antiques/junking – Page 10

Christmas tag books in the Boutique and a sweet wedding, at the BEST weekend

antiques/junking, Books, celebrations, friends, holiday decor, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper

By Karla Nathan / November 21, 2018

I'm still enjoying the bounty of paint pours from my creative binge this summer and am now using the pieces to make holiday tag books.

You can purchase them HERE, in the Boutique.

I seriously adore the technique and the look of the swirled paints. Acrylic flow painting is the BEST!

I'd gone with Beth to attend the wedding of The Other Karla's son in St Paul and brought crafty goods (including these painted tags) with me to play with in the hotel room, then found a bounty of beauties at a flea market on the way there.

Once I got started on making these, I couldn't stop. I was a bad friend and sent Beth out on her own to have lunch with her Minnesota nieces while I stayed in my jammies and made book after book after book that day, till it was time to get ready for the wedding.

Because- WOW- look at this paper I'd found!!!!! How could I leave it uncut, when I had all of these pretty, painted tags to make things with????

I'd also bought 1928-29 women's magazines from December with lots of helpful Christmas tips, along with an old book of hymms that included Christmas carols.

And stacks of holiday ephemera.

And did I mention that it was 13 degrees outside? And I'd driven through mini blizzards to get there. Yes, I was content to do hotel crafting in my jim jams and had a beautiful, wonderful, magical day.

It was the BEST.

Not only did I have a fab night with friends, then a day at a flea market on the way to the wedding, I had an entire day with the most magical of vintage supplies, topped off with a night of dancing and laughing til my sides hurt at the wedding.

Or did my sides hurt because I was way to old to dance that hard and that long?

Either way, it was a perfect weekend. Laughter, road trips, making things, attending a lovely wedding. Yep, the BEST.

I had never met Karla's son, but soon realized he was a catch. His wife won my heart quickly too, when she told us about the family tradition of using this vintage cake topper.

Karla made ribbon wands that were waved in the air when the couple entered the reception, and soon we were all dancing and waving them around out on the floor. Not only were they pretty to see flying about, but they had magical properties.

When we twirled them about, we were FANTASTIC dancers. We were the BEST.

And personally, I can't dance and have less rhythm than, well, I can't actually think of anything or anyone with less skill on the dance floor than I have.

Between the laughing and the ribbon wands, my dancing skills suddenly became amazing. Everyone's did.

Yep, it was the BEST.

A rare find- never ending rolls of old wallpaper on a junking day!

antiques/junking, Books, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / March 16, 2018

Beth and I had a morning out at estate sales and the Old West Bottoms antique district, and while out, I hit paydirt. Again, and again!

Which is pretty rare, to find such old, and wonderful wallpaper at an estate sale then turn around and find more at a shop, that wasn't even an antique or vintage store.

(Well, that scene isn't all that wonderful, is it? But the black, graphic background is really pretty, even though the drawing reminds me of the Sunday funny papers).

This makes up for the goofy cartoon scenes.

Most of the papers have metallic elements.

And many have GLITTER!

The only problem is that they are extremely old and fragile. I ironed a lot of it to use, and discovered that it is best for small projects. So I cut up some smaller, scrap packs to sell in the Boutique.

I'm in love!

I had to make something out of it, right away.

So, I covered this box, inside and outside with some of the glittery goodness.

These piles are the scrap packs I told you about. Some are for sale in the Boutique, ($14) one is for a giveaway to celebrate my find (details to come in my next post).

The rest will be included with the purchase of the art journals that I made with the fab papers.

You can find the books here.

As well as a few other finds, and some bargain markdowns that I put on sale.

But please be patient with me for shipping if you'd like to order something. I'm headed to Wyoming to see family and will be sending out boxes on Wednesday next week.

Restoring an antique table with no stripping

antiques/junking, cottage, Hand Painted Furniture, paintings

By Karla Nathan / May 4, 2017

I love my "new" French side table!

It started like this. $30 at an estate sale, good lines, ruined finish, missing a few bits of trim, but sturdy. The first thing I did was rough up the finish with a sanding block, taking off as much old varnish as I could, but not all of it.

