I used to be obsessed with painting things gold, but I've moved on.
To painting things chalk white.
It's so easy. I do it while I'm watching television. It's just basic white primer (left over from other projects), applied with a paint brush. I use my hair dryer to speed the process between coats. That's it. Here's the latest:
Mini projects like this are awesome. So satisfying, so little work.
Now the only problem is fitting the refurbed items into my decor. My place is packed. Maybe I should sell 'em? Would YOU buy these elephants?
First off, a slight apology: I've been bad about blogging lately. Life's been busy. I got married, for one thing. And Will & Bequeath is actually managing to make a few sales, which is exciting, but is keeping me busy. But it's time to get back to business. First, some news: I'm featured on the House & Home website this week. Check out the gallery we put together of my "favourite rooms." I'm not sure they're my really-real favourites, but each image illustrates a decorating concept I like. Check it out. Now onto today's business: rotary phones. I love them. I always have. Between 2007 and 2009, I event went back to using one (an old Bell Canada black classic). I liked that it worked as a design element -- almost a piece of furniture in and of itself. I liked that it stayed operational, even when the power went out. I liked that it had a real brass bell inside that rang in a delightfully sonorous (not annoyingly beepy) way. I liked the heft of the hand set and that it didn't get hot against my ear. (My cell phone gets hot against my ear, and I'm pretty sure it's giving me cancer.)
But Nate and I have VoIP now, and the rotary phone is in the basement. It would work, had we the right system, but we don't. And I really miss it.
That's a handsome looking phone. No?
So... what to do? It turns out, there are many ways to hack an old rotary phone to work on a contemporary system. A high school friend of mine -- Jason -- turned me on to this. (Hi Jason!) He gutted the inside of an old rotary handset, and installed a bluetooth wireless mic and speaker inside instead. Now, his old rotary phone handset works on his cell phone line! The wires are gone, but as long as his cell is in the house, he can talk through the handset of his old rotary, which has the bluetooth inside. Get it? Pretty neat hack, right? So, I've been wanting to try this myself. Jason insisted it was easy, but I've done a lot of Googling, and it doesn't look as simple as advertised. (Nothing ever is, is it?) Here's a round up of different attempts from the geek-friendly site Hack a Day. Some hackers say you need to learn to solder. And let's face it, that's not going to happen. Here's a great instructional guide that includes soldering. And here's one that doesn't. In addition to my black 500 series, I have an orange rotary phone like this one, too. Via.
My question for you is this: should I attempt it? My hesitations are as follows:
1. I'd lose some of the things I love most about the vintage rotary technology (such as the bell sound).
2. The vintage rotary phones still work as originally intended ... once I gut them, they won't. If this goes wrong, I'll have ruined them.
3. I'm not sure rotary phones are as great looking as I think they are. Have they become hipster kitch? Is it sort of silly to want to have one in my home?
If you know me, you know I'm bad about the telephone in general. Call my cell phone and I'm not likely to answer. Most likely, I don't even have the cell on me. Most likely, it's dead and lost in the dust bowl under the front seat of my car. Since letting go of my rotary, I've come to hate the telephone. And I'm thinking that I might be a better friend and contact if I brought the rotary phone back.So that's an argument in favour.
What do you guys think?
First off, friends, my apartment was featured on Apartment Therapy today. Abby Cook took photos that are way better than anything I can imagine taking, ever, so you should really check it out. In the piece, I mention my hall credenza, that I sort of built/upcycled from kitchen cabinets. Thought I'd use today to talk about how I made it. Here goes: Initially, my front hall (which is also a main wall in my living room) looked like this: And it was fine, I guess. But it was also busy. And it started to annoy me. I turned the spines of my books backwards in an effort to create more calm, but it didn't really work. How could I store all the stuff I needed to store, while leaving plenty of room for people to walk down the hall? Closed bookcases? A shallow console? What?
