A Little Peak at my Hollywood Regency Transformation!

Here is a little glimpse of the Hollywood Regency transformation that is going on over here today!

Here's one of my lovelies after a few coats of primer, I decided to do several coats because this baby kept sucking up the paint!  

So much so that I have to run back out to pick up more supplies!

One chair used up the supply I bought for both!

I've also been thinking about fabric colors, the chairs came with cushions that I kindly turned down because of allergy reasons.  So I will be whipping up some custom DIY versions.

I'm thinking this Dwell fabric, with a white or turquoise cording.  

I'm thinking the navy will add a nice bit of drama to the room, and help add some weight, as well as blend beautifully with the coral and turquoise I've been adding to the living room!

 I'm also loving this pillow from West Elm to tie it all together!

What do you all think about adding the navy?  

Is it a go or a no?!

My Memorial Day- fixing a wobbly chair!

I hope you all are having a fantastic Memorial day!

Josh and I decided we were not going to go anywhere, instead we both wanted to stay home and work on projects we have both been trying to get done!  Yay! for days off!   

I thought I would be working on building my accent table for the living room, the one that I told you all about here.  But since I came across my faux bamboo table and chairs this weekend, I've decided that they will get my attention first!

I actually found out a little information about the set, by doing a bit of googling.  I found out that it is a 1950's breakfast table and chair set by Hekman Furniture Company.  I also found a set that is in great condition and is currently for sale on Ebay, for $1000!

This is what a full set looks like!

Now remember my set only has three chairs and is missing the glass table top ( which is the reason it was still available to buy! ). 

Here is what I've spent my morning doing.

I've been outside re-gluing several of the loose spindles, I read online to use rope to tighten and hold it in place while the wood glue dries, that is unless you have the actual cloth clamp thingy used by professionals.  

I'm sure that would have worked better, but this seems to have worked pretty well anyway! 

You can see the finish on the arm has been really messed up somehow!  The previous owner did a number on the finish as well, they stained the crevices of the bamboo or something, and several places have stain dripping down the arms!

You can see a little better the cracked and bubbled finish here!

Several places are like this, Josh's thinks they somehow got to close to a heat source and have been burned.

I'm kinda glad the finish was not in perfect condition!

One, because it enabled me to get the set for so little $$!

And two, I don't feel bad for painting it a glossy white, which I may have after finding it for sale in good condition, for $1,000!!

My Exciting Weekend!

I'm not really sure what I was thinking the other night when I hopped onto Craigslist just to see if any goodies were being offered in my area.  I really wasn't expecting to find anything, I've never bought or sold anything from the site, I've really never found anything in my area to get excited about.  So I nearly fell to the floor when I saw a set of four faux bamboo chairs and table for sale for $50!  This seriously could not be legit, or someone else must have snatched it up already!  She had only posted them less than an hour before!  Maybe just maybe, if I was really lucky  no one else would have seen them yet.....  I emailed the seller right away to see if they were still for available and could not believe it when I got the response, " yes, they are."!!!  Knowing I would not be able pick them up until Sunday morning ( it was Friday night and I had to work all day Saturday) made me a little nervous, in case someone else decided they wanted them, but I there was nothing I could do. 

I was nearly giddy all day Saturday just thinking about  my soon-to-be faux bamboo chairs.  I really just wanted two of the chairs for accent pieces for the living room, but would totally take a set of four AND a table for $50! 

I could always refinish the other two and the table and resell the for a nice little profit.  The seller was very up front about some scratches on the finish, but I knew it was nothing a little glossy white paint wouldn't fix!

So my Saturday was spent dreaming about fabrics (for seat cushions) and techniques for achieving the glossy white Jonathan Adler-like finish I was dying to create!

That is, until I received an email from the seller that she had a few people coming on Saturday to look at MY faux bamboo table and chairs!!!  I could feel my dreams of my perfect Hollywood Regency chairs starting to slip away!

However, a few hours later I received yet another email from the seller, letting me know that while pulling the table out of storage to show another buyer she broke the glass for the top of the table, and also realized that there were only 3 chairs not four ( she was selling the items for her daughter, who lived in Florida, and she forgot that something happened to the other chair while moving).  She told me,  the man who came to look at it, needed to go home and talk to his wife, did I still want to come on Sunday and look at it?  

I only really wanted two of the chairs so of course I still wanted it!  

Well apparently the man called back right after that wanting to pick it up later on Sunday!  

I know this is a super long story, but it was all this back and forth, and she would have sold it on Saturday had she not broken the glass top and had the man not needed to check with his wife! 

Sometime that day, she also received several other calls asking about the chairs, everyone wanted to come get them on Sunday, but I was coming the earliest, so they were mine if I wanted them!

 It was a bit of an adventure on Sunday driving to who knows were to pick up my lovely bamboo pieces! 

The finish on each piece was not as scratched as she was making it seem, but one of the chairs needs some repairing with the caning on the seat.  

I happily packed them into the back of Josh's Jimmy, well it was a bit of a challenge fitting them all into the back, but I was determined, they were all coming home with me!

 I can't believe I found some faux bamboo chairs!!! I'm absolutely giddy about it!!! 

I have no pictures for you yet, they are still in the back of Josh's truck!  

The rest of the day was one of those summer days with family and friends, that ended with an impromptu game of whiffle ball with a friend and his young son.  We couldn't have been more exhausted, hot, and sweaty when we got home late last night.  

It was one of those perfect start-to-the-summer days that ends with us collapsing on the couch from shear exhaustion!   

So I'm off this morning to unload my lovely finds and get to work on their makeover!  

