Atomic Split

At some point last year, my car was full of goodies to be delivered to a local thrift store for donation. While unloading, I stepped into the back warehouse to be greeted by my arch nemesis, a dresser. Not just A dresser, but THE dresser. I knew it must be mine!

I drove home, my mind lusting over the endless possibilities. As soon as humanly possible, I drove back to the thrift store and nervously surveyed the furniture to lay eyes on her. And at a price far lower than I thought I would see. I ran as fast as I could to buy it, and then later realized... perhaps I should have measured my car. (It did, but it was a comedy of driving with my knees up to my ears, but sometimes you must sacrifice for your art.)

The dresser, disguised as a credenza, resided in the living room in front of the large picture window and acted as a storage unit for all of the random flotilla (DVDs, extra remotes, etc.) for over a year. During that time, I had such visions of grandeur for what it would be come - refinished walnut, painted white and detailed, or any other number of wild internet fantasies. Reality? Nothing happened.

After finally succumbing to the plaintive requests of the Mr. for more light in the living room, we replaced the dresser/credenza with a lovely vintage Lane cedar chest with three drawers. It now sits flush with the bottom of the picture window and, as much as I hate to admit it, does let in a lot more light. And, for some reason, the cats are completely disinterested in it.

I ended up listing the dresser of awesomeness Craigslist, but had a rough time selling it. (Although I did make contact with an awesome MCM-fiend in the area, but he ended up having too much furniture to take it home.) After about a month of no-shows and random email propositions, it finally did go to a good home - another young woman who was into mid-century furniture. The Mr., enterprising as always, upsold her for two gorgeous walnut MCM chairs that needed reupholstering. Bless his heart.

Caffeinated!

The bathroom vanity at SLP leaves a little to be desired. If I had to carbon date it, it would be from the late 90's when the kitchen was remodeled (estimate based on the serial numbers of the items coming out of the kitchen.) It's perfectly serviceable, although one drawer does stick a little. It has seen some wear and tear from the previous family of four. The wood is in OK condition overall, but the finish is this ghastly orange-tinged oak color. :|

In order to extend the life of this bathroom, and quite possibly my sanity, an update of some sort is required. I would consider painting it white, but the vanity top is a creamy color and I think overall would look a little weird in this space, so I have decided to go the opposite direction - espresso.

I stumbled across Monica Wants It a few months back and the technique to use espresso stain to darken oak cabinets. It seemed logical to invest $20 for stain and polyurethane. In a grand effort to avoid another project, I took apart the bathroom last night, did all the prep work, and have applied the first coat. I cannot wait to see the end result! (Ok, well, I can... the end result will be in another 6 coats plus drying time, but that's moot!)

A Parma State of Mind

Like a good little micro-blogger, I've been searching online for inspiration for the hearth and home.  I stumbled on Retro Renovation after tripping over the sister site, Save the Pink Bathroom. And, while I don't have a pink bathroom in the home, I can definitely appreciate flawless odd-colored tile. My grandmother's house, circa 1955 and as they say in the know a Cinderella home, had a lovely minty green bathroom. (And counter... and linoleum tile... and... and... and...) Perhaps that's where my general squee from the time period comes. Or perhaps it's just all that delicious Danish furniture.

At any rate, I completed the transition to full Parmite this year for my birthday.  My Don Featherstone pink flamingos arrived last night and they are gorgeous! I'm half-tempted to get a couple of the other color flamingos, but for now, I think just the classic salmon pink will grace my front yard right next to the Ikea solar flamingo!

Thank you, Amazon!

Chair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Hey folks! Sorry, it's been a while. The house has been keeping us very busy these days with housal (vs. spousal) honey-do lists that put a senate budget proposal to shame! The busy times shall pass.

In an attempt to clear my pictures folder, I shall tell you the fate of this lovely brown early to mid century chair.

It was lovely, although a bit well-loved on the arms when I picked it up on Craigslist. One of the cats, Moxi was drawn to it, despite being yelled at each time she drew near. Unfortunately,  Cleo had other ideas and claimed it as her own. And by claim, I mean... the ultimate claim. My exasperated response was to de-upholster it in the garage in a fit of rage, which was a fun project in and of itself. It was like sifting through the chairs history, looking under the covers of the many other lives it had lived. I found at least four different materials used over the last 50 years.

I had every intent to get it upholstered because the lines were so cool on it, but it wasn't meant to be. The frame will go out on big item day this month. We will see if any other picker would be interested in reviving her and I will also post a curb alert with hopes that someone will give her a good home.

Whoops!

In an attempt to clean out the garage, I have sad news to report... (well, I'm not that sad there was an exchange of money involved that made it a more pleasant experience.)

• The most excellent credenza that we found has moved on to a new home.  
• A trendy set of mid-century dressers went to a lovely young lady out of area.
• The French provincial dresser went off to refinish land at a new home.

Insert dramatic sigh here. No, really. Dramatic as in WHEW -- there's some space in the garage!

A Dresser Reborn

It comes as no surprise that I spend a fair amount of time trolling Craigslist looking at what appears to be my passion - dressers. I can only blame it on the fact that I haven't had one since I moved to Ohio in the late 90's. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

A few weeks back I spotted a rather plain pine dresser for far too good a price to pass up. I contacted the seller, but didn't hear back from them so I figured it had already been sold. About a week later, I received an email asking if I was still interested. Yes, please!

A ginger beauty...

It isn't the style that I'm usually attracted to but it was exactly what the apothecary ordered. It just so happens that we are both members of the Society for Creative Anachronisms which means we have what feels like four times the amount of stuff to store as a normal person. His and hers plus his and hers personas. Don't even get me started on the span of centuries and civilizations we cover. Needless to say, we needed a dresser that could serve our vast and often nefarious storage purposes.

The update process started easily enough with the decision to paint the dresser. Why? Well, we had a lovely blue color on hand in an enamel finish left over from the laundry room debacle.   (Never buy a quart of paint, always buy a gallon... lesson learned.) The body of the dresser is Sherwin Williams Calypso and the drawers are spray painted white. Thank you for the idea of mixing it up like that, Internet!

Tidy Cat should be in every picture!

Sanded, primed, painted, painted, poly, and poly. There she is in all her glory. It's hard to tell the color from the picture due to the warm tone of the overhead lights, but it is essentially Tidy Cat blue. We picked up the hardware at a local store and spray painted them blue. Overall, I call this a project a success... provided you don't see the several pieces of cat hair that mysteriously ended up in the polyurethane on the drawers...

 

Another busy weekend...

We went out a little earlier on Sunday to visit Big Blue for a curtain rod. When the first turn happened, I realized that the hunt was on. A few streets down we saw the back side of this behemoth credenza and quickly stopped by for a look. The buffet appeared to be solid concrete oak, but was in otherwise great condition. The four center drawers worked perfectly and, after closer inspection in the privacy of the garage, there are silverware drawers and shelves in each of the side panels. At least right now, I think this will fit perfectly in the mud room after a little elbow grease gets it into more modern shape. The feet are a subtle Greek key design, but  the drawer pulls leave quite a bit to be desired and the relief work on the two cabinets looks like a cross between cherry blossoms and safari. The picture looks a bit askew because it is technically resting on a furniture dolly on its side. Gotta save space, right?

Side note: While looking for drawer pulls, I managed to find an awesome refinished credenza that is exactly like the one we found. This is going to be a most excellent project!