Before and After

I bought this "french" chair at an auction a few years ago for $20. It was a dark wood color and had a gold and green velvet upholstered seat. I loved the lines, and had previously had covered it myself in a lime green fabric. With my new living room I though it would fit perfectly with just a few changes.
I painted the wood using a metallic paint in titanium. (You can buy this color at Hobby Lobby, the jar is small but it goes a long way). The fabric was a remnant I purchased at Rio Bravo in down town Mcallen for $8 ( a little pricey for a remnant but it was too pretty to pass up). I just added some batting and staple gunned the new fabric over the old upholstery for a very quick fix.

New Furniture = New Living Room Arrangement

With the arrival of my new furniture pieces, I needed to re-work my living once again. I ended up shifting everything around and positioning the pieces on different walls. Below is what I have a come up with thus far. I am still a little stuck on what accessories to place on the coffee table....

Pelmet Box

I am not completely sure how you pronounce Pelmet, but as a fellow blogger once commented everything sounds better in french, or at least pronounced with a french accent. Anyway..... I got this idea from one of my favorite blogs Little Green Notebook
I didn't follow her directions exactly (which translates into I am waiting for it to come crashing down at any moment). But until it does, I think it turned out pretty well, and adds a little extra pizazz to my dining room.



The foam board cut and taped in the design I selected.



The finished product.

For a full step by step tutorial, check out Little Green Notebook.

New Living Room

I was waiting to post these pictures until I could find where I put the before photo, but thanks to my Mom's plug (said with a sarcastic tone) on her blog White Spraypaint I didn't want to keep anyone waiting too long.

I purchased these 3 pieces at an antique store in downtown Harlingen. They were in pretty bad shape to begin with, so I got them for an incredible price (at least I think it was an incredible price) $150.

With the help of my parents I hauled all the pieces back to Mcallen and immediately dropped them off at Garcia's Upholstery (Its a hole in the wall place just south of downtown on old 83). I dumped all the pieces, told Mr. Garcia I was in nooooo hurry, and went on a quest to find fabric.

I stumbled upon the linen(esque) light blue fabric in the clearance section at Hancock's, and haggled down the price to $4 dollars a yard. (the haggling part is a long story for another time).

Now for the trim, it was impossible to find a trim that matched exactly and did not clash too much with the wood, or was sooo loud that it was all you saw. I finally decided on nailhead trim, and ordered 50 yards from diyupholsterysupply.com , check out there sight they have great stuff at reasonable prices.

Ok, long story long the finished results are below. And if you live in the RGV and need something recovered, I highly recommend Garcia's Upholstery, they do incredible work at a great price. See for yourself below.



I am still in the process of arranging my living room with the new pieces, and I will post pics when I have it completed.

The Birds

Every morning and evening I am greeted by the singing of birds outside my apartment. There is a small canal with tall grasses growing, where the birds congregate before going on there way. Well this afternoon the chirping was especially loud, and when I stepped out onto my balcony I was greeted with a frightening sight. Hundreds of birds had gathered, and I could only stay outside long enough to take a few pics and film the video below. I was afraid at any moment they would all come flying toward me just like a scene from the above named Alfred Hitchcock movie.

Yes all those black dots are birds!





A short video of how many there were and how LOUD they were!

Bye, Bye Martha

For those of you who still have K-mart in your area you may have noticed that they are putting all of their Martha Stewart on clearance. It seems her contract with them is ending and they are phasing her merchandise out while phasing a new line from Country Living (have you seen the furniture with nailhead AMAZING. And Jaclyn Smith has some really pretty home stuff as well, but that is another post). Anyway..... I bought a few things this weekend, that I thought were a really good deal.

I bought a pair of these mirrored lamps they were on clearance for $18, and the shade was included.


I also picked up these sconces and bookends.



I'm waiting for the pots and pans prices to go down a little more. I will definitely be making many a trip to K-Mart in the next few weeks.

Fabric, Fabric, Fabric

There is a area in Dallas called Harry Hines (since it happens to be along the Harry Hines road) where you can find wholesale jewelry, handbags and other miscellaneous items.It is also where the infamous Sam Moon is located. Harry Hines is very similar to Harwin in Houston (another area named after the street it runs along). When I lived in Dallas and now when I go back to visit I always make a trip to Harry Hines to shop at Ohm an accessory store and to go to the discount fabric stores.
It was at one of these fabric stores that I found the fabric below, which I used for my bedroom. This pattern was $4 a yard, for something that would probably be $25 at Hancock's or JoAnn's. I liked it soo much I went back to buy the rest of the bolt.


An up close shot of the pattern.


This summer, on a visit to Dallas I did my usual drive by of the stores on Harry Hines. This time I was on the lookout for some fabric to recover a couch and chair I had recently purchased at an antique store in Harlingen, TX (before and after pics to come soon).

I didn't find any fabric for my couch, but I did find some remnants that were too cheap to pass up.

Each of these pieces were on $2 a yard!


This pink and green had 9 yards left (not qite enough for my couch :(

This toile actually has a pale yellow background. For a brief moment was going to do the chair in the toile and the couch in the pink and green above, but alas not enough yardage for either.
And finally the piece de resistance. My favorite buy of the weekend, I would do an entire living room in this pattern! But they only had 5 yards @ $2/yard. I did do some investigating on the web and found it for $10/yard on a few sites, it is just soooo hard to pay $10 when you just paid $2, Don't ya think?

