Painting and Pricing and Worn Out!

I'm running out of time to get things prepped for the new booth (if the previous dealer vacates on time, I'll move in the day after tomorrow).  I've spent the past several weeks sorting and pricing items and painting furniture from the barn.  Mr. KV is really excited, hoping that the 'hoarder's heaven' in the barn will retreat and we'll be able to see the walls again.  I'm not so sure, but I don't want to burst that bubble of hope, so I don't tell him.  I know that more will arrive to take its place (I have NO idea how it gets there...)!

The barn, before...

The girls don't care what I do, as long as I don't start storing stuff in their coop

My side of the garage is full of tables, shelves and chests of drawers in various stages of being painted.  I've been making my own chalk paint, which I don't think is quite as nice as the commercial brands, but it's so much less expensive!  I shop the 'oops' bin at Home Depot every time I go and usually find some interesting colors in their small sample sizes, which are just the right amount for a batch of chalk paint.

Waiting to be painted (not the white cabinets -- they're great just as they are)

I'm getting Christmas stuff ready for the new booth.  This choir boy is one of my favorites, along with the home-made porch candles.  

The white bench needs a top and I just have to choose which vintage fabric or barkcloth I can give up.  I hate to ever cut them and give them away -- I'm such a fabric junkie!

making progress

These two turquoise pieces will be mod podged with some map pages.  I'm not finished with them yet, so the 'after' pictures are still to come.  I'm really having fun doing things with maps and globes!

The two-tone drawers on this little chest REALLY bother me, but the green is great!  Why would anyone leave just two drawers and the knobs unpainted?  They must have been getting in touch with their artistic side....  I looked into getting a complementary green for the opposite drawers, but it ended up costing too much to make it worthwhile for resale.  Instead, I found a perfect shade in a sample size to match the green and am going to paint just the two odd drawers (but not the knobs).  I might paint the knobs antique white, but I'll probably end up leaving them alone.

Mr. KV and I will be moving things into the new booth Saturday morning (Lord willing and the other dealer moves out...)  One thing we're taking in is a mid-century metal office desk that we've had all of our married life (37 years...).  Neither one of us can remember where we got it, but we know it was when we were newlyweds and one of our offices remodeled, so we got it for free.  It's so cool -- seafoam green with a formica top and all the style of the 60s.  It's in near-mint condition, even though we've moved it to 5 states.

I'll post pictures of the booth next week when the dust settles.  There might even be a barn picture where you can see the walls, but don't count on it!

New Life for an Old Table

I found this table by the side of the road back in November, 2010.  It had been raining and I'm sure the table was there a few days, because all the veneer on the cutwork sides was separated and the table was in rough shape.  It was really solid, though, and built with the care that things used to be made with back in the day, before we starting throwing out instead of fixing up.

I actually began working on this the summer after I picked it up.  I toyed with the idea of recreating the cutwork on my scroll saw, but in the end, I just removed it and filled in the 'trough' where it was set into the table.  I was prepared to replace the veneer, but didn't have to -- it held tight, in spite of being left in the rain.  The only part I really had to replace was the drawer bottom, which was too warped to flatten out and fit back into its grooves.

Then life got in the way -- the day job, the Etsy shop and booth at Livingston Antique Outlet, along with a wedding at our house last year -- and I didn't get back to the table until a few weeks ago.

Here's what it looked like when I took it to the mall last week.  The pictures aren't the best, but I actually almost forgot to take an 'after' shot!

I used homemade chalk paint and CeCe Caldwell's soft wax on it.  I added a pair of vintage glass knobs, since one of the original knobs was missing.  I think it turned out pretty well.  I wish I'd distressed it a little more, but I'm always afraid of going too far.