I thought I could touch up and restore the flowers, but it turned out they needed completely repainted. The style was so pretty, I used that as a basis for my own painting, and tweaked the colors to suit my own taste, a little less purple and orange, a lot more pink and blue.

You can tell the varnish was still spotty, some came away when I sanded, but I didn't try to get it down to bare wood.

There are flowers on all three sides.

Next I painted the edges aqua with chalk paint from Hobby Lobby. And added trailing viney-swirly gold, and painted the beaded trim the same gold. I rubbed that gold paint over the raised carvings on the table legs with my finger tips.

After that dried, I generously brushed on dark wax, and wiped it off with a soft towel. A chip brush is the best tool for getting down into the crevices of the trim and carving. I added more in places where the bare wood still showed, and made sure it got soaked in to those spots. The photo above is with one coat of dark wax, it looked better after a second.

The finish isn't perfect, but perfect is over rated. I like things to look aged and worn. So, some spotty varnish is okay with me. I also didn't try to replace the few places where the beaded trim was missing, that sort of thing happens over time on vintage pieces.

If you are not a painter, you could still use this technique on old wood, without the flowers I added. It was all pretty quick and easy.

My friends Queenie and Beth, at Beth’s Booth

antiques/junking

By Karla Nathan / January 27, 2017

A couple times a year, Beth participates at the Old Summit Country Antique Show in Lees Summit. She and I used to do shows together and I sure miss it sometimes. So, to get my fix of junk stylin', I help her set up her wares.

She always has pretty stuff to work with. Displays almost create themselves, she has coordinated her inventory so well.

Unless I start picking through it, that is. The ribbon flowers? I snagged 'em.

While unpacking boxes, we had a visitor.

I did say COUNTRY SHOW, right?

Well, even though that is the name of the event, it doesn't mean that you are guaranteed a chance to snuggle farm animals.

Queenie was only 4 days old, too little to be left at home while her adopted family set up their own space at the show. She was pretty dang adorable and I was tempted to go pig shopping on my way home.

I've heard they are good pets.

But after more than a year and a half, we are still adjusting to owning a large dog. The mix with Honey the golden retriever with three goofy, little dorkies, has not been easy.

After considering just how much a piglet could complicate the already precarious union of those four dogs, I came to my senses. Plus, my studio already smells bad enough. Ugh- I think there is a dead mouse in the wall. It has been too awful to go in there to get any work done.

Oh, but wasn't Queenie a cutey????

Little Decor Details- adding age to a new room

antiques/junking, cottage, Hearth Room, Kitchen remodel

By Karla Nathan / September 12, 2016

Beth gave a brass door knocker to me for my birthday last May, and I had not used it yet. When I was finishing up little things for the new room, and painting outlet covers and switch plates to match the walls, I decided to paint this too. It is now on the bathroom door, and gives the little grand fairies a lot of pleasure in BANGING it when the room is occupied by one of the sisters.

On it, and on the vintage brass outlet covers, I used a spray bonding primer in white, let it dry, and then washed the pieces with the "sandcliff beige" color I'd used on accent walls. Afterwards, all got a spritz of clear polyurethane.

Nowhere I looked had a vintage 3 toggle switch plate. So, I glued a little bit of old, metal trim onto a wooden plate, and painted it in the same way. Not many of my electrical covers match, I have a few different styles, so it seems to fit in just fine. I think it looks much better than the white plastic one that came from the electrician. That was way, way too shiny and new in our old house. I did what I could to make the new addition look like it belonged with original the house.

Like using vintage curtain fabric on the windows.

And re-using this old, iron shelf that had previously been in the kitchen. I debated hanging it up again (it is made from a chippy, iron porch rail and two rusty brackets, the rail is probably from the 40s and the brackets are new, but look old- plus they are birdies!!). It had been over the dining room window for ten years or so, and I thought maybe I was over it. But I realized that I'd enjoyed it for that long and still did, I was glad to add it back into the new room.

When I was a full time, antique dealer, my home felt like it had a revolving door on it. Things were constantly changing and I was always finding something better than what I had before. Stuff had stopped moving around as much as it used to, mostly it gets shuffled, not replaced anymore.

