Summertime is my favorite time of the whole year! Everything is so alive, birds are singin', flowers are bloomin', grass is growin' - it just makes me happy! THERE'S SO MUCH TO DO!
Yard sales, concerts,
flea markets, festivals,
junk events, farmer's markets, going to the lake - OH MY! (
did you notice the junky stuff!) THERE'S SO LITTLE TIME!
Here's where I spend A LOT of my time! My flower gardens have gone BLOOMING CRAZY! Not because I have a 'GREEN THUMB'!! It's gotta be the good black soil here!
Cone flowers I got out of my daughter's garden in CO!
I love to use quirky cast-offs in my gardens! This is an old hog house ventilator!
Pretty pink faces turned to catch the sun's rays!
Nothing here a couple years ago! Planted perennials to help a drainage problem area.
It's almost outgrown its boundaries!
Hostas THRIVE here! I've never had to buy any hosta plants!
I just keep dividing them to fill in a spot or start another garden!
Cowgirl boots never wear out! They become GARDEN ART! Just a little garden humor!
This Summer I haven't been quite as motivated to work on new projects. I'd rather travel around the area and check out all the cool, funky, junky shops that are in such abundance here! However, I've managed to get a few things done!
So, there's a long story behind this project! It's a dining table with 5 chairs that I had GRANDEUR IDEAS for! Anybody else would've turned and WALKED AWAY from it! All the items had decades of filth, completely worn out, and were in DIRE NEED of repair. Has that EVER stopped me??
The five chairs had this GROSS worn out blue velvet covering
and had obviously been glued and screwed together several times over the years!
The chairs were fairly sturdy and I liked the carved legs and detailing. While I was working on them, I noticed that a couple of the brace pieces were installed upside down in a previous repair job!
Here's how they turned out! Painted a creamy white, heavily distressed (they're OLD!), and fresh new seat covers! Um...yes, I ran out of fabric and had to cover ONE lonely chair in denim blue!!
It worked out okay! At least the blues match!
I had this fabric in my stash of 'fabrics that may come in handy some day'!
The French country print seemed to be a good choice to compliment the whole dining set.
I had the table legs removed so it would fit in my truck! It's so big and HEAVY, I couldn't put
it back together when I got it home! So here it sits on sawhorses like it's waiting for surgery! The top was horribly scratched, but the carved detailing was in perfect condition!
Carved details on all four sides!
These are the table legs after being painted!
I know this looks WEIRD!! Visualize me UNDERNEATH trying to put those
darned damned legs back on the table top while it's suspended above the floor! I'm sure that
looked EVEN WEIRDER! Sometimes I get myself into some strange situations and take on projects that are WAY OUT OF MY CAPABILITIES!! Now I need to find a couple of strong, good-looking guys to lift it off the sawhorses!! And then, hope that I put the legs on right so it stands on its own!
Didn't I say it was a LONG STORY! Are you still with me.........!!
A FEW DAYS LATER:
Okay! A couple of days ago, I grabbed a friend (couldn't find the cute guys!) and she helped me get the table down off the sawhorses - IT'S STANDING ON IT'S OWN! Whew! I was kinda worried that I didn't get bolts in tight or screws in the right place and it'd all fall in a heap! Murphy's Law, you know!
The carved detail is really quite pretty.
I hadn't seen it together with the chairs before.
Somebody's going to serve some grand family dinners on this table!
Maybe they'll even invite ME!
NEXT........is a vintage vanity - I've done several of them over the years and each one is different. They're my most favorite thing to re-do!
Curvy and flirty! Vanities are so romantic - memories from a bygone era.
This is what it looked like DURING the makeover process!
Lots of filler and reinforcement in this facelift!
Found this secret note of professed LOVE etched underneath!
Hm-m-m....wonder if it was FOREVER!
I happened to find a nice old piano bench that I painted to match!
Just in case the lady wants to have a seat to admire her reflection.
Isn't she lovely!
A variety of items completed in between -
Another vanity! More retro than the rest and missing the mirror, so I made it into a desk!
Old maps are very popular right now! This desk seemed to have
the perfect lines for using a map of the world!
Chunky retro legs!
You can travel the world without ever leaving your desk!
TA DA! FINALY! MY LAST FURNITURE PROJECT!! I'm not quite finished with it yet, but I LOVE IT! might have to keep it! Another long story - no, I'm not going to bore you, again! My original plan for this former entertainment center didn't quite pan out, but plan B is almost as good! The cabinet didn't have doors on the top part - only the bottom. Being the non-carpenter that I am, I was determined to make door frames to cover the entire front!! Well, don't look too closely at my woodworking skills!!
Painted a soft creamy white with a light misty green interior (I'm trying to use up my paints!).
Chicken wire on the cabinet doors creates an open view inside.
Originally I was going to use wooden lattice, but it was too thick.
I applied a beaded board backing and added the chandy silhouette
to give it a little fun and quirky elegance!
Closeup of beaded board and chandy detail. The decal had rhinestones included, which
really made it sparkle but when I put the 2nd shelf in, it knocked them off! So I removed them!
I spray painted the chicken wire a hammered bronze and the metal flower
on the door knob that I picked up at a garage sale matches perfectly!
I still need to add something to keep the doors closed. UPDATE: The hinges were the problem with the doors not closing all the way, so I ended up replacing them! That did the trick! EASY-PEASY! DONE! NO MORE FURNTURE PROJECTS! I'm taking a break from it! I want to enjoy the rest of Summer! Spend some time in a cabin on a lake somewhere!
I'll be travelin' down the backroads enjoying the scenery! Maybe I'll collect some old treasures along the way and start all over again!
TILL WE MEET AGAIN - HAPPY TRAILS, MY JUNKY FRIENDS!
