Midcentury Makeover Misery

As you havd probably noticed, I haven't been doing much in the way of miniatures during the last few weeks.  The reason is that I decided to redecorate our real life living room. 

Several months ago, I found a great sofa and chair from Crate and Barrel on Craigslist.  The sofa is a charcoal grey and my living room is earth tones...dark orange, green, dark yellow etc.  Anyway to make a long story short, I painted the walls a light grey and added some turquoise pillows to the sofa and put our bright orange chair in the corner.  Now, there is a blank spot and we decided putting another chair in the corner would be great.  I found a fab midcentury modern chair again on Craigslist for $20.00!  Score!  It needed new upholstery, some foam and a little work on the legs.

As usual, I got in a hurry and didn't take the proper before pictures.  But you can get an idea of what the chair looked like before.  The lines of the arms are wonderful as is the finish.

  The deconstruction.  There was a lot of dust and dry rot.  But the bones are great.

 The chair skeleton.......

 

Then it happened!  My husband decided to clean out the garage today and asked my to move the van so he could blow out all the dust and debris with the blower.  I put the van in reverse and....crunch!!!!!  I ran over one of the arms of the chair and totally split the wood.

 

 I was in tears!!!! I've already put a bunch of time in the reconstruction of this chair and have spent many hours scouring Indianapolis and the internet for a great upholstery fabric (which I have yet to find because the fabric shops in the Indianapolis area for a lack of a better word suck!)

 

 Nevermind my foot...

 

Here is the arm right now.  It doesn't look too bad in the photo, but part of the wood actually got crushed and is probably unrepairable.  We will see how it looks tomorrow after the glue is completely dry.  My husband actually suggested that I could fill in the missing wood with wood putty and paint it.....NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!  That's NOT going to happen! He seems to think it's salvageable.  I'll let you know what happens.

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Modern Bath

 The bath tub is a dish from Crate and Barrel.  The towel rack is a ring holder by Umbra.  The plant by the window is a gift from Mandy at Mini Modern Mind.  The storage unit is Brinca Dada, the art above the tub is a greeting card, the rug is a sample from The Shade Store.   The towels are cut up baby wash cloths from the dollar store.  The screen, vanity, mirror and bath tub faucet are by me. The rest of the accessories are various online purchases.

 

Recently(about a month ago), I made this vanity to sell on Etsy, but I decided to keep it because the wood chipped while I was cutting it on the table saw and I had to fill in the chipped spots. Unfortunately, the wood putty that I used didn't match the wood very well. It has a 1/4" plexiglass top that is painted white on the bottom.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but it has a nice effect. The mirror is made from strips of plywood glued together and sanded smooth.

Minismodernas Entry

The Minismodernas Second Annual Modern Contest Entry:

 

 

 

The silver pouf is from In The Twelfth Scale on Etsy, Artwork above the fireplace is a magnet from The Shopping Sherpa, The sofas are Bozart Kaleidoscope House, The coffee table base is Warren Richardson purchased on Ebay, The blue vase is from Megan's shop from Modern Mini Houses, The hot tub is from DHE Minis, The Cyclone dining table is from Minismodernas, the dining chairs are CB2 ornaments painted silver, The area rug is a free sample from The Shade Store. The clock is from Lilu Shop on Etsy, The towel rack is a ring holder from Umbra, The fireplace, lamps, pillows, metal shelf, bar, steps and driftwood sculpture are by me.

From House of Miniatures to House of Modern

Back to minis!  Several months ago, HBS had a sale on some House of Miniatures dollhouse furniture kits...they were $1.00 each so even with the shipping, they were a super deal.  I bought them primarily because they were cheap and I figured I could alter them to make them more modern or sell them.  The other day I decided to see what I could do with one of the kits.

 This is the kit I started with, a very traditional chest of drawers.

 This is what I made with the kit. They seem to fit together quite nicely and the wood is nice and smooth, there wasn't much sanding that needed to be done.  I only had to cut a few new parts such as the legs and one of the tops.
 

 I used some of my free laminate samples for the drawer fronts.

I really like the textures.

 

These are the left over pieces from the kit.

 

(Let me know if anyone wants the left overs, I'd hate for them to go to waste)

It's amazing how much a few parts and some paint can make a piece of furniture look so different. Stay tuned for more kit transformations.  I've already started two more!

Mini-Life

I haven't really done anything with miniatures since I got back from the Tom Bishop show in Chicago...So, what have I been doing?  I've been busy working on real life stuff.  It does include miniatures in a way.

 

I've been working on making my work room more efficient.  I simply have too much stuff crammed in a little space. Not to mention that this is a converted attic space and the walls are actually only 4 feet tall then it all slopes to a point at 8 feet in the center of the room.  So, I really don't have much wall space.

 

 There is also no air conditioning in this room.  See that behemoth by the shelves?  That's a portable air conditioner.  It's typically over 90 degrees in this room in the summer, so the portable A.C. is a must!

 

 It got to a point where the only place I could work is on the floor.  Needless to say, the carpeting was quickly getting trashed.

 

 So, I decided on a whim to tear out all of the carpeting and replace it with vinyl flooring. That's my girl Lucy peeking through the door.

 

Here is it in it's current state.  It still needs a lot of organizing, but at least I don't have to sit on the floor and messes are much easier to clean up.

 

Then, if that isn't enough...I decided to start tearing up our screened in porch.  Use your imagination...a dark green ceiling, dirty tan outdoor carpeting, tan walls and brown furniture.  It's not very inviting is it? (I forgot to take before pictures).

 

Here it is now...

 Bright and happy!

 

 We painted the ceiling and all the walls white and the French doors and blades on the ceiling fan are bright orange.

 

I love how the floor turned out!  I painted it lime green and then stenciled the blue.  Then applied five coats of water based floor polyurethane.

 

Now, we are just waiting for the weather to warm up again so we can have a barbecue!

 

So, I guess that will give me some mini time.  I'm having withdraw symptoms and need a little mini fix!

Swap with Mandy!

Swaps, swaps and more swaps!

Not too long ago Mandy Vlak of Modern Mini Mind was looking for advise on how to make a modern kitchen.  So, I offered to do a swap with her.  I would make her a kitchen set and she would make something for me...and did she ever!

Of course, I did not do the "customary" thing and open one each day....does anyone really do that?  It would have taken me a week to open all of these!

 She basically showered me in wonderful accessories and food!

 Mmmmmmm...ice cream!

Orange!, My favorite color!

Thanks Mandy!!! I can't wait to put these to use!

Here is what I sent to Mandy:

I made her this kitchen set complete with bar stools, pots and pans and some colorfully filled jars. The bar stools are actually made by Avi from Mini Models on Etsy.  I bought several of them for the HBS Creating Contest, but ended up not using them.