Dorothy Draper Find

Sorry for not blogging in here for a while. I have been very busy house hunting and we have been quite selective about what we want. Our reasoning is that we have lived in rental homes for so long now that we feel we deserve to live in a place that we consider "perfect"!  However, as we continue our search, I wonder if there is such a thing as a perfect home within a budget?

Anyway, last Friday, Apartment Therapy featured a pair of Dorothy Draper chest of drawers, for $140. As you may be aware, I have been drooling over these for a while but I can't justify buying them for thousands of dollars.

I called the lady and to my disappointment, she said a gentleman was coming to see it - she lived in Virginia and there was no way we could go see it straight away as it was a weekday, and I was not confident about driving. (My dear hubby takes me to this thrift finds, what a honey!)

So, I was resigned to letting it go but for some reason, the next day, when Matt had a day off work, I called her again to see if they had been sold. She said no!!! It was meant to be mine! I had the same feeling when I spotted the lovely Union Jack dresser - that it had my name written on it.

They both managed to fit into our car and here they are, sitting in my garage, waiting for us to move into our new home. I want to see what sort of furniture I will buy as we move so I haven't decided what colour to paint it yet. In the meantime, aren't they just divine??? There are two of them, the other one is behind it. In the background, you can see I am working on the secretary. It is done but I need to put a glossy coat on it and I have to do some research on how to make furniture look glossy.

Secretary Find

I spotted a secretary for $100 on Craiglist and I was thrilled because these things cost $600-$700 in Craiglist usually. As we are quite new to the USA, we have not really seen these types of desks before so I was really fascinated by the lines and concept of it.

It had some minor imperfections like hinges not working, sides falling off and cracks. The lock was missing a key but I knew I could replace it on Lee Harvey, Canada's best hardware shop.

 So I got to work, removing all the shelves, doors and drawer pulls. Had to buy new ones to modernize the look. I chose a cream white colour but halfway through sanding, I realised that there was a tricky bit that I could not reach with a brush so I had to buy a spray paint. They only come in one colour, not the one I had ordered mixed for me. It was a heirloom white, just slightly off white.

This is the part I am having a tough time with. I cannot remove the little shelves - if I do, I would not know how to put them back together. I sanded as much as I could but still it was not very good. After I spray painted it with primer, I noticed there were streaks of primer dripping down due to gravity, leaving it to dry with these streaks. I sanded it but without success as my fingers cannot reach those narrow areas. I hope that it is not noticeable to others and my only consolation is that it will remain closed so no one will see it that much.

More pictures to come!

Craiglist and Thrift Store Finds

I love thrift stores here. I know some of my friends and family would shun second hand goods but I love the idea of recycling something, and best of all not paying the full price for it.

I go on Craiglist once a week to check out mainly furniture - I have been so inspired by a lady I met in Virginia who sold us this beautiful dresser which she hand painted herself. She has an inspiring blog called Painted Furniture. I used to think, "I don't have the space, I need the room, etc. before I start working on any of my bigger projects." Well, this lady lives in a smaller place than mine and that did not stop her! If she can do it, why can't I? I have no excuse not to get going! This is what we bought from her and it now sits in James' room. We love how it adds a pop into his room and he gets many comments when people see it. However, it will be there temporarily until we move into a house of our own then we can place it in a more prominent spot.

So anyway, we found this amazing bookstore, Friends of the Library, where there are tons of books donated by the library and general public. In Singapore, we used to wait for the event once every two years to be held at an expo center. Then, we would have to fight with the masses of people, and I mean masses (37,000 people to be exact over 2 days) for books. I am glad we have store here without needing to queue for hours and we get to select our books slowly and with some dignity! :)

So this week, we found these classic books for $3 each.

They are all hardcover and written by Munro Leaf. These are old, old books and have been reprinted. They have the most darling illustrations. Even though James will probably not read them as it is targeted at younger children, Cameron would be able to read them. They are on my keepers list of books but never bought them because they were so expensive to buy in Singapore, like $25 to $30 each due to postage from the USA. And to find four from Munro Leaf in a thrift store is such a bonus!

Christmas Redwork Quilt

Happy new year! Can you believe that I finally finished this quilt yesterday? That means that I will be ready with all these Christmas decorations for this years's Christmas!

It didn't turn out as well as I would have hoped because I used a wired ribbon, which I cut away leaving a plastic like ribbon to work with for the gold border, and it did not sit flat. I bought it because I could not find a ribbon which was 1 inch in width. They had 1.25 inches and 0.75 inches which was strange. Then I spied a roll of Christmas gold ribbon for wrapping presents and I thought it would work. It was a good but time consuming experiment, because next time, I will use 100% cotton fabrics.

The other thing I learnt while making the redwork was that I have to be so careful to tie up loose ends because they show right through the white muslin from the back! At first I thought my coloured thread was bleeding but it was due to this reason.

See how unevenly it is sitting? Nevermind, I will know for the next time!

Me Likey

I am looking out for a chest of drawers from Dorothy Draper but they are so expensive (between US$1,400 and $16,000) and I was wondering if there was a way for me to create one on my own. Her pieces are so rare and I feel envious when people write on blog posts how they pick it up at garage sales for $50 or something unbelievable!

 This one is available from a cool shop in DC called Sixteen Fifty Nine.

This one is probably more tame in colour but it comes in pink, orange...I love it, love it, want it! Hope I find it at a flea market!

My Christmas Quilt

I seriously don't know if this will be in time for Christmas because embroidering it has taken me such a long time.

I wanted to do a redwork quilt for some time and had some Christmas fabric leftover so this was what I worked on. The pattern is not mine, it was from an Australian Quilt magazine I bought back in the 1990s (yes I keep all my quilt magazines!) but I changed the redwork pictures because some of them were a little bit strange looking.

More to come later! I am in the process of basting the quilt (I do it the old fashioned way, sticking it to the floor and running large stitches through the sandwiched quilt.)

Hans Olsen Table

I know this is a Craft blog but in a way, furniture making is a craft in itself and I love furniture, especially when they are not mass produced and hand made. When we first moved from Singapore to the USA, we needed a dining table but I was disappointed by all the MDF and veneered top stuff we were finding in the stores. There is a chap in DC who makes great furniture called Thos Moser and his furniture is like poetry.

Through daily reading of Apartment Therapy, I became influenced and started liking Mid Century Modern furniture, especially those by Danish/Scandinavian furniture makers.  We were particularly taken with a table by Hans Olsen and were prepared to buy it - but it would have cost us a lot of moolah as the seller was going to ship it by air. The seller was based in Denmark.

Then one day, while scouting around in ebay, we saw the same table and chairs by Hans Olsen and it was at a ridiculously good price and even though we already bought a teak dining table via Craiglist, I knew we just had to have it. We won the auction and now it is sitting in our basement, away from the children's harmful hands, ha ha ha. When we move into a better place, we will be able to place it in the right room.

Here are photos of it...

The table is round.

It can extend out to seat 6 people. That is not Matt's hand by the way. It is the seller's.

The chairs slide and fit perfectly under the table.

Look at this joinery. What an amazing work. No nails.

The six chairs.

The chair has only three legs.

We love it! It is a keeper! I said it to the boys, that it will be theirs when we get too old and we need to downside. So Cameron asks if he could photocopy it since he knows they won't be able to share it!

This is the one from Denmark that we let go. I prefer ours more because of the three legs!