Sale" page soon!!

A little change in plans

It's funny how things start out small and then kind of snow ball into something much bigger.  I'm talking about me and my little, well was suppose to be little,  business!  When I started refurbishing furniture last year in California, it was just to make a few buck a month to help with the bills a bit.  And I assumed I would do the same here in Illinois when we moved back.  You know, a few pieces a month to be refurbished and then sold on Craigslist.  Well, for some time I've been thinking, no,  more like dreaming of opening a little shop of my own.  And by golly that's what has happened!  It all started on rainy morning after I dropped off my son at Preschool,  I took my normal route down Main Street dreaming I could have a shop there some day.  Thinking there might be something to rent,  even though I knew it would most likely be way out of my budget, I kept my eyes opened for a sign.  I get just about to the end of my route when I spot this little card board sign stuffed in the corner of the window of a cute little shop!  The building is one of many Historic building here in Columbia and I just fell in love with it at first sight.  So, I call the number, still wondering what the heck I was even doing it for.  After finding out how reasonable the rent was, I crunched a few numbers, talked to my hubby and here we are getting ready to be open for business in mid November!  Well they told me it was going to be crazy hard at the beginning of opening a shop, but I thought please, I have 5 children, nothing could be that hard.  They were right.  Since the day we, and I mean my wonderful husband and my childhood bestie Jen, have been there every night!  The tenant before me had a paint your own pottery store and the walls were painted, well, let's just say rainbow bright!  After 4 gallons of primer and 5 gallons of paint, we finally got it to looking exactly what i had in visioned,  a cozy cottage.
So, besides cleaning and painting the new shop, I have been shopping for inventory, painting the inventory and doing all of  those legal things you must do to start your own business, whew.  Oh, and how could I forgot, being a stay at home mom to 5 kiddos!  I'm hoping things will settle down a bit after i have the shop all full of goodies and I get the hang of things.  So if you don't see me on here for a few days, its not because I gave up on blogging, it's because I'm running around in a million different directions hoping to catch up with myself soon!

Lesson learned

I'm the type of person who is always open to new ideas, new food, new places to live even, but recently was a time I should have stuck to what I knew worked.  On Monday, I was so proud and excited how great the top on the antique dresser turned out after I stripped it and sanded it down.  Just like the desk I just finished, the stripper did it magic of taking all that old poly and stain right off to reveal what I think may be mahogany wood.  It has a reddish tint to it and is very hard(I know, all wood is hard, but here me out)! It's just a gorgeous piece of wood and yesterday when I went to stain it, I looked at my stains and noticed one that was left at this house by the previous owners, still unopened and new.  It was a Antique Walnut Stain/Poly in 1 step. Cool, I thought, one less step to do and like I said I'm always open to try new things! Well not so cool, it was just awful.  As I was putting it on, I noticed it was really thick and sticky, but I kept going thinking it would be ok, after all I followed the directions.  Well, it turned out having a REALLY shiny finish and was streaky and just plain ugly!  Thinking it would be better in the morning, like some furniture fairy was going to fix it while I slept, haha, I let it be until morning.

after stripper second time

No fairies came that's for sure.  When I went out to the shop this morning, it was still thick and streaking and uneven looking. So I had no choice but to strip it again.
This time the stripper had its work cut out. I applied it like always but it immediately started bubbling up I guess you could say. After letting it sit a few minutes longer than the can said to, I scraped it off once again and sanded it down to beautifully smooth AGAIN.

after sanding second time

Now I'm sure this product might work on other things like cabinets or even doors, but definetly did not work well on this antique dresser. The dark walnut stain I  applied after sanding, brought out all the stunning wood grain on this piece. A couple coats of a oil based poly (don't care for water based, but that's another post), and I was so happy I made the decision to redo this piece not once, but twice. It is so beautiful now and will be a fabulous piece when I'm finished with the paint detailing!
So, lesson learned for me today, don't change something if you're old way works just fine:)

and finally after stain and poly
 for the second time...lovely 

P.S. CHECK OUT MY FOR SALE PAGE NOW AND IN A COUPLE DAYS FOR THIS GORGEOUS PIECE!

Sense of Accomplishment!

You know that feeling you get when you're zipping right through your to do list? Yeah, a sense of accomplishment!  Well, that's what I am feeling today.  I woke up, made our little ones breakfast, put in the start of the daily laundry, made the beds and cleaned the downstairs bath all before 8 a.m., whew!
Some days start of kind of sluggish when you just don't have the motivation, but not today I say!  After my morning chores, my mom came over to keep an eye on the kids (thank goodness for moms!) and I was back at it in my workshop.  There's something about opening that big door and turning on the lights to see all of the wonderful pieces awaiting my paint brush.  It's almost like they're begging for their turn!

