How To Style Industrial Farmhouse Bookshelves

I'm a sucker for what many people call "junk." Give me something old and rusty, and I swoon. So, it's no surprise that I would use it to decorate my bookshelves. Here's a little look at some of my found items.

One of my favorite finds, my vintage Underwood typewriter was all but buried in the basement of an antique store. I couldn't pass it up. As a children's author (check out the Villain School Books), typewriters are near and dear to my heart. This one had so much character, too!

The roller skates came from a thrift store, as did the antique books, tackle box and clocks. The wooden crates were junk-day finds... people left them on their curbs with the trash.

The "Cooper" street sign came from a town we lived in for a while. The city was replacing old street signs and had a huge pile! I talked one of the street department employees into giving me one. I asked for the whole pile, but they said it was already promised somewhere else. Bummer!

Do you collect vintage items? What's your favorite "junk" piece?

Red Radio Cabinet

You may have seen a similar cabinet on Pinterest. Like me, you may have even pinned it. Twice. And you might have also thought, "I NEED that." Of course, radio cabinets aren't all that easy to come by, but when you do find one on Craigslist. In your town. You BUY it! And then you paint it RED.

Okay, so that's what happened. One dark and stormy night, the ever-beleaguered Hubby went out and brought home this bad boy: an antique wood radio cabinet.

I seriously thought about painting it white. "White goes with everyone's décor," I said. But my daughter convinced me to go for the red. "Not too many people can fit red into their house," I said. "Yes," she answered, "but that means the ones who can will be REALLY excited to find something in red."

Okay!

Here's a quick rundown of the process. First, Hubby removed the fabric "speaker" in the front. Then I sanded a few of the rough spots. Not enough, though. After I painted, some of the dents showed through, but we'll call that "character."

Then I primed it with Zinsser primer. This step may or may not have been necessary. I was going for a bit heavier distressing than usual, so I could have probably gone without the primer.

Then I painted the whole piece red. (Acrylic craft paint, Walmart craft section.) After that, I sanded it with a sanding block.The red was a tad on the orangey side, but I didn't mind because I knew I'd be going over it with a dark stain, which is the last process: to brush on stain and wipe it off. The stain helps bring out the sanded wood, essentially staining it again. It also adds depth and a little shine to the piece while giving it a layer of protection.

I really love how she turned out! Once again, I wish I had a bigger house, because I'd keep this one! Alas, it is moving on to greener pastures.

Duncan Phyfe Table Makeover

So, we are getting ready to put our house on the market. That means we need to do some major cleaning, repairing and PRAYING. It also means the Porch, the place where I paint, hammer, sand, and generally make a big ole mess, needs to be pretty and pristine! So, I told Hubby I was swearing off any more projects until after we move.

Enter Duncan Phyfe table.

So, I'm at a thrift store with my kiddo when I spot it! A gorgeous (and by "gorgeous" I mean scratched up and heaped in a corner) antique table with four chairs. It's a bit pricey, but still a good deal. But then I remember my promise! No more Porch projects! So, I resist. I am so proud of myself. I get a cookie.

Then a week later, I'm at the same thrift store. This time, with Hubby. There's that pretty table and chairs. I wander innocently over and check out the price tag and... holy moly! It's dropped by 20 bucks! I start gesticulating wildly to get Hubby's attention. I'm pretty sure he pretended not to see me. But when I let out a high-pitched squeal he (and everyone else in the store) was forced to look. I did a little happy hop while pointing madly with both hands. Poor hubby. He didn't stand a chance.

"Last one! Promise!" I said as we stuffed the table with its four chairs and four extra leaves into the back of our van.

Deciding how to refinish this bad boy was a real challenge. I gave about five second's thought to sanding it and giving it a drift wood finish (like my OWN dining set). Then I remembered I HATE sanding, and it takes forever, and paint is SOOOOO much easier. So, painting it was!

Next, I thought, "What color? What kind of technique? Do I add words? Do I do some kind of fancy grain sack stripe down the middle?" Then I remembered all that stuff takes TIME. And I needed to get this done double quick if I ever wanted to list our house for sale.

So, I did a layer of Zinsser primer. Then a layer of paint. I don't know what to call this color... so let's call it "antique linen" because that sounds better than "sorta beige." It was leftover from painting some room or other. It's not quite white, but definitely not beige. I hate the sound of that word!

After the coat of antique linen latex paint was dry, I grabbed my sanding block and some fine sandpaper and went over the whole, MASSIVE 8 feet of table. All four leaves. Yep. That puppy got some serious chippy goin on! It's nice because I get the distressed effect, plus the added bonus of the white primer showing through just a bit--gives it dimension.

The chairs got the same treatment along with a new dress to boot! They were an ugly green-rug-from-grandma's-kitchen kind of fabric, and needed something new. This was an ORDEAL. I could NOT decide on fabric. At all. I had a bolt of green with pink flowers in my HAND. Then I spied a pretty patterned fabric in a robins egg blue. The other fabric was a quick-the-fabric-guy-at-Walmart-is-leaving-so-hurry-up-and-choose kind of decision. I bought three fabrics and used two of them. I guess the other one will be a pillow in some future blog post.

All-in-all this was a relatively quick redo--mainly because of necessity and partly because my wrist was giving out and I needed these DONE. Now.
I do LOVE how it all turned out, though.

I'd do it again.

Just don't tell Hubby. ;)

Vanity Makeover (and a fall rag garland)

I found this amazing antique vanity at a thrift store. The price was great. And then I found out they were having a furniture sale... everything HALF OFF! I picked it up and tried to walk it right up to the cash register myself. About three feet into this endeavor, my purse slipping off my shoulder and customers staring at me like I was insane... I decided to accept a man's offer to take it to the back door for me. But I watched him. CLOSELY.

