Glamorous Vintage Guest Room

I made over our guest quarters to look like a mid-century motel room. Check it out...

Lazy Summer Mud Room

 

This summer's mud room design inspiration came from magazine photographs of 1960s camper trailer interiors.  

  

A comfortable throwback reading spot.

 

I found a few vintage souvenir cushion covers at the thrift shop then 

made a few of my own with touristy tea towels, such as the ones above.  

 

 

 

The mud room had to maintain some function as a storage space,

so the table beneath the window is actually a steamer trunk full of sporting equipment.

 

 

Also for function, I had S.B. install space-saving hooks for deck chairs.

 

 



I found this ceramic lemonade dispenser at a local flea market.

The SUN YOUR BUNS ashtray is like, my favourite thing ever.

 

S.B. discovered several of these old tin advertising signs nailed to the ceiling of our crawl space.



 

This is our new sunny breakfast spot. My soon-to-be mother in law gave me an unused bistro set,

which I spruced up with a few coats of emerald green.

 

 

 

 

Making Cooler Shit Out of Existing Shit

Some darling items were procured today on an antiquing adventure along the South Shore with my friend S.D. (her: an English floral jug, an ice cream dish, a 'Sweet Honesty' cologne bottle from the 60s shaped like a Volkswagen bus with peace and love decals you apply yourself; me: a cottage-blue antique match holder, a teensy pill tin and a couple of 1920s Parisian postcards.)

Before we left home, I was showing her some of my latest up-cycles or repurposes (or whatever the heck the term is for making cooler shit out of existing shit) and realized I hadn't posted any of them.

So...

 

I was quite taken with this ol' potato sack, so much so that I had S.B. 

build it a frame and stretched it over. It now hangs on our kitchen wall.

 

 

 

Tacky painting-turned-less-tacky-sign.

 

 

 

S.B.'s talented cousin handmade this wrought iron chandelier. The lines

were a little too clean and modern for our décor, so I be-shelled the eff out of it.

 

 

 

Cool stand from Mom plus vintage Pyrex = one of a kind herb planter.

.

 



2013 Round Up! A Cavalcade Of My Favourite Vintage Finds From The Past Year

I got addicted to chairs in 2013 and this weathered gem has the perfect patina for a beach house.

S.B. talks to these salt and pepper shakers like they're his friends. We found them at a yard sale for 25 cents then found matching creamer and sugar dispensers buried under dust at a Caledonia general store.

This old gingerale crate is the perfect receptacle for winter hats and mittens.

I thought this ship lamp was too kitsch at first, but it's so unique I couldn't resist.

My mother (the original thrifter) left this mysterious, heavy, gold-painted candle holder in my Christmas stocking. I love the way the whole hand seems to glow when it's lit at night.

Speaking of Christmas, CHECK THIS OUT. I begged S.B. to drive to New Germany and help me stuff this 13ft long masterpiece into his car. Someone was selling it for a measly twenty-five bucks on kijiji because their elderly mother who owned it was going into a home. It makes me sad to think about her, but I bet she'd be pleased to know it became a joyful part of someone else's tradition.

With no sign of a hook on the back, I'm not sure what this was supposed to be originally - a tray? She's too pretty to have her kisser covered up. I hung her up in the mud room.

If you see me this winter, I'll be wearing this coat. The photo does it no justice. Think Sharon Stone in Casino. It's 70s era, made in Canada, 100% leather, has a raccoon fur hood, is warmer than any coat I've ever owned and was worn exactly 0 times before I bought it for a song.

First I painted the mirror, then I found the blue vinyl chair, then I found the folksy pillow that matches both. Some days, the vintage gods are smiling.

Not too "shabby." Total cost of all this delightful crap: $135.25. Only about a third of our holiday booze budget ;-)

20s Style

After spending the summer in headscarves and kimono robes, my Gatsby fashion fever is still not abating. I got engaged in May (!) and my ring, which came from an estate sale, is an antique 1920s art deco with a central diamond surrounded by baguette sapphires; as I was admiring it one day, I had an idea. I compiled some old broken jewellery, feathers, cufflinks and a glue gun and created this:

 

 

Then this...

Then this...

 

Then this...

 

 

 

 

Then this!

 

 

 (Click on photos to enlarge)

 

I'm not sure what I'll do with them all. Wear them in rotation? Sell them? Give them as bridesmaids gifts someday? All I know is, I can't seem to stop.

