I know I said the last orange chair was a keeper, but I may have found a new love. I'm a sucker for old wood finishes. Up close you can see the beauty of this antique wood and you'll never guess where I found it!! GOODWILL! Yes, I know it doesn't have a seat, but that's the fun part because I wouldn't have kept the seat that was on there anyway.
I imagine some old repurposed piece of fabric, like this quilt, but not so much white. That's just to give an idea of how you need to keep with the original style of the chair and find a fabric that looks as old as the finish. A search for the perfect fabric could take a while. I hope it will be one of those "know it when you see it" moments.
If you live in the Charlotte area and have never been to the Metrolina Antiques show, mark your calendar for the first weekend of the next month and GO! I've been to the flea market at the state fair grounds(which is supposedly huge) but I was just not impressed. I think I saw everything there in about an hour and walked out empty handed. When you got to Metrolina, plan to go for half a day. It's mostly outdoors so dress accordingly and wear comfortable shoes. Twice a year, the International Collectables and Antiques Show arrives in Charlotte for one week only(amazing craftsmen and antisans in tow). I've been to Metrolina many times, but this last time I did not know they were hosting the big international show until we arrive. I went with my mom and brother and we had a fun time walking around in the sunshine looking at EVERYTHING! It was bigger and more impressive than ever before. We found many things that we couldn't live without but since someone had already repurposed it and had their oun stamp on it, it was just a tad bit out of our price range(cough cough this $700 and $1200 table my brother drooled over, way more awesome in person with cast iron legs):
We almost left empty handed, which is very surprising for 3 shoppers, but something caught my eye right before we left. I saw this chair(hard to miss with that color) and immediatly saw potential. Thinking it would be $30(expensive like everything else we saw that day), I asked the dealer, before I got too excited, how much it was. He said $10(woah! Are you serious?) Well, if you know me, you know I always have to find out how low they will go. Mom asked "Would you take $5?" He replied, "I paid $5 for it myself". I said "I dunno, once you add $12 for paint and $8 for fabric, thats getting kinda up there. How about $7?" "Sure" "Deal!"
I just love the lines on this chair....but the fabric? I'll wait until we move to redo this one because it's a keeper and I don't know the colors of the new place yet. If I do it now, I'll have to pick something somewhat neutral so it can be moved from room to room. But it would look oh so cute in a different bold color and cute fabric. It could really make a room pop.
I found this little gem at a flea market in Roxboro, NC over Thanksgiving weekend. It was in the basement, shoved under a table. I spotted it right away and instantly saw the potential. I forgot to take the before picture, but the fabric was kinda sad and faded. The wood finish needed some life brought back into it. My original plan was to paint it as well, but after recovering the cushion, I really liked the contrast between the pale blue and the dark wood. It now has such a chic and classic look to it. I would love to keep it, but I really have no place for it once we downsize. So, I am selling it for $40(OBO). I will gladly paint it if anyone would like for me to, but I just love warm wood tones. White would make it look much more casual and beachy, if that is your style.
It's about time I caught everyone up on how our house is coming along. My dad and Matt came the day after Thanksgiving to get the block started(always the hardest parting - starting a project - especially when you don't know what you're doing yet).
They got the back wall started and it sure was a big help. Since then, it's been a battle with the weather to get the rest done. Colder temps are preventing us from mixing mortar. It won't set up right if it's too cold. So, we've been working from about 1:00pm to 5:00pm each DRY day we have because it's the only part of the day where it's over 40 degrees. Combine that with rain every other day and progress is slow. My job became the mortar mixer. We have 2 tons of sand(i think) to mix with the mortar mix. The recipe I followed is: 3 half buckets of sand, 1 half bucket of mortar, mix dry ingredients well, add water until correct consistency. The sand sits on the ground covered in a tarp. But the tarp is not waterproof, so the sand is pretty wet on the bottom layer. Half a bucket of sand might not seem like much, but when it's wet that stuff is HEAVY! It was all I could do to lift it to chest height into the concrete mixer. And I couldn't even begin to lift the 75 lb. bag of mortar.
Here's where we are now. We had to take some time off to do some reinforcement to the back wall, and ever since Christmas it's been highs of 35 degrees. That's not warm enough to resume the block laying. Special shout out to cousin Brent for helping us lay a whole bunch of rows on his days off!! Thank you! Too bad I don't have a picture of him working(in a t-shirt no less). We only have 2 more rows to go. All we need is a couple of warmish days and we'd be done. The next step is filling and tamping dirt in the foundation and then pouring the concrete slab floor for our garage on top.
