Kitchen remodel from Retro Cafe to Cottage Chic!

A week or so ago we decided to sell our 1950's dining room table and chairs. Due to my kitchen nook being too small for it. And it actually sold...;-)

As we brainstomed what size and type of table we wanted, we came to the decision to change the whole kitchen from retro to totally cottage chic. With a $500 budget and 4 days available here is the transformation.

Thanks to the Vineyard's Antique mall (buffet $200), Lowe's (paint $80 and chandelier $96) and some friends (pedestal table $75, chairs $40) we found everything we needed inside our budget.

  

 The old chandelier.       The new chandelier.

The 1950's table and do you see all the red, purple and green? Yeah, that was the reason for the primer we had to use on all the walls.

 Pedestal table was a white with pine color on the top and now grey, aqua and light grey.

 This cabinet was bleach white and thanks to my husband it has this adorable shade of grey.

 The door is aqua with shades of grey and chalkboard paint.

 We painted the bottom kitchen cabinets from white to shades of grey. Oh, did I mention we had to repaint the kitchen cabinets because the first color of grey looked dark and gloomy.

We woke up the next morning after painting them and we both looked into the kitchen and to each other and we said that color got to go! My hubby said ;"they looked like the Army barracks green"

Even the chairs got painted from a brown chenille to a light beige. The only thing I need to add is a skirt made from painter's drop cloth.

We completed the job just in the nick of time!

Let's rest from all the painting, sanding, cleaning,..

Love,
Mia

Visions of Grey- finished pieces of furniture in grey

Finally I have some muscles, Eric, join me in creating some unique pieces of furniture. We started this week and we have been brainstorming, painting, sanding, cutting, stapling, upholstering...name it and we have done it.
I had visions of furniture in different shades of grey. So, we made enough to put in one of the showrooms at our store, Simply Paris.

Here are some of the creations....

 This was a 1920's headboard.

 Vintage cabinet door turned accent table.

 Vintage Desk got a new life.

Shadow box with 1960's Sherman, Texas newspaper ad ladies and much more.

 Vintage cabinet given some color.

 Old, old, old cedar chest went from 'yikes' to 'wow'.

Tomorrow we are building a hall tree with a vintage door...I can't wait to start painting it.
You are welcome to come see the grey room at Simply Paris, 4701 Colleyville Blvd., Colleyville, Texas.
Everyone have a happy time creating. And Yes...Have a blessed Father's Day weekend!

Love,

Mia

The Journey of Before and After Restoration of Furniture

Since I am having this big energy surge to finish some of the furniture projects, let me take the time and show some of the accomplished ones. Hopefully it will encourage you to tackle some of your old projects as it has me.

This 1920's vanity had great bones but the paint job was not exactly what I had in mind. I had more like dreams of soft white with a bit of distress.

The minute my eyes laid hold on this sofa, I was in love. At its previous state it was sagging, sad and droopy with great bones. However with new inerts and outers it came to life again. Now it is the most comfortable piece of furniture in the shop. ;-)

Nothing is more beautiful than the carvings on 1920's mahogany. I know some will think that this is comitting sacrilege however I see it as bringing new life to a beautiful display. I love painting on mahogany because it is smooth as butter.

No one wanted to look at this chair until the tranformation. I don't think it lasted a day in the shop.

This side table has classic French lines and I had to try out a new paint on it. Benjamin Moore primer and paint in one.

Great bones and wrong fabric...my newest endeavor to paint on fabric. Mission accomplished. Now from floral nightmare to white chenille dreams.

The garage is calling me, I must run.

Love,

Mia

My Upcycled Greenhouse

Summer has been approaching fast. Therefore I had to hurry up and get my greenhouse started. Since I am not much of a builder ;-) I had to beg my bohemian son, Jon, to come and build his mom her dream greenhouse. He may be shabby, but he is very able to build me anything I give him a picture of...A couple of years ago he build for me a pergola and painted it in the carribean colors that remind me of the ocean and the beach.

So, finally this month he showed up at my doorstep with his 2 friends and their dog to build me my greenhouse. He said this will be my Mother's Day gift! He is so cute!

I was prepared for him...I gathered all of my vintage windows, shutters and old doors. Bought some cedar and some treated lumber. All cedar would have been over my budget. And here we go....

Great start the 4 posts are almost in...

It got hot and Maya, the dog, had to take a break. She was the supervisor of this operations. Each day she laid around watching them. Hehe...good girl, Maya.

We decided to make each wall different and patch smaller spaces with blinds and scrapwood.

Time for a break! There is Jon, Josh and Haley!

Finally my entrance door was put in.

We had run out of the roofing material and had to go back to Lowes and pick up one more sheet. As we were driving off the parking lot, the wind almost took the sheet off the truck, so I decided to ride on the back and sit on it so it won't fly away! LOL.

There goes another siesta due to the heat that hit us...Josh just crashed. He did not even make it into the house. And of course that was my opportunity to take more pictures of him...lol

Here is the completed greenhouse. I just have to add a couple of details to the roof and the front top and we will be ready for winter planting.

XOXO

Mia

From Backyard Jungle to Upcycled Secret Garden

This spring was the time to take control of our backyard and here are some of the before pictures AND almost finished after pictures...lol. And of course I forgot to take the REAL before pictures- it used to be a weed jungle however it is now at a manageable level.

We decided to lay flagstone over all them weeds. The first day we carried 800 gallons, we thought we were going to die from all the pain, so we asked a friend with muscles to help us.

Then we decided to get dirt bags to plant our vegetable garden in and here they are.

We got so ambitious we even build some compost bins out of pallets.

Here come the first flagstone.

The bare spot is where my greenhouse is going to be build on.

Here are some of the finished spots on the yard. We used all the things that were laying around having no purpose. The bicycle the neighbor threw out so I painted it white.

 The rockgarden got created because I had left some cement bags out in the rain.

In the next blog I will show our upcycled greenhouse until then have a great time creating!

Love,

Mia