Decorate A Vintage Ladder!

Hey Porch fans! The cooler weather makes it harder and harder to get any big projects done, but it doesn't mean I can't still have a little fun!

Today's easy-peasy project is to decorate an old ladder! Hubby picked up this dumpster-find for me, and I LOVE it! It's just a weathered vintage wood step ladder, but it has so much decorating potential!

For autumn, I chose an assortment of baskets and filled each with autumny goodness: a colorful leaf garland, pumpkins, even shredded brown paper. It all works so great together!

It would look great with REAL leaves, pumpkins, apples, etc., too!

Can't wait to change out my ladder for the seasons. Up next: CHRISTMAS! ;)

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. :)

Altered Bottles: "And all the silly sightless people came and looked...and called it junk."

I love junk. LOVE. IT. I will gladly dumpster dive for the right treasure. No shame! Because to me, it's kind of like a rescue mission. A last chance for some poor, unloved thing. I'm a sucker for saving last-chancers. That is how I came to own several old booze bottles (quite the conversation pieces for a non-drinker).

Thankfully, I didn't have to resort to dumpster-diving for booze bottles. I found most of these pretty little things abandoned at the thrift store. It's a miracle they didn't get sent straight to the recycling station or worse, broken in the trash.

I dressed them up with some pretty baubles: lace and ribbon, gems from a craft store and faux labels! Gorgeous!

Reminds me of one of my favorite children's authors: Shel Silverstein and his poem, Hector the Collector.

HECTOR THE COLLECTOR

by Shel Silverstein
Hector the Collector
Collected bits of string,
Collected dolls with broken heads
And rusty bells that would not ring.
Pieces out of picture puzzles,
Bent-up nails and ice-cream sticks,
Twists of wires, worn-out tires,
Paper bags and broken bricks.
Old chipped vases, half shoelaces,
Gatlin' guns that wouldn't shoot,
Leaky boats that wouldn't float
And stopped-up horns that wouldn't toot.
Butter knives that had no handles,
Copper keys that fit no locks,
Rings that were too small for fingers,
Dried-up leaves and patched-up socks.
Worn-out belts that had no buckles,
'Lectric trains that had no tracks,
Airplane models, broken bottles,
Three-legged chairs and cups with cracks.
Hector the Collector
Loved these things with all his soul
Loved them more than shining diamonds,
Loved them more than glistenin' gold.
Hector called to all the people,
"Come and share my treasure trunk!"
And all the silly sightless people
Came and looked...and called it junk. 

Birdcage Logo

So... I posted on Facebook about how I got my logo and decided to put a few more photos up here on my blog as well. 

As you may have noticed the "What's On My Porch" logo is a little blue bird in a cage. I was inspired to create this logo based on a vintage birdcage I bought a few years ago. 

To complete the look, I found a sweet little blue ceramic bird online. He's quite happy in his little cage and looks great as a logo, too, if I do say so myself. ;)

Painting Old Books: Yes, It's OKAY!

Today I am working with only one arm. Well, mostly. I somehow managed to injure my right wrist about a week ago, but I thought I could get away with using it lightly. After shoveling snow, lifting a dresser and numerous painting, prying, scraping, sanding, mixing, etc., I realize I have no concept of what it means to use it "lightly." And I'm in throbbing pain if I so much as use a computer mouse. So, today I am blogging (mostly left-handed)! 

Here is a project that did further injury to my wrist yesterday (but thankfully not too much).

I bought these vintage books at a secondhand store. They are not exactly classics of literature, so I didn't feel guilty about painting them. I've seen other bloggers paint books and wanted to give it a try. After all, most of my "vintage" (AKA old) books are not the kind I read. They are for decorating. They make pretty shelf displays or bases for candles and other knick-knacks.These were adorable in red and green, but not really the look I wanted. I felt a tiny twinge of guilt about painting them, but since there were about a dozen other colored books at the store, I didn't feel all that bad.

So, I began with a coat of country white satin latex paint on the outside cover, followed by another. I found I could paint the whole thing at once, front and back, if I set the book upright to dry, using the inside pages as a kind of handle to hold while I painted. Afterwards, I realized I could still see the red and green covers that folded around to the inside of the books. So, I painted just a little inside the covers, too.

When they were dry, I added a teensy bit of black to make a dove-gray paint shade. I dipped in my sponge brush, dried most of the paint off by wiping it on a paper towel, then lightly brushed the gray over the white to bring out the linen texture on the cover and embellish the edges.

I think they turned out beautiful! The perfect gray-white base for my little ceramic bird. Very shabby chic!

Beautiful BOOKS!

Check out these amazing vintage books for sale in my Etsy Shop! Children's, gardening and fiction... something for everyone!

Vintage Kids Books Bundle! Grimm's Fairy Tales and Let's Read Together Poems. Classic!

Great illustrations!

Ah, The Portrait of a Lady. Sadly, I've never read it, but it looks great in RED!

