antiques/junking – Page 11

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.

Hat Whispering in Texas and scooping up jewels

antiques/junking, collections, family, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / May 18, 2015

At our Texas/British bash, I was lucky enough to win this pretty piece from Cassandra! It was a door prize, and I won by having the closest birthday. Isn't it pretty?

All hand soldered. I love the flecks of silver in some of the pieces.

But that isn't my only special gift! There were treats galore, and our roomies had sweet things for each other too. Then, my sister and I saw two hand made from vintage pieces, matching necklaces. Like the artist had taken apart one necklace, added some bits, and redesigned it into two.

Well, we both liked them, but decided we didn't need them.

So, we continued shopping and poking around. But an hour or so later, I told Sissy that we'd remember those and regret not buying them, and I was going to get them as a gift for us both.

Til my credit card wouldn't work. No cards were accepted. And I didn't have a debit card for the ATM or a checkbook with me.

And I'd been shopping a while, and was low on cash for the rest of the trip. Here is a sampling of some of the hats I snagged in Texas. Yep, about THIRTY floral concoctions! I hat whispered my way across Kansas and Texas, snapping up millinery every where I went.

Which, wasn't cheap, even with the bargains that I was finding. My cash wouldn't support the necklaces. I felt bad because I'd wanted to give her a nice gift, she has always been extra generous with me.

Then, Sissy bought them both for us!

I did want to buy them, and hated that she had to do it, but wasn't it nice of her? I'll treasure my sister necklace and think of her wearing hers when I wear mine.

Kinda like those BFF heart necklaces cut in half.

But I did find something to get her the next day in Waxahachie! She saw this moon full of pink crystals, and said it was like one she had pinned on Pinterest and had been searching for. So, I felt a little better, about the necklace snafu. She was meant to have this moon pendant.

Canton was magnificent. I was enthralled by the variety, prices, and scope of the shopping. I could've used three days to see it all. I hit the dollar tables hard, and found a trove of treasures there, little bits of jewels, boxes to adorn, cute knick knacks. Plus, I was finding millinery in abundance everywhere I went on this trip.

One of my first purchases was this teeny, puppy creamer, for $1. I bought it for the grand fairies, so we could use it for our next tea party. Then, one of my last purchases was the matching sugar bowl, also a dollar, at the other end of the flea market.

Meant to be found for me to reunite it with its mate!

All of the shopping was top notch, great company, great junk, and just as much fun as you could possibly jam into an outing.

I miss Texas

And Whitworth Ranch Retreat.

Beth’s Birdsong Sponsor gifts

antiques/junking, bird song art event

By Karla Nathan / April 12, 2015

A couple weeks ago, I had an estate sale morning, then lunch and craft day with Beth. Poking around her home and checking out her latest auction and estate finds is always fascinating. This is a little pile of interesting things on her side table.

And woo hoo, lookie here! She scored this watch cabinet full of lenses. Or are they called crystals? The glass parts of a watch, no matter what you call em, are good to craft with!!

She has so many that she offered to share, and we are packaging some up for the "Tweet Bags" for our Birdsong guests.

Beth has been beyond generous with Birdsong, each year she creates an apron to use as a door prize. Here is her latest, under construction. What a delicious gift for some lucky Peep.

Or as Beth said, "Another apron for Tami". Well, odds are that Tami might win, she has TWO of these prizes from previous drawings!! And after visiting Tami's studio for craft days, I have to say, they have found a good home, and look gorgeous hanging up there.

Her boy, my grand dog, Button, didn't think I should take his picture, so I pretended to take it only of the apron.

I didn't fool him.

It was a good day, for estate sale shopping (I got a $10 vintage wedding dress to cut up and new pans for my kitchen), lunch with friends, visit with a grand dog, a mini redo at Beth's booth at the antique mall, plus I got to paw all of her vintage finds.

PS- if you'd like to be a sponsor, for the goodie bags or for the drawing, please email me at

Karlanathan@sbcglobal.net

I'll add your link to my sidebar until the next Birdsong and you'll make our Peeps very happy!

