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Category Archives: Using Vintage in the Home

Heywood Wakefield Office Transformation

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Posted by opidells in Uncategorized, Using Vintage in the Home

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1950's, antiques, antiques yard sales, auctions, fiberglass curtains, heywood wakefield, office

I spend a lot of time in my home office.  Here, I sell vintage items online, research auctions and estate sales, pay bills and file papers, print shipping labels and package shipments, and obsessively search Craigslist ads for dish patterns I collect, a 1950’s GE ‘Wonder Kitchen’, and used Heywood Wakefield blonde modern furniture.

Here are a few pictures of what the office looked like.  I took these pics right before demolishing the cabinets, thus the sparseness…

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1990’s Pre-Fab cabinets and counter tops…yuck!

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This old shelf was great to store shipping supplies and the counter top was a nice place to prep shipments, but it had to go. I transferred it to the basement laundry room where I fold clothes on it and store large bulky blankets in the shelves.

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Yes, we had a chalkboard wall, which my toddler nieces loved, as you can see, but it created a lot of dust and never, ever seemed clean, no matter what I washed it with. (Yes, that is Chaddy Daddy’s autographed picture of Unknown Hinson on the back of the office door.  This pic made my niece cry, so it had to go too :)).

So, with Chaddy Daddy’s help, the demolition began.  We removed the pre-fab cabinets, skimmed the walls, painted, and had the tile professionally cleaned.  Thank you Stanley Steemer!  Next, we moved in the Heywood Wakefield furniture….

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My new / old desk was won at an auction in Warsaw, KY. It is a knee hole desk in Wheat with the original glass covering the top, so this beauty was pristine despite her age.  The china hutch that was once in the sitting room now serves as a cabinet for files and holds office supplies.

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The two lower left hand drawers are really one large filing cabinet.

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…and the top drawer extends the length of the entire desk and can hold it all!

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She’s happy to be my secretary. She even looks like she’s smiling 🙂

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This Hey-Wake side table is space-age cool! I hide my laptop in its cubby for storage and charging.

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The little Hey-Wake record cabinet holds magazines and books, just like it did when it was in our sitting room.

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I found these “new old stock” fiberglass children’s curtains on eBay and fell in love with them. They matched the wall paint well and made me happy. Plus, I figured the nieces would like them as well with the adorable baby animals – monkeys fishing, duckies boating, and lots of others hanging out of an ark!

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sitting room

This is the old sitting room currently in transition back to a formal Heywood Wakefield dining room. The china hutch and record cabinet have been moved to the office for new purpose.



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The Ugly Side of Retro Part Three Finale!

19 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by opidells in Using Vintage in the Home

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So it’s been over a year since I’ve blogged about the Bungalow house Chaddy Daddy and I bought as a foreclosure in hopes of giving it a face lift and offering it as a rental property.  (If you’ve missed out on the two previous posts about this endeavor, read part 1 here and part 2 as well before proceeding.)

Chaddy Daddy and I envisioned fun summer evenings working together room by room to fix up the house, maybe taking about 6 months to complete the entire project.  However, our plans were dashed when we found out the Homeowner’s Insurance policy would be cancelled in 30 days due to vacancy.  So we had to hit the gas and enlist the priceless help of our awesome families to fix this house up and have it rented in a month. Our budget was small beans so we had to pick and choose what to update.  We chose the wood floors, the entire kitchen, the back den, and the installation of an HVAC system.  Where to begin?

Let’s start with the wood floors.  They were covered with carpet and painted white. (Why would someone paint hardwood floors???  Well, we think it was to cover up all the cat urine stains!  Let me tell you, there is nothing less appetizing than the smell of age-old cat urine being heated up and sanded out of wood!  Shoooo!)  We pulled up the carpet and spent hours pulling staples by hand.  We also took up the floor furnace and patched the hardwood before having it sanded and refinished by our handy man.

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Before – Painted Wood Floors and Furnace Grate in the Middle of the Room!

 

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After – Furnace grate removed and hardwood patched in place.

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Close Up of patch work wood. The color is a little off, but this should age over time.

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Newly sanded hardwood floor!

