July Events: Birthdays, Antique Malls, and Dumpster Diving.

How frigging embarrassing.......EMBARRASSING!!!!!!! I haven't blogged since July 7th???????? JULY 7TH???????  No way!!
Well that just tells you how much free time I've had lately.......
Okay........let's see, here's what's been going on in my world....

I had another one of those birthdays. Yep, 56 this year. My friend, Heather who just turned 40, and I were treated to a lovely champagne brunch at the Hotel Jefferson by our friend, Harry.  Here we are after a few glasses of the bubbly.

Then I hosted a cookout/birthday party at my Mom's who turned 83...
Here she is opening her presents...
She's the cute little thing on the left, and the other cute little thing is her wonderful neighbor, Shirley, on the right. Aren't they sweet? Must be all that good country air.

We had a nice turn out of friends and neighbors and it was actually cool enough to eat outdoors.  I love Greenwood, Virginia!!! The event gave me a great excuse to pull out all my vintage tablecloths.

My sister had back surgery on Monday (here she is above on the left with our dear friend, Doris), and I cleaned her house and fixed a nice dinner for her the night before she left for the hospital. Then I came back to Richmond because this weekend I moved into my space at an antique mall!!!! Yay!
My dear friend, Patty Anne, helped me move stuff (thank you, friend!) and we hauled two truckloads of stuff to my little booth - Space 14 - at West End Antiques here in Richmond.   It's small, but it's mine.  Here it is......

This required me to finally finish up a bunch of half-completed projects.....like this pair of french cane back chairs that I just revamped.........

 And this silly little end table I painted in a folk artsy style......

(I still have 16+ chairs in my garage to redo, but, well, that will have to wait for another day.)

I just finished this HUGE window seat cushion, bolsters and pillows for my client, Roz.  I'm not kidding, this cushion was longer than the width of my dining room!!!!!!!!!!

Then, there's the typical dumpster diving revamps that I'm always tackling cuz I walk every morning through the alleys of the city and am always finding incredible stuff that I just can't leave behind... Like these awesome fold up chairs...


I painted them in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP...you'll see that abbreviation a lot in my blogs!!), one in Greek Blue, the other in Provence........and they are already in my booth!

I'm working on a kitchen revamp for my client, Daisey, who needed a kitchen island......I spotted this maple console table at a local thrift shop...

With a little sanding, staining of the top, and painting the legs and base in ASCP Old White and Duck Egg Blue, here is what it looked like:

 It's going to provide lots of additional storage with baskets on that bottom shelf.  It's already been delivered and now lives in Daisey's kitchen!...which is good because of late, it's been really difficult to walk in my house.

Next up, I found this great old maple vintage chair at a Goodwill.  I love chairs like this because they are easy to recover, and because the wide arms are so user friendly........

I painted the base in ASCP Old White, and reupholstered the cushions in this wonderful bird cage print in chartreuse and fuscia I purchased at UFab....

I LOVE THIS CHAIR......but I think it's going to be for sale soon at my booth!!!!!! As soon as there's space for it. (If you're interested in purchasing it, let me know. it's $325.)

 And here's a chair a client wanted reinvented................

I gave the frame a two tone paint job with lots of sanding and a stain overlay, and rebuilt and covered the seat in this awesome linen fabric with sealife motifs.......

I added a little starfish on the chair back..........

 Love these curley-cue arms............

Next up, Ladies and gentlemen, is this wonderful old coffee table I'm getting ready to reinvent........

Stay tuned for a reveal!!!!!!!!!!!
So in case you're wondering, THAT'S where I've been.
(How does Miss Mustard Seed do all this and still blog every day????)

Thanks for reading!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Miracle of Paint!!! Oak Laminate Cabinet Makeover

I know you've seen 'em before and probably lived with them a time or two in  your lifetime.........those oak laminate cabinets you see everywhere........the ones that are indestructible but U G L Y.
I want to show you what can be done with them! Yes, you CAN reinvent them!!!!!!! Take a walk with me...
Here we are at Sharon's rental apartment......The kitchen has...yep....those oak laminate cabinets.........She is fixing up the apartment for a new rental and wants to know if anything can be done here.  The contractor wants to replace them....to the tune of $1500...........SheShe says, "NO!!!! Let me at 'em!"

