A Little French Zebra

A year ago I posted about the painted lady, a tall white dresser that took a walk on the wild side.

You can read about that redo here. 

My daughter fell on love with the painted lady and begged me to keep her. Not only keep her but redesign a whole room around her. Of course there were other rules I had to follow with the room to. It not only had to be zebra to match the dresser but it also had to have Paris in it. She absolutely refused to let me take out her vintage four poster bed that she "helped" me redo when she was in preschool. There had to be a place for her dog, her books and a desk. The desk HAD to be a secretary and had to have a place for her to put her magic potions and fairy dust. Oh yea, she also wanted a chandelier. 

Kids are so much harder to work with once they have an opinion of their own...

Chloe's room is really tiny and hard to put furniture in. To get the most floor space for her the best place for her bed is to have it's side pushed up under the window at the far end of the room. To give you an idea of how small the room is, with her bed pushed sideways up against the wall, centered under the window, there is less then a two foot gap between the wall and her twin sized bed on either end. I really, really wanted to do a built in daybed here. No way, she said. I'm keeping my bed.

 

GRRRRR

 

So the challenge was how to get the built in look I wanted but let her keep her beloved four poster shabby chic bed.

 

The solution:

 

Please excuse the white balance here, it was taken at night with just the overhead lighting.



 

To get the look of a built in daybed I attached a wall to wall valance to the ceiling, hung cutens from either end, and a small plug in chandler from the ceiling above the bed. For the valance the fabric was stapled to a 1x1x8 board that was then screwed into the ceiling with drywall screws. The sides were folded in and then stapled directly to the walls. The trim was put on using double sided fabric tape. One of her favorite parts of a four poster bed was being able to drape it with fabric and create bed 'forts' with it. Did I forget to mention that was also one of the things I had to put into this room?

 

 

Behind the valance the curtains are hung using a wire and wire clips that slide across the wire. This lets Chloe close her bed curtains and hide out in her bed. I often find her bed this way with a couple giggling girls in it when she has friends in it.

 

 

 

Close up of valance trim, Chloe picked out two different trims, you know, cuz one would have been to easy.

 

There are a few other secrets in this room. Remember I had to have a place for the dog? We used a roll out drawer we picked up from IKEA a few years ago. Chloe used to use it to keep toys under her bed. It has been painted and repurposed into a dog bed. She loves having a place for her dog to sleep in her room at night, but able to put the bed away for extra floor space during the day.

 



My dog Lilly is 'borrowing' Daisy's bed, she HAS to be where I am and she might as well be comfortable while I take photos.

 

Now take a look at the room photo at the top, and compare it to the photo with the dog bed. See the artwork behind the bed? It's her roller shade. I used a sharpie marker and drew this zebra right on the shade. When pulled down it looks like there is framed artwork above her bed instead of window, but when she needs more light in the room she simply pulls the 'artwork' and lets the sun shine in.

It was months before I could find a secretary within my budget. When I finally found one it was in rough cosmetic shape and Chloe hated it. Once it was painted though she decided she loved it.

The shelves hold little apothecary bottles with dragon scales, fairy dust, and potions. (glitter, sequence, and food coloring) 

To keep with our 'hidden suprises' we decided to pop the inside of the desk with a bright pink.

 

She has a little shelf behind the head board end of her bed to put her cell phone, glasses and what ever else the little eccentric thinks she needs. We plan on hanging more shelves or maybe a book shelf on the foot board side of her bed, but haven't gotten to that yet. For now the many books are taking over the drawers of the desk, so this is something I need to get to soon!

 

So there you have it, the gone wild eccentric room of a 10 year old girl the painted lady has moved into.

 

I Must Be Nuts

 

When I started working on this chair I didn't realize how hard it was going to be. Once I pulled all the fabric off I realized the back of the chairs must have originally have been caned. There was a deep grove where the caning would have gone and the back of the chair wood was extremely hard. It took me hours to get the staples out, and I had to order a pneumatic staple gun to get them back in!