Next, we tackled the kitchen.  We removed an old dishwasher to reveal a huge rotten spot in the sub floor due to a long-time leak. Thanks to good ol’ Dad for making a long-lasting repair!  So we decided to take up the existing linoleum and replace it with a new layer.  We also painted the wooden cabinets white, put in a subway tile back splash, removed a layer of nasty contact paper from the counters, painted the faux wood wall paneling, and installed all new appliances.  Finding a spot to put the HVAC unit was tricky, so we had to build around an area where the old stove used to be and make an access area for any future repairs.

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Here’s the kitchen before. The cabinets were covered in an inch of grease build up. There floor was rotten under the dishwasher and the counter was covered in a faux wood grain contact paper.

 

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The kitchen was nice sized; large enough for an eat-in dining area, but the two-tone paint job on the extra cabinets, dated wallpaper border, and broken dishwasher had to go!

 

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So we removed this old closet and utilized the space where the old stove used to be in order to install brand new HVAC in the house. Notice the lovely vintage wallpaper layers in the closet!

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Next, the new HVAC unit was installed and framed in…

In the meantime, we removed the cabinet doors and gave them a good painting.  I painstakingly removed all the cabinet handles, soaked them in TSP to remove the grease, spray painted them with Rustoleum hammered metallic paint, and re-installed.

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Note the lovely vintage strawberry wallpaper. Too bad it couldn’t be salvaged…

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Chaddy Daddy putting the humpty dumpty cabinets and pulls back together again.

Then, I enlisted my amazing Do-It-Your-Selfer Mother, Bulldog Murphy Martina, to help me with the subway tile back splash. With HGTV as her teacher and sheer willpower and determination like no other, she has single-handedly remodeled her adorable century-old farmhouse (multiple times) and guided me through one other kitchen remodel and bathroom tiling job to date!  Go Mom!

 

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I just prayed she didn’t saw her fingers off…

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She taught me to measure and lay out the tile design on the floor before installation.

 

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The we installed the back splash tile carefully in sheets.

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She’ll probably kill me for posting these pictures on the internet, but there’s nothing more inspiring for a daughter than your Mom wielding a power tool!

So here’s how all our hard work turned out in the kitchen!

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We installed an access panel for the HVAC unit painted with black chalkboard paint so the tenant could make quick grocery lists and other notes.  My wonderful Father-In-Law, Bee, helped us with the electrical upgrades and installation of the new, yet simple, kitchen light. Thanks Bee!

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I sacrificed the dishwasher in order to install a washer / dryer combo. I had to choose between the two due to budgetary restraints at the time and felt like having a washer / dryer would be an added bonus for a tenant. Maybe a dishwasher could be added in the future.

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So that’s all we could do this time.  It was so much work and I did so many things backwards.  It was a great learning experience and I am happy for it, but I am not looking forward to any more house flips in the future!  Thanks for looking and let me know what you think!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ugly Side of Retro – An Update…

18 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by opidells in Using Vintage in the Home

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bradbury & bradbury, bungalow, bungalow kitchen, kitcen renovation, kitchen restoration, vintage wallpaper

Newly Instlled HVAC

Modern Luxury in a 1920’s abode…central heat and air.

So very few updates have been made since the first post about the rental home renovation, but I am excited about them nonetheless and wanted to share.  The new HVAC unit has been installed, which is ultra-exciting because this means all future “sweat-equity” we put into this house will be done with a lot less sweat…at least in the upcoming summer months.  As well, we removed the floor furnace so that the open space can be covered with hardwood…

Floor Furnace Removal

Floor Furnace Removal

We also removed some paneling in the kitchen to discover a beautiful array of post-war era wallpaper…

(Click on a photo below to view the gallery.  Hit Escape to exit back to the post.)

Pretty Stars on the Ceiling
Post-War Tea Pots
Post-War Fruit in a Bowl

Mid Century Strawberries
Post-War Red and Black Leaves
Yellow Bouquet and Chickens in a Basket

If you enjoy the bright colors of vintage post-war wallpaper, you can find new reproductions at Bradbury and Bradbury.  Here is a link to some of the designs they offer:http://bradbury.com/postwar.html. In addition to post-war era, they also have wallpaper in the following themes: Victorian, Modernism, Arts & Crafts, and Damasks.