I figured I might be getting boring. And I shouldn't just reuse the same stuff over and over.

Then, it dawned on me that I'd found pieces that I really liked keeping and there was nothing wrong with having some forever pieces. Why get rid of them for the sake of change? I think I'd settled on these items because I loved them. And they all mix and match with other things I love in my cottage.

Also, as I unpack belongings, I am being picky about setting things out. Just because I own it, doesn't mean it needs to be out, right? I can have goodies stored away to play switcheroo with when I feel like a change. There still is a revolving door with stuff moving in and out, but now it is into a storage cabinet, not gone forever.

It was meant to be

antiques/junking, celebrations, family

By Karla Nathan / April 3, 2016

When I started beading wrap bracelets, out of the blue and obsessively, I had no plan for them, other than I simply wanted to learn how to make them, then couldn't stop.

My dining table (for some odd reason, I wasn't working in the studio, maybe because I kept saying, "just one more, then I'll put this mess away") was filled with beads and supplies. Even all day on Easter, before we set the piles aside to sit down and enjoy our family dinner.

(It was all swept aside and we had dinner with no beads on the table for the first time in two weeks)

I was really into the beading process. It was nothing I'd done before, and I was happy to learn a new skill. But like I said, I had no plans, no rhyme or reason for the new obsession.

Then, my soon to be daughter-in-law asked for help with her bridal headpiece. And from her description of what she wanted, I thought my new beading talents would be ideal. Having the boxes of trinkets and beads on the table in front of us inspired the design of the creation too.

I wonder if any of this would have occurred to me if I hadn't had beading on my mind and in front of me while we talked about it?

Heck, I didn't even own super glue or beading glue until I started doing those bracelets, and then it was right there at my fingertips when I was ready to start on this piece for her.

I had happened to buy some bridal floral picks while in California, because I was in the middle of doing journal pages and hadn't brought enough flowers with me. (is there such a thing as enough flowers????)

While I was able to find a couple of vintage floral hats, I didn't think it was enough (see what I mean, there are never enough flowers!) and I bought some of those white picks with the pearls too, even though they are not my typical style. I coffee dyed them to lose that bright, bright white sheen, and to vintage them up a bit.

Funny, I didn't end up using the bridal picks in CA after all. And they were exactly what I needed to build a base for this. I tied them together with silk ribbons, and used some of that super glue that I had in front of me to secure them.

After that, I snipped many of the existing pearl strands that were on loops of fishing line stuff, and changed them out for my own sparkling beads instead then glued those in place. We placed more flowers, snips of sik, a few rhinestones, and lots of feathers throughout.

Now, the hard part comes. Miss Tree is an aerialist and will be doing her act right after the ceremony, so will be wearing this hat while being upside down. We have to make it stay on her head, plus she is wanting her hair styled into two buns with trailing tails and tidbits of wildness. We made a few from wool roving and she is working on more.

Since everything for her headpiece just kind of came together for me with stuff on hand, that I just happened to have, but normally would not, I have a feeling that the rest of the piece will work out beautifully too.

It was just meant to be.

Like having Miss Tree and her two girls as family.

Evolving styles in my cottage kitchen, or why I would never get a tattoo

antiques/junking, cottage, Kitchen remodel, magazine pictures or articles

By Karla Nathan / October 12, 2015

My kitchen sure has had some shuffling and reshuffling over the years.

The biggest and best redo was when we tore out the wall between the dining room and kitchen. We had always wanted to do that, but had been told that we couldn't move a retaining wall. Then discovered 20 years later, that NO, it was not a retaining wall!!

And adding the ceiling tin was one of my favorite changes of all. It not only hid the fact that the two rooms that had been joined had different heights of ceilings, it is a look that I love. And fairly inexpensive to do too.

My house from the photo shoot

Before we finally pulled off that move, I did lots of cosmetic changes, just because I was never satisfied.