Rare Vick's Flower and Vegetable Garden Book is from the late 1800s
and was published by the makers of Vick's Monthly Magazine.
It has a beautiful stamped cover and is fully illustrated!

This garden book is overflowing with character and timeworn charm!

Plants are listed alphabetically.

The illustrations in Vick's Garden book are STUNNING!

Garden Gate Doors

It was our town junk day (a lot of my stories start like this). It was rainy, and I wasn't really sure I wanted to run around sifting through soggy, moldy garbage for treasures, but the allure of free stuff was just too strong.

As I drove up and down the streets, occasionally slowing down to examine things more closely, I came upon a house where someone was throwing out LOTS of old wood. It was weathered and split and broken and PERFECT. I didn't know what I would use it for, but I knew it had potential. So, with a little elbow grease (and mud and wet and ICKY) I got it loaded into my van.

And then.... nothing. It sat and sat and sat for a couple months. I even tried to sell it at a craft fair and a yard sale. Nobody bought it.

Then I saw something online: it was a cute little garden gate, complete with old rusty hardware, that someone had painted a sign on! I fell in love with the idea and got to work! With help from amazing, super-Hubby, I was able to make a few Garden Gate Doors of my own. Now I'm addicted. I LOVE these! Hope you do, too.

I found this key at a thrift store and just KNEW I would use it someday.

The hardware for this door was picked up at a flea market. Isn't it PERFECT?!

As an author, I am in LOVE with BOOKS! So, a bookshelf  "door" is a must.
This one is a work in progress. Still have to add the hardware.

When Hubby showed me this door, I knew it was MINE. It's hanging in my dining room.
The weathered wood is naturally perfect.
And the elegant corbels lend a bit of class to this old door.

The next generation! I just stained these two doors and with a little help from Photoshop,
I'm envisioning what they might look like with "Love" and "Family" painted on them. What do you think?

Dining Room Makeover

We saw this place on the way to the
Renaissance faire. I promise I don't always
dress my kids like that.

It's funny how we neglect ourselves. As a mom, I usually make sure my kiddos have clean clothes, haircuts, transportation, etc., while I myself run out the door without brushing my hair (or sometimes teeth). The same thing happens with my house. I find myself making over furniture pieces for everyone under the sun, while my own home suffers.

I finally decided to do something about it! I was sighing over Pinterest boards when I realized I could do that! Or something like that, anyway. I didn't have to live with fifteen shades of wood and mystery piles in the corner anymore! And so began my DINING ROOM MAKEOVER! Yay!

Attempt #3 or #4 at painting the dining room.

To really tell this story, I have to go back, waaaay back to square wheels and dinosaurs and this house in 2006, the year we bought it. It was a fixer-upper, and by fixer-upper, I mean that it looked like it should be condemned. I still remember the first time we drove by. My husband had had a dream when he was a teenager about a woman with dark curly hair and a little girl in front of a house with a corner door. So, when we saw this house had a corner door, we had to stop, even though it really did look like it was about to fall down. Hubby got out to look while I stayed in the car. Then I saw him waving frantically from the saggy porch.


"Oh brother," I said as I dragged myself out to see what had him so excited. Then I looked in the picture window and saw this:

It was a beautiful wooden staircase. We bought it soon thereafter and began the WORK. The work never finished. We are, at this moment, still working. But that's another story. On to the dining room!

The dining room started out with pink painted walls (over wallpaper) and green carpet, or at least it had once been green. I'm pretty sure. Since then, it has been painted, I believe, FIVE times. Yes. I painted it yellow, then added stripes, then green, then white, then the current color which is a kind of off-white. With all those layers, I think the room has actually shrunk by a quarter inch.

First attempt: yellow!

Yellow=bad. Very bad.

Yikes! Second attempt: Stripes!

Uh, nope. Things get fuzzy here. Maybe it's all the paint fumes... I'm pretty sure third attempt was army-green, then white. But I don't have a picture of the "white" phase.

My "green" phase. Did not work. Made the room very dark.

So, I finally found a color I can live with, but then I realized I really didn't like my dining room. It had eight thousand clashing shades of wood furniture/trim/flooring. I've changed the table twice. Computer desks have come and gone and come again (our dining room doubles as an office). And I've also gone through various storage units, finally settling on a Salvation Army hutch, a gutted radio cabinet, and a Walmart cabinet that I made over after Hubby put it together upside down. :)

I won't go through the details of before and after. Instead I will show you how things have progressed. The end result isn't really the end. I still have plans and will likely paint two or three more times. But I'm happy.
For now.

Pretty light curtains give an airy feeling to this boxy room.

My favorite! I LOVE how the dining table turned out!

Lead paint didn't stop me from loving this little door.
I simply gave it a few clear coats to seal in those naughty paint chips.

I <3 old windows!

Found these corbels at a thrift store. They are a perfect fit for my new shabby/French country dining room!

As an author, I LOVE old books.

Finally painted this mirror my mom gave me. So shabby-chic!

Old radio cabinet now stores art supplies. LOVE it!

Here's the "final" product. For now. :)