Bottom cabinets:  Note the lack of detail.no dimension, no hardware, just flat laminate.

 Here are the top cabinets...more of the same...

 This big hole drives me nuts.............I'm sure it was made for a microwave, but there is none........Surely we can come up with a better use of space here....

 Here's the granite Sharon had picked out.  Quite tasty........

 I saw this in a magazine and sent it to Sharon as reference....for approach...She was all over it and said, "Yes! Have your way with it!"  I love that kind of client!

 So I had my way!!!!!!!
First, the really hard work.........I washed all the cabinets down, and then primed everything with a shellac based primer.

 All the doors were removed, and the fronts and backs were primed as well.

 And after a weekend of work, here's Sharon's new rental kitchen!!!

 I painted the base cabinets in a navy blue.

 And the upper ones in a khaki.

 I found these awesome Martha Stewart vintage inspired pulls at Home Depot, along with the basic satin nickel knobs.

 I love the look of open shelves, so I used a shelf I had in my garage, cut it down, and installed it above the sink to fill the empty space.

 I used the navy paint for a wood accent and this little mirror I literally found on top of a trashcan in my alley...(Yes, I'm a dumpster diver and I'm proud of it!)

 Sharon loved how everything was looking, but a new problem arose: "Now I have to replace the ugly ceiling fan 'cuz it sticks out like a sore thumb."  SheShe said, "NO!!! I'll paint it!"

 I removed the blades, painted them navy, and added new glass lamps from Lowes.  Instant remodel!!!! Now it perfectly complements the cabinetry in the new kitchen.

 Okay. one last revisit:

 And after a little SheShe magic:

Sometimes making do with what you have versus buying new is just the right thing to do........New contractor grade cabinets would have looked like...a contractor grade kitchen.  But now, Sharon has a designer kitchen!  Ralph Lauren, eat your heart out!

Get Scrap Happy!!!!! Using Fabric Scraps for Reupholstery

Yikes, it's been a while since my last blog post.  What can I say, a girl's gotta work when she can;)  I've been busy with many projects, and lots of sewing projects lately......and I wanted to share with you some of my creations that I've pieced together from cast off chairs and lots of fabric scraps.......

So usually when I complete a sewing project, I have a big box of scraps left....like this........too little for anything substantial but way too wonderful to throw away...........

Here's a chair I picked up at a yard sale. Cute lines....

 Great wood details  but the pink velour tufted upholstery is tired and dirty.

 Here's what it looks like after a new paint job and my fabric scraps.......

 I used my favorite furniture paint, Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint, in Versailles, and distressed and waxed.  Look how beautiful the detailing is now.........

 I used four different fabrics.  Love how this turned out! This is for sale at Greenwood Antiques.

 Next up, this chair I literally found in the alley in the trash.  It had a big hole in the caning, but again, it was sturdy and too good to throw away.  So I brought it home.....

 Here's what it looks like after it's rehab!!!!!!!! Fresh and one of a kind for sure!

 One of the fabrics I had used recently for a project had a wonderful medallion pattern, so i simply made padded pieces and attached them to the front and back to stabilize and hide the hole. Then I painted the cane in Old White.....

 And used different colors to accentuate the details in the wood frame. I pieced together a paisley print for the seat and used a green houndstooth for the piping........

 And finally, here's a chair that a friend gave me..........in need of a little rehab for sure......

 Nice carving in the wood, but icky finish and dated tapesty fabric...and in need of a little leg repair.

 And here it is after a couple of weeks hanging around me! I painted the frame of course, in my typical distressed finish, reattached the leg, and then used an assortment of linens to reupholster.....

 For the seat and arms I used some pieces of this wonderful coral/sealife patterned linen I picked up at Williams & Sherrill.

I covered the back in a pleated oatmeal linen, edged in gimp.

 I used a ruffled edging around the chair front/seat, and bronze nailhead trim around the armpads.

 Finally I made a pillow out of more remants.  Can't you just see this in a beach or river home??? For sale at Cabell House.  Kitty NFS.  Go out there and get scraphappy, folks!