Today my goal was to buff the finished desk and take photos of it to put on my For Sale page (I'll get back to this gorgeous desk in a bit).  I ended up finishing that, stripping the antique dresser and starting on the painting of it's sides and drawers. I also finished the inside of the antique china cabinet and it's shelves.  Now do you understand why I am feeling so accomplished today!?

Back to the gorgeous vintage desk I finished over the weekend.  This piece was also one of those finds that the owner was no longer using it and it had an outdated stain on it.  I found it on Craigslist and learned it was an Early American Desk and boy it is solid! Because the top was in great condition, I went ahead and stripped it instead of painting it to bring out a beautiful walnut color. The varnish that was on it was quite thick and it took two coats of stripper to remove it, but when it was all off it looked amazing already.  I was so excited that the time to wait for it to dry, so that I could sand it took forever!

And here is the top after sanding it down, so smooth:)

Well, I finally got my chance and it went so easily that after using a 180 grit, I only had to go over it with 220 grit a few runs.  The dark walnut stain I applied brought out all of that yummy wood grain and after a few coats of polyurethane, its was as smooth and beautiful as velvet.

The body of the desk is in ASCP Old White and the 7 drawers are in Louis Blue.

I distressed the piece a bit and applied Annie Sloan's clear wax and then dark wax over the Louis Blue to give it that gorgeous aged look!

The drawer knobs were in great condition and I felt they could just use a few coats of Rustoleum Rubbed Bronze.  They look fantastic against the Louis Blue:)

Before....

And after,  just gorgeous!!

Dark Walnut Stain

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Loving the distressing and dark wax against the Old White

My favorite shot!

Sweet Vanity!

 Yay, my first piece is done!  Since we moved back from California, I have been super busy moving into the new house and decorating it just so. I have also been working on getting my furniture refurbishing back in business.  In California, I absolutely loved buying good quality solid furniture that people didn't want anymore and turning them into such gorgeous chic pieces. The best part of it was meeting so many different people and making them smile when they came to pick up their piece!
Well, now my inventory is back up and I just finished a cute vintage vanity that would make any young or even older lady smile!

I found this gem on Craigslist and although it was cute just in its self, it was in need of some serious girly touches.  As soon as I walked in the door to pick it up, I immediately thought that ASCP Antoinette was for sure going to be on this, not sure where, but somewhere.  I didn't even make it home when the thought of decoupaging sheet music on her and using Miss Mustard Seed's new milk paint in "TYPEWRITER" for the knobs, which are the original.  With her sweet wood wheels and adorable folding mirror, I can not wait to see the smile of it's new owner!

The body is painted in ASCP Old White and the drawers are Antoinette. I then bought vintage church sheet music and decoupaged them to the sides, oh so cute!  After it was almost complete, I thought the drawer faces could use a little flare so I hand painted a design on each one using MMS Milk Paint "TYPEWRITER", it's just what they needed!

And here she is....

Isn't she so sweet:)

Loving the vintage look on that sheet music...

I forgot to take off the date stamp on my camera, and this is
what it looked like after I tried to removed it, my apologies.

Here she is before, minus the folding mirror...

Mirror, Mirror

As I was on my weekend treasure hunt, I noticed a lot of people had mirrors they wanted to get rid of mostly because they were outdated or just down right ugly, sorry but true.  So I got to thinking of the mirrors I have bought over the years and updated to use again and again.  Mirrors are such wonderful pieces to have just about anywhere in your home.  They make small room feel bigger and just by painting them, they can also be used as accent colors in a room.  Yesterday I bought another one of those "undesired" mirrors at a garage sale and can't wait to transform into something gorgeous again!

Here are some before and afters of a few of the mirrors I have redone to add color and style to any home!

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Gold mirror from the 80's, not so pretty

I painted it in a mix of  ASCP Louis Blue and Perris Grey and
trimmed it in ASCP Old White, then used dark wax for a beautiful
patina look...love it!

My family room, the mirror makes it feel so much bigger as
it reflects the fireplace and make the room so cozy.

This was a custom job in California, a client bought this
at Good Will and wanted it painted to match
a Queen Anne Chair I also sold her.  It is painted in a mix of
ASCP Duck Egg and Perris Gray with Old White as accent, then distressed it a bit,
waxed it and buffed to a luster.

This is the trim with ASCP Old White underneath so that when I
distressed it, it had a layered worn look:)

Ok, so this was also a client who I found this mirror for.
She wanted a mirror for a Hollywood Regency look.
After I bought it, I realized it didn't have potential for
that style, so I found another for the client and painted this
one in ASCP Perris Grey/Duck Egg with Old White Accents,
The girl I bought it from had it for sale on Craigslist for months
she said, I had it on Craigslist for a week!  See the power of paint!