 

The Ugly Side of “Retro” – It’s Not All Cute and Kitsch

12 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by opidells in Using Vintage in the Home

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1920's bungalow renovation, bungalow, faux wood paneling, kitchen remodel, retro house, ugly house, vintage house

Most likely, I am writing this post for myself, but by the off-chance that you are a regular reader or shopper, you may be wondering what we’ve been up to lately.  As if my shop hours aren’t irregular enough, lately I’ve been even more M.I.A. than usual with the shop door closed up and no sign nor notice of opening up any time soon.  Well, I promise we’ve not been lounging on the beach sipping peach mojitos and working on our tan lines…although that sounds ideal.  Instead, we’ve been pursuing the ever scandalous title of “slum lord and lady” by purchasing a foreclosure house with overly ambitious dreams of fixing it up to hipster-living standards on an unrealistically cheap budget…heavy sigh.

The house is an ugly reminder that not all things “retro” or “vintage” are desirable or attractive.  Shag carpet and popcorn ceilings may come back in style one dark, apocalyptic day, but I’ll take my chances and feel secure in my decision for removal.  With all due respect to the house, it does have good bones underneath the faux wood paneling and cheap, dated  linoleum.  It’s a 1920’s bungalow, single story with approximately 1,100 square feet, 2 bedrooms, one shamefully dingy bath, a den, large eat-in kitchen, and attractive detached garage. It has a nice, big covered front porch that just begs to be adorned with a vintage metal glider for lazy summer evenings and a fenced yard great for the containment of a furry companion…but those are all the good things I can squeeze out of this generous description.

1920's Bungalow Labor of Love

1920’s Bungalow Labor of Love

Although Chaddy Daddy and I agree on most things, our ideas for the house differ greatly.  Being more business savvy and numbers-oriented than I, Chaddy Daddy saw this as a basic turn-key rental with a few necessary updates such as a deep cleaning, new locks, and HVAC.  I, on the other hand, saw this as a project house with every intention of restoring it to its former 1920’s charming self, complete with vintage appliances, porcelain sinks, and aluminum-trimmed laminate counter-tops.  Of course, I quickly realized, with Chaddy Daddy’s incessant reminders that this wasn’t possible, nor realistic, on the budget we had agreed to if we had any chance of making our money back in this lifetime. A girl can dream, right?

So we’ve compromised and I’m going to have to find creative ways to turn this beast into a beauty without breaking the bank.  Although not the most creative, nor exciting way to do this is referred to as “sweat equity”, meaning doing as much of the work as possible on your own. This may sound fun at first to all you aspiring do-it-yourselfers, but try pulling ten thousand carpet staples out of oak hardwood flooring by hand all sunny Saturday afternoon and one’s definition of “fun” rapidly redefines itself (see earlier vision of sipping peach mojitos on the beach).

So far, we’ve ripped up all the carpet to expose well-weathered hardwood floors underneath, both oak and pine in different sizes, however, painted…and not a nice paint job, I might add.  I can’t help but imagine some former sick, sadistic home-owner haphazardly splattering cheap paint all over the once-beautiful hardwood floor laughing salatiously at the thought of someone like me gasping in horror.  I can hear him now…”I’ll get those hardwood floor-loving sons of bitches!”

Chaddy daddy attempts to reverse the adulturous atrocities of the hardwood- floor hatin' former owner...

Chaddy Daddy attempts to reverse the adulterous atrocities of the hardwood- floor hatin’ former owner…

Now let us move on to the rest of the house…if you can stomach it.

The Bathroom

(Click on a photo below to view the gallery.  Hit ‘Escape’ to exit back to post.)

Oh the horror…
Bathing in the tub may require an updated tetanus shot and result in being even dirtier after a shower than before.
As if the particle board base of the fiberglass, sea-shell shaped sink isn’t enough, the clash of faux gray, marbled wall paneling with the clammy-colored bath tile tops it off while attempting, in vain, to offset the puke-green paint and palm tree decals.

The Kitchen

(Click on a photo below to view the gallery.  Hit ‘Escape’ to exit back to post.)

