Radio Cabinet ReHab

A couple weeks ago I was just about to turn down my street, the yellow pickup packed to the gills with fresh finds from the fleamarket, when I spotted a ways down Main Street, something wonderful on the side of the road, a sweet little radio cabinet! Oho! I gunned the truck engine and zipped up there, but realized to my dismay that another gal, coming the other direction, had found my prey first. I pulled over on the side of the road and watched like a hawk as she inspected the thing, opened the doors, walked once around, and then climbed back into her own car and drove away. Bit too big a project for you, eh lady? Now it was mine mine mine! To be fair. The cabinet was rough. Probably I should have driven away and left it too, but now my ego was at stake. It suddenly became exceedingly important to me to prove that I could indeed save this forlorn little cabinet.
         It had seen some moisture. I actually wonder if it had sat on the curb through a rainstorm (this spring it's rained basically non stop, so excellent odds on that). The veneer was shot, every inch of it had to come off. Luckily, 80% of it came up in huge satisfying sheets, and underneath? Fat, yummy, solid chestnut boards. Oh hell yes.
          I kept the top in wood, because that chestnut is far more glorious than the cheesy walnut veneer had ever been, and painted the case in a custom mixed cottage yellow. It's a favorite color of mine, daffodil-esque, with just a hint of peach to it to give it depth. I highlighted bits of the woodwork in linen white, and did the interior in white as well. And just because I really wanted to make the cabinet special, I hand painted flowers across both doors, inspired an Art Nouveau woodblock. The piece is the perfect size for any space- a bathroom, an entryway, or a bedroom- just a nice little bit of stylish storage. I'm glad I didn't drive away and leave it behind.

All the pretty pieces I pulled straight from my kitchen cupboards to stage the cabinet. They looked so sweet in the late afternoon sun, I had to snap a picture!

 
     

A Vintage Server in Blue

I'm calling this wonderful mahogany piece vintage, but it may very well be antique. I'd date it at riiiiiight around 1920, though it could be as early as 1915. It's dancing just at the centennial mark, though it hardly shows its age. It's kind of neat, I think, that design has changed so little in the last hundred years. I wonder about the first owners of this gorgeous server, part of a dining room suite. Were they a young couple, newly married, moving into their first home? What did their home look like? I own a few copies of Better Homes and Gardens from the early 1920s, that era being of special interest to me as my own little cottage in East Hampton dates to 1923. The rooms were usually formal, with dark wood furniture, though bold splashes of floral wallpaper kept the spaces airy and inviting. This dining room suite may very well have started in a home just like my own, though somehow I suspect it's first place was somewhat larger and fancier. My dining room is 12x12, humble to say the least, and this piece, with its compact sophistication demands a grander abode.
           I'm still desperately sick with the cold from hell, but I've been trying my damndest to catch up with work, not the least a dining set that's proved particularly trying. Exhausted from coughing all night every night since Sunday, I needed a little mental break, and this server was it. It hasn't been spoken for yet, so I went ahead and re-did it the way I felt most fitting; a pale blue with just a hint of warmth to it, maybe a smidge of aqua, the top sanded stained, and sealed rich saturated finely grained mahogany. The bright brass hardware was too busy and fussy, so I toned it down with a patinated copper tone. And finally behind the doors a handsome shade of dark amethyst.
          It's the perfect day for this piece, Sunny, mild, June, everything blooming and green and healthy (the author not withstanding). This is the sort of piece that lives in June, it carries a bit of June around with it wherever it goes, whimsical, ethereal, elegant, and judging by the fact that it's a hundred years old, and just as relevant and lovely as ever, timeless.

English Garden Wedding Flowers

My oh my, what a weekend it was. I did the flowers for our friends' wedding on Sunday afternoon. They got married at the Webb Barn in Wethersfield which, holy guacamole what a spectacular place!! Made me want to cook up some make believe event to celebrate, just so I could hang out there! The couple got the most gorgeous weather for the day as well; light breeze, partly cloudy, seventy degrees. You couldn't ask for better! Now on my big day (we got married in our backyard), it was 98 degrees and humid as hell. Ah well.

       So like I said, I did the flowers for the wedding. This is actually the third wedding for which I've now done flowers. I did my own flowers at my wedding, and also another friends' who got married on our property. I really really like arranging flowers, and wedding flowers are the most fun because it's basically the only time you ever need to make bouquets. This was my first time doing boutonnieres and corsages. All in all it went pretty well, a few details I would tweak if I were asked to do yet another wedding. Would have been a terrific evening had I not been coming down with THE COLD FROM HELL. 

         Brian started getting sick on Thursday. By Friday I was starting to feel a bit crumby but was in immense cold-denial. I was a bridesmaid in the wedding, must not get sick, these flowers have to get done, must not get sick. I deteriorated steadily through the weekend. Managed to hobble down the aisle in my too-tight dress, got through the pictures, and then crashed entirely. It is easily the worst cold I've ever had. I spent yesterday (Memorial Day) in bed, which I never ever ever do. I haaaaaate being inactive. My house was a huge mess and I was desperately behind on work, but I literally couldn't walk. I feel like we, as a culture, don't take colds seriously enough. It's always, "Oh it's just a cold". Yea, no one's going to die from a cold, but I can tell you that yesterday I was way way sicker than I've been the times I've had the flu. I'm a bit better today. Managed to chip away a bit at the house cleaning this morning, and as soon as I publish this post I'll be out in the workshop hammering away at a dining set I truly need to finish pronto. 

