Hunted:: Gathered: 05/22/11

I started off my thrifting week by going to the Long Beach Flea Market. I had not been in months and the weekend worked out perfectly for me to be able to go. I arrived at 8am and the rain was just started to let up. Many vendors had not unpacked yet for fear that it would continue to rain but luckily the rain did stop.

I bought this cute little Rorstrand pitcher because the pattern caught my eye. The pattern is called Koka. I couldn't stop rubbing it because the texture is so satiny.

As I was walking around, I passed by a vendor who had countless drafting/ drawing/ painting supplies in boxes. I started looking through them because I can't help myself with those things. An older gent inquired about a set of drawing pens and the vendor rudely replied that he was only selling the boxes with all of their contents, not individual items. The older gent proceeded to tell the vendor that he wanted the pens because he loved to draw and they were just what he was looking for. He then offered him $10 for the pens. The vendor said no, took the pens from the gent and put them back in the box. I looked at the gent and he had such sadness in his eyes. It broke my heart. I wanted to tell him I'd split the price for the box so he could take his pens at a lower price but I did not have the cash to do so. I ended up walking away with such distaste for that vendor. I know that as a vendor you ultimately want to reach your bottom line, but the man offered him $10 for a small set. He wanted $60 for the box and it would have still been pretty full and well worth it without the pens. How difficult would it have been to ask $50 for the box after he sold the pens? Not difficult at all.

A friend caught up with me a bit later and we walked around and looked at many beautiful pieces. We didn't really buy much, we just walked and talked and learned.  I did manage to buy my first Finel piece. I was so excited. It is in great condition. Since I've never seen them before in person I thought it had the wrong lid because it was slightly bigger and wiggled. When I got home I looked up some more Finel pieces and it seems that they are all like that. Phew!

My book find for the week is another kid's book with vibrant colors and illustrations. There are several pages that are compositionally wonderful.

Later in the week I went to a thrift store that I'd never been to before. I was in another town and of course had to look for some thrifts. There I found this cute David Stewart for Lion's Valley Stoneware camel planter. It has either a manufacturing defect or crack on the handle but it didn't matter to me. I'd never seen one of these before.

I also picked up this cute Fiestaware mug for my morning coffee. This is sure to bring a bit of sunshine to the start of my day!

Last but not least I bought some furniture. I hadn't gotten any furniture for a while and happened to come home with four of these mid-century style chairs. Yes, they need some work but I think I can make them shine again. Maybe I am crazy, we'll see. For now it is my next DIY project.

 

 How was your week? What did you find?

Linking up again with two lovely ladies:

DIY- Refinishing a Lane Side Table

When the boy and I first moved here to California I decided to tackle some furniture refinishing projects as a result of searching for inexpensive ways to furnish our home. It ended up becoming a little hobby of mine since applying to jobs and not getting any replies was becoming the norm. I had to get my satisfaction from somewhere plus it was a good way to expend some energy as well.

So let me introduce you to this baby. She is a vintage Lane step end table for the Perception line that was designed by Warren Church. As you can see she was not in the best shape. I was a little hesitant to tackle this project because I knew I had my work cut out for me.

I must admit that this project took much longer than expected. It was hard to get motivated when I would spend countless hours hand-sanding and I was not seeing great results.  But alas, I took a deep breath and finally finished her up. Here she is in her current glory:

 

The final product may not be everyone's cup of tea but it is mine. It may be the purist in me that likes to see the natural state of the different woods used. Originally these tables were stained and finished to have the same honey color throughout. As you can see above, the ends are capped off with a bull-nosed oak and the larger surface tops are walnut. I like seeing the contrasting wood colors. 

I have included my steps for those of you that would like to tackle a similar project. I would recommended doing this outdoors because of some of the fumes from the chemical stripper that I used. ( I am going to try out citri-strip for my next project.)

Materials (for pieces that are varnished, lacquered or shellacked) 
For your protection: safety goggles, chemical resistant rubber gloves, and a mask

Stripper/ Refinisher (I used Formby's Furniture Refinisher because my item was lacquered, but I am going to use Citri-Strip for my next project), abrasive pads (to apply refinisher/ stripper), sandpaper (varying grits depending on the level of damage to your piece), steel wool, rags, metal bowl/ pan, drop cloth, wood filler (if you have really deeps nicks/ scratches) , wood conditioner, time and elbow grease. I would also recommend a hand sander if you know your piece is solid wood throughout. 

I also want to say that I am by no means an expert nor has my process been perfected. It is a work in progress.

 

Ready to Start?

1. Lay out your drop cloth in your desired work area. Wipe your piece with a clean rag to remove dust and other small particles.Gather all of your working materials.
2. Put on your protective gear. Play some music ( that's how I like to work).
3. Pour 1-2 cups of Formby's refinisher into the metal pan. Dip your abrasive pad and squeeze out the excess.
4. Start rubbing the pad in a circular motion on your piece about the size of a dinner plate. After the finish is picked up by the pad, rinse it in the pan, and squeeze out the excess. Repeat this step in an overlapping adjacent area until you have done the whole piece. (This takes a while)
5. When you find that the pad isn't working like when you first started, replace it. If the liquid in the pan also gets too gunky, replace it with some more refinisher.
( I had to go over the piece a second time to remove the finish, hopefully you won't have to)
6. If all goes well, you should just need to buff your piece with a dry pad. If it goes like it did with mine you have countless hours of sanding ahead of you.
7. In retrospect, because of the damage to my piece I should have used a stripper because I was going to have to sand the piece down anyway. I had to use 100 grit sand paper for the oak edges and the walnut tops. There were deep scratches and nicks that I tried to even out. I also had to hand sand instead of using an electric sander because supposedly Lane used veneer for these pieces. I still don't know if that's true because I haven't sanded deep enough to find out. I also had to use some wood filler for some nicks that were very deep. Once I had sanded the whole piece down to my satisfaction with the rough grit sand paper, I had to work my way up to the finer grits. After I finished sanding, I used a wood conditioner containing natural beeswax to really bring the wood grain to life. Finishing a piece is a matter of personal preference. You can oil a piece, lacquer it, varnish it, wax it and do many other things.It's all up to you.