The solid-wood Maple cabinets aren’t bad and may be redeemable under the inch-thick layer of grease and grime.
At one point in the past, some former home owner decided to cover the white and gold-speckled laminate counter tops with faux wood contact paper. Not sure which was worse…
Two-toned awkward cabinetry and 1980’s wallpaper border compete with the faux wood paneling for title of Most God-Awful

The Den (of Iniquity)

(Click on a photo below to view the gallery.  Hit ‘Escape’ to exit back to post.)

The den floors were discovered to be level concrete underneath which, although ugly, is a good, solid base for attractive tile or modern flooring.
The monochromatic monotony of the tacky built-ins and more faux wood paneling taunt me from the asylum and force me to visit my “happy place”…

Other Rooms

(Click on a photo below to view the gallery.  Hit ‘Escape’ to exit back to post.)

A charming arch leading from the front room to the middle room is one of few redeemable qualities of the house.
Commercial-grade dangly, over-sized sliding venetian blinds make me feel like I’ve just stepped into some sort of 1980’s corporate hell…
The ominous floor furnace awaits the poor unsuspecting tender feet of a wobbly-legged toddler like the cruel obstacle course for the newly mobile it is…

The front room is cute with a small, but of couse non-working fireplace.
The afformentioned painted hardwood floors...
The afforementioned painted hardwood floors…

Now that you’ve seen the Nightmare, it can only get better from here, right?  That’s my hope.  HVAC is being installed and the hardwood floor doctors have been called in for emergency floor repairs in an attempt to save the wood beneath from the hideous paint job.  The floor furnace is being removed and patched over with hardwood so Child Based Services won’t lock me up after the first prospective tenant’s newly-mobile toddler sautees its tender toes to well-done while learning to walk, and those awkward two-toned kitchen cabinets are living on borrowed time.  I look forward to the fun parts, like picking out paint colors and tile samples, and putting it all together to see a vision manifest beautifully.  Stick it out with me and stay tuned for updated posts and pictures on the progress.  Send me your thoughts, suggestions, laments, criticisms, “girl, what the hell we’re you two thinking?” comments, and what ever else you can think of.

Who knows, she may be so cute in the end that the rental applications come flooding in by the dozens! But then there I go, unrealistically dreaming again :)….

Heywood Wakefield Bedroom Makeover Part 3 of This is Probably the Last Post…

05 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by opidells in Using Vintage in the Home

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heywood wakefield bedroom, makeover, vintage bedroom, vvenetian blind lamp

Well, it’s been a while since I blogged about the Heywood Wakefield Bedroom Makeover.  I thought I would give everyone a break because you Readers may be a bit sick of my obsession.  Anyhow, the bed arrived on March 4rth, 2013 and Chaddy Daddy worked hard putting it together while I snapped pictures like an eager paparazzi.

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We opted for a platform bed kit as well so we could get rid of the box spring and be lower to the ground.  That way it won’t hurt so bad when I edge Chaddy Daddy out so far he topples to the floor…it has happened.

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Kitty helped by making sure the mattress didn’t go anywhere during the setup…

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Here she is all dressed up and accompanied by her trusty sidekick nightstands!

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Chaddy Daddy surprised me with the pair of Vintage Venetian Blind lamps sitting on the night stands.  I found them on Etsy and he snuck and ordered them for me…isn’t he sweet???

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Chaddy Daddy also refinished the Mr. & Mrs. Chest of Drawers and mirror.  He did such an awesome job.  The pictures can’t show you how wonderful it looks and smells now compared to before!

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So here are a few full circle pics of the room…

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Now I need wall art and accessories…. What should I put above the bed?

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What about above the High Boy?  I was thinking about a starburst mirror!

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I’ll have fun finding the little details one piece at a time during our treasure hunts and pickin’ trips.  The hard part was finding all the furniture pieces and that’s over…for this room at least :).

Now You Can Shop Online with us on Etsy!

27 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by opidells in Using Vintage in the Home

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etsy, kitsch, VINTAGE

In an attempt to expand our customer base, I  am slowly but surely posting fun stuff to sell online at our Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Opidells!

Also, visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/opidellsvintage!  We post pictures of things in the shop when we get new items in.  If you see something you like and want as your very own, just send me an email at opidells@hotmail.com telling me what you would like and I can post it to Etsy just for your purchase!