But I'll leave you with some inspiration images for their new look!

Well I'm off to start my makeover process!

not everything turns out the way I want it to....

Lately I have been on a not so lucky streak, how so you ask?

Well the last few projects I've attempted have turned out to be a bust!  Here is one I did this week, and I not even really sure what went wrong!

Do you remember these little birds that were on my coffee table?

You can see a few more pictures of them here.

 Since I am trying to get rid of all the green from my living room AND do it on a budget, I decided to give these little birds a little makeover!

Well......the first time attempted this little redo I used some spray paint I had on  hand.....

Here's how it all went down.

hmmmm.....so not the color I was going for, but I had to give what I had on hand a try!

About a week went by, and I finally made it to Home Depot to pick up some glossy white spray paint! 

Yay! 

Now I could Jonathan Adler-ize them!

It was looking sooooo good after the first coat!  

So very Happy- Chic white!

Just gotta wait 30 or some minutes for this one to dry before I give it another!

ECCCKKKK!!!

Yup!  I'm not sure what happened, but another coat produced this bubbling affect!  I've never had something like this happen before!  Trust me, I've spray painted A LOT!!  So I'm completely baffled!  

If you all have any suggestions as to what may have happened, please share your spray painting knowledge with me!

Finding Inspiration!

Whew!  What an interesting weekend!  

As you all know, I was planning on building my living room side table this weekend, the one I designed myself because I couldn't find the perfect one.   But, with the end of the world coming I just didn't think it was smart to spend the time and money on building my new living room piece.......hehehe....just kidding!  On a side note, I have seen some pretty cute DIY'ed  onesies floating around blog land that said " I survived the end of the world, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt" !  Maybe I should make one for my nephew...

Anyway I digress,  so my weekend was unfortunately not filled with glue, drilling and nails.  I know!! It's very sad!  But the drill I normally borrow ( we have thought about buying one so many times, but living in less than 600 sq ft makes storage space very limited! We will definitely be getting one when we buy a house!  ) belongs to Josh's dad and unfortunately it was lent to someone that decided to be on vacation this week.  The nerve!   So we could not get it back yet!  Boo! 

It was however, probably a good thing.  You see a friend of mine thought it was a great idea to share her sick germs with me!  Don't you hate when friends decide to share things like that with you?!?  I ended up being terribly sick Saturday and Sunday, and probably would have attempted to build my table despite my only having slept for two hours Saturday night ( seriously that sick! ), being  loaded full of medicine, AND feeling all woosie because of it!  So it's probably a good thing I didn't have the drill, since I may have ended up with a crooked little  Dr. Seuss side table, or a drill whole in my finger!   

I did end up changing the design, just a bit, and may share my sketches with you all tomorrow!  

I also had grandiose plans of at least picking up my lumber today, since it was technically my day off.  I said technically, since I have several side jobs that I do occasionally.  This one I did today is rather fun and not really a job to me, and I get paid about $75 an hour to do it!  So it's well worth it to reschedule my day off to go do it!  Want to know what it is???  I go through people's closets, organize them, put together outfits, and help them get rid of things that are either out of date or don't fit anymore!  I love putting looks together for people!

 I did that for a few hours today, and after running a few errands, I was on my way to the Home Depot to pick up my supplies!  Yay!  I have been so excited to start this thing!

  This is where it started going all wrong.  First, I was given bad directions to avoid the terrible traffic that can happen in my area ( I should have just plugged it into my the gps....poor Josh felt bad, I still love you babe!).  That however was not the worst of it,  all of a sudden the sky turned black.... grey creepy, odd feeling black! Rain started coming down sideways, gusting winds began toppling trees in front of me on the interstate,  not to mention it was raining so hard you could barely see in front of you to avoid things!  I was doing OK until it started hailing on top of it! So here I am driving lost on the interstate, can't pull over because as far as I can tell it looks like a ditch off to the sides, trees and branches falling out of nowhere, rain and wind whipping my car about, topped off with a good dose of hail falling all about!  My quick 35 minute drive home turned into an over 2 1/2 hour,  fist clenching, white knuckle drive!  I was so not in the mood to pick up lumber after that! 

So the great side table adventure continues!  With my three day weekend coming up, I'm hoping to have a finished project by the end of it!

Not being able to sleep Saturday night allowed me hours of free time to surf the internet for inspiration, and I went to my new favorite sight for that!  I know you all  have seen the name Pinterest floating around blog land, but if you haven't taken the time to go see what all the fuss is about, then you most definitely should!  I signed up way back in October, but didn't really even use it until this past month! What could I have been thinking, it's the best site ever!

The idea is, that you while you are surfing the internet and find something you love, you can pin it to your board!  Like living room side tables you may come across while blog hopping.  Normally I would just try to remember where I may have seen the image, but Pinterest has made it so much easier!   If you see something you like, just pin it to your board and you will have it right at your fingertips any time you want!   It's an online inspiration board!  You can also search Pinterest, and see what other people are pinning!  It is such a fantastic way to waste time while you are sick and can't really do anything else!

The only thing is you will have to request an invitation to join ( which took me a few weeks to get one, if I remember correctly), but if you want an invite I will be happy to send you one immediately.  Just leave a comment and your email letting me know!

So here are a few of my favorite Pinterest inspiration images!

Feast your eyes on this candy!

Ok, seriously I've got to stop!  This post is never going to end! 

 Oh, but I LOVE this room too!

Just one more!!

Seriously, I'm done!

Ok, wait I LOVE this chair!

Where can I get one of these!!