Old Things New

TRANSFORMED, from broken to beautiful

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Top Ten Posts for 2013 From Old Things New Blog

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So, these aren’t necessarily my “most visited” posts.  I’ve looked through and chosen the posts that received the most comments and also, in the tradition of Old Things New, the posts where I actually re-purposed or restored something old into something new. 

So here are my Top Ten Posts for 2013:

#10 Braided Cuff Tutorial

#9 Vintage Jewelry Bookmarks

#8 Three Tiered Succulents

5-Slipcover redo for little bench 017#7 A Dropcloth Slipcover for an Old Bench

#6 Guest Cottage Before and After

#5 A Frenchy Bed Makeover

#4 DIY Junky Chicken Wire Cloche

#3 Turquoise Bedside Table

#2 Rosette Wreath Tutorial

And finally, my most popular post of 2013 . . .

#1 Vintage Dresser and Mirror Update

If you’d like to see more pictures or tutorials of any of these posts you can click on the title for the link to the post.  It has been a busy and wonderful year of blogging in 2013 and I’m looking forward to new things ahead for 2014. 

    Blessings to you all in the year to come,

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A Stripey Makeover for a Vintage Suitcase

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9-Vintage Suitcase After and Bdrm Bench Before 040I love the look of old trunks and suitcases and I’ve been wanting to do a vintage suitcase makeover for some time now.  I must admit that mine in a knockoff of one I saw on another blog, but I can’t remember exactly where.  Can anyone help me with that? Maybe it’s you and I’d love to give you credit.1-vintage trunk redo 003The vintage suitcase I used came from my in-laws garage sale and it is exactly like one that my parents had when I was a child.  This made it especially appealing to me.  I started by taping it off for the stripes and began painting, using two colors of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, Old White and Versailles.  The pictures that I decoupaged onto the suitcase came from The Graphics Fairy website, of course.  The number of my projects that have revolved around that website I can’t even say!

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To age the graphics a bit I dipped them in strong coffee and laid them out on a foil-lined cookie sheet.  I “baked” them at 200 degrees for about 4 minutes (watching them closely to avoid a fire) and then laid them out on a wire rack to finish drying.

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After Mod Podging the graphics in place I sealed everything with two coats of MinWax Polycrylic.  Funny, Mr. OTN liked the color combo and he thought it looked cool with the graphics applied but he was VERY concerned that it was no longer useful as a piece of luggage, “It will be ruined if someone uses it for travel!”  I patiently explained to him that this isn’t meant to be used as a piece of luggage anymore but as a piece of home decor. 

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“Why are you staging it for pictures like it’s going on a trip if it’s no longer luggage?”,  I can hear Mr. OTN thinking in his head.  I haven’t come up with a good answer for him yet.  If I don’t sell this I’d better find something to do with it in my home.  Maybe I’ll pad the inside and make it a bed for the dogs . . . that would make Mr. OTN happy . . . or it could be stacked with some other pieces of luggage and used as a side table in his office.    4-Vintage Suitcase After and Bdrm Bench Before 016

 I actually kinda like it just sitting in my front entryway looking like some interesting guests have just arrived for a stay. What are your ideas?  What would you do with this suitcase?  Does it even really need to have a purpose?

Blessings to you,

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Goodwill Wall Planters

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 I hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend!
   One of the Mother’s Day traditions when my girls were still at home was for them to head out to the nursery with my dear hubby to buy flats and flats of summer annuals for my garden.
  It was always such a treat!
This post contains a few Mother’s day flowers and another lucky Goodwill find, along with a few personal reflections at the very end.
 These metal planters were a two for one deal, marked half off on the day I came across them.  I wasn’t sure exactly what I would do with them but I knew I couldn’t pass them up!
A little time spent over at The Graphics Fairy gave me the inspiration needed to transform them into something special.  The first one is decoupaged with some fancy script and an adorable page out of a rare Victorian children’s reader.
 I added a few colored birds, lace across the top and a mixed fabric rosette (instructions for making rosettes can be found right HERE). The hanger is simply a torn strip of drop cloth fabric.
The second planter is also decoupaged with pages of script, topped with the title page of a rare book entitled The Poetry of Flowers (also from The Graphics Fairy). To this urn of beautiful cascading flowers I’ve added a couple of buzzing bees, more lace across the top and another rosette of mixed fabrics.
Oh the wonders of ModPodge!  
Have you done any projects with it lately? 
I have a wee bit of an obsession with it myself as it turns so many of my Goodwill finds into great items to add to my French Flea Market repertoire!

Now for a few personal reflections, a little overflow from my heart.  Last night I said to Mr. OTN, with no small amount of wonder, that I am living my dream right now and I didn’t even know what that dream was!  
Though I don’t have my two girls close to home on this Mother’s Day, I am so proud of these beautiful young women who are each, in their two opposite corners of the country, impacting the lives of those around them by being the kind, generous, caring people that they are. My family makes my heart full!

As we come upon another Freedom Session graduation (May 19th) and look forward to hearing our hard working Participants share amazing testimonies of lives transformed, I feel so blessed that Mr. OTN and I get to be a part of this awesome ministry, as Directors in our local church.  This also, makes my heart full.Then there is this other part of my life (creating and blogging) which is secondary to family and ministry but is also a dream come true. I feel so fortunate to have the freedom to work at something I enjoy and I’m very excited about being given the opportunity to participate in my first ever French Flea Market in September.
 I am loving this season of life so much and I need to remind myself not to take it for granted.
So TODAY, I will embrace this moment in time and thoroughly enjoy the process of making OldThingsNew!
 

       Blessings, 
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Vintage Dresser & Mirror Update

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So here she is, my latest furniture transformation at long last complete!  I started this vintage dresser several months ago when I was in the process of testing three homemade chalkpaint recipes. You can read my review here to find out the one I rated as the BEST!
(Hmmm . . . I’m beginning to think I need to get a “staging” place for taking pictures of my furniture)
Anyway . . . this is how she looked before.
                                           

The dresser came with a marble top but I’ve left it off for now as I have other plans for it.
The marble was covering up some damage to the wood veneer top so I scraped away loose wood, sanded and filled with Wood Filler, sanded again and started painting.  The top isn’t perfect, it has some little dings and divets (just like me!) to give it the character that comes with age, but it looks pretty good with a few coats of paint . . .
 . . . and a little Annie Sloan Soft Wax buffed to a soft shine.
I added stripes to the sides for visual interest and to modernize this piece a bit.
I held onto the original wood knobs for a future project and purchased glass knobs from World Market. 
 I also purchased this floral applique from an Etsy shop online, then painted and antiqued it.

Here are some close-ups of a light distressing I gave the piece. I will be selling this and I’ve found that some people don’t like much distressing.  I can always add to the effect later for anyone who prefers more.
Next is the special surprise when the drawers are opened!  The wood in the bottoms of the drawers was a bit rippled, like there had been some water damage. They were still solid though so I decided to do a little decoupage to hide the roughness.  I got the graphics (old postcards, French script and vintage ladies) from The Graphics Fairy.  I then painted the insides of the drawers with a third paint color.
  Here’s a closer look at the lovely ladies.  That little tutu is my favorite color!
The three colors used on this dresser are: Behr Dream Catcher & Myth on the outside & Prelude for the insides of the drawers.
One last surprise is a peek at the back of the dresser. I painted it rather than leave it unfinished so it doesn’t necessarily have to stay up against a wall.  This little gal is a wallflower no longer!
I hope you enjoyed seeing another OLD THING made NEW. I sure enjoyed sharing it with you.  By the way, what do you think of stripes? I’m thinking of adding some to my walls. 
Blessings to you,

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