How to redo a cardboard chest with vintage wallpaper

antiques/junking, how-to projects, studio tour, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / March 28, 2015

I've got a thing for old drawers covered in wallpaper and collect as many as I can for studio storage. But, they can be rare, or pricey. So, when I find a newer set for cheap, I give it a makeover. Like the one on the right. The left one is an original, old chest of drawers, the pink one is a 50 cent piece I got at a garage sale and recovered myself.

This one is old too, and it is covered in vinyl, not wallpaper like most are.

And I like this mini one too.

It is full of birds, eggs, and butterflies. These whitewashed birdies were an estate sale find that Beth passed on to me.

One thing I like about these, is that they can be tucked away into odd spots to create storage. Or sat up on top of other pieces.

When I saw this tossed away in Beth's trash can, I had to rescue it.

First step- remove the knobs. I had some glass ones to replace these plastic ones with. Which is what I also used on the previous set of drawers that I redid. That is probably not an accurate thing to do, most of these little chests sport wooden knobs.

But glass knobs are my fave and I stick them on anything I possibly can. The ones I selected for this project are vintage, but I've seen some nice ones at Hobby Lobby that go on sale for 50% off an a regular basis.

Second step- choose your paper. I have a few billion rolls of vintage wallpaper (a little addiction of mine), and knew this pink with roses would be ideal for these drawers. But the roll was not only old, it was near its end, so tore very easily. A bit of ironing helped smooth it out so I could work with it.

Too bad the existing pattern was sooooo 80s. And so shiny. It is printed cardboard.

But that could be fixed. I decided that since I was redoing this for myself, not to resale, that I would leave the interior as is. If I was passing this along to a client, I'd have either painted or covered all of the shiny, printed cardboard design.

Using Crafter's Pick The Ultimate glue, I covered the front of a drawer, getting right up to the edges, then pressed the pink paper down into the glue.

The sides were too big to try to do with a squeeze bottle, so I put a thinner glue on a plate and brushed it on. I still used the Ultimate on the very edges, though. They stick down better with a stronger glue.

I don't precut or measure. I eyeball the paper to get a size that is close, glue it down, then I crease the excess paper and use a sanding block to "cut" the wallpaper to fit. No scissors.

The sanding block should be used only in a downward motion away from the edge. It not only buffs and burnishes the paper's edge tightly to the surface, it cuts off the salvage.

When possible, I lined up the side of the paper to the edge of the drawer. Less waste of paper that way. But I still used the sanding block on it. The above photo shows why. The straight edge of the wallpaper is glued down, but doesn't look quite right.

A little buffing with the sanding block, and it looks much better.

I also discovered, that I could take the gloss off the printed cardboard on the bits like this between the drawers that didn't get covered in vintage paper.

This is the side of a drawer, with the printed cardboard left as is and the vintage wallpaper adhered to the front. One tell tale sign that these cardboard sets are not vintage, is well, that they are cardboard and it shows. The really old ones are on wooden frames.

Now, I could have wrapped my paper around the sides like I did on the one in the very first photo on this post.

But I didn't.

Lazy?

Hmm, maybe.

I squirted a lot of Ultimate glue into the crevice and weighted it down to dry, that lessened the gap and helped hide the fact that this was made of cardboard.

I'm afraid that this picture doesn't show that last step. This is the picture that made me want to do that last step, though. Those gaps bothered me.

At first it bothered me that this was a little wonky, then I looked at the old ones I was using around the room. Well, wonky seems to be the natural state of most of them.

Victorian Trading Co. outlet store

antiques/junking, bird song art event

By Karla Nathan / March 17, 2015

Happy St Paddy's Day!

This picture is from a display at Victorian Trading Company's outlet store in KC, KS.

They have all the holidays covered there, year round.

If you ever need a Santa fix about mid summer, this is the place to go. Of course, you can always wait a couple days and most stores will be hawking their Christmas goods about then….