 

 

I do think it turned out rather well but it should never have been my first upholstery job! It was just way to hard and very discouraging.

 

I used an old pecan bag for the chair back and tea stained a drop cloth for the seat.

 

 

 

I used the lower half of the bag for the back side of the chair

 

 

 

I have three more of these chairs and three more - all different - sacks, however I might tackle something simpler before I come back to the rest of these chairs! 

 

 

 

The Difference Between Husbands & Wives

I'm not talking about the obvious differences. :) I'm talking creative/decorating differences. My husband and I only have one big difference really. I like things to be pretty, clean and organized. He likes things to be functional and doesn't really care what they look like.

 This is the current object of my discontent.

My husband NEEDS this because he likes his keys to be hanging just inside the door where he can reach them. I can't tell you how many times I have taken it off the wall and had it magically reappear. I don't know how someone made something so small but that so easily hit my biggest pet peeve button. The name of this should not be "key and mail organizer" - it should be "The Clutter Displayer"

So this was my latest solution:

I picked it up for $6.00 at an estate tag sale. I adore everything about it. The color, the rusty wornness of it, and I love that it's former utilitarian use was an old dust pan. It has history. My all about the function husband says he doesn't like to dig for the keys he wants. *sigh* On the bright side it's still hanging on the wall and the clutter display is still gone, but I am keeping my eyes open for another more husband friendly option for keys.

Today's yard sale find list, most of these things will be featured in upcoming projects & will be posted later.

Cabinet/shelf  - .50¢ (this might turn into the new key holder)
White twin bed skirt - .75¢
Southern lady - $3.00
Wicker bowl/holder thingy $4.00
Round Table $4.00
Side table with drawer $5.00

Another yard sale find hard at work

I found this little Holly Hobbie cradle a few weeks ago at a yard sale. I left it just as I found it, even with the cutter quilt laying inside it, then put it to work on the studio floor.

Little baby "E" fit just perfect!

Rain Rain Go Away

It just won't stop raining! By the time I was getting around to getting things set up on Friday unexpected guests popped over, by the time they left it looked like a storm was brewing & it's rained everyday since. So I have not had a chance to use my new sprayer yet. I have so much work that needs to be done outside that it's making me crazy. So crazy that I am making more work for me to do inside!

Here's what I have been working on. I forgot to take before photos but I can do a before of the sneak peak because I found this fabulous vintage print at a yard sale for .75¢ and snapped a photo of it as soon as I put it on the wall.

The walls were a dark blue with a hint of gray tones. Then because it rained my walls looked like this for a day.

And this is the same wall and the same fabulous vintage print after I pulled the tape down. The white is West Highland White from SW and the Grey is Reflection also from SW, both in a satin finish.

I planned on repainting that shelf before I put it back on the wall, but then that would require it to stop raining.

Here is a close up of my print.

Anyone out there know the name of it? It's very old, in the original frame, with an old wood back and square nails. It has a bit of metallic sheen to it that you can see where the sun was reflecting off it. I was going to remove it from the frame and clean the inside of the glass, but it's so fragile I'm afraid of damaging it.

Guess what I got today!!!

The Wagner power painter max with optimus!! On sale for $114 at Menard's and a $25 rebate!!!! I was going to the store to pick get the Wagner that's one step below this one but with that deal it ended up being the same price as the small one was normally. That's the price I had budgeted for so I got the big one! LOL

Now I would love to stay and chat but I have a new toy to go play with!!!

My $40 Craig's List Desk

I got on Craig's list today and saw this!

It was advertised as $40 and had been redone and new hardware added. I would have preferred they left it alone and kept the original hardware, but the shape of a kidney shape desk is just sooooo cool! So I had to have it.

Here's my noob problems with it though. The former owner was a bigger noob then I was. She painted black paint over existing white paint. She did not sand, degloss or prime. The black is pealing off like a bad sunburn. The black is also painted over where there is a lot of detailed carvings. How do I get the paint out of those tiny grooves? Also what's your fav products to use to strip paint?