Whats more Chic than Shabby?

So I have been spending the last week working my little tail off trying to get my studio together. I also Have been busy listing on ebay and thus the reason for no posts from yours truly! So I have like ten projects in the works because you all know I cant just do one at a time! LOL So lets start with this amazing dresser. Its probably circa 1930's. After stripping it I feel ashamed to paint it. Its got amazing wood veener underneath! And it has wheels! I got it for $10 off craigslist:




Stripping it was much more work than I thought it was going to be. I spent two WHOLE days for the entire process and it was back breaking! But I have the whole process down so on the tutorials page I'll post up how I did it. Heres the after stripping:





This dresser I got free curbside while driving the hood:
Before:






I have the second dresser almost done with painting. I decided to use spray paint and Im on my third can so I think for the first dresser I'll go with regular paint. I'll post afters tomorrow.


This set of three (2 mirrors and a picture) I got for about $6 total at the goodwill. They were the only project I have actually finished! LOL In the pic of the 2 small frames, the one on the left is after cleaning with mr clean! I almost could have left them white!





Heres the after, the color looks washed out but its a nice pastel yellow. I think it brings out the flowers in the photo better! The first dresser will be the same color as these, as I am hanging them over it. Do you think thats too matchy? Well I can always move them if so.

Yard sale bliss!

$3 for this whole suitcase full of old new kids on the block magazines!

Shabby Industrial Vintage Modern?

So I moved to a new space and its pretty raw inside. Its a subdivision of a business that the owner planned to turn into an apartment but its anything but that. Well thankfully I have creative vision. The space is actually quite large, and the best part is it has a fairly good size seperate kitchen (err I mean soon to be kitchen) and a seperate bath. It has a toilet and shower at least! So The first thing I have done is ripped up about 70% of the old floor tiles because they were all coming up anyway and they were pretty easy to get off. But I still busted my but!

My plan is to rent a concrete grinder and rough up the floors removing the tile glue and hopefully "polish" the concrete. Not a glos polish, but more a lightly rough surface that I can paint maybe? Idk, Im still debating. Because the space kind of lends to the industrial look, Im taking that and running with it. I've always been a pretty eclectic type and i love almost every type of decor from shabby chic, beach cottage, vintage to traditional modern. Well of course # 1 and #2 on my list would be shabby chic and vintage. So there you have it~shabby industrial vintage modern.

How to pull this off.....Its going to take time and searching. I of course like to pay next to nothing for everything and the price of $0 is even more appealing. Im always searching craigslist or driving a bit out of my way through the nieghborhoods to see what people have thrown out. I just found two boxes of kitchen stuff the other day! Oh yeah and I got a cool Vintage wood desk chair. I found some pics online and im thinking I want to do one wall like this :

I do like blue but for some reason Im thinking a green or yellow. My daughter votes yellow too. But I think the green like an olive or minty aqua would be better. My windows are really high and not that big but i do get lots of light in there and I want to keep it bright. Speaking of light, I'm loving these mason jar lights that are real popular right now:

BootsNGus and Lampgoods on Etsy

Im also really loving these old 70s plastic mirrors that I used to think were hideous. And my grandma had some I remember vividly and there were matching butterflies too. Maybe it was because they were brown. But now Im searching high and low for these! I picked up a set of three frames like these a week ago so I cant wait to transform them!

justmeniki3 on Etsy

I plan to keep you updated on the decorating as it comes along. Its giving me something else to blog about! And I havnt even mentioned the yard yet! :) When its all done It will be really awesome!

My dream is a reality....

Im super excited about the new shop! In just a week of opening I've had 3 sales! I feel so proud of myself, its almost as if I have that "brick and mortar" store that I always dreamed about! The pluses are theres no rent or overhead bills ecxept my inventory cost, and I can make money while I sleep! Gotta love that! I've been so busy focusing on getting the "shelves" stocked that I have neglected most of my social networking. So here I am :) In addition to Xanadu, I sold another custom NKOTB dress on SewBitchy and I have had regular orders from my daughters boss. So things have been steady and thats great! Heres a few new vintage pieces that went up yesterday:

I completed these two custom orders from SewBitchy:

So have I been busy or what? ;)