Country Flea Market Merch Monday

Instead of Manhattan Street Merch today, I'm posting Flea Market Merch from Georgia - I was too excited to wait any longer. As I've mentioned, I was in Alabama about a month ago helping a good college friend with her new house. We swung through Scott's Flea Market in Atlanta on our way back to Alabama and found some GREAT pieces. My favorite - a pair of chairs.

It was late in the day and really hot when we found them, so I'm not sure the woman selling the chairs new what she was doing.... She sold them to us for $20 - for the pair!

This receipt makes me laugh.

Here they are. Overloaded with character and potential!

They were in great shape. The woodwork was beautiful and the seats were detachable. Thank goodness.

Oh what lovely scratchy old fabric. Ick.

First things first. We prime.


Then we paint. 2 cans of Antique White Satin Spray Paint.


We went fabric crazy at Joann's and decided on a black, white & gray damask meets ikat pattern, which you can see below... On our FINISHED CHAIRS!

This is the country for you. Cotton fields and dogs in the background.

I love how these chairs turned out! Next round, I'll show you the room where these chairs are now living!

Take Me Home Country Road III - The Kitchen

The kitchen was a main point of focus of our overhaul. It's the first room you see when you walk into the house. Before I got there, Kim & Melinda had re-painted the cabinets and the trim with paint we had picked out. What a great head start! Here's where we ended up:

KITCHEN SINK BEFORE:


KITCHEN SINK AFTER:
Kim restored the small metal logo to its original form - nicely done Kimbo!



WALLBOARD & WOOD TRIM BEFORE:
Having seen only pictures of this goodness before my trip down South, I wasn't sure what to expect when Kim & Melinda described this 'wallboard' in the kitchen. Turns out it's like dry wall or plasterboard with wallpaper adhered to it. The question of the day - Is it paintable? And if so, what will Gran & Ms. Jan say about it?


DURING:



WALLBOARD & WOOD TRIM AFTER:
I can't think of a more perfect place for gray chalkboard paint than a country kitchen. Turned out the wallboard was paintable and Ms. Jan said we could paint it! So we did. As you can see below.

We found those dishes in Gran's garage. They're from the 60's!

OTHER SIDE OF THE KITCHEN BEFORE:



KITCHEN AFTER:
We used $7 matchstick blinds from Big Lots, clear IKEA vases on the window sill and white paint. Then we sprinkled in dishes and details that the girls already owned.

I almost stole that adorable tea pot and tea cup set. Kim brought it back from Russia after spending a month there a few summers ago.

There it is - Kim & Melinda's kitchen!

Take Me Home Country Road II

Back to Prattville! Not literally...but figuratively...on the blog.

I think spacial/home/design/color issues are the most fun to solve. Which is a good thing because we had a few obstacles to dodge in Kim & Melinda's new house.

Guidelines to adhere to:
- Leave the beautiful, dark, wood paneling untouched
- Keep within a $1,500 budget
- Include 3 generations of women in the decision making process

To Do List:

- Invest in great pieces of furniture

- Find ways to lighten and spruce up the dark walls

- Add grown up style while still keeping with the sparky personalities of Kim & Melinda

We began at Scott's Antique Market in Atlanta.

We also went to IKEA to pick up some sparkle and a cinnamon roll. Jessica & Turner shopped the day away with us. What good friends!

Here's the group that was waiting for us at the Autauga County High School Football Game.

From the left: Kimberly, Gran, Mary Jackson (aka Peanut), the dog whose name I can't remember, but check out his pose!!, Ms. Jan & Melinda.

I love this next part. This porch that everyone is perched on, is the same porch where both Gran and Ms. Jan were married. How sweet is that!

Pesky dog.

Our Atlanta & Montgomery errands were a great start. Next up - the kitchen!

Take me home, Country Roads

**Pressing enter while you're editing your blog title POSTS YOUR POST rather than going to the next line. Hence, why this posted when I wasn't quite ready. Dangit.

I spent last weekend in Autuagaville, Alabama.

Population: 870
Closest large town: Prattville, Alabama
Closest large city: Montgomery, Alabama
Favorite Past Time of Autaugaville Residents: Alabama/Auburn Rivalries, Drinking Sweet Tea and watching High School Football.

I love it there. It's a completely different world of deep Southern accents, slow paced folks and extended cab pick up trucks. I was invited down south to help one of my dear college friends with the house she and her sister just moved into. They live on a large piece of land where cotton grows. Their parents and grandmother all live on the same piece of land. It's so Pioneer Woman of them.

Here are the adorable sisters - Kim & Melinda. You get the idea of how far into the country we are - just look at the expanse of fields behind their mailbox!

And here's our project - their house! Stay tuned to read about our flea market finds and thrifty home overhaul!

Can't help but think, War Eagle! when I see those cute blue shutters.