Thanks so much for viewing our blog, Facebook page, and Etsy shop.  We couldn’t make it happen without you and can’t wait to share our latest treasures with you too!

Where the magic happens...

Where the magic happens…

Heywood Wakefield China Hutch and a Growing Vintage Dish Problem…

21 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by opidells in Using Vintage in the Home

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1950's, cups and saucers, dinner plates, flatware, heywood wakefield, spoons, VINTAGE

So in a past post, I wrote about how Chaddy Daddy and I acquired some awesome, well-loved vintage Heywood Wakefield pieces, one being a china hutch.  Currently, Chaddy Daddy is refinishing the Mr. & Mrs. Dresser for me as part of the on-going Heywood Wakefield Bedroom Makeover, which is still a work in progress.  In the meantime, I set up the china hutch in our sitting room and FILLED it with all my lovely retro dishes.  Take a look!

Heywood Wakefield China Hutch

Heywood Wakefield China Hutch







Heywood Wakefield Bedroom Makeover Part Two…

02 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by opidells in Using Vintage in the Home

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auction, bedroom makeover, heywood wakefield

So the Heywood Wakefield bedroom makeover is slowly but surely coming along.  The room is painted a lovely shade called Polar Gray, which is a soothing soft, icy bluish gray color in semi-gloss just perfect for peaceful slumber.  The bed will arrive Monday, March 4rth and I’m so excited I can’t stand it.  Anyhow, I have collected the rest of the Heywood Wakefield bedroom pieces from the Encore line in wheat finish, including a high boy chest of drawers in excellent original finish, a Mr. and Mrs. dresser in very poor condition, and two extremely hard to find nightstands that were recently refinished by the eBay seller from which I bought them.

The High Boy Chest of Drawers

The High Boy

The High Boy

So after ordering the bed, I scoured online auction sites within a tri-state area for upcoming sales of Heywood Wakefield furniture.  I found one up north that had the High Boy, a set of end tables, a Chair, and a full sized bed.  As well, I found an online auction with a Heywood Wakefield buffet and a table with four chairs.  The pick up point for this auction was only 30 minutes from the other day-of auction, so I placed my bids and crossed my fingers.  I ended up winning the buffet and dining table set and so Chaddy Daddy and I made a weekend trip out of the deal.  It was the first week in February 2013 and, of course, a snow storm had to hit….

Karmatic Snow Storm

Karmatic Snow Storm

The highways were so bad that only one lane was really navigable and we slid several times.  I began wondering if Heywood Wakefield furniture was worth dying over…and decided we should continue on.

So the first stop was to pick up the table, chairs, and buffet.  The buffet was in good condition, but the table and chairs were very poor and will need refinished.  Loading solid wood furniture in the sloshy wet snow was undeniably no fun….

Chaddy Daddy looking not so happy to be doing my bidding in the lovely weather...

I’m pretty sure I photographically captured the moment Chaddy Daddy was either plotting my murder or his own suicide. What’s he going to do with that rope?

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The buffet barely fit in the back of the Suburban…

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These chairs will need TOTALLY refinished…summer project.

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Oh, one day you’ll look so lovely in the future dining room Chaddy Daddy has no idea I’m designing…

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So after the pickup we headed to the big city hotel and partied all night so we would be nice and exhausted for the next day’s auction…

We saw an arrest made after a brawl in front of a...clinic of some sort...

On the way, we saw an arrest made after a brawl in front of a…clinic of some sort…

We ate and drank a lot!

We ate and drank a lot!

...and Chaddy Daddy did some more skydiving...

…and Chaddy Daddy did some more skydiving…

So the next day, we got up bright and early, ate breakfast, and headed to the auction house…

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I was hoping the weather would deter most people from attending, but I think everyone had the same hope and came out anyway to see if they were lucky enough to be right…

The place was packed full of antiques, mostly glassware and guns, with a small assortment of antique furniture as well.  I spied the Heywood Wakefield grouping quickly, as it looked a bit out of place amongst all the old mahogany pieces.

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Full Sized Bed in Champagne Finish

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My High Boy

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A chair and two end-tables I had to give up on and walk away without…bummer.

