Not Your Mama's Furniture (It's Mine)

Hello friend,
I am now home in the comfort of Christmas cheer, hectic last minute everything, and surrounded by familiar voices and vaguely familiar blustery wet weather. I love coming home, and wish it wasn't so far away from North Carolina. One of the highlights of visiting is seeing the projects my mom has going on, that for weeks and months I could only imagine via careful description over the phone.

For years, my Mom has taken old, tired estate sale furniture and given each piece a make over and gave them a second chance. Unfortunately, I can't show you any 'Before' pictures, but I think the 'After' shots speak for themselves.
 
She has been influenced and inspired by Mackenzie-Childs, who has a home base just up the road in Aurora, NY. We have all been to the studio, done the tour and walked the grounds. It's the "go-to" visit mom special. If you are familiar with their work, you'll see the influence without a doubt.

Without further ado...enjoy!

An old vanity painted, hardware replaced and tissue paper added to the legs.

The black and white detail is tile (brilliant!) and the relief is a wall paper border.

Sideboard turned dresser. The stripes on the side is a sheet of wall paper. Hardware is all original. The gold balls were added and she stained only part of the body for the two tone look.

Pretty, huh?

When I say old, this is old. It was part of my uncle's mother's bedroom set, and I am pretty sure it was in  the very day he was born. Old doesn't mean attractive, however. My mom painted it Espresso then went over it with a black satin to bring out the wood grain. Hardware is existing, but spray painted silver.

Yes, there is a lot here. This dresser was tired, but nothing a coat of metallic paint, some black ribbon to outline the edges and a chandelier wall decal can't fix. Also take a look at the orange Thonet chair. A quick coat of paint livened it up.



We all agree this one looks 100 times better in person.



I couldn't get a good overall shot of this vanity. Another old piece that was Julia's. It was a wreck. It had years of grime on it, water stains and chips. A quick re-coat of stain was done and the wall decals shown here cover up old chips and stains that wouldn't come clean.

She tied the black in with a diamond pattern on the front. The hardware on older pieces have different sizing than today's standard sizes. She added ribbon instead of fixing up the original drawer pulls.

Rough hewn legs after a coat of metallic gold. Napoleonic era style bee fabric and brocade are added for a 1,2 punch.

This is one of my favorites. It was an old chair in the basement of my best friends grandmother. Mama took to the dark side, and added lime green accents of ribbon and polka dot goodness.

Thin ribbon adds outline to the sea of black and makes all the difference.