These are the original cabinets before we did any big remodelling. They were blah brown when we moved in, with giant, silver toned, disc looking knobs. I put them through many coats of paint, never getting it just as I liked it, but one thing that I've been true to since my very first redo at the cottage, is the glass knobs. I added these mismatched,vintage knobs very early on, and have used them since, even on the brand new cabinets that my son built for me.

Kitchen

Here is the room right after my son built them.

And this is what it looked like ages ago.

Looking at this now, makes me very happy that I couldn't afford to gut the kitchen when we first bought the place. Because my style has evolved so much in 25 years, and that evolution to what I love now is due to the making do, making it work, and learning from my mistakes.

It would have been awful to invest $10,000 in new walls, flooring, ceiling, cabinets, and appliances just to end up with this look from the 90s.

I'm glad we waited, and that I experimented with paint and salvaged pieces, and learned as I went along about what I liked and what I didn't. And I am glad I didn't do anything permanent like get a tattoo at this age. I'm sure that 20 years later, I'd be hating it.

ps- this is from a magazine shoot, and I didn't usually have soooo much clutter. The stylist empties out the cabinets and really fills up a room.

Sculpy_099

Being an antique dealer helped me learn my style too. I had a revolving door of hand painted furniture to play with.

Dining_room

Like the time I painted all the chairs black…

Buttons_001

But then decided that white was better.

Kitchen_001

And once I thought I'd like a neapolitan ice cream look in the kitchen. I do think that the dark wall really makes the cabinets stand out, and there are things I like about this, though. After seeing this picture, I went and pulled that striped and rose curtain out and hung it back up there again to give my burlap and lace one a break.

We have gone through a series of floors too, ending up with this wood that was beneath all of the layers the whole time. When we first bought the place, I was told that the floor was not salvageable, it had linoleum glued to it and was ruined.

Once again, I'm glad that we didn't try to use this original wood 25 years ago, I wouldn't have settled for the beat up, weathered look that it has now and would have tried to fix it. I'm glad it laid in wait until I could uncover it and appreciate it in all of its flawed beauty.

And after living with off white tile floors, and before that, white linoleum, I learned that I wanted a darker floor, and I'm glad that I stained the wood a deep, dark, walnut. Not only for the contrast, but for the ease of taking care of it.

We spend so much time in the kitchen, much more there than any other room. Lots of big family dinners, or quiet times reading the paper, having coffee and talking about what is ahead in our day.

So, it means the world to me that the wall cutting off the kitchen from the dining room is gone. And (for now??) I'm thrilled with the light tones and bright whites. I've always wanted an all white room, and have drooled over them on blogs and magazines, but felt like I was too far removed from that look to ever achieve it.

I guess it was a step by step process for me to get here. Little by little, I lightened up and changed my style. Now, I wonder, am I here now, where I want to stay? I'm happier than I ever was with the space. Many of the redos were because I was never satisfied and wanted to experiment. This is the most pleased I've ever been, and it is a good feeling.

Plus, I'm slightly exhausted. I might not have another redo in me!

PS- I often write posts in advance, and this one was written in September BEFORE I did a mini redo on the kitchen and showed it for the Blogger's Fall Home Tour. Ha! I did have some redo left in me after all.

I painted and hung two matching, new chandeliers, and made a new curtain from vintage fabric to go under the kitchen sink.

A mini junking getaway

antiques/junking

By Karla Nathan / September 15, 2015

Sparks and White Cloud's flea markets used to be one of the highlights of my year. Between my needs changing by no longer selling antiques at the mall or at pop up events, and less dealers setting up at the fleas, the shopping isn't as big of a draw as it once was.

In the past, Beth and I would NEVER miss it. The weather bothers us more now, it is either blasting with heat and humidity, muddy and wet with thunder, or freezing. I'm trying to recall if I was ever there on a perfect day… nope, I think it is typically Kansas-ish weather, and unpredictable.

This year, it chose HOT. I brought my own portable shade, my collapsible umbrella which also kept me from frying at the Happiest Hottest Place on Earth, Disneyworld in the summertime.

Sadly, I didn't bring Beth. It used to be our thing, to get up before dawn was even creeping in, pack for chilly, dewy mornings and hot afternoons, bring enough treats to sustain us for a rough day of trudging the fields from opening til close, and getting home late that night.