         So back to the flowers. The bride's colors were purple and blue. She wanted a country garden theme, with some rustic and antique elements, nothing too formal. I ordered all the flowers from fiftyflowers.com. I really like their customer service and their stock is pretty reliably fresh. My friend Jess and I started arranging on Saturday afternoon. The centerpieces are all in antique aqua mason jars. I did the bridal bouquets Saturday evening. Sunday I re-adjusted the centerpieces, and made all the boutonnieres and corsages. It was rush rush rush near the end, but I managed to get it all done in time for the big day. I snapped some quick cell phone pictures when I was dropping off the flowers before hopping into my (too-tight) bridesmaid's dress. I reaaaaaaaaally need to stop eating and start running again. I was the chubbiest bridesmaid by far. :-(

Bride and bridesmaid bouquets. I didn't put the ribbons on until the last minute
so I could keep them in water as long as possible. 

boutonnieres are boxwood, lavender, and rosemary from my garden, and purple daisies from the flowers I ordered.

corsages. 

And centerpieces!

And here's Brian in his groomsman get up and me in my (too-tight) bridesmaid dress, both pretending like we don't feel like walking zombies, trying not to cough in each other's faces. 

A Sewing Table Upcycle

The very very first piece of furniture I ever hauled off a curb with the intent to refinish was a sewing table. It was ugly, and covered with puce paint that was violently chipping, and it weighed 39 tons. The refinish was an absolute disaster, and sometime in the decade since the haul and botch job, I either tossed that hot potato to a friend or burned it, either would have been a kinder fate than that puce monster deserved.

      And so of course I always get a bit sentimental whenever I get to work on another sewing table. This one I had in my own home for several years because the Queen Anne form was just so darling, but I never took advantage of the fantastic fitted interior with all it's cute little drawers and doors. It needed a new home where it could be fully appreciated!

 I like to have as much petite furniture as possible available for the tagsale, so to prep for last Saturday's I painted this cutie in a deeeeeeep blue, with a cheeky pop of pink on the inside. The top is a fabulously figured bit of mahogany, and the case is also solid mahogany- still weirdly heavy even without the sewing machine or workings. It's a nice, dense, compact little storage piece with loads of character and a great story to tell!

        Even more fun, I staged it with my new bottle of coffee vodka from my pals at Waypoint Spirits in Bloomfield, CT. Carolyn, a longtime client,  rolled up to the tagsale with a surprise bottle from their distillery for me, which...Guys and gals, if you wanna get on the official Heir and Space good side- surprise booze is a 10/10 safe bet.

        I've got a top secret TV thing tomorrow that I can't tell you about for three more weeks, but it's a hectic day, and I'm planning to crack that bad boy tomorrow night to unwind and celebrate. I asked Carolyn for her favorite recipe (because always trust the experts!) and here's what I'll be happily sipping by this time tomorrow:

Waypoint White Russian
1.5oz Waypoint Coffee Vodka
1.5oz Light Cream
Pour over ice

A Vintage Tall Chest in Dove Gray

I'm frequently asked how I sell my furniture. I don't have a brick and mortar shop (though ye gods it is my single greatest dream), and I don't travel to flea markets or art shows and set up a booth (because trundling a booth's worth of furniture to and from a show is a pain in my ass I genuinely don't need). I don't need that particular pain because I don't have much trouble moving the furniture along through my various online pages- facebook, instagram, my ever salty and wholly inappropriate twitter account, of course this blog, and then last but not least, there's my tagsales, which are a beast all their own.
         I can't remember why exactly I decided last year, in early summer, that I should have an Heir and Space tagsale, but it might have been because I'd knocked some precariously stacked staging glassware over while trying to paint the underside of the bottom shelf on a hutch, done a piss poor sweeping job, and knelt on a missed shard of the broken glass. Excellent motivator! And I'm glad for it. The tagsales, we've done four thus far, are SO much fun, a great way to move along furniture, sell some of my watercolors, make space to buy more smalls for staging, and most importantly, to meet all of you out there. I mean, the week before the tagsale is always an absolute nightmare, with loads of fifteen hour days and ugly-sobbing, but the day of, and the brief euphoria that follows? Top shelf.
       While prepping various pieces for the tagsale we had this Saturday, I also squeezed in this sweet c.1930 mahogany tall chest, which had been brought to me by two of my favorite clients. I say 'squeezed in', but really I just dropped kicked various more overdue projects aside to attack this beauty. I have no self control and I was chomping at the bit with this one, soooooo pretty! I failed to take a 'before' photo which is hilarious because I must have reminded myself at least twelve times while working on it to take a 'before' because it was bad. Some knucklehead had sanded it right down to the bare wood, and then maliciously glooped oil based black paint on it, AND THEN put the most hilariously horrendous knobs on it. "Hot Mess' isn't hot enough to describe what this ole' gal was when she rolled up to my workshop, it was a Volcanic Mess.
        The clients asked for a quiet dove gray, with a bit of distressing to bring out the wonderful carving that had been lost under the drippy torrent of ill-advised black paint. We also decided to go with Federal style stamped brass drawer pulls, to honor what was likely on the piece originally. I sanded the black oil off almost entirely so I'd have a smooth surface with which to work, and mixed up a batch of custom pale gray. The pulls are two separate sets, but both ordered from ebay (my favorite source for vintage hardware).
        I know the staging on this one is pretty simple, but at the time I photographed it I'd already priced all my staging stuff for the tagsale and was too beat to hunt through my house for something to use. That's ok though, I think this beauty speaks for itself, no need to gild the lily.