So in the end, I won the High Boy by gritting my teeth and bidding up to my top dollar number.  Fortunately, my top dollar was $10 higher than my competitor’s and I won the piece by the skin of my teeth.  I also won the full sized bed at a surprisingly low price and had several people tell me later that I was lucky to have “stolen” it.  Sometimes the auction gods are in my favor…what can I say?

The Mr. & Mrs. Dresser

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The Mr. & Mrs. Dresser was a Craigslist find I came across three hours away in northern, Ohio.  The seller said  the piece was structurally sound but the finish was in poor condition.  After haggling an extra $50 off the already low price, we agreed to meet in the parking lot of the seller’s local Wal-Mart, as is standard with most  Craigslist transactions.  Although the seller’s description of the piece was honest, I forgot to ask, and he did not disclose, that the piece came from a smoking household.  By the smell of the piece, this was a chain-smoking, non-filtered Camel Reds kind of household with no windows or ventilation system as well.  We put it in the bedroom and now fear we’ll contract black lung from the very odor it emanates if we don’t hurry up and refinish it soon!

This is the top of the dresser after some sanding, which I did in the bedroom knowing I wasn't supposed to and got caught!

This is the top of the dresser after some sanding, which I did in the bedroom knowing I wasn’t supposed to and got caught!

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Dresser Front…this thing can hold a lot of clothing! It may be called Mr. & Mrs., but it might end up all Mrs.!

The Night Stands

Encore Night Stands

Encore Night Stands

I bought the nightstands off eBay from a Pennsylvania seller by the handle name jwb213.  I almost lost them at the last minute, but won them by a hair because I put in my maximum bid early and beat out a last minute bidder.

My little night stand pod!  Isn't is cute!

My little night stand pod! Isn’t it cute!

So all that’s left is the bed, which will be here Monday!  I’ll be sure to post about it as soon as we get it up and functional.  Still have to refinish the Mr. & Mrs. Dresser as well, but that’s a whole other post in itself.

Heywood Wakefield Bedroom Make Over – Post 1 of Who-Knows-How-Long-This-Will-Take…

19 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by opidells in Using Vintage in the Home

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bedroom remodel, encore, furniture, heywood wakefield, skydiving, VINTAGE, wheat finish

So I haven’t told you about my newfound love of Heywood Wakefield furniture and need to catch you up on the latest surge of using vintage in the home.  You see, Chaddy Daddy and I have been contemplating a bedroom makeover for a while since currently the Boudoir consists of a hodge-podge of mismatched, hand-me-down furniture, a “doorless” closet, and multi-colored walls due to an excess of paint samples and a case of extreme indecisiveness.  Well, during one of my early morning caffeine-induced internet browsing sessions, I stumbled upon a blog post where the writer describes how she found the perfect new bed to go with her existing vintage Heywood Wakefield furniture.  I was intrigued because, you see, the bad thing about midcentury modern, vintage, or antique beds is that its nearly impossible to find one any bigger than a full size as queen and king sized beds weren’t really manufactured until later. When I saw the picture of the bed, I fell in love with its smooth curves, honey hue, and the fact that there are loads of original vintage pieces to match.

M530 Style Master Bed  www.Heywood-Wakefield.com

M530 Style Master Bed http://www.Heywood-Wakefield.com

Isn’t she lovely???  I knew immediately that it was time to redo the love nest and this bed was destined to be the center piece!  I’m almost ashamed to post it, but below is a picture of our current bed and bedroom….

Broken Down Bed...

Broken Down Bed…

It’s seen better days by far, and if you’re wondering why it closely resembles a sway back mule, please know it’s due to Chaddy Daddy’s excessive “skydiving” a.k.a. “bed jumping”, a phenomenon where he leaps high into the air before face planting into the bed all while demanding I photograph it repeatedly in order to catch that elusive perfect point of levitation. Google it…there’s entire websites with nothing but “bed jumping” pictures considered “art” by some (insert eye roll and a heavy sigh here).

Chaddy Daddy in mid-leap donning a make-shift hotel towel cape...

Chaddy Daddy in mid-leap donning a make-shift hotel towel cape…

Levitation perfected...

Levitation perfected…

...followed by the high-impact, hard-hitting, bed-debilitating crash landing...