She is swamped at work right now, and as I said before, the shopping up at Sparks just isn't what it used to be and White Cloud is a mere remnant of its past glory.

So, I popped up there for a quick walk through. No planning out a whole day and making it a big event, just grabbed a water bottle, my flea mkt cart, umbrella, some ones and I was off.

I kinda know where my favorite vendors will be, and can whip through the whole shebang in about an hour.

See those bright pink dollar table signs? Yep, that is where I go.

Oh, I'm still attracted to large furniture pieces like I used to buy to fix up. Somehow, whether I need them or not, I'm drawn to seek them out. Now, I'm satisfied with just looking and feel a sense of relief that I don't have to figure out how I'm going to lift something like this into my van to get it home.

In my 40s used to be really good at flirting with older guys. (men my age or younger would never take a glance at a woman in her 40s, but if a lady that age would bat her eyes at a man over 60, he'd carry anything for her.) Although, sometimes if it was something heavy, I'd have to flirt with 3 or 4 of them to get the piece hefted out of the booth and into my car.

The old van I drove is long gone now, and I have a feeling that I'm past the age of getting old guys to help me any more. I'm an ancient broad myself.

So it is a good thing I didn't buy this wonderful wardrobe, isn't it? I still daydreamed about what I'd do with it if I had it. It is overflowing with potential.

The booths that really caught my eye were the food vendors. How cute is this set up. And seriously, red velvet funnel cakes????????? Those exist???? I was a bit too over heated and didn't order one to try it out (I'm an ancient broad, remember?).

Toward the end of my hour or so there, I was too hot to even shop. I stopped at this dollar table and was too fried to even sift through it.

Over all, even with the heat, on my own with no trusty BFF by my side, and no real needs to fulfil while there, I was still glad to have gone. It's a funky place, like nowhere else I have been to. Someday, I'd like to see the towns when they are not set up as a flea market. They must be very ghostly. Both towns look abandoned, but I have a feeling that they are not.

Even though I complain that it just isn't what it used to be, the flea still doesn't exactly suck. At the dollar tables, I found 3 floral hats, a domed glass frame (to turn into a Christmas ornie later on) and a Valentine box with a velvet rose.

And at the jewelery $1 tables, you can do 12 for $10. I slightly scored there too.

I was glad I went, but I missed Beth and the heyday of our shopping adventures there.

In other news- I will be participating in Brenda's Fall Home Tour. My next post, on the 18th will have some pumpkins in it. I'm not quite as decked out for fall as I thought I'd be… but I have 3 pumpkins and some mums. The party has already begun if you'd like to visit some of the other bloggers on her list, I'll bet you'll find some beautiful displays of autumnal delights, unlike my 3 pumpkins and some mums.

Oh, Brenda, are you going to be sorry you invited me to join in???

I do have some new chandeliers that I repainted, I'll be showing those too. With step by steps on how I did them in an upcoming post also.

PS- The kits for the Book of Mysteries are now available!

Visiting Lori’s House

antiques/junking, friends

By Karla Nathan / July 21, 2015

My friend, Lori's husband, a KU professor of illustration, was teaching in Italy for a few weeks and her son was away at camp. She decided to use this break from menfolk in the house to do a redecorating project to surprise her husband when he got back. She called our friend, Jen Unekis, an artist who also dabbles in design, to help her update, brighten and lighten, but still keep the arty feel of her old home.

Jen is an expert in arty-ness with a touch of funky, all done with the eye of a talented abstract painter.

Lori and Jen not only chose new wall colors, had the drywall and the ceiling patched, they took lots of shopping trips to pick out all new curtains, pillows and accessories, as well as repurposing furniture pieces that were already in the house and giving them all a shuffling around, or a coat of paint.

The kitchen went from a deep, brick red, to this centering shade of gray, and the color continues into the entry hall, which had been kind of a dark olive before this. The woodwork in the hall was painted to match the kitchen too. Matching up the two connecting areas, opened up the space visually and made it feel larger.

All of the rooms open into each other, so the colors had to flow, and Jen really found a good balance with the warm woods and the sunny gold with the soft grays.

