My First Sale

You may have noticed the blue glass insulators that pop up in a lot of my styled pictures:

I brought a bunch of insulators with me to Lucketts, and realized that a lot of people don't know what they are. Never fear, I'm here to throw some knowledge on you. Insulators are placed at the top of electrical or telephone poles, where wires are wrapped around them to prevent the wire from touching the wood. Today you can look at the tops of electrical poles and see stacks of ceramic insulators, but before the 1960s, most of them were made of glass.

I love insulators for many reasons. I'm a sucker for blue translucent glass, they catch light beautifully, and they are great for styling just about any surface, especially if you're going for an eclectic (electric?) look. But insulators are near and dear to my heart for another reason: my grandpa collected them.

My grandpa spent his career as a telephone man. This influenced my family quite a bit. My dad and uncle know how to run wire pretty much anywhere in a house, and the entire family has a propensity for backing into parking spaces. I even grew up playing with old rotary telephones that my grandpa gave us when we were kids.

When the telephone company started converting their insulators to ceramic, my grandpa collected the old glass insulators. When my grandparents downsized, he put most of the insulators on a shelf near his workshop. He and my grandma also scattered them throughout their house, a small symbol of the pride my grandpa had in his work long after he retired. When he died, all of his children and grandchildren acquired portions of the collection.

Insulators make me quite nostalgic, and I always think of my grandpa when I see them. But that's not the only reason I decided to acquire some extras and sell them at Lucketts. My grandpa was an extremely handy guy, and as I've mentioned in past posts, he did amazing work to furniture that looked beyond repair. I still remember how every Tuesday, he would go visit his friend Freddie and repair furniture in Freddie's workshop with some other friends. It wasn't unusual to come across a few broken chairs in the cellar waiting to fixed up or re-caned. My grandpa's appreciation for old, well made furniture, his ability to see beauty in broken, beat up pieces, and his sheer love of tinkering and working with his hands undoubtedly influenced my passion for refurbishing old furniture.

My grandpa died six years ago last week. He lived a long and extremely fulfilling life, the kind that you can't help but use as a benchmark for your own. My only real regret is that I didn't fully embrace my furniture refurbishing hobby until after he died. There's so much that I still wish I could learn from him and work into my craft.

So where am I going with this? Well, as I stood anxiously at my Lucketts booth Saturday morning, not having sold anything right away, I wondered if this whole experience was going to be a big bust. But as the boy likes to remind me, I should have had more faith in myself. As the title of this post would suggest, soon enough, I made my first sale. And it was, quite appropriately, an insulator.

My Grandpa played baseball for the Cooperstown Indians on Doubleday field!

Lucketts Favorites: Mid-century Modern Herringbone Tables

Thank you SO much to Becky from Preparing for Peanut for sending me this picture she snapped during the market!

Shortly after I found out I would be selling furniture at Lucketts, I picked up these mid-century modern tables on craigslist.

The finish on both tables was in really bad shape, and had alligatored in a lot of places. The tops both had water rings on them. 

They were very solid and had potential, so I was excited about the acquisition.

To take off the bad finish, I sanded until my hands were about to fall off. I even bought a Dremel Multi-Max with the detail sander attachment to help sand the places where I was struggling and make the process go faster. 

Once the finish was gone, I applied a coat of wood conditioner and then a coat of Minwax Antique Walnut stain. I really didn't like the color I got, which was much closer to black than I wanted, so I put two layers of General Finishes Java gel stain over the Minwax to darken and richen it up a bit. I let the stain dry for a couple days before I got to painting it. 

I knew I wanted to paint a herringbone pattern on these tables in an effort to kind of exaggerate their mid-century, "Mad Men" style. My original plan was to use some of my white Benjamin Moore Advance paint to paint the pattern, but I was coming down to the wire and really didn't have time to wait for the dry time of Advance paint. So instead, I ran off to buy some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Pure White from the Stylish Patina space at Stifel &Capra in Falls Church. 

I chose to use chalk paint mostly because I knew it would dry quickly and cover well. I taped out the row of stripes that faced one direction first and painted the pattern on the table there. Once that was dry, I taped out the rows of strips facing the opposite direction and painted those. 

Here's what the table looked like after I painted the pattern. 

Another advantage of using the chalk paint was that I could sand the pattern very easily without making the paint peel. When the herringbone pattern was dry, I used 220 grit sandpaper to sand the edges of the color and give it a slightly distressed feel. Then I wiped off the dust with a damp cloth. 