 

For those who would like to tackle smaller, yet still rewarding projects I would start by gathering any lightly tarnished silver or brass objects. I learned about this trick while thrifting. I overheard a conversation on homemade ways to clean and polish your silver.

We all know that there are plenty of polishing and cleaning products for metals but little did I know that you can also use products that you find at home. For my Dansk bunny that I thrifted here, I used an old toothbrush, toothpaste and a rag.

It is recommended that you use a basic non-gel toothpaste. One that does not have tartar control or whitening chemicals. Supposedly you can use a mixture of baking soda and water, but I didn't have baking soda. I don't bake unless it comes premixed in a box. Shameful, I know.

With a bit of brushing, rinsing and wiping here is the transformation. Not only does the bunny look great but he smells minty fresh too!

Here is to a productive Spring weekend!

The George Nelson Lamp that wasn't

Over the weekend I went to a Garage/ Estate sale. They advertised it as having a lot of mid-century goodies. When I arrived I didn't see many Mid-Century items. They had a lot of bullet fiberglass planters but they were really bent out of shape. The had a huge advertisement poster which was neat, but much bigger than anything I'd want to bring home. This is the sale where I found the Stoneware Designs West planter.

Well, when I went inside they had a lot of empty boxes and paper strewn around. A mid-century blonde step side table and not much else. The dining area had patio doors that led to the back yard. If it weren't for the reflection on the patio doors I would have missed the George Nelson bubble lamp hanging over my head.

Well, I gasped in shock and jumped at the chance to ask how much they wanted for it. If it was as old as some of the items they had then it could be one of the originals! Unfortunately they decided to keep it.  Bummer. From what I could gather, the guys hosting the sale were grandchildren of the homeowner and they were trying to downsize.

The lamp is beautiful and while it would look spectacular in a mid-century home I think it looks great in the victorian styled home above as well.


Lesson Learned: Look up!

Bummer...

Being just a tad bit too late has been happening to me a lot lately. I am 99.9% sure that I just missed out on a stellar craigslist find from an LA vulture. What bums me more is that it is soooo close to home! So while this person is going to trek about an hour or more away from their turf, I am only 15 minutes away.

I've been looking for a sideboard too which is the real kicker! Just so that you know what I am talking about, I am including a picture of the matching side tables because I can't find a picture of the actual piece. The designer is Jens Risom and I LOVE those drawer pulls.


1st dibs- Belvedere Antiques


Oh well... I know there will be others... but it does sting a little bit. This early to bed and early to rise can hurt sometimes.

Is it wrong to want a chair that costs upwards of 10K?

Ever since I saw this chair I have envisioned having one in my *future* nursery. Goodbye unstylish gliders, hello Papa Bear Chair. I mean, even its name suggests something warm and fuzzy. Sure it may get spit-up all over it which will pain my heart, but I just really really want one. Kind of how I really really want a job already.
 

Image: 1st Dibs- Converso
















I actually saw one yesterday at one of the Mid-Century modern boutiques in Palm Springs and told the boy of my plans to have one in our *future* nursery. He saw the price and couldn't contain himself. Then after a little while he reasoned and said... "I guess it's not that bad if you really think about it, I mean I just bought a $4K bike." I jumped on it and said, "yeah it's not that bad especially since we would keep it for our lifetime." (smiley face) He then followed with, "why don't you get a job already so you can buy it?" (proceed sad face)

Anyhow, If I were ever to find one in the wild, I would probably keel over. Kind of like I did when I found my little duckies, but at a much grander scale.

The story of my little duckies is as follows. I decided to wake up early one day to check out a *not so local* swap meet. (It usually has a pretty small turn out and since having found the duckies I haven't found anything else worthwhile.) I was just strolling on by when I noticed these two wooden duckies sitting atop of an old toaster. I looked around in disbelief, I skimmed the rest of this space and realized that the seller must have just stumbled across these at an estate sale or some random and obscure thrift store that collector's haven't found. I had an idea of what they were because I had been coveting these little duckies for a while, but retailing for a couple of hundred dollars I couldn't justify buying teak ducks that would just gather dust. I walked over to them, picked them up, turned them over, and was excited to find the Hans Bolling imprint on both! Trying to contain my excitement I asked the seller how much she wanted for them. When I heard $5 I couldn't whip out my cash fast enough! I even had to ask if it was for both or just one! She must've thought I was crazy to want them. They now sit proudly in my bookcase, gathering dust in all of their glory. The boy wants me to sell them, but I repeatedly tell him that these I can't let go. I consider them my introductory lesson (pun intended) into the world of Mid-Century goodness.