The twig style chandy fits well with the eclectic art collection.

And Jen turned a storage problem into art, by hanging the instruments on the wall.

This room hasn't been painted yet, it is currently khaki, and the color is a bit washed out when compared with all the fresh tones around the house. Lori was asking for our advice on color when she invited us over for coffee.

Mine was to use the same gray that was used on the kitchen and entryway walls throughout the room, then use the sunny golden dining room color behind the chest and up the stairs. The room is small (I know what that is like, my house is of the same era) and my thinking was that continuity would make the space look bigger, while the gold color as an accent would brighten it up.

I've noticed that with my small rooms, an accent wall seems to give the illusion of more space, maybe because it takes away the boxy feeling of four walls the same color? And a darker shade for the accent wall tends to make the wall "step back" from the lighter walls.

I'm also big on using the same color from room to room, but choosing a shade lighter or darker, from the same swatch. I wondered if one shade of gray lighter than the kitchen might be nice.

What do you think?

This is another angle of the living room. All is redone and ready to go, but the walls are waiting for a color choice. The khaki changes with the light, and here it even looks greenish-gold, doesn't it? In the previous photo it is creamier, but that is just an illusion of the light. I think a warm gray is a good choice, that is what Lori has in the kitchen, a gray with a mushroom undertone.

Kind of like Sammy, here. All Lori needs to do is take the kitty to Home Depot and match up the paint chip colors to the cat's fur.

Here is the view from the dining room into the kitchen and living room. You would see the stairway wall from there. I doubt if a shade lighter would work with the gold, it would turn buttery. A shade darker for the accent wall in the living room could work, though.

If not the exact same color…

Or she should just listen to Jen, because whatever she decides is going to be done with a lot of thought and care. Plus, Jen really knows what she is doing.

I love what she has done with the rest of the downstairs.

Around the kitchen

antiques/junking, cottage

By Karla Nathan / May 20, 2015

I've seriously been hoping to spiff up the kitchen before Birdsong…. I've wanted to go pure white.

Walls and cabinets both.

Now the cabinets are ivory and glazed with a creamy coffee color, and the walls are tan. Not only do I want a new look, I kind of need one, to take care of some repairs.

Do you see the problem here?

This knob snapped in half (I will have to epoxy it, or find another before someone cuts a hand off), and the trim on the door fell off too.

I'm afraid that I'll have to repaint to repair this mess. I'll have to take the trim off both matching cabinets, sand down the area where it was glued on, and repaint. I can't just patch this. I'll have to find some other trim or do without. There was a minimum of a $200 order where I got this trim the first time. I certainly don't need to buy that much again, since I am no longer in the furniture redoing biz like I was at the time. It was good to have plenty to spruce up the new cabinets and a ton left over to use on odd bits of furniture I was refurbishing back then.

When there is no time for a big redecorating project (no matter how badly it is needed) sometimes a tiny change helps. Like some new plates. Beth asked me to help her with a mini redo at her antique booth, and I always say yes, because I get first pick of what she brought in to sell she is a good friend and I enjoy doing it with her.

She had these great, old dishes for only $3 each, plus gave me a discount.

White dishes are my fave, and these will go well with my other good dishes, now I have plenty for a big party. (I like a mix-match look for parties)

I got these every day dishes from her too. I'd been admiring the polka dot trim, on white plates, that I'd been seeing everywhere. I had just about decided to purchase a set from the dollar store, because they looked every bit as nice as the ones from Walmart or World Market, and were a fraction of the cost, even thought W.Mkt is not an expensive store, it is hard to beat $1 each. And I won't even try to compare that to the price at Pottery Barn for the look!

Til Beth emailed me that she'd found a boxful of these vintagey ones at an estate sale at $8 for 6 full place settings. I was thrilled to get them.

I do have a thing for dishes…

And since we entertain regularly, I get a chance to use them all. There isn't a full set of any one thing, but like I said, mix-match is my favorite anyway.

Everything in this cabinet gets used at some time or another. That green tea pot? It reminds me of a fairy piece and is ideal for fairy tea parties.