To seal the table, I first brushed on a coat of Annie Sloan clear wax. After giving that about an hour to set, I mixed a tiny amount of my Java stain with some wax and brushed that over the entire thing to make the graphic herringbone pattern not quite as severe. I buffed off that wax almost immediately so that it wasn't too dark. 

Side note: Can  you believe this is the only good picture I have of them? Can you believe this is the one I consider "good"? Fail. 

Thank you SO much to Becky from Preparing for Peanut for sending me this picture she snapped during the market!

Unfortunately I didn't take very good pictures of the finished product. They were a hit at Lucketts--so many people stopped by to look at them--but they didn't sell until Sunday. So, note to self: just because something looks really cool doesn't mean that a ton of people will want it in their living room/bedroom. I ended up selling the tables to Amy Theodore of Hunt & Gather, who had some really rockin' mid-century pieces in their tent too. I'm mega flattered that those girls loved these tables as much as I did. 

I know some people came by and took pictures of them, so if you were one of those people can you pleeeeeaaaaase email them to me? You would seriously become my bff. 

Linked to: The Shabby Creek Cottage, Domestically Speaking, Miss Mustard Seed, Redoux, Shabby Nest, Making Lemonade

Lucketts Favorites: Blue Rocking Chair

When I was getting ready for Lucketts, a lot of my friends asked me which pieces were my favorite projects. So, I thought I'd do a few posts about my favorites.

I bought this rocking chair at the last minute, about a week before the market. It had a cane back and cane bottom. The cane bottom looked new, but the back looked terrible. I haven't yet learned how to weave cane furniture, so I decided to reupholster this chair. And I was in such a rush to finish projects that I forgot to take a before picture. Bummer.

Using spray primer, I primed it and painted it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Provence. I mostly primed it because I didn't know what color I wanted to paint it, but I'm glad I did because I didn't want any of the black paint to show through anyway. After the paint dried, I went over it with a coat of wax.

I was actually planning to put different fabric on it, but at the last second I realized how gorgeous the retro flowered fabric looked with the blue, so I decided to use that instead. Once I had upholstered the front and back, I had to figure out what kind of trim to use. I wasn't really wanting to sew double-welt cord, so I looked around my house to see what I had. That's when I saw my big bag of cord that I would ordinarily use to sew double weight cord. The oatmeal color looked perfect against the fabric, so I doubled it up and attached it.

I am so in love with this color fabric combo to the point where I might actually do our unfinished dining chairs in this style. I sold it to a lady who has two little boys and was decorating a nursery for her little girl on the way. I love that this chair will look adorable in a nursery but be able to grow with the little girl too.

So that's my favorite. I'll be back later this week with more info.

P.S. Tonight I'm going to see a lecture by Jonathan Adler at the Corcoran with some blogger friends and I'm so pumped. Anyone else in DC going?

Linked to: Primitive and Proper, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Domestically Speaking, Miss Mustard Seed, Redoux, Shabby Nest, Making Lemonade

Craigslist Scam Alert

I posted a couple of the items that didn't sell at Lucketts on Craigslist yesterday, and got this fun little response:

 Hi
Thanks for the swift response to my mail inquiry .i completelysatisfied  and comfortable with your advert,hence still available, Iwill send a Bank check to cover the cost of my purchase  as well aspickup logistics.sincerely  i am keen on having  this to be mine .sokindly avail to me the details of whom & where to mail the paymentpackage.It will be delivered by the Fedex courier Service within2-3days of the receipt of your details.Please note Fedex do notdeliver to  P.O.Box addresses.,The below is required:

   1.Name to be on the check   2.Home address   3.Mobile #

In otherwords i presume a sealed transaction so,Kindly delete theadvert on Craig's List as am totally committed to buying from you tosave me cost, My mover will be coming over for the pick up right onlyafter the payment as been delivered and I want you to understand that,I would have love to call but i am hearing impaired and i am alwaysvery preoccupied with work  site inspection all week long , so do me afavor by sending me emails and pictures if available.

Thanks for your warm understanding

Wow, thanks, but I wasn't born yesterday. Also, if you're trying to steal from me, maybe don't send such an obviously sketchy response.  I had heard that there was some serious scamming going around Craigslist, and it finally got to me. I think most of my readers are savvy enough to know that you should never enter into a deal like this, but I wanted to let you all know about it in case you end up with an offer like this. Don't even respond!

