Painted Chic Furniture

Today so many furniture makers are featuring painted, distressed, chic furniture! And I too love this. When a distressed piece is mixed in with my original antiques it's the look I want now!

Reclaiming a scratched and nicked (in used condition) chest with paint is a joy but also hard work! (It's like the "Oh Yeah" feeling a teacher has when that ~hesitant~ child finally learns the concept you are trying soooooo hard to teach!)

First, the piece must be good! By this I mean sturdy, preferably solid wood, without too much damage. Then deciding what and how to refurbish it takes some thought. (sometimes my first attempt does not end in the results I want!) I try to rely on others' advice and experience for some of this but more often just trying a technique with mistakes and all will give me the look I want.


Sharing photos of painted, distressed, chic furniture of others handiwork...


Hand-painted flowers, lovely!

Glass knobs, too cute!

Like the color!

I'll share more photos of my friend and me experimenting refurbishing furniture later!!


Have a Blessed Day!! And see ya down the junkin' road!!
Jan


(Share your stories of painting!)

I've Got That Nesting Feeling, Ohhhhh!!

Ideas come from everywhere...reading magazines, blogs; shopping furniture stores, antique markets; flea, yard and estate sales! We are looking for ways (and often cheap cost saving ways!) to make our home and spaces more comfortable, more desirable!

This time of year, spring, brings that feeling out in me!


As you know I have a "spot" in the Chelsea Antiques' & Decorator's Mall. I've loved shopping there even before I moved in! You can find some great stuff to decorate your home and garden!



Can't you see the words "DO EAT" on a wall in your breakfast area? It would make for quite the conversation starter and maybe, just maybe, encourage kids to try new foods!

Have a Blessed Day!! And see ya down the junkin' road!!
Jan


(Visited any new spots lately? Share with us & leave a comment!)

If These Walls Could Talk...

Being an educator and a history buff as well as a junkin' girl the old architecture of the hotel captured my imagination!

The Shelby Hotel was first constructed in 1863 in Shelby County, Alabama in a thriving industrial center. "Horace Ware had built at his furnace at Shelby a large rolling mill with a capacity of twelve tons of heavy and small-sized finished bar iron. This was the first and parent rolling mill plant for Alabama...the beginning of an era in her history as an iron manufacturing state." (excerpt from Ethel Armes Book)


The old wavy glass windows...

The mill became a major supplier of Confederate iron. It was destroyed in 1865 by the Union troops of General Emory Upton's Division of Wilson's Cavalry Corps.


The hotel was totally destroyed by fire in 1898 and rebuilt in 1900.

In an advertisement for the Shelby Hotel in 1915 it stated "everything new electric lighted with hot and cold baths, and running water in every room!

It has been reported that President Theodore Roosevelt spent the night at the hotel. ("Wonder which room?" my friend asks)

"The food was fine!" reported a Mr. B. Runnel, "with at least eight passenger trains making a stop."

Oh yes, if these walls could talk...the stories they could tell...who else spent the night here, who danced the night away, who still walks these halls late at night?!! Ummmmm, something to think about!


The area is being renovated and I applaud those involved in the historic reconstruction, reclaiming reminders of our past!



Have a Blessed Day!! And see ya down the junkin' road!!
Jan

(Do you have historic buildings in your area too? Leave a comment!)

WHIMSY

Whimsy, noun.
meaning: playfully quaint or fanciful behavior or humor.

My friend says "Everyone needs a little whimsy in their life!" And that is sooooo true! Think about it?! (tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock...)
Okay, long enough...


Take for example these cute little plates with the coolest sayings...
(I know, Cool? Well what is the perfect word?!)

girls love... and each plate has a different ending... a great sale, girls night out, to be pampered. Now, I ask you girls, cool sayings or what?!!


I grouped these plates with some more whimsical items that will set off any spring or summer party...watermelons

Now isn't that the cutest whimsical frog?!


(I apologize for the photo cutting off part of the sign... "welcome to paradise")


This bit of whimsy along with the black distressed stepback shelf is available at my "spot" in Encore Resales!



Have a Blessed Day!! And see ya down the junkin' road!!
Jan

(Leave a comment and tell me about some of your "fanciful behavior or humor")

Birds of a Feather...Living on the Lake

No junkin' today for my friend and me! We could not resist this "BEA U ti ful" weather and decided to do some much needed yard work!

Tired ( exhausted is more to the point!) but satisfied late this afternoon my friend and me took a little cruise on the water. I want to share with you some of the birds that call our lake home. (at least part of the year)

Of course the geese: (such a commanding presence but soooooo messy...watch your step!)

These mallards came right up to our boat...

"I Am saying 'cheese'..."

"We can play, Duck, Duck, Goose..."

And a final good bye to us...

"Well, I've never, you old coot..." This year we've had a large ('too many', my friend says) population of coots...

Their takeoff is truly a feat...looks like their running on water before flight!

"Hey, don't ya leave me! I'm trying..."

See the foot on the water...

And our favorite...the osprey! So majestic in flight...

Each year the nest is built here on this channel marker. Today we were lucky to get both male and female on the nest...

Look closely to see the flight of other birds in the distance...

A lot of chattering going on between the two...and a warning look at us!

Life is good!



Have a Blessed Day!! And see ya down the junkin' road!!
Jan

(I love reading your comments! Thanks!)