Apr21

Chic but Not Shabby

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Chic but Not Shabby

I’ve been at it again, and you won’t be surprised to hear it involved spray paint and colorful paper!  This little set of frames was hidden on a shelf at my favorite thrift store, and I didn’t even give them a second thought before I put them in my cart – I knew I could do something with them.  Plus, I think they were a buck each and it was 25% off day!

What’s really strange about the “before” frames is that the framed images were not paper or photos or needlework.  They were printed pictures on fabric, with a tiny little piece of foam behind them – like very shallow pincushions!  So I ripped that stuff out, took a toothbrush and some dish soap to them and then they headed for the spray booth.  As I was thinking of what to put in them to make the finished product SUPER cute, I opened my “patterned scraps” drawer of paper and right on top was this floral pattern with all the exact colors in it!  Craft kismet.  See for yourself!

They really make me smile now!  I think they’ll be in my (poor, sad, neglected) etsy shop soon – check them out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Dec25

I’ve been posting . . . Periodically!

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I’ve been posting . . . Periodically!

This is an oldie but a goodie.  At one point in time a few years ago, I was in search of a new coffee table.  It struck me at the time how boring most coffee tables are, and the ones that aren’t boring are usually hideous.  Neither option appealed to me or my living room decor!

So I got to thinking about making a unique coffee table and I just couldn’t stop thinking “Periodic Table.”  I considered creating a coffee table with the standard-issue chemistry class periodic table, but then I stumbled across this GENIUS project:  http://azuregrackle.com/periodictable/table/, and I knew immediately what I would do.  I tracked down a super-boring but high quality oak coffee table and used paint, paper, and Mod Podge to transform it into my own Periodic Coffee Table of the Elements.  Behold!

And here are a few closeups of my favorite elements (well, not favorite ELEMENTS, because I love all the elements equally [doesn't everybody?], but my favorite PRINTS of the elements):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the interest of education, I’ll leave it to you to discover what the more cryptic of these elements are.  Please visit the project website, too, for more information:  http://azuregrackle.com/periodictable/table/.  I believe they may even sell prints of certain of the elements.

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Oct7

I otter post more often….

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I otter post more often….

Hi there, everyone!  I hope everyone is enjoying a lovely fall.  It’s hard to tell it’s fall in Las Vegas, but the fact that my steering wheel no longer gives me third-degree burns when I drive to lunch is a good indication!

I have added another friend to my family of Ceranimals!  This little guy was patiently waiting for me at the thrift store and I scooped him up the instant I saw him.  And now you will, too!  Uhhh, SEE him, not SCOOP him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would love to visit this factory where they label each animal as it’s produced.  I don’t know why but I just think it’s so funny to turn over a creature and see its name like it’s an autograph or something!

Anyway, I’ve got lots of half-finished projects, so let’s be optimists and say that that means I’ll post another “Redo” sometime soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jun20

Fill ‘er Up!

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Fill ‘er Up!

I’ll take “Blog Neglecters” for $500, Alex….

In honor of getting back on the blog radar, I’m pulling out one of my biggest projects to date.  When I first moved in to my townhome, one section of my living room looked like this:

Sooooooo, yeah.  A wee bit sad (and blurry – apologies for the pre-blog photo tragedy).  I know my electronics are completely old school, but I like them and didn’t want to spend money on new ones.  But that part of the room was just asking for something to fill it – the ceiling is vaulted and that’s near the highest point, so the emptiness soared to tremendous heights, too!

What happens when a girl wants to fill a tall gaping hole in her living room with a place for her TV and stereo system from the Pleistocene Epoch but doesn’t want a just-begging-to-be-outdated entertainment center?  She designs her own shelving unit (in Microsoft Excel, of all programs),

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

then she tracks down a welder to make the frame, and creates wood inserts for the shelves, of course:

Lots of my favorite things on that thar shelving unit, with a tiny bit of cat tail for good measure (bottom left)!  I love the globe on the top shelf and the glass head on the bottom shelf just makes me laugh.

Now, lest you think we’re all basking in our post-shelf-creating bliss over here, let me tell you a couple things I learned from this process.  1)  Welders are NOT cheap!  2)  Measure, measure measure!  Once the unit was finished I realized how large the space is and it’s a bit of a challenge to fill!  3)  Drilling through your index fingernail may result in long-term loss of sensation.

The most astute of you out there will notice that something else has changed also (the floor, for the rest of you) – that’s a whole other post and a big part of the reason for my lengthy self-imposed blog exile!  I’ll tell you about it soon!

