Crazy Beautiful French Provincial Dining Room Furniture

For about a month I've been stalking a Craigslist ad for a full french provincial dining room set, but I just sent my baby off to college and my available funds were somewhat diminished.  So $475, though probably not a terrible price, was out of my comfort zone for furniture I certainly don't need and to be truthful, don't have the room for.  But then someone else listed an entire set for $200.  I was torn for about 3 minutes.... where was I going to put it?  I decided I would figure it out somehow, and it became mine.  Here is the server, which is going to be the bottom of the china cabinet once I figure out how to get the top of it up my winding stairwell:

Here is the bottom of the china cabinet, which will be my server since it fits so nicely under my sunroom windows.  Luckily they are the same length and shape, one is just several inches shorter than the other. 

Isn't my halloween runner cute?  It fits perfectly (covering the damaged top)!

In addition to the top of the china cabinet, there are 4 chairs in my garage and a table upside down on the floor waiting for the correct tool to put the legs back on.  I don't know exactly what it is, only that I don't have it.  Plus, turning a table right side up is not an easy job for one person, particularly furniture as ridiculously heavy as this. 

I'm hoping to have it all in place soon, and then I'll decorate around it and live with it for a while as is.  I want to paint the room a soft gray-blue, have a chandelier installed over the table, and then eventually I will paint it to look like this.  At least, that is the plan as of today.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a great week ahead!

Frenchy Coffee Table - Finally!

It only took me two months to refinish the coffee table that matches the end tables I did in July:

I had it standing on end in my foyer for quite some time, before I brought it up to my living room and sat it in place to try it out for size.  It is really low and I have not used a coffee table in years, so I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but it grew on me.

Horrible scratches, not so much... those needed a whole lot of sanding.   They are not gone, but they have a lot more charisma now.

I finally have them all done and together.  I had to hurry this morning and take the photos before work, and didn't have time to move my laptop cords and bill basket that was sitting in front of the left table, so you are getting the cropped version of my living room.

I think they all turned out really well.  So well in fact, that now I'm on a bit of a french provincial furniture kick.  I finished a beautiful desk for my daughter which I hope to get photos of soon, and tomorrow I am picking up a full dining room suite to redo.  I have the bug!  One of my friends threatened to sign me up for "French Provincial Furniture Hoarders".  Is that a thing?  Should I be worried?

I'm thinking it's worth it! 

Frenchy End Tables - Before and Afters

I'm on stay-cation this week from my day job, so I'm working on a few projects.  A couple weeks ago I picked up a set of tables from Craigslist - a coffee table and pair of end tables for $25. I was pretty excited when I saw them and couldn't give the guy my money quick enough.  These are old, beautiful and solid wood, but had a mucky varnish that I used Formby's to take off the top.  Messy, but the results were so worth it. I wanted to finish one entirely so I could do a side-by-side before and after photo.  I thought it would be part of a long post showing the finished tables in my living room, but I couldn't wait.  I've only got one coat of poly on the after table top and it's going to get several more, plus drawer liners, but here they are:

The photo below gives a good idea of the condition of the top - very icky.

I think I'm in love...

The coffee table has some deep scratches but I have my fingers crossed I can get them out - if not, it will get painted (but that would be a shame, wouldn't it?)

Morning at the Antique Market

This morning I took a trip to Renningers Antique Market thinking I would like to find some old skeleton keys and possibly an ornate picture or mirror frame for my bedroom wall.  Today was my lucky day.  I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with these, I just think they are cool.

I also found this:

The seller wanted $40, which I thought was pretty reasonable, but I had only brought $40 with me and had just spent $10 on keys.  I offered my remaining cash and he took it.  I cleaned it up a little bit, but its filthy and it does have some significant damage on the corners. From the front it's still in really good shape and the beveled mirror is almost too perfect to be old.

And this is the back, which looks pretty darn old to me:

I went looking for it thinking of painting it white and using it in my bedroom, but now I'm thinking it goes in the living room:

I'm still leaning toward painting it white - what do you think?

Petite Farmgirl Drysink goes Glam

Once upon a time, a little farmgirl got a makeover:

This tiny drysink is one of several pieces of "primitive pine" I received from my friend Donna, who was cleaning out her garage a couple months ago.  I sat it here in a corner of my sunroom until I came up with a plan.

I wasn't entirely sure what to do with her since she is a little bottom-heavy (well, so am I, but no amount of paint is going to help that), but she had a cute little top half so I thought I'd put the focus on that.

Here she is, all dolled up with 2 pretty paint colors, new chickenwire to replace her screens, and sparkly glass knobs:

Ooooh, shiny.... I like shiny.

Her bottom looks a bit lighter now with the new paintjob. 

She's painted in Glidden's Muslin White and accented with Martha Stewart's Rainwater.  I just bought a sample can of the Martha color, and still have some left over. 

I distressed a little around the edges to make the details stand out.  But I didn't want to dirty her up with glaze or antiquing.  I like her fresh and pretty.

I just found these dishtowels to match at TJ Maxx today.  I need to stay away from there... :)

That is all of her - what do you think? Linking up to Susan at BNOTP for Met Monday!

Below deck

This week I planted a tiny shade garden underneath my deck.  My parents dug out a huge hosta for me from their garden on Sunday and I split it up and replanted it as 5 separate plants here in the space outside my back door.  I did amend the soil first since this is very sticky red clay, then added a few other plants to help fill in until the hostas grow.  These get so big that I know at some point I will have to take most of them out.  I'm sure I will find someone to adopt them, and I'm happy to have a cute little garden instead of a pile of dirt and rocks.

Linking up to Outdoor Wednesday.  Have a nice day!

Work Travel and the Single Girl

Frequently, I travel for my job.  In the last few years I've been to Dallas, Hartford, Los Angeles, Nashville... lots of places, often alone.  Right now is one of those times.  I'm sharing some photos from my work travels... unfortunately though, these photos are from my trip last year to Vegas, NOT where I'm staying this week.  I can't say I loved Vegas since I'm not a gambler, but it did have a lot of fun stuff to look at:

Look at this ceiling... where else on earth could you pull something like this off?

I could watch the fountain for hours:

And my hotel room was VERY modern, clean, updated and comfy:

This week I'm on Long Island, in a semi-industrial area somewhere between New York City and the Hamptons.  I drove 4 hours to get here, including a winding route through NYC in pouring rain last night, so that I could spend three days in a dimly lit ballroom listening to various people talk about insurance, eat mediocre overpriced food and stay in a shabby un-chic room in a high-end overpriced hotel.  I never thought I'd say it, but I miss Vegas!