But year round Halloween is harder to come by. They have lots of it here!

As well as stock up goods, like apothecary jars.

And pretty things, just to treat yourself.

It is my number one favorite place to buy a new coat. And many of my clothes are from the clearance rack here.

You never know what will be in stock, but I've discovered that if there aren't many clothes to look through that day, there might be a whole, huge selection of some other things that I had no idea I needed, but fell in love with when I saw them.

There is always free hot tea, sometimes with cookies. I keep thinking I'll try the different flavors, but each time, I have a cup of maple tea.

The catalog is something I've drooled over for years, before discovering that the one and only outlet store is right here in my area.

It is a very unassuming place, in a warehouse district.

Much more exciting on the inside than what you'd think from the outside!

The manager has offered a special gift, of this pretty, soy candle to all the Birdsong Peeps in town for our party June 5-6th. And a nice discount coupon too! How generous of her.

Last year, many of the ladies stopped by to shop, so I thought I'd ask if the store would like to do something for them this year. And Diane, the manager, was happy to help out. She even remembered some of the ladies by name and is looking forward to seeing them again.

You can find out more about Birdsong here. Or click on the button on my sidebar to go to the sign up post if you'd like to join us.

Or, maybe you'd like to be a sponsor too? If so, please email me at:

karlanathan@sbcglobal.net

Deb Mitchell, a friendly blog reader has sent a package of birdie charms for the tweet bags. It's my first package to arrive for the event and I was so excited to open it. Over the years, the BEST stuff has come in the mail for our Peeps to share. And it gets to be like Christmas as the packages start rolling in! Thanks Deb!

***********************************************************************************

PS- I've got 50% off the Boutique right now. But you MUST use this link:

http://www.karlascottage.com/?code=Fling

to get to the sale site. If you go through the regular link, the 50% off won't register. If you can't click on it to get to the page, you might want to try cutting and pasting it to your browser. Thanks for helping me spring clean!

A nice little pile of old, French Books. I shoulda bought more!!!!!!

antiques/junking, Books, cottage

By Karla Nathan / February 19, 2015

At Bottom's Up last week, I bought some books from Gwen.

A few, from the 1760's, were simply too wonderful to be art supplies. I tied a silk ribbon and flowers to these to set out in my living room.

Books were $5 each and notebooks were only $1!!!!!

Which is why I was sooooo happy!

The composition books were full of old, handwritten notes. This one had some cards tucked into the pages. I was thinking this booklet was probably a medical student's journal.

I sure don't read French, but once I got a good look at it, a few words stood out.

Hmmm, Syphilis….

Not the prettiest phrase for creating with.

And it is on every page.

Oh well, this was the only book about venereal disease. And it still has some interesting and useful bits.

Many included maps, drawings, and nice handwriting. I'll be serving these up for the journals we are making at Birdsong 5.

There are a couple seats left there, if you want to come and make books with old French pages too.

The Old West Bottoms Antique District in Kansas City

antiques/junking, Books

By Karla Nathan / February 17, 2015

I really wish I got to the West Bottoms more often. It is a major shopping experience that seems to expand every time I get there. I especially love Top Hat Mercantile, one of the newest additions to what has become a street party/shopping extravaganza/festival of antiques.

I had to take advantage of this pretty paper wall to get a photo with my friends. And of course, my eyes were closed, as usual.

Gorgeous wall, huh?

Things are always looking good over at Bottom's Up too. Two of my favorite dealers, Carol Spinski and Gwen of French by Design had very cool stuff there.

Carol's "low color" look is always striking.

See what I mean? I wish I could do this look, mine is always more flowery.

But, I do like to incorporate bits of the look in my own home. This rusty stand was purchased from Carol that day, and here is how it looks in my dining room.

And Gwen was having a sale on OLD, French books.

I was slightly giddy.

I don't think I bought enough of them.

But the best part of the day? Hanging with my friends. I don't see these two often enough. It was a good afternoon of walking around, looking at old stuff, and catching up.