Vintage Drinking Glasses

Life's too short to drink out of boring glasses, so every time I'm at a yard sale or thrift shop and spy a fun little beauty for less than a buck, I take it home. From vintage carousel animals to Mad Men whiskey tumblers, here are some of my favs:

Weekend Project: Door Belle

Poor S.B. All he does is work, work, work. This time it was repainting Old Blue, our peeling, weather-battered door.

Old Blue

New Blue!

Lookin' good, coming or going!

Magic Mike Ate My Parsley!

 

 

Mike choosing his next snack.

 

 

Living in this house is a constant battle against nature. First, there's the ants who we discovered had built colonies in our walls. Then there are the giant spider webs that reform daily over our windows. Then there's the mice, including the one with the giant head with whom I had an epic day-long, Itchy and Scratchy-esque battle royal. Then came Jeremy the Weasel, who made a brief but memorable appearance, leaving behind a souvenir turd in our bedroom. And throughout all this, Magic Mike the Muskrat has been the decent one, hanging out under the shed looking cute and minding his own beeswax. Until yesterday, when he scampered up to the garden, hunkered down in the dirt and ate all my parsley in three chomps. He ignored our yelling, grinning with green stems sticking out of his teeth while I snapped a picture to show the cops.

 

S.B. sprinkled some cayenne pepper around, but I fear Mike is making our garden his
personal refrigerator. And I only had to google 'Muskrat Attack!' once to become more afraid of him than he is of me.

 

 

P.S. - Giant sunflower update: Sadly, the sunflowers are no more. I started the seedlings too early and the growth of the roots was stunted by the small pots. I moved them to bigger pots, but they instantly outgrew those, too. By the time I put them in the ground after last frost, they were deformed and twisted, and finally withered. Lesson learned. S.B. took it hard, as he had given them all names. Sally Sunshine, Matilda Sunshine, Tallulah Belle Sunshine...

Wanderlust

A religious procession on Hvar Island.
We just happened to be sitting on the dock as it passed.

The top ten most memorable moments from mine and S.B.'s journey through Italy and Croatia:

-Sprinting through the Frankfurt airport Amazing Race-style after a series of unfortunate events. We only caught our flight by a hair.

-Getting lost in Venice. There's no better place.

-Eating the most delicious food in the world in Naples. At a famous pizza place, we ordered two huge pies and two full bottles of wine by mistake because the prices were so cheap.

-Exploring the eerie ruins of Pompeii.

-Being rocked to sleep in our bunks on the ferryboat to Croatia.

-Entering the imposing old city walls of Dubrovnik.

-Swimming nude on a deserted beach on the island of Vis.

-Having drinks in a crumbling mansion with a quirky Maltese diplomat.

-Watching the fish jump in the teeming Plitvice Lakes.

-Running into a friend at check-in at the Zagreb airport and sharing one last adventure on layover in Germany.

As wonderful as it was, I was just as excited to come back to the beach house. In my adult life, I've lived in 15 different apartments; none of them felt like home until I'd gone on a trip and then returned. This time I had that feeling times infinity. I wanted to roll around in our bed, frolic on the lawn, blast our records and drink out of all our cups. Except that I was absolutely exhausted and fell asleep the minute we walked through the door. 

Mudroom Makeover

As balmy summer nights approach, S.B and I started brainstorming where we can sleep more guests. We decided to put a daybed in the mudroom, and in a flash S.B. built a frame using wood leftover from our deck rail (which he also built!) Inspired by how it freshened up the space, I overhauled the whole room into the ultimate chill-out zone.

Here's the room before we started:

The white floor was dingy from muddy winter boots and piled wood.

There's S.B. in the background, running away from home.

First we painted the floor a dark chocolate brown. Afterward, I added a

large mat in the same colour to protect the paint from sandy beach feet.

We acquired a comfy wicker chair, courtesty of Mom.

I placed a soft hemp rug under the daybed, moved in some plants and a 

woven ottoman to use as a side table. I sewed most of the cushion covers 

myself out of colorful cloth lap napkins I bought for 50 cents a piece.

A portable turntable provides the soundtrack to summmer. 

On the other side we have additional seating (recognize the chair?),

walls hooks for coats and a steamer trunk for footwear.

Presto! Mudroom, guest quarters and relaxing hang-out zone in one.

Total cost of makeover: $40 (for paint, cushion covers, candles and mat)