…followed by the high-impact, hard-hitting, bed-debilitating crash landing…

In case you couldn’t tell, the trio of pics above were taken at a hotel because “skydiving” has been banned at our house.  Yet even hotel beds aren’t safe, as Chaddy Daddy has been known to fold a bed in half, literally, while skydiving, and although I do have the photograph to prove it, I will not post it in an attempt to keep this blog as “PG” as possible since the makeshift hotel towel cape may have been the only thing he was donning at the time. (Yes, we lose our hotel security deposits often…)

Anyway, I’ve digressed.  So I ordered the Heywood-Wakefield bed in Queen Size, much to my Mother’s Horror.  She insisted I upgrade to a King Size, but Chaddy Daddy and I are accustomed to a Queen Size and there’s no use in paying for more bed when I only give him a sliver of mattress anyway :).  The bed won’t be here until the end of March, so I’ve had time to search for vintage pieces to match.  Heywood Wakefield made furniture from 1897 to 1979 with its most popular pieces made between 1940 – 1960 and was known for its beautiful art deco lines and blonde opaque finishes in Wheat and Champagne.  I am personally fond of the Encore line in the wheat finish and chose this line for the bedroom.

Example of a Heywood Wakefield Encore Chest of Drawers in Wheat Finish

Example of a Heywood Wakefield Encore Chest of Drawers in Wheat Finish

So, I am gathering pieces here and there for the bedroom remodel and can’t wait to post more about it, but you, like me, will have to be patient….

Cookin’ Up Breakfast Vintage Style

11 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by opidells in Using Vintage in the Home

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biscuits, cathead, chickens, eggs, loretta lynn, vintage kitchen

So, in a previous post, I replaced my newer kitchen canisters with a vintage set of a Chicken theme.  (Click the link to read the previous post).  These are working out wonderfully and aren’t the only vintage items I use in the kitchen.  One morning, I decided to make Loretta Lynn’s Cathead Biscuits with sausage and fresh egg omelets for breakfast.  I realized I have quit a few cute things to show you!

The Flour canister is big enough to dip in a large measuring cup with no problem.

The Flour canister is big enough to dip in a large measuring cup with no problem.

Nothing cuts biscuits like an old fashioned biscuit cutter...

Nothing cuts biscuits like an old fashioned biscuit cutter…

I keep my backyard chicken and duck eggs in a cute little vintage Crisperette!

I keep my backyard chicken and duck eggs in a cute little vintage Crisperette!

It stores one dozen eggs...although some of my chicken and duck eggs come out too big to fit, so  the Crisperette is good for petite sized eggs only :).

It stores one dozen eggs…although some of my chicken and duck eggs come out too big to fit, so the Crisperette is good for petite sized eggs only :).

I scramble to eggs with a bright red handled whish...NEVER put your painted wood handled vintage kitchen utensils in the dishwasher for fear of the paint cracking and peeling off!!!

I scramble to eggs with a bright red handled whisk…NEVER put your painted wood handled vintage kitchen utensils in the dishwasher for fear of the paint cracking and peeling off!!!

Yummy omelet  and sausage!!!

Yummy omelet and sausage!!!

And finally...Loretta Lynn's Cathead Biscuits!!!  See below for the recipe...

And finally…Loretta Lynn’s Cathead Biscuits!!! See below for the recipe…

Loretta Lynn’s Cathead Biscuit Recipe

  1. 2 cups self-rising flour sifted well (if you don’t have self-rising flour, use all-purpose and add 1 Tbs baking soda and 1/2 tsp baking powder)
  2. 1 stick of butter (Loretta uses Crisco, but I use butter because I believe it is healthier for you…)
  3. 2/3 cup buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk, use regular milk with a splash of white vinegar.  Let sit for 5 minutes before using. )

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Sift flour into a large mixing bowl.  Cut butter into small pats and then use a pastry cutter or a fork to cut the butter into the flour until it resembles crumbles.  Stir in buttermilk until a dough ball is made.  Roll out the dough onto a floured surface and use a biscuit cutter to cut out 8 to 10 biscuits.  Cook for 10 – 12 minutes or until golden brown!  Serve with love and enjoy!

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