New To The Shop This Week

As always we have a wide variety of new treats to tempt you with this week :)

 

Fabulous, HUGE, retro wooden wall plaque, huge size, I can see certain Kiwis loving this one

1950s wicker box purse, ideal for the beach

We're big on vintage desk items at the moment, how fab is this rare triple in/out tray?

Gorgeous and rustic wooden wine box, see below the inside

Fantastic 50s wooden serving tray, love the toothpick holders in the middle!

Great for kids VBs age, old cane rocking horse

60s Samsonite mock croc suitcase or large briefcase

And for all you green bakelite fans, there's some newies in the kitchen too.

How cool is this green bakelite thermos, complete with original cork stopper and screw-on lid

And a huge bakelite citrus juicer, yum!!

Great compact size on this antique solid silky oak dressing table

Hard to do it justice in a photo but I have to say I'm proud of this one, my latest major project :)

We have quite a few new hats too- do you love the orange feather on this one, or do you love it!

Calling all 50s girls, you'll never go wrong with a black velvet beaded cocktail hat like this.



Of course there's lots more than this...you'll just have to come on in for a personal look!

A Day in My Life...a.k.a. Painting is Getting Boring Now!

If you've ever fancied yourself as a vintage seller, I'm going to show you some nitty-gritty detail of whats involved.

As you know we're having all the stock taken to the shop on Monday, so I'm finishing up lots of furniture projects this week.

I'm the kind of person who needs challenges and variety; being that I sell everything from clothing and hats to small collectables, sewing patterns and large furniture, I certainly get plenty of both.

For the last few weeks though I've mostly been working on the furniture- read on and you'll soon see why painting is getting boring now! This is a rundown of what I did today.

 

First up, I gave this 50s wire plant stand a second coat of white paint. I used a spray can so it was very quick.

 

This cast iron garden chair, one of a pair, also had a second coat.

I've chosen to give this Art Nouveau style hall table the shabby chic treatment. It's taken an enormous amount of work but it's almost done now.

I used different textures, colours and finishes to give it a more aged look.

 

A cute little cane childs chair got a coat of satin-finish varnish.

Two cushion covers from a pair of barstools get soaked in black dye.

Two naughty dresses that didn't come clean the first time around get re-soaked. I always hand wash every vintage garment separately in clean buckets.

I scrubbed down and touched up this fab retro footstool. Such a nice old guy I bought this from. He let me go over to his house, go through all his stuff, and pick out everything I wanted. IT WAS GREAT.

For a vintage seller there is nothing better than that!

Did some more work on the second two of this set of four dinette chairs. (I love the word dinette!). Above is one of the completed ones. I'm still painting and sanding the second 2 chair backs. We have 6 complete dinettes in stock, but this one will be first on the shop floor.

 

These chairs are quite different to most I have seen. The legs and back support bars are plastic-coated, but the horizontal bar (i.e. the bit that the seat is placed on) is metal. I stripped it down to almost bare metal and  mixed the creamy colour up myself to get it to match. I'm very pleased with the result.

Of the 4 chairs, two have faded significantly and two haven't. This is one of the faded ones. I also mixed the pinky red colour myself as it matches well with the less faded seats. The seat backs were originally a bright red...which I tried but it was too strong a colour for the laminate.

How beautiful is this kitchen dresser! Luckily it doesn't need major work or painting, just a lot of cleaning....so I gave it another half an hours' worth this afternoon.

I love this old burnt cane wall shelf. It got a final coat of gloss varnish, which I think brings out the colour beautifully.

This is a beautiful 1950s full size dressing screen, and will form the basis of our change room. (How do I know it is 50s? by the hinges). The white frame is being painted gold to tie in with some other shop fittings we have been keeping specially for the shop. Above is the first coat I applied yesterday.

Unfortunately this lovely brocade fabric is completely nailed into the frame, which makes the painting a chore as I'm not willing to pull the whole screen apart.

Especially when you are using the paint of satan. Don't be fooled by the beautiful colours; this is the worst, wierdest, fastest-drying paint I have ever used!

I thinned the paint down and applied a second coat. It still looks lumpy, but I'll sand it tomorrow and see what gives. We'll see.

But the day is not over yet, mes chers! It's 11pm as I write this so it's dress-steaming time.

So, do you still fancy yourself a vintage seller??

The Weekend Shopper

Yep, thats me!

The title of this post will be a pun for anyone who lives near me, as our local newspaper has a massive 'for sale' section called 'the weekend shopper'. Its like Craigslist but not on the internet. I think.

(Why is Craigslist actually called Craigslist anyway?? I never have understood that).

Anyway, this is just some of what I (or should I say, Sue and I) bought. There were a few more furniture pieces bought, including a solid cedar table and a 1920s ironing board, but they went home with Sue so unfortunately I can't show them off.

Vintage cane breakfast tray. It needs a bit of a clean up and a couple of coats of varnish, but not too much work really.

A couple of childrens school cases. These sell like hotcakes even in this condition. I don't know why, maybe its the nostalgia value?

Cane screen or room divider, I like the style on this one. As you can see its currently a wierd yellow and white, so will need a total respray.

My one purchase for myself, a piece of blue Lewbury, YESSS!! It needs a clean but is in excellent condition, and at $20 was a major bargain. I saw a similar piece in green in an antique shop last week for $165.

Biscuit barrell, be gone! New piece now in situ in the kitchen, I'm loving having all this matching stuff.

But the find of the day has to be this small collection of vintage dresses.

They are 70s, but to put things in perspective for those overseas, to even find clothing this old here is still quite a coup. We simply don't have the amount, age and variety of vintage clothing that is available in the northern hemisphere. I wish we did. As an example, 50s dresses are like hens teeth here and wholesale for $110. Which I think is pretty scary!

Saturday is Fair Day

We did the big trip to Nambour today, as planned, and as usual we came up with a few choice finds.

An old white-painted seagrass table.

Cane rocking chair.

Blue/grey velvet bedroom chair. I'm particularly taken with this one, as my grandmother used to have a similar one when I was very young.

Bamboo wall shelf.

By now you'll see a theme developing here. I've suddenly developed an obsession with buying vintage cane/wicker/bamboo/rattan stuff.

 I have no idea why, I just kinda get a thing for something...and run with it.

But I am NOT running towards shabby chic. Hell no!

White-painted seagrass chair.

Poor old blog, it never gets the good photos These were taken very quickly as the van was being unloaded. Oh yes, the van! It acquitted itself beautifully, the 4 of us fitted in fairly well even with all this stuff packed in.

Aside from what you see here, we also fitted in 2 smallish art deco tables

This wicker chair is pretty modern I think, and not to my taste, but then I don't have to like it, do I?

Look at this poor 50s planter; some silly bugger has just resprayed it brown. Bleugh!

Obviously it has to be white again before I do anything with it!

Nice little wooden canister set with dovetail joinery. Cute, but not to my taste.

I kept an eye out today for the cream and blue bakelite 1930s canisters I'm after, but even with over 250 stalls to browse, I didn't see a single one.

Retro red rotary dial phone. These were the standard telephone installed in Australian households from about 1969 to 1982. They are now quite collectable, depending on the colour. Luckily for me, red is currently the most popular.

And last but not least, a nice retro ashtray, knocked down from $42 to $10.

Bargain of the day!