Grandma Staege's Sewing Table

I showed you the shelf I put in above the washer and the dryer.  
I also did some furniture shuffling. If you are following this riveting story, you might have seen the white desk post. 
;) 
One of the changes I made by default was moving my great grandmother's sewing machine table back into the laundry room.

Emma Marie Emilie Staege Lueke was so proud of her New Home Sewing Machine.

That is a mouthful!

She took such good care of it that I still have some of the original accessories to the machine. 

I certainly couldn't use it as a sewing machine anymore but it didn't make a good end table either. At this point in my life I prefer to have things that I can use for something not for purely sentimental reasons. 

So I took off the cover and the sewing machine and stowed them away. 

I love using the laundry room as a makeshift butler's pantry during a party. I had to do something about the well in the middle of it if I was going to use this piece as a little serving table.

The well served a purpose when this was a sewing machine but not as a table for overflow food.
I had hoped that we had a piece of scrap lumber about the right size so I could make a top. There wasn't one so I asked Bill to cut one for me. 
He cut the piece and then put an edge on it so it will set securely over the top of the sewing machine table. He cut the top about three inches deeper so we could have more surface. 

I still wanted the cute details of the drawers to show.

I did however want to disguise the dryer hose that runs behind it.

I made a little flirty skirt out of drop cloth material and stapled it to the middle drawer. I don't notice the vent when I walk in the room and the skirt matches the paint on the top. 

I love having a lamp in the laundry room. 

We've gained some floor space in this tight room. 

I painted the top of the table with a coat or two of CeCe Caldwell chalk paint in Vintage White.
 

I love being able to use family stuff in a new way.

We already used this for two dinners over Christmas. 
It was great to have a place to set the desserts until we finished dinner. 
The challenge now will be keeping it free from clutter!
Stay tuned for the next spine tingling chapter in this story; the pie safe!  
Katie 
Linking with,
Savvy Southern Style   
Common Ground   
French Country Cottage

The White Desk

I loved our little desk in the kitchen.

   

I loved the little desk after I painted it white.

For some reason, I just wasn't wild about the desk in the kitchen after it was white. 

It didn't make sense to me but I had a plan. 

I originally planned to swap the pie safe from the laundry room and the kitchen desk.

The desk could go in the laundry room and I could use it as a sewing table. 

The pie safe could go in the kitchen. (I liked the pie safe in the laundry room but it was a bit big.)

I measured the height of the pie safe but I forgot to measure the width of the desk. 

Rebekah and I moved the pie safe into place and then realized that the desk wouldn't fit. 

I loved the pie safe in the kitchen so there was no way the desk was going  back into that spot.

I decided that the drop leaf table from Aunt Louine could be given away and in it's place we could put the desk.

Please don't cry any tears about us giving away the drop leaf table. I realize that it was probably almost 100 years old and it could actually be called antique but it was dysfunctional. I felt so sorry for the kid who always had to straddle the side when we used this as a kitchen table. 

That child (the baby) probably needs years of counseling to get over the fact that his parents would not invest in a table that we could all fit around. 

Oh my gosh!

(light bulb moment)

Maybe that is why Jonnie told his Jr. High teacher that he was a mistake. 

(He confused accident with mistake. Whoops.)

ANYWAY, his teacher thought we were horrible people for telling our child he was a mistake, something we would never have done, but we did mention that he wasn't planned when he was old enough to understand. 

:/
Oops!

Okay back to the desk.

 Love, love, love. 

White desk under white shelf.

I left the shelf the same as it was for Christmas. I added the darling tin chalkboard. Bill and Bekah found it at Target. It was my favorite thing in my Christmas stocking. 

Why didn't I think of this before?
The curvy lines of the desk mimic the lines of the shelf.

Ay, yi, yi!

I've spent angsty years looking for a perfect match for that shelf. 

Happy Accident. 

Jonnie is one too.

:)

Have a lovely day,

Katie   
Linking with,
Common Ground
French Country Cottage

Painting Frenzy

I made a valiant attempt. 
I've shared with you my dilemma about painting furniture so I did everything I could think of in the dining room to lighten it up short of that.  
I painted the walls a gray that is pretty but it reads a little green for me. I'm not repainting them - yet.  
I painted all the picture frames. 
I made a white wood tray and set it on a table of white stuff.

I painted the lamps.
I filled the dish dresser with white dishes.

I came to the conclusion that a piece of furniture was going to have to be sacrificed to the paintbrush gods. 
The gods would not be denied!! 
I think you know what I mean. 
Sometimes a decorating problem just has to be fixed even if it goes against an unspoken principle. 

The likely candidate for the sacrifice was the $5.00 buffet that was just a little too orangey oak. It had a long 23 year run in my possession. 
All we had to do to this piece was fix a door, get new pulls and prop up the drawer now and again. 

I hoped that a lighter finish on the buffet would draw the eye in and bring out some pretty but subtle details. 

It wasn't an expensive piece in its day. It is made with veneer from the 20s or 30s.
I'm pretty sure it had been refinished by the time I got it. 
I hate to be the first one to alter a finish on furniture. 



It's also not un-reversable. I can always refinish it later when orange oak comes back in style… What? You don't think orange will be back in style anytime soon?
Nope! It won't. 

