Al fresco dining

So I painted the black end table that used to be in my bedroom, the one I replaced with the round white one. It's the same blue paint color as the cane seat chairs I found on the street earlier this summer. Now we can dine 'al fresco' when it's not too hot (I think I dated an Al Fresco once...hmmm)

I shortened an old table runner I had for the dining room table and it looks great on the 'bistro table' as I'm calling it. 

This table is the END

 So trawling, once again, my favorite website Nextdoor.com I found a great looking round table AND IT WAS FREE. A guy who lives in Settlers Landing very near my ex-friend Dean was giving it away. We drove over and picked it up, it was in great condition. He had obviously tried to spray paint it white but had done a lazy job of it, there were some drip marks here and there. So I gave it a good sanding and was happy with the result, it had that worn 'shabby chic' distressed look. 

I was going to leave it like that but Scott said "I think you should distress it some more." I plugged in the palm sander and let him have a go at it. Much to my horror, when I returned he had ruined my subtle finish! It looked like a Dalmation! Who did he think I was, Cruella Deville??

Here is his 'handiwork', YIKES.

So I decided to start from scratch and just paint the thing solid white. I primed it (two coats) and covered it 3 more times with a nice white satin indoor paint. It came out great. 

Now remember, this table replaces the black IKEA number I was using as an end table. I liked that one but I always felt it was a temporary piece I'd use until I found something more substantial and stylish...cut to THIRTEEN YEARS later, I finally found what I was looking for! Here's the black table, I have plans for it, stay tuned for that...

The price is right: $FREE.00

My absolute favorite thing is to get a great find for my favorite price: FREE. As I've mentioned in the previous posts, I like to find things on Craigslist, Nextdoor.com, yard sales, or even driving around the village and spotting stuff that people put by the curb for anyone to take. 

Last summer I got a great stereo system with CD player, tape deck, component, and speakers. The speakers turned out to be way too big and the sound coming from them was scratchy. So I finally bought some bookshelf sized speaker from Amazon and they were the perfect. It took me one whole afternoon to set it up...drilling the holes in the shelves and snaking the wires through the back of them nearly killed me. And it makes such a mess with all the sawdust, etc. But the end result is fantastic. The speaker were only $60 and the sound is awesome. 

Scott spotted these old beach chairs in someone's front yard the other week and he thought they'd make a good project for me. He was right. Just a little spray paint and some sewing did the trick. I used the drop cloth canvas again. I don't know how long they'll stay in good shape as I had to cut the interior tubing to get the canvas on and they're only being held together with wooden dowels and duct tape! But they were FREE so I can't complain, even if they only last one season. 

BEFORE

AFTER

I spotted two wooden chairs about three blocks over the other day. I thought they'd be nice for the porch. All they needed was a little paint, they were very solid and the cane seats were in really good condition. At first I only took one, but on reflection I went back the next day to get the other one. 

Last week I saw that someone was giving away several linen lamp shades on Nextdoor.com. I've been needing a new shade for the lamp on the porch, I didn't need four, but I thought 'what the hell' I'll take the lot. They turned out to be really nice shades complete with linings, they couldn't have been cheap. I tried a couple on the lamp and decided on the this drum shade. The others are stored for now in the basement. 

Coffee table tribulations

 I had a love/hate relationship with my TV room coffee table. I loved the round marble top and how it was a nice graphic counterpoint to the squared off L-shaped dark gray couch. But it was too low. You couldn't put your feet up on it comfortably. 

So I Googled homemade coffee ideas and found one that looked pretty simple to construct. All I would need were some two-by-fours and some brackets. 

First I cut the wood to the sizes I needed, then sanded and treated them with tung oil. 

Then came the brackets. It was a little trickier than I thought but with a few suggestions from Scott (he's got a good construction mind, it's because of his background in visual design), it came together fine. 

All I had to do was position the top with some rubber tabs to hold it in place and boom, instant mid-century looking coffee table! AND it's the right height. 

An old sew and sew

 I've been on a hug sewing kick lately. Somehow I stumbled upon a tutorial on YouTube for making a cloth bucket hat. You just download the pdf pattern and follow the video instructions. The first one I made was denim. It turned out pretty nicely. The next thing I knew I had made FOUR MORE...and have plans for at least two more! The idea is great for using old clothes like shorts for the fabric. 

The next tutorial I happened upon was one for cloth coasters...again, I used denim from old jeans and leftover fabric from some caftans I made for Scott and myself...

Then I found a video for making a cloth shoulder bag. This time I used the canvas drop cloth fabric I've been using for the furniture slipcovers. I created the monogram with denim and cut out the letters using my favorite old font "BabyTeeth", a design by famed artist Milton Glaser. 

Give it some thyme

 I saw this cute idea in Martha Stewart Living magazine and thought it would work for our herb garden...little rock markers to delineate the various types of plants we've planted. Since I collect beach rocks all the time, I had plenty of specimens to work with. It turned out pretty nice, and useful to boot.