I hunted around, but I couldn't find a piece that suited my needs ANYWHERE. Billy bookcases from IKEA (with doors) were an option, but I just didn't want Billys. Traditional consoles were too fat. So I decided to hack something together.
Here's what I used:
3 assembled kitchen cabinet uppers (Home Depot)
8 fence post spires for legs (Home Depot)
6 pieces of linking hardware (two-screw pieces, 3 across each seam)
Long wood screws (to drill down into the legs from inside the cabinets)
White primer and white paint + a "velvet" roller
6 ring pulls (Lee Valley Hardware) to attach to the centre of each door
Once the three cabinets were linked into one big long piece, and the spires were drilled into and attached as legs, the thing was a behemoth. I needed help to lift it upright. But it sure provides a lot of storage.
I stocked in my books and whatnot and lived with it in its dark brown form for awhile until I settled on painting it white. I should have used melamine paint, but I didn't. I used regular latex paint and primer. And such paint can chip easily. (It already has, in fact.) But oh well. Melamine paint is too hard to work with/too stinky. I didn't paint the insides of the cabinets. Only the outsides.
The final touch was adding brass hardware to the centre of each door.
Here's the end result, as shot by Abby for Apartment Therapy: SO MUCH STORAGE and it's all hidden away. And in my opinion, it doesn't look like a set of kitchen cabinets anymore.
It's fantabulous if I do say so myself. (And I do. I do indeed.)
Whatever happened to the Pete Project? It died. But in a good way. The big plans died, but Pete is ensconced in his apartment, which is the mirror image of my own in layout, and right next door to boot. And it is lovely and cozy, but it's not a modern, tribal, man cave. This is probably a good thing. This happens sometimes. The initial vision gave way to the realities of the budget, and we had to make room for curb-side finds, inherited IKEA pieces, and a bunch of culled from parental basements and the like. Pete really took care of the whole thing himself. And it turns out, he's quite a stylish fellow. Anyway, just because the project didn't go as planned, doesn't mean you don't deserve pictures. So pictures ye shall have!Let's start with the "before" shots:And now, much more importantly, the AFTER pictures:
How cute is that giraffe? Pete's sister Ruthie needle-felted that little guy by hand. I'm in love with it.
Truly, the whole project was Pete's doing. He had little-to-no help from me. My one contribution is the Windsor chair in the living room - a classic piece that goes well with Pete's slightly rustic style. Let's all give Pete props from his super low-budget, super cozy, super cool new home.
Back in May, during our east coast road trip, I found these lamps at the Value Village in Fredericton for $1.99 each (including shades). They're a sort of white glass and I thought they'd make for a good (and easy) makeover. Here's the before:I covered the white bits with tape and plastic wrap and spray painted the shiny metal bits flat white.
Then I hand-painted the paper shades with some left-over wall paint. Notice the brush strokes? That wasn't working for me, so half-way through, I switched to using a small foam roller and had much better results.
Here are the finished lamps. For the moment, they live on the buffet with several other white pieces, and my grandmother's tea set.
Decent little project, right?
So remember when I posted about wanting a door knocker? (It was just last week! You better remember.) Anyway, I posted about that because I really wanted to do a little mini-makeover on our front door. And I've done it! We live in a rental and our front door was pretty ugly before, but thanks to a little paint and a heavy iron knocker from The Door Store in Toronto, I'm loving it now. The Door Store was recommended to me by Jen at Rambling Renovators. I'd seen the place on TV, but never been inside. I LOVED IT. While a lot of the hardware they had was a bit out of my reach, price-wise, we were able to find something neat for only $35. And yes... it features a bird.I put a bird on it. AGAIN. Deal with it. Okay, so let's take a look:Good, right? The flat black paint hides the dings and imperfections of the old door pretty well, AND it makes the vintage hardware pop.
Here's a shot of the mail slot (at the bottom of the door, not shown in the first pics):
And here's one of the bird-knocker, up close.
What do you think? Good?
And for the record, I will never stop putting a bird on it. NEVER.
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