Ooooooooooh!

My wee L'Amour telephone table is on Design Sponge today! (All your fault Claire...)

Go Look!

If anybody happens by from there, let them know that all my other recons are just over there on the right, in my sidebar, won't you...?

A Group Of Crows Is Called A Murder.

..so what is a cupboard with crows on it called?!

Do you remember when I scored me some FREE oppy furniture?

Well, it’s been sitting around, mocking me, for ages, and so, after the L’Amour table, armed with a whole lot of white paint – I decided to fix the cupboard.

Here was the beast before:

And after:

Now. Nothing much went right with this, but that’s okay. All the things that went wrong made for a cupboard that I like just right.

The crows – were never meant to be. I didn’t envision them, have a theme in mind or anything, they happened from necessity. I sanded back as much of the icky brown muck as I could & set about painting everything. On the second coat I noticed teeny tiny holes in one of the doors – some sort of little creature had burrowed in there at some point. I know you are able to fix this with some sort of wood filler & sanding again, but I was on my second coat of paint and, let’s face it, I’m lazy. I just kept going.

Painting the top/lid I noticed that there were 3 massive cracks along one side. Bugger. I kept going.

I wondered what to do about the holes & the cracks. “No wonder it was free” I mumbled to myself “What do I have in copious amounts that I could use to cover these up?”

The answer of course, was buttons, buttons, buttons & I thought I was onto something until I placed some over the holes to see what they looked like & they didn’t look good, at all. It was a look akin to seashells stuck in putty on a vegemite jar & called a vase.

Then I thought a decal would cover them – yes! Yet I was surprisingly decal-less. Instead I printed out some crow silhouettes on photo paper & cut ‘em out. The wee ones are doing a spiffing job of flying over the little holes, and the big ones on the lid are sitting pretty on the cracks – just like they are meant to be there, in my opinion.

The next things I had trouble with were the handles. The hardware shop didn’t have what I wanted (black) so I came home & painted the little mouldings at the end of the old handles black.

I like it, obviously. The Boy doesn’t. I want to kick him. But I won’t.

The End.

L'Amour Chair - Recon.

(I've called it the L'Amour Chair (Not to be confused with a love seat - don't think you'd get two people on here!) because the fabric I used for the seat is from a pack of Moda L'Amour I picked up from the Craft Hope for Haiti shop.... Excuse the terrible photos - paint dried overnight & my pics this morn could have used A LOT more light...)

Before: $10 from Le Oppy. (A bit expensive but I liked it because it wasn't your usual telephone table...)

After: A splash of enamel paint & a some new fabric for the cushion.

Storybook Drawers

Since soon (SOON!) we shall be moving & going from “copious amounts of built in wardrobes” to “…..”, we have had to find some drawers & things for holding our clothes. Well, Punky’s at the very least, because if I’m honest, MY clothes spend more time languishing on the floor than anywhere else.

These drawers cost me $8 at the oppy.

 

I used two old kid’s storybooks for the main part, carefully selecting the best pages of course, and yellow enamel paint for the drawers. These photos were taken before “the incident” which has left one of the drawers rather disfigured – it will need fixing but can wait until it really, really, really gets on my nerves. (*sigh* I’ll fix it today…)

What do we think?

Bright & funky for a little Punky?!

Q: What is better than $5 Opshop furniture….?

A: FREE Opshop furniture!

Oh. Yeah. It’s fair to say that these finds absolutely made my Monday morning! We were driving home yesterday when I asked The Boy to swing by the Oppy with the open garage – you can see any new furniture they have from the road – but I complained as I asked him “Not that there’ll be anything – and if there is it’ll be too expensive – the prices have gone nuts lately.” or some such whinge.

Past we go – I spot these lovelies with “FREE” plastered on them. Free! I squealed & made The Boy zoom around the roundabout & stop in front of the garage. I run in (one of the rare times I would run) & hover around the cabinet, perusing it’s lovely oldness & in particular, it’s rather fetching freeness. Was I too late….? There was a lady there already – talking to an Opshop worker. Looking at the furniture. My furniture.

“$10 to get it delivered?” She asked the worker. She nodded. She pondered a little longer. I start hopping around, in spite of myself, like I was in desperate need to go to the loo. A physical manifestation of the thoughts in my head “Hurry up & walk away lady!”. She did. I pounced on the poor Opshop worker; “Did I just hear you could deliver these for $10?!”, yep yep!

I am beyond happy. A new furniture project… better than that – two new furniture projects! The cabinet is way cool, the top unlocks (it still has all it’s keys!) & lifts up, I can imagine it’s past life housing an array of shimmering jewels… and the dressing table – how awesome is that mirror?!

Oh Op Shop.. How Do I Love Thee?

...let me count the ways!

• I love how you are so unpredictable, two days are never alike with you!
• I love all of your special treasures, just waiting for me to find them...
• I love your beautiful staff, who almost always go out of their way to assist.
• I love how affordable your wares are... most of the time!
• I love how you invoke memories, without even trying.
• I love how you provide so much that goes toward making new memories.
• I love rummaging around in your piles of stuff.
• I love finding things that I would never buy, wear or use, just to know that such things exist.
• I love your surprises....

• I love mustard coloured chairs that cost $5.

• I love that said chair has already become Punky's firm favourite.
• I love that I didn't realise until I got it home that it reclines.... bonus!

• I love vintage table & chair sets that cost $50.
• I love how sturdy & solid old furniture is...!
• I love how I can now relegate our dodgey, wobbly, IKEA table to the back room (more space for crafting...!).
• I love how it only cost an extra $5 for two LOVELY old gentlemen to deliver everything, immediately.

• I love how I was able to find all these treasures & squirrel them away early - before the torrents of rain started, and the wind ramped up it's hurricane efforts...