Office Overhaul

While in Nashville, I had the chance to help tweak my friend Erin's office. She works in a super creative environment here. She's one of those people that loves warm, lived in, interesting and TIDY spaces. I, too, am that kinda girl. So we picked up our Sonic Route 44 Diet Cherry Lime Cokes and quickly spun through my go to places: Home Goods, Michael's and World Market.

Here is the office

BEFORE

BEFORE

*Now let me just say, her office would have looked great with a big dose of organization and tidying up. But we decided to take it a step further and warm it up a bit.

& AFTER

The lanterns are from World Market and the lamp from Home Goods (of course!).

We tried the lamp on the other side of the desk as you can see by the above picture. It eventually found its home on the right side, but I thought you could see the detail of the lanterns & lamp in this picture. TMI. Sorry.

Don't really have before pictures of this side of her office because the above bookshelf was actually behind the door. Weird. So we moved it over to the right and rearranged and simplified. Much better. That little white vase is from Home Good's as well.

Ok now this was really fun. Erin needed some art.

So I channeled David Bromstad. He was the the first winner on HGTV's Design Star and was also one of the Design Mentors on that show I was part of. He's known for adding a "David Bromstad Painting" to each room he completes. One type of painting I've seen him do is the drip painting. I'm sure there's a fancier term, but that will work for now. I (with Erin's occasional help) painted a canvas by: 1) Moving random acrylic paint all over a canvas 2) Spraying canvas with water bottle 3) Watching the paint drip 4) Letting paint dry 5) And repeating. I think our finished product is kinda cool!

Thanks for letting me play with your office!

Just because I thought it was cute, I've included a picture of Erin and I at "I Dream of Weenie". It's a hot dog place in East Nashville that operates out of a vintage airstream. My hot dog had homemade pimento cheese on it. You must go there.

Design on a Dime

What an experience! I have a few pictures to share with you from the Housing Works Design on a Dime event I went to, courtesy of Design*Sponge. There were more than 25 different designers who set up small vignette like rooms to showcase their own style. The space was packed with people and the rooms swarming with personality! You can view the Design*Sponge recap here, it's pretty fabulous!

I was in hog heaven. Embracing the freedom of being anonymous and getting in the zone, I walked and took pictures and walked and bumped into people and walked..... Here are the few things I saw -->

Not sure if this translates accurately in the picture, but there was a room covered in hand painted black and white images. Like the ones seen above. The perspective was even accurate! Not quite as kitschy as mural, but equally as interesting!

Love this repurposed looking table. A herringbone pattern was created with different pieces of blue painted and raw scrap (I think!) wood.

Interesting variation of a sofa or bedside table. Amazing what fresh flowers and a great bed spread will do.

I have a thing for metal. Especially in the form of chairs.

Love love love this chair. I'm looking around my room right now trying to find something to paint shiny black and recover in lime/mustard yellow. Dangit. I don't see anything.

This picture doesn't do justice to the clean white buffet and black and white photography collection. So classic. Can we just ignore the shadow of the person taking a picture with their iphone?

Mid-Century modern gets me every time. What a quirky and successful mix of a gold cube planter, fur rug, oval gray table, Ikat pillows and clean lined sofa.

Remember when Ty was the hunky carpenter on Trading Spaces? Good times. Along with Jaclyn Smith, Ty was a host of the event.

This is exactly what you're thinking. Don't be awkward. You bet I got a picture with Ty. I asked some random interior design girl hoovering around to take the picture. Ha.

Ok, so it's a little awkward. Oh. I thought about getting a picture with Jaclyn Smith, but y'all, she was SO beautiful! I couldn't work up the boldness! Next time Jackie.

I don't want to take my liking of chalkboard paint too far, but I did think this was a fun over the top variation.

Thanks again Design*Sponge!

Long Overdue!

Updates for you!

LAST WEEKEND
My dad and sister were in town last weekend for a project we are working on. The weekend was full of furniture, New York and schlepping. We had a ball! I'm sure this is annoyingly vague to read, but I'll have more details soon! For now I leave you with this picture of us with my dads head cut off. Thank you cab driver man for your photography skills.



DESIGN*SPONGE - DESIGN ON A DIME
This weekend, during our ambiguous furniture searching project, I picked up this promo. Housing Works is the coolest thrift-with-a-cause store. Seriously great stuff! I looked into the event, but it was out of my price range. Oh well, I'll watch from a distance!



But wait! Just the other day, I noticed Design*Sponge holding a contest for thrift store finds from their readers. The 5 winners get a ticket to the snazzy event! With 30 minutes left before the deadline last night, I applied! And.....


I was chosen! I'm the one in the yellow frame looking extra "photo bloggy." I'm not trying to be cool, I just couldn't get a decent picture of my thrift store mirror without me in it. Ha. You can read the article here! Can't wait for tonight's event. I'll keep you posted! Pun intended ;)

Design*Sponge is my favorite daily read, I'm so thankful to be included! Thanks Design*Sponge!!


All the updates for now. Back to work. Have a good Thursday!