I PROMISE!

Mar3

You’ve Got Mail

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You’ve Got Mail

Collections are dangerous things.  They can push you precariously close to hoarding status, as well as bankruptcy, especially if you choose to collect something like Faberge eggs!  Holidays and birthdays are dangerous territory also, when your well-meaning friends and relatives give you items that they’re just sure “will be great in your collection!” but that you NEVER would have purchased yourself, collector or no.  It can be dicey!   

I’ve been pretty lucky and careful in my collecting life.  I can usually tell when it gets to the tipping point of buying for quantity versus quality of the collection, and I can rein myself in, in most cases.  One of those cases is my vintage mailbox collection.

Snail mail has always been a love of mine, starting back when it was just known as “mail.”  I love the look of stamps and postmarks and most things postal (except “going postal,” of course, to which I am opposed).  Years ago, just because it was cool looking, I bought a glass mailbox that has “Visual Mail” embossed on the front.  Little did I know it was a collection seed!

Most of my collection today resides in my small entryway, hanging on corrugated metal (another love of mine) within a homemade frame.  Yesterday, I finally got my entryway painted and am no longer ashamed to post pictures of it!  Behold!

Here are a few closeups of my favorite bits and pieces:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The quail were thrift store finds, and they are salt and pepper shakers.  I think they single-handedly created the blood pressure problem in this country, because they are huge!  They could each hold about half of a salt container!  Perhaps we could just say they’re efficient, because you’d only have to refill them once a year.  Maybe you could even develop an annual family ritual – The Filling of the Quail.

I love the designs on the feathers and of course the plumes on their heads are awesome!

I have a few other mailboxes that may end up on a different wall.  One of my favorites was a gift from my parents, which was a homemade job that reads “We Shoot Every Third Salesman.  The Second One Just Left.”  Ha!  A simple No Soliciting sign would have sufficed!

Well, thanks for stopping by!  I hope your Spring is happy, healthy, and productive.

Feb3

I’ll Get the Chair for This

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I’ll Get the Chair for This

Can you keep a secret?  I mean, really, like not tell ANYONE?  Cuz it looks like I may have committed a crime and I have to get it off my chest.  Can I trust you?

Oh geez, put the phone down, I’m just talking about a design crime.  And no jury in the world would convict me after it sees the evidence!  I’ll leave it up to you.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present to you Exhibit One:

An unassuming chair that had seen better days, but with fine lines and a proud lineage.

Suspecting a design icon in the rough, Ms. Palooza purchased this chair for the (what should probably also be criminal!) low price of $7.00 and spirited it away to a location she refers to as Craft Purgatory.  Ominous, no?

Her internet research turned up a very similar specimen, designated as a Saarinen office chair by Knoll.

However, the chair in her possession bore a brand name of Virco and had only four casters, not five.  Additionally, when Ms. Palooza viciously tore into the chair with a screwdriver and pliers, this is what she found:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The chair literally fell apart in her hands and spewed ancient upholstery foam debris (see second picture above) throughout her house.  After a halfhearted attempt at DIY upholstery, Ms. Palooza had it professionally reupholstered and now it looks like this!

Here endeth the Perry Mason (yes, I am 67 years old) bit.

So I bought this chair at a thrift store and it was disgusting.  I tell myself it’s a Saarinen knockoff so I can sleep at night, but I know there are design purists out there who are probably crying, “Sacrilege!”  In any case, I think it looks great!  i’d love to hear what you think, even if it involves design prison!

Thanks for stopping by!

Dec30

Keepin’ it Clean

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Keepin’ it Clean

In my opinion, ANY en suite laundry room is a GOOD laundry room.  And in light of some of the damp, freezing, ammonia-scented places I’ve done laundry in my life, even my “before” laundry room was pretty dang good!

But a bunch of “before” pictures does not a good RedoPalooza post make!  And I wasn’t terribly fond of the exposed shelf as the only storage in the room – it seems to be a junk magnet, and once I do a few loads, it’s a lint-covered-junk magnet!  So I whipped out my paintbrush, picked up a few thrift store art pieces, and had a handyman install a couple cabinets, and now my laundry room is a happier place.

How about those wood finials on the shelf?  Those are more thrift store bargains – TWENTY BUCKS for the WHOLE SET!  I almost fell over when I saw those price tags and then I elbowed a couple people in the face on my way to the register to make them MINE.  I regularly toy with the idea of painting them each a different, bright, glossy color, but for right now, I think they look good in their natural state.