Love the scroll work on the mirror which
I believe was a dresser mirror from the 40's

When I picked this up off Craigslist, the bottom decorative
pieces of this were falling off, so I bought these glass
tiles from Home Depot and glued them on, I think it gives it a
vintage 20's look! 

The New Dining Room

As I mentioned in my previous post, my family just moved from California into a older home here in Illinois. Well the house is just perfect for us, 5 bedroom and out in the country, and has that old farm house feel to it.  The original part of the house was a farm house built in 1948 and sometime later, o think in the 80's, a 3 bedroom split level was added on. We actually bought the home without even seeing it while we were still in California..crazy I know. I would literally stare at the pictures of it online everyday and in vision how I wanted the furniture arranged here and what color I wanted for the kitchen and so on. I even bought fabric while out there and made drapes for the dining room. Yes, thanks to Miss Mustard Seed's inspirational tutorials @  www.missmustardseed.com I managed to get her gorgeous "look" in my new house! Her tutorials are so easy and in detail. I was able to sew up some of her "dummy panels" in no time and saved a lot of money doing so! She even gives the name of the fabric she used which I just had to have!

Isn't it dreamy...

So today I thought I'd share with you my finished dining room! Well, all finished except the crystal chandelier which I scored on Ebay and that my lovely husband hasn't had time to put up
yet (he has his projects to I understand).
The table and chairs and china cabinet were Craigslist finds. My wonderful mom and her boyfriend actually picked it up for me in St. Louis while we were in California..are you starting to see how impatient I am? When I saw it online, the table top looked like solid wood, so you can imaginr how dissapointed I was when I saw it with my own eyes and discovered it had a veneer top. After doing some research on how refinish veneer, I gave it a go. Although I was skeptical on the whole process of refinishing veneer, I thought what's the worse that could happen? If it doesn't turn out I could always paint it! Soooo, I striped the varnish of and oh do carefully sanded it down to a silky finish. A dark walnut stain was  applied followed by 5 coats of poly, yes, one coat for each child, haha, and the results are just gorgeous! It turned out better that Id hoped. I then painted the bottom of the table and chairs in ASCP Old White. I distressed the chairs and table bottom, then used a clear wax on these pieces which gave them a soft luster. The seats cushion were o great shape, just not very pretty so I upholstered them using a fabric from Walmart(yes, they have everything!) that resembles an old grain sack, and then I made my own stencil using a ruler to help keep the lines straight, and tada, German grain sack upholstered seats!

Cane Back Chair with new "grain sack" seat

The china cabinet was very time consuming, but totally worth it. I painted the shell and doors in ASCP Louis Blue and the trim and inside in Old White. After distressing, I gave it a coat of clear wax followed by dark wax for a patina look.
Also, the walls in the dining room were a not so pretty green so they had to go,  they're now a creamy white. I hope you enjoy:)

And our new Dining Room

China Cabinet in ASCP Louis Blue and Old White

Old Glass Knobs, lovely..

Getting back into business

Wow, what a day! With It being Columbus Day, the kids were home, yes, all 5. So needless to say I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped, but I did manage to put more information on my blog, stain our stairs handrail and start on the antique vanity/dresser.
I need to point out to those if you who do not know me, that my family and I recently moved back to our home state of Illinois after living in Los Angeles for 6 years. We are ecstatic about being back closer to our families, but moving a big family across half of the country is  well, a bit exhausting!  Being in LA was at times difficult, if you've been there you know all about how expensive it is and I won't even get started on the traffic, but put all that aside, it was fabulous:) It's where our youngest 2 were born and its where I started painting! I'll tell you some stories about that in another post.

Now back to the cute little vanity.  It wasn't difficult to choose paint colors for this darling piece because as soon as I saw it, I pictured it in either in a little girl's bedroom or a teen girl's bedroom.
There's only one pink I could use on a piece like this, Antoinette Pink by Annie Sloan. This color is just to precious! It's sort of a rosy color and when a mixture of clear and dark wax are put on over it, its the perfect vintage pink:) Of course I wouldn't do the whole vanity in it, only the drawers which came with the neatest knobs. They have a marble insert in the middle of them and I think I will keep them with this piece. As far as the body goes, well, you'll just have to wait and see!
oh and check out my Pick it Before I paint it page to see any new inventory:)
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I know she's not so pretty now, but she will be:) *not show is a tri mirror*

Hello and welcome to my very first blog post!  I am so thrilled to share my journey of refurbishing ugly, unwanted furniture and home decor and turning them into beautiful treasures to be enjoyed for many years to come!