Re-Design

Over the past few months I have accumulated several really interesting pieces of furniture and chotchkes (sp?), that I had yet to incorporate into my home. So finally after a great shopping trip to Dallas and Canton, I forced myself to find a place for everything. This of course snowballed into a little re-design of my dining room and living room. (See previous post "My Apartment" for before pics).

I bought this bamboo looking table at the St. Vincent DePaul store in Dallas for $5.00!!!
It was originally a bright shiny ugly gold. I painted it silver using Rustoleum Aluminum, and then took it to a glass place to have a mirror fitted for the top.

New pink and orange chinese toile accents pillow, purchased for 1/2 off at world market.

I then decided to paint this table silver as well. It was really beat up and I think the silver camouflages some of the imperfections. I then added my new head, bought at Canton from the "Funky Junk" ladies, who were having a 1/2 off sale.

I had bought this shelf at Round Top in the spring, and painted it this turquoise color to give a little pop of color to the room, and fill up the odd corner space. The paint color is Mediterranean by Valspar.

The Dining Room.

I found this awesome mirror at TJ Maxx, there was only wall it would fit on so I had to rearrange my dining room just a little.

Blue/Gray panels $5 each at K-Mart. Please don't judge! I know they are wrinkled, I keep telling myself to dig out my steamer.....Someday.
I added my Round Top tables (still have a ways to go on their rehabilitation) to either side of the window, and place of few of my treasures on top to hide the imperfections.

Now I just need to work on my bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, and patio..........

Lamps

I like unique pieces for my home, and that certainly does not stop at my lamps. Right now I do not have a lot of room, and therefore do not need a lot of lamps, but I think the lamps I do have really make a statement.


This is part of a pair I bought in Warrenton during Round Top Antiques weekend. I think I paid $25 for the pair.



I found this at TJ Maxx, and fell in love. My one problem was did I need to have a pair of these lamps becasue a) it is huge and b) the price $50. After several long converstations with my mother and older sister, I bought just the one, and I am very happy with my decision.



Found this lamp at Stein Mart, I was really into coral (see previous post).


One of a pair that I found at Stein Mart, I really like the ginger jar look without them being sooo big and round.
Again one of a pair. I found just one of these lamps on a clearance table at Garden Ridge for $15. Because I wanted to have a pair, I set out to find one. I visited every Garden Ridge in the greater Houston area, and finally I think on the 4th or 5th Garden Ridge I found another lamp. It only cost me a few tanks of gas and maybe a hundred miles on my car, but it was well worth it.

Round Top Part II

I think I got some really interesting pieces this year. Some of the items are things I collect and others are just items that I thought were unique, and a good price.

Here are just some of the "smalls" I bought at Round Top.

I have been slowly building a collection of white pyrex or fireking mixing bowls, these two I found in a tent that was set up next to a house off of hwy 290. I paid just $10 for both.

I found this horse in Warrenton on a half price table. I am really starting build a collection of these ceramic horses, this is my 3rd horse purchase this year. I think I paid $10 for this blue beauty.


3 items in this pic; silver plate bowl with lion, huge amber beads, and an agate slice.

Bowl - $4, Amber beads $30, Agate slice - $4

And here is a close up of the lions head!


Gold and Black silhouettes - $15

Silver vases, these vases are ceramic with a metallic finish. I am going through a mercury glass phase and these vases really fit in with the look I am trying to achieve.

Vases $8 for both

And of course milk glass. I went in to this shopping trip saying I was "not going to buy any more milk glass". But these pieces were really unique, and I knew they would be great additions to my collection.

I found these botanical prints at an antique store in Carmine off of hwy 290. The booth's seller was closing shop and everything was %50 off. The sale price was $5 dollars each!

Round Top Part 1

This past weekend I headed to Round Top for the semi-annual antiques weekend. I met my mom, sister, and some good friends to spend way too much money, walk miles and miles until my entire body hurt, and have way too much fun.

On this particular trip I was not looking for anything specific, just some good deals and more items to add to my storage unit. Below are some of the larger pieces I purchased.

Gold shelf $20



Cursive L (is about a foot tall) $5

Planning on painting it black or turquoise and hanging it somewhere??



Small coffee table $12

And the best purchase of the weekend!!!!

DRUMROLL PLEASE

Italian gold leaf side tables (they are a little beat up, and are missing a few knobs but the price was too good to pass up). I was in Carmine checking out the local antique stores when I saw just one of these tables outside with this tag on it. Now to most people this would be a great price, but the piece did have some problems and I was debating whether or not I could save it. But then I saw that there was another matching table with the same tag on it. However, I was still struggling with my decision, so I went inside the antique store to ask the owner about the tables. She said that she was trying to get rid of them and would give me a deal. So I asked "what's the best price you can do" and she said "$50 bucks for both" and I said "Sold"!

With some gold leafing, two knobs and some TLC these table are going to look "AMAZING"



The next post will be of all the smalls I bought, and yes there are some milk glass pieces included.