 

 

This is looking to the left in the room.  The two signs were resale bargains (of course).   The top one says “Believe in today – Your life is Now,” and the bottom one says “Hope for Tomorrow and Make Things Happen.”  Maybe the set originally had one about the past, too, but I’ll just keep looking forward!

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the right side of the room is this piece I made from an old travel calendar.  I just love all the colors in it and travel-themed stuff has long been a favorite of mine.  PS – Betcha didn’t know there’s an electrical panel behind it!  Mmm hmm – Camoflauge!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And just inside the door you’ll find one of the best purchases I’ve ever made – the litter box end table!  It is so handy for setting laundry baskets on, and it keeps the kitty box out of sight and the odor to a minimum.  I think I got mine here, but just search “litter box end table” and you’ll find all kinds of options.  Warning – they’re not cheap!  But this one is well-made and I’ve never regretted buying it.

 

 

 

 

I’ll leave you with a little tip if you’re redoing a laundry room.  When you install a shelf over your top-load washer, make sure you leave enough room for the top to open all the way!  I ended up scooting both my washer & dryer a little ways out from the wall ’cause I don’t want to worry about holding open the washer while I’m stuffing in my dirty duds.  After the adventure of installing the shelf where it is now, I preferred to lose a few inches of floor space rather than take it down and reinstall it.

So that’s the latest development at the Redo HQ – I’d love to hear what you think!  Happy New Year to everyone!

Dec25

Making the Season Bright(er)

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Making the Season Bright(er)

I’m using my Christmas break to finish a few of the 1.7 million unfinished projects I have around the house.  So today my eye fell upon the brass lamp that gave me so much trouble a few months ago.

This time, I decided to, like, get some directions on how to cover the lampshade right!  These were the ones that worked best for me.  As I read the instructions, I was thinking, “It can’t be that easy.”  But it was!  I used a fairly forgiving spray adhesive, and here’s the result!

 

If you decide to cover a lampshade yourself, here are a couple tips:

  • The directions on the link say to make a paper pattern.  If you do this before you shop for fabric, you’ll know exactly how much you’ll need.
  • It does take a fair bit of fabric, especially if the angle from the top to bottom of your shade is wide.  However, you will have a decent amount leftover, so you could make a matching accessory for your room!
  • I actually didn’t make a pattern (I didn’t have big enough paper) – I just drew right on the fabric.  This worked out okay but I should have erased the pencil marks after I cut it out!  Oops!
  • After you’ve stuck the fabric to the shade, you may want to go around the top & bottom with scissors and even out the parts you’ll fold over.

And no matter what you celebrate, I hope you are all warm, happy, fed, loved, and peaceful today and every day!  Thanks for stopping by and best wishes from RedoPalooza!

Dec17

Basket Case

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Basket Case

Long story, but I was originally going to use this shopping basket as a jewelry display.  Yeahhhhhhhh………..that didn’t work out.  But I had this big empty space above my cabinets and I was THIS CLOSE to reverting to my 1980′s roots and filling it with a fake plant!  Luckily, I waited to do that long enough that I eventually had a brainstorm to put my cool vintage shopping basket up there.

It’s really hard to get a good picture of something that consists mostly of space….

So there it was, all empty and stuff.  For a long time.  I always felt bad because it’s such a cool thing!  I mean, check out this brand badge:

And when I took it down to work some magic on it, I noticed that the previous owner had taped her name and address to the handle of the basket!  And she was a Show-Me-Stater, like myself!

So cute!  Hazel, if you’re a reader of RedoPalooza and you want your basket back, get in touch!  Of course, I’ll have to see photo ID in order to relinquish this beauty.

So I had an idea to make it look like I had just taken this basket shopping in 1943 and wouldn’t you know it, on a thrifting trip shortly thereafter, I came upon some delightful faux fruit and veggies!  I brought them home and set them on my counter.  Well, today was the day.  The day I got SICK OF HAVING THEM ON MY COUNTER!  So I also had an empty cereal box and I decided to fix it up with a printed copy of a vintage cereal box.  Look – it still says SUGAR Frosted Flakes!  Then I took some cardboard and glued some fabric to it and lined the inside of the basket.  I wasn’t about to do any SEWING for this “just to look at” project!

SO!  Awesome vintage shopping basket + fake fruit + faux vintage cereal box + imitation fabric basket liner =

And here they are in their new habitat, above my pantry cabinet.