It was already a visually interesting piece, but I knew I could coax out all the details with a few layers of white paint, so I got to work. Originally, I wanted to pain the inside drawers with a pop of blue or maybe red, but I decided not to last-minute. I left them natural wood.

It turned out GORGEOUS. It even came with an awesomely huge mirror. I wanted to keep it for myself, but alas--we junk-junkies already have antiques coming out of our ears and can't keep every huge piece of vintage furniture we find. So, I sold it. Sadly.

And, of course, I only thought to take photos of it at a sale out in the sun covered in junk, so you're not really getting the full effect, but trust me. It was beautiful. Sigh.

 





















Side note: I have been very into rag garlands lately and decided to make one that is fall-themed. Be inspired!

Time Flies When You're Faux-ing Clocks!

I have always been fascinated with clocks. There is something sort of mysterious about trying to measure time, and clocks themselves are just amazing... the tiny pieces all working together, the timeworn faces, the metal and glass and gears. Clocks are beautiful!*

*Unless they are plastic and some kind of funky color like turquoise or mauve and have faux embroidered birds printed on them. Then they're just ugly. But don't these clocks deserve to be beautiful, too? I think YES!

Step 1: Find Ugly Clocks & Tear Apart
So, I found two aesthetically-challenged clocks at the thrift store and vowed to make them look GOOD. I began by disassembling these lovely ladies. I thought it would involve a screwdriver. It did. But not in the way I imagined. You see there were no screws holding this clock together... just plastic tabs. So, I used my flathead screwdriver to pop the plastic tabs out of their sockets and thus was able to remove the clock faces. Next, I pulled off the clock hands, careful not to break them as they were made of the finest plastic!

Step 2: Spray Paint
After that, I spray-painted the outside black. In hindsight, I probably could have left well enough alone. After all, black is classy! But I thought, "Ooooh, wouldn't an old rusty clock be SO cool?" So, I decided to faux-rust these babies. It was a long process, and didn't turn out as completely awesome as I'd hoped, but I still like it okay, and from a distance it kinda, sorta looks rusty, right?
 
Step 3: Rustify!
To rust-up my clocks, I sponged on a layer of brown acrylic, then another layer, only this time I used the sponge brush to pull at the paint and create a kind of rust-like texture. When they were dry, I used a combination of colors and brushes (see photo) to create more rust "texture" with orange-browns, coppers, and a hint of blue and white. If you tackle a similar project and love the idea of rust, I say go for it! You can always spray paint it black again if it doesn't look right.

 
Step 4: Facetime
Next, I needed some new faces for my clocks. Nothing says vintage like Roman numerals! I found a coolio clock face online and used Photoshop to make it the size I wanted (measuring the plastic clock face covers as my template). You could potentially do this in other programs, probably even Word. We don't have a color printer, and I didn't really want to go with black and white for my faces, so I decided to use some old scrapbook paper as a background for my clock faces. I think they look adorable!

Step 5: In Which I Glue Fake Paper Hands Onto My Clock
Now it was assembly time! I glued the clock faces over the old ones, then put the little hands back on. Of course, one set of hands were way too modern and ugly, so I glued some faux ends to my clock hands (yes, they're made of paper, what of it?).

I reassembled my clocks and am pretty happy with the results! They are much improved and for three bucks (total for both!) I'm feeling like this makeover was totally worth the... time. :)

Beautiful Junk

Well, the holidays are over, and it's back to work! I found a few tiny treasures over the break, not to mention a couple larger items. (Don't ask me how I will make them over with negative temperatures and a Porch full of snow. I have no idea.)

Here are some of the items I found! They are listed on my Etsy Shop. Enjoy!

I collect oversized paintbrushes, and I was VERY tempted to keep this one for myself. Unfortunately, the red/yellow color scheme clashes with my dining room, but I know SOMEONE out there is looking for this.

What little girl doesn't want a pair of soft, white gloves for her teddy bear tea?

Another find I was tempted to keep for myself: metal cups! Aren't they adorable?

I can see this trowel repurposed as a coat hanger or something even more amazing.
With this much beautiful rusty patina and charm, it can't possibly just be a trowel.

Okay, I've said it before. I want this for myself. The trouble with being a junker is learning to
LET GO. Otherwise, one's house becomes VERY crowded. Still, this adorable basket is hard to part with.

There are no words to describe the awesomeness of this spool.

Originally I was calling this a "pastry squirter." I have since learned the proper term is "pastry press."
Whatever you call it, I just call it awesome. It is functional and also artistic!
I have one of my own that I use as a steampunk accessory (think ray gun).

Antique Dresser MAKEOVER

I was surfing Craigslist when I saw an ad for an amazing wooden radio cabinet. I knew I just had to have it!

I talked hubby into driving two hours with me to go get it. When we arrived at the store where it was being sold, I LOVED it and bought it. Then I started looking around and wow! There were LOTS of items in that store that I could have come home with! But I didn't. I was very restrained. I only bought a few books, some small hardware pieces and THIS!

 

You would have done the same. Trust me. The beautiful moldings, the pretty curves and character, character, character! This antique wood dresser with its dovetailed drawers and awesome hardware was mine. It had just been waiting for me to come and buy it and make it into a shabby chic masterpiece! I got to work sanding, priming, painting, sanding some more and glazing with a dark walnut stain. Here's the result. The hardest part was selling it!

This shabby chic dresser turned out beautiful! Elegant lines, pretty moldings and graceful curves. LOVE.

Yes, I painted the hardware. I used to leave it natural or replace or spray paint it on lots of my other pieces, but
then I saw someone else paint it and realized how incredibly charming it looked!