This buffet is probably my crowning garage sale achievement. $5.00!! 

We were in a new, bigger house when I found it but we were house poor. We needed stuff to fill up this place.

I have really enjoyed this piece over the years but it was time for a new look.
Now I won't just see a sea of the same color wood when I look into the room.

My dad's table will stand out a little more. 
  

I bought a brand new quart of CeCe Caldwell chalk paint in Vintage White the other day.

The temptation was too much to resist so I went a little crazy on this piece and two others. 
I'll be sharing those with you later. 
Katie   
Linking with,
The Charm of Home   
Funky Junk Interiors  
Feathered Nest Friday  
A Stroll Thru Life   
Coastal Charm   
Dwellings - The Heart of Your Home   
Savvy Southern Style

Furniture Swap and Advice?

Hi blogger friends,

I have a question today.

Rebekah and I traded some furniture so I have a complete bedroom suite in the garage. 

It is Hepplewhite in style in a cherry finish from the 40s, I believe. 

Link

20 years ago, I would have loved to have this set but now I'm not so sure.
The dresser is very similar to the one above.

In my picking and gathering method of furnishing a home, I have had no bedroom suites.
 Part of me would love to finally have a complete matching set of bedroom furniture but I am over dark, cherry stained wood. 

I don't know if I should paint it or not.

Link
 

I have a painted furniture board over on Pinterest but is the painted furniture craze coming to a crescendo?

I don't want to be late to the party only to find that I would love this stained furniture again. 

 

Link

 

I have refinished plenty of pieces to know I don't want to do that in a few years and 

I vividly remember my mom's avocado green piano.

 

I painted Rebekah's room last night and I am styling it today.

 I lost my shabby and white space when my youngest moved back in with us this summer. 
Read about it his room before here.
It was one of my first blog posts, so be kind.
 I went with white walls because I am sick of the dark walls. I wanted to try white for a change. I've haven't painted a room pure white since our house in Lubbock in 1990.
I like is so far. 
This room has been white, Celadon, Tiffany Blue, khaki and dark Moss.
Bill came home from his trip last night and said it's green.
It is not green.
It's a mixture of Glidden and Colorplace white.
Off the shelf: pre-mixed- white. Argh!  
This house just reads green. I didn't want to buy our house when we first saw it because I was convinced the carpet was Celadon green.  My realtor called the owner and she confirmed it was gray.??! She had the original order for the carpet. Gray!
(I've had problems with all my grays reading green….) Hmmm.
 
Back to the furniture.

I love white furniture with white walls but it would be a beating to have to paint all that furniture 
and
 I have Gene to contend with…
Who is Gene?
I am so glad you asked. 

This is Gene. Gene is a family heirloom that belonged to a state Senator or Representative. It was in his office down in Austin at the capitol. Rebekah named it during her childhood.  
Rebekah hopes to have Gene in a home someday but can't take it at this time. I am ready to move Gene out of here but he has a dysfunctional leg from being moved too many times.

This is what Bekah said after she saw the room.
1. "It looks smaller."
2. It looks likes I dumped all the furniture outcasts in it.
3. "I hate the color of the washstand and the bed."

Gene, the washstand and the bed are all the same color so what is she going to do about Gene if she doesn't like the color?

Yikes. 

So I am conflicted.
Scrap it all and start over? 

Help?
I think I better stock up on disposable paint brushes.
 Katie  

Antique Washstand

I got it in my head that I wanted an old white washstand.

 I'd seen a few cute ones while antiquing out in the country.

They ranged in price from $250-$400 but they weren't painted white. I did see a blue one but I didn't want that color.

I saw a white one while antiquing out at the lake but it was a little more chipped and worn than I normally prefer. It was also about $225 and it looked like it had been left out in the rain. 

The abandoned cabin in Colorado had one on the porch but the mice had already taken up residence. 

I finally found one in my price range when a local furniture consignment store was having a sale. 

I tried it up in Rebekah's room. I thought I would like the look of two semi-matching pieces as night stands.
I didn't care for it. 

Rebekah moved out last weekend and took an oak bookcase for her extensive book collection.

I was really happy to get rid of the last bit of oak in the living room and she was happy to have some more book storage.

Once we painted the old oak kitchen cabinets in the kitchen, all my other orange oak furniture downstairs didn't seem to make sense.

With a few changes this little piece will fit in great.

I took off the towel bar.

Usually I prime first and then paint with oil base enamel.

I was feeling excessively lazy so I skipped the primer.

It was a mistake because then the enamel 
needed two coats and
I had to wait for about 10 hours for the washstand to be dry enough for the second coat. 
I learned my lesson. I won't be skipping the primer again. Primer dries in about a half hour.

I hit the handles with ORB spray paint and them scuffed them up when they were dry.

Washstands like this would have had little porcelain casters.
I didn't have any in my stash so I ran up to an
 Ace Hardware. 

I was planning on re-doing the banister this summer but the bathroom remodel has me a little done in. That project is on hold for now.

I got the old ice cream bucket for Christmas. It's perfect for dog toys.

I think it is darling.



It brightens up the corner of the living room and
I get another tabletop to decorate.

I love that it is another little spot of white in the room.

It's so cute.
Katie

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Savvy Southern Style  
Funky Junk Interiors