I’m not completely pleased with the whole montage.  I wish I had a mesh bag for the fruits and veggies to go in but I guess I’ll have to wait until the next time I use up a bag of onions!  And I didn’t realize how high up the whole arrangement would be and it’s kind of hard to see from the floor.  But that’s the beauty of redoing stuff – I get to decide when it’s finished or just keep tweaking it until I’m happy.  We’ll see where it goes from here!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you’re all having a wonderful holiday season!

 

Dec13

Daydream Believer

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Daydream Believer

When I need a mindless websurfing target, Craigslist is a favorite.  I like to pretend that I have an enormous climate-controlled workshop, an endless supply of cash, and an insanely popular brick-and-mortar shop, and I consider the transformations I would perform on the listings under the Furniture For Sale section.  Make no mistake – some of the listings make me daydream about a large bucket to heave into.  But some of them are real gems, real cheap!

Before we go any further, though, I have a warrant to serve from the Grammar Police.  The following seem to be frequent infractions on Craigslist, so I want to warn any of my fellow officers to gird your loins before you go a-surfing.

It’s WROUGHT iron, people!  Not ROD iron, or worse, ROT iron!

They’re called DRAWERS, not DRAWS!

The other side of that coin:  it’s a chest OF drawers, not a CHESTER DRAWERS!

I could go on for pages, but I’ll spare you any further tirade.  It’s my personal burden to bear . . . .

On to the furniture!  Here are a few examples from the Las Vegas craigslist website and what I dream of doing to them (that sounds naughty!):

This headboard is just begging for some paint.  I think you’ll find that’s a common thread in all my Craigslist daydreams.  Seriously, though, can’t you imagine glossy white paint on this?  Or a gorgeous turquoise (I don’t care if it is played out)?  Lime green, hot pink, glossy black – any of these would be gorgeous on these curves.  Not all at the same time, though; we’re going for hip and cool, not insomnia-inducing.

This set would also receive some latex loving.  I think it would be great in a deep gray, with a bright, funky fabric on the chair.  I would try painting or Rub-and-Buffing the current drawer handles silver.  Sigh…I’m imagining penning a note to Mr. Darcy at this little number.

Oops, I went a little Pride and Prejudice on ya for a second!  :)

I’m not usually a fan of brass-type beds, but this one has just enough spunk for me.  I would (of course) paint it, but first I would find a funky-cool quilt that would go on it and choose one of the colors in the quilt to use on it.  Something Garnet Hill-ish or Anthropologie would do nicely.  Like a quilt with aqua, orange, hot pink, and lime green, and paint this headboard glossy orange.  Yes!

This chair is just unusual enough to have me intrigued.  First I would do a little research on it to see if I could live with myself after painting it.  If it’s a rare or significant piece, I would probably leave it as is and just put it up for sale in my (imaginary) resale shop.  However, if it’s a post-acid trip creation from 1973, I would paint it glossy white or aqua with a bright fabric on the seat; I’m sure Amy Butler has a design that would work well!  Are you sensing a theme?  “Paint, apply bright fabric, rinse, repeat.”

The detail on this headboard would look AWESOME with a cool paint job.  Maybe bright yellow…?  I know a lot of people use distressing and/or wax or glazes to highlight details like this, and I think that looks good if done sparingly.  I have yet to try it myself, but if I had that workshop, who knows what techniques I’d try!

The beauty of this chair is that it looks to be in great shape and would also be a cinch to upholster.  A cinch, I tell you!  Plus, this style of chair would fit in almost any but the most modern of rooms.  Even without any tweaking it could play a respectable supporting role in an eclectic living room or bedroom, but I’ve got this giant workshop and nothing but cash and time on my hands, right?  A girl can dream….

See previous brass/wrought iron bed.  Oooo, how about painting it a bright coral color?

Okay, up until now, the items I’ve shown were below $100 each, which makes them steals in my book.  The next photo is kind of a red herring because it’s not only way out of that price range at $400, it’s also not something I would come NEAR with a paintbrush!  Feast your eyes on this baby:

Do you hear angels singing?  I sure do.  Heavy                heavy                SIGH.  Gorgeous.

Well, I hope you don’t think I cheated by not actually (re)DOING anything for today’s blog post, but I just wanted to share my Craigslist lust (Craigslust?) with you guys!  These pictures all came from posts on Las Vegas Craigslist, and I’ll be glad to forward the links to anyone interested.  If you buy the yellow chair, can I come over and soak in its aura?

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!