Naugahyde and seek

If you are of a certain age you may have memories of "the chair", that hideous chair or collection of chairs in the school office. You always knew whoever was in that chair was in big trouble or waiting for their mother because they just threw up. It was a Naugahyde chair.

 

 

 

The chair

These indestructible beasts of vinyl were slippery when you wore pants and like duct tape on the backs of of your legs when you wore shorts. It came in a bazillion colors, the most popular of which seemed to be a green representing something associated with a terrible malady.

Who picked THAT color?

Could this stuff ever be cool? Well, maybe.

 Lest you think its all mod see the first photo and this.

Here's my confession: I own a vintage Naugahyde covered chair. It awaits a more grown-up kid before it gets recovered. It came from the US House of Representatives offices and I bought it because it is so rock solid that I can't lift it.

Do you remember Naugahyde fondly?

For the love of vintage-ORC linking participant

Thanks again to Linda for hosting such a fun linking party. Wait where's the champagne?
Moving on...

When the idea of redoing this room was in its infancy (when the college acceptance letter came), I knew I would be incorporating quite a few vintage pieces. Totally budget friendly and perfect to pull together the eclectic looks I am going for.

Here are a few that I already had and others that I bought specifically for the space.

The bamboo chair above is one of my favorite of the bunch.

I scored a cute vintage lamp on Etsy that I still must find a shade for. I have thrifted a few music related books because my son, Mr. DMM is a music business major (and also Mike's Hard lemonade drinker). I cleaned the closet, son. I know you are reading this.

I am a long way from styling the accesories but a few are perched atop this mid-century dresser that belonged to my husband. I will sheepishly admit that I hated it for a long time, not seeing its groovy lines as a good thing but I am thrilled that I kept it and to have it in this room.

I bought this vintage alarm clock for the room as a consolation purchase after seeing antique, handcarved Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee bookends that were waaaaaay out of my budget. Mr, DMM's real name is Jackson Lee, so therein lies the appeal.

Sporting it's new cushion

This vintage stool (cool) came with its original cushion (not cool) and I replaced it but not before a few maddening searches.

Gross old cushion and my toe

Finding the correct size proved challenging.

Grrrr

I found the right cushion at Target and I will provide sources for all of the new items that I have in the room in my final post.

I am also including some vintage art on my gallery wall, most of it was either made by or bought by my grandparents but you will have to wait for the art post in this series to see what I include.Here is what I have accomplished.
To do List:

1. Throw away box of Mike's Hard Lemonade empties in the closet and scrub everything including carpet.
2.Paint walls
3. Source vintage furniture and accessories
4. Move Queen bed in
5. Install new light fixture
6. Trick out the bed with cool pillows
7. Hang curtains
8. Hang art including 2 custom paintings
9. Final zhush

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will continue to follow along as I put together a guest room/ college son's room in my house. If you missed week one the link is below.
WEEK ONE

A new art wish list

A room at the top of my all time favorites list was one of my inspiration photos yesterday for the linking ORC event. It was very well received in the comments too.

The makeover of my son's bedroom is progressing well and I have a nice collection coming together for the gallery wall. I have been on the fence about adding vintage portraits to the mix. I don't want to frighten my overnight guests...or do I?

I have a short wishlist to add to the pieces that I already have for my gallery wall.

HERE

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HERE

I still haven't decided. I am really trying to keep my project budget friendly which eliminates many possibilities. Avoiding terrifying clowns, axe-murdering grandpa faces and drunk old ladies in the vintage portrait market left me with these four before I lost patience.

Too creepy or just funky enough?

Score!

For what feels like forever, I wanted a lucite waterfall coffee table.

I moved on to a chrome and glass table from CB2 a few months ago

 and then...
BAM! yesterday there was the entire set of two end tables and the coffee table in glass and perfect condition.

I would not have used all three in the same room anyway so I just got the end tables.

 I am so pleased.
Any good thrifting scores lately?

New goodies

I waited very patiently (seriously like 7 years!) to find a table for my living room and new blogging buddy, Kristen from Pursuing Vintage came through.

She finds the greatest stuff!

I was thinking of painting the base in a glossy black now that its in the room I kind of like it how it is.

Yes?

And now for the sad part...she brought me these freakin' awesome Breuer stools and they have to go back. They are too short. I kept telling myself that a cushion would fix it but it won't. I can't tell you how bummed I am. If you know of a magical way that I can make them work, tell me before Friday so I can keep them.

Take a peek in Kristen's shop at her awesome goodies and tell her Kerry sent you.