Lucketts Recap

This past week has been the most exhausting week that I can remember. In addition to prepping for the Lucketts Spring Market, I spent two days in NYC for my sister's graduation from NYU. I was working on projects up until the last second and got so very little sleep. I don't ever remember working this hard on anything, even during the end of the semester in college.

The market was really cool. I learned SO much and met some neat vendors. I also talked to a few people who read my blog, which was really cool and almost a bit funny to think that there were actually people at the market who had already seen some of my stuff. I sold quite a few pieces but still have a few things left, including the pretty coral table I posted last week. Check out my "shop" page to see what I still have available! I've set up a shop on Etsy too. Items are currently available for pickup locally from Falls Church, and I am looking into reputable delivery services for people who are out of the area.

Big thanks to my roomies who let me turn our house into Sarah's furniture workshop for the past few months (the last two weeks were especially bad) and helped me move things around the house, my family who came out and visited me during the market, and my friend Bobby who helped me load my space Friday when a last minute thing came up for Kyle at work. Which brings me to the boy. A HUGE thanks to Kyle (the boy) who was about the most supportive person in the world throughout this entire effort. He went with me to pick up furniture, helped me move things around the house, and spent his entire weekend hanging out at the market with me. He helped me calm down when I frequently freaked out about the amount of work I had left last week. He moved stuff out of my car while I set up the space each day, got us snacks, charmed customers, and made friends with the vendors around our space. He never complained once, even when allergies were killing him by the end of both days. We really made a great team, and I feel so insanely lucky to be with someone who cares that much about my endeavors and helps me succeed even when I'm doubting myself. Sorry girls, he's a keeper!

Coral and Gold Dipped Table

I have been crazy busy attempting to finish all my projects for the Lucketts market next weekend. So, I don't have time to type out a full tutorial but I wanted to share one of my latest finished pieces!

This is a vintage Henredon end table that I painted with Benjamin Moore Advance satin in Tuscon Coral. I got the "dipped" effect by spray painting the ends of the legs with gold paint first, and then using painters tape to create the crisp line between the coral and gold. This sassy little table will be available next week at the market, along with the brass duck and a bunch of telephone insulators!

Linked: Miss Mustard Seed, Chic on a Shoestring, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Redoux, My Repurposed Life, Making Lemonade, Domestically Speaking, Somewhat Simple, Savvy Southern Style, 36th Avenue, The Shabby Nest, 

  

Not Helpful

Any Parks and Rec fans out there? Remember the episode when Ron Swanson decides to fix everything in Andy and April's house?


Well, this pretty much sums up how I've felt lately when I walk into a certain home improvement store:




A couple weeks ago, I asked someone if they sold Kreg Jigs. They had no idea what I was talking about. I said, "You know, something that helps you drill pocket holes?" He still had no idea what I was talking about.

A few months ago, I had to ask three people where to find staples for an electric stapler. The first took me to pneumatic staplers. The second just pointed in a direction. Finally, the third took me to the right place.

On another visit, I asked a man where I could find sanding discs for a power sander. He proceeded to educate me on what the different grits were and was asking me what I was doing so he could tell me what I needed. This would've been fine, except every sign I gave him (including a quick response to "hook and loop or adhesive?") pointed to the fact that I knew what I was doing. Then, I watched him help a lady and her husband figure out what power sander to buy. He totally ignored the fact that the woman wanted something that fit in her hand and kept emphasizing warranties. All she wanted to do was scuff up paneling so that she could paint it. I wanted to point out that if she's going to be using it on a wall, she probably won't really hold it in the palm of her hand, so she didn't need to worry about the size so much as the weight. But I didn't want to be a know it all. I spend too much time being one already.

By the way, I ended up buying the Kreg Jig at Woodcraft, which is well-stocked with both woodworking supplies and helpful salesmen.

I'm majorly frustrated with the quality of service at these big box home stores. I read somewhere that Home Depot was trying to make their store more female-friendly by carrying Martha Stewart home items. Some Ace Hardware stores were "brightening up" a couple isles and selling more things like scented candles. Are they going to start selling Tampons too? I can buy patio furniture and scented candles from Target. When I go to a home improvement store or a hardware store, I want to talk to someone who knows how to complete a project from start to finish, and who doesn't treat me like I'm an idiot just because I'm a girl.

Maybe I'll just start wandering the isles of Home Depot looking for a forlorn DIY cohort, and we'll find the stuff we need together.