Wednesday vignette

Iantha Carley D.C. Design house 2013

Why am I showing you this vignette? Because I have sideboard styling on the brain. Two weeks ago I found a vintage Thomasville faux-bamboo dresser on Craigslist. I never find anything good on CL so I knew I had to have it and paint it a glossy black. It will take up the wall in my kitchen that I never show. The wall was where my easel was and a rustic style armoire used as a china cabinet. I was a little sentimental about that rustic piece but its not my style and it was starting to fall apart.

Well I got off to a great start... and then my husband, who never gets sick, got sick and went down in a heap. He works about 60 hours a week and then helps at home and it got him good.

At this point the dresser and paint was taking up my half of the garage and the contents of the china cabinet that I was tossing were in piles in the kitchen and dining room.

Chaos ensued.

Now that I am sort of back to normal, I am debating lamps or no lamps. Symmetry or asymetrical styling.

I have a giant white oval platter that won't fit anywhere else so that has to live in this plan.

I also bought this darling planter from The Pink Pagoda accessories shop.

Several cookbooks will be out too.

I hope I can make it quirky and traditional but fun.

You'll be the first to know if I succeed.

My restoration project for an old friend

Last year I arranged a meetup with two of my high school pals in Old Town Alexandria. One of whom was my boyfriend for most of high school and some of college.

I was that girl who only hung out with guys in HS

Steve said he had his mother's 1940s ad poster that he wanted me to mount to a canvas and "antique". The little girl is his mother.

I told him  that I would not be a party to ruining this fragile piece of art and that he needed to take it to a restorer. Somehow I ended up coming home with the badly damaged poster and a project to do something with it. Luckily, I really like his mommy and she was super nice to me as a snotty teenager.

I procrastinated, did some research, procrastinated, bought a few supplies, and dreaded the whole process.

Did I mention that it was badly damaged? It had been folded several times and rolled tightly in a cardboard tube. The only thing more damaging would have been a lit match.

I started with a 48 x 60 canvas, distilled water in a sprayer and deacidifying spray.

Restorers repair tears in paper using special Japanese paper to strengthen the tears. I decided that it was so far beyond my skills that I would simply make sure I did not damage it further and ensure that everything I did could be undone.

I dampened the paper with the deacidifying spray and distilled water to relax the fibers.

In some spots the fibers were stretched and it was impossible for me to have it lay perfectly flat. I was using archival wheat paste to glue it to the canvas.

I covered the wet, glued spots with felt and weighted them with books.

I needed a spare hand but the project only took a few hours.

There are a few "bubbles" in the paper but I could not get them flat without further damage.

Next I deliver it and implore them to get a sheet of acrylic to protect it. You hear that Steve...acrylic!?

Traveling back in time...for shoes

Last week, I implored my husband to replace his tattered shoes. I have been imploring for a while and "tattered" is sugar coating the description. I knew that the lure of preppy, throwback, goodness would be hard to resist forever. I mentioned a little shoe store in downtown Fredericksburg that had Sebago Docksides and he finally relented.

We made a fun afternoon of it and had lunch at a charming place with awesome food and made our way down the street to Crismond's shoe store, in business since 1911.

Just to the right of center you can see the sign "SHOES"

This is where it got weird. We went in and a very elderly lady greeted us as she swept the floor with a fair bit of difficulty. A younger man (60ish) sat in a chair reading the paper. He was her nephew, we later learned.

Did you wear these in the '70s?

The store fixtures were decidedly vintage and it took me some time to notice, and believe, that the shoes in stock were too.

The "Hush Puppies" or "Earth Shoes" had actually been there since the 70s.

Most of the 30+ year-old shoes were in narrow sizes and $15, which was sported on a yellow square price tag. Remember those?

It was truly sad to see these forgotten bits of fashion in a store that curiously still exists.

I took the photos on my phone and thought I had better ask permission until I realized that the old lady could barely hear and more than likely did not know what a blog was.

This last crazy pair of shoes fell in the category "so ugly they are cool" and I would have shelled out $15 had they not been a size too small. I feel obligated to back for some reason. It was sad but also a sentimental journey into my childhood when sales and selling were more simple and straightforward.

Oddly, they had Sebagos in my husband's size and we bought them because they were only $50. They are $70 and up everywhere else.

He insists on wearing them with socks but at least they are presentable. Now I have to convince him to wear plaid shorts and a pink polo shirt and my work is done!

Vintage suitcases

I saw these vintage suitcases, front and center, on Etsy yesterday and got to thinking what I might do with such lovely crustiness.

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Most of the things I saw were more shabby than chic but I rather fancy that little suitcase/picnic table.

What would you do with a vintage suitcase or two?

Happy Independence Day!