"Cherish" Room - Opening Day!

After a week of working almost day and night to get the walls of the room and furniture painted, vintage finds researched and priced, and making some holiday decorations, I decided it was time to open the room! After all - it is a work in progress - constantly!  Every time a piece of furniture sells, the room gets a makeover to make room for a new piece that may not fit in the old spot! AND - I have so many more holiday projects I wanted to put in the room before I opened, I realize now that I will never be 'done'! So please join me on a tour of my new space - the "Cherish" room at Fabulous Finds!

Let's begin on the east wall as you enter the room -this is my 'cabin' wall!  The desk is a vintage rancho style desk with a cabin on the front panel.   The red desk top is set off by the red of the child's rocking chair -a vintage Nichol and Stone from the late 1950's.  A hand forged iron cross is featured above a vintage mailbox stuffed with letters to Santa!

 This wall also features a bare wood framed chalkboard, a 'Merry Christmas' banner and some rustic frames.

The vintage metal shelf is a perfect display piece for a pair of vintage fawn salt and pepper shakers and the little boy Lefton Snowball Kissing Bell.

 Moving towards the right, the Christmas Tree is almost camouflaged by the printed fabric sporting a wood pile image, hanging behind it. How I snapped this one so blurry is beyond me but I'll take a new picture tomorrow and fix it!  The table sits on an old "Dancer's" table (see previous post!) and in front of it is an old ammo box. 


Ok - that's a little clearer!  A handmade "wish" banner encircles the tree loaded with glittered word ornaments, Victorian cone ornaments to fill, letters, and more!

The main focus wall of the room is next featuring a huge, beautiful vintage chalkboard and a 48" round pedestal table clad in this season's plaid!  The basket to the left on the floor is filled with two peppermint striped pillows, as does a black iron candle stand.

 On the table there are two apothecary jars filled with beribboned jingle bells,


a box of rusty metal tags with stencil letter cutouts perfect for monogramming a gift bottle for the holidays,


and a metal ornament tree with a flock of spring loaded dove ornaments!

Moving right again, we scan past a wall of vintage frames, a wire mesh shelf hung with stockings and a 'joy' banner, some letters, a small bird hook and other wall decor, to come to the ethereal section of the room!

Topped by a massive baroque style frame, this vintage dresser supports a trio of pastel holiday trees, and two mirrored stocking holders with pewter toned stockings. Look closely and you'll see a trio of little cherubs gracing the negative space!

The pastel tones in this corner offer a completely different holiday decorating choice.  A vintage french provincial dining table is the perfect piece to set the tone.  The white feather tree and vintage aqua tinsel tree add a bit of sparkle and softness, while the white lights add a bit of twinkle to the holiday magic!

 Under the padded 'dream' letters, two small magnetic chalkboards hang from the seven bird iron hook, and a rose cross stitch adds a touch of pink to the wall and ties in the vintage tablecloth.

Zoom in further and a vintage pair of playful fawns welcome you to the fantasy.  The 'cut crystal' platter is really a vintage acrylic piece!

Two more vintage fawns play in front of an old lidded jar with snowflake motif.  The ram ornament wishes you 'Noel".

Finding a home in the feather tree are some glittered owl ornaments, dove wreath ornaments and snow glittered jingle bells. (See that patch of green in the top right corner?  Check back to 'Cherish' Room - Day One to see how the whole room used to be that color!)

We now have arrived at the last wall - and where we walked in!  Another sea blue edged chalkboard hangs between the two room windows.  A spinning card rack is filled with Victorian die cut holiday cards, thank you cards, and other French themed blank cards - all offered for less than $2!  A set of old mattress springs serves as a back drop for the 'info desk' and also is great for displaying the variety of greeting cards, clipped on with clothespins.

The feathered angel wings fly above a photo album filled with pictures of 'special order' projects I've done. To the left -  a basket of raffle tickets wait to be filled out for some lucky person to win the newest Taylor Swift CD and a t-shirt, a special incentive for visiting my new space! Stop by and maybe you'll get an early Christmas gift to give someone, or keep for yourself! 

 Thanks for taking the tour with me - the "Cherish" room will continue to evolve with each new piece of refinished furniture, vintage treasure or handmade item I bring in - you never know what you'll find so stop by often! Let me know if there is something special you'd like for me to find or make for you - giving you things to 'Cherish' is what I love!

"Cherish" Room - Day Five!

Today was the first of two big moving days!  I took lots of furniture and wall decor I had been working on into the store and started setting it up in the room, after I finished painting one more wall the blue-gray color.

This antique shabby dresser was the first to be placed and was a temporary home for some accent trees until I can get all the furniture in place.

The little white rocking chair will end up in this grouping shown in front of the newly painted wall.  I didn't hang the large frame, choosing to set it on the little dresser until I have the other furniture in the room placed - I may need to move it a few inches depending on how much room I need!

Next up was this vintage desk.  The top of this desk had some scratches on it so I decided to sand and repaint the top before bringing it into my space.

 I repainted the top with 'Emperor's Silk' red.

 Next, I added a coat of clear wax -

followed by a final coat of dark wax to add depth to the desk top.  The original wood seemed a bit dry, so I added a light layer of dark wax to the rest of the desk as well and it really brought out the cabin details on the front panel!

  I placed the desk under the black metal items and rustic frames so it became the anchor of my 'cabin' wall.  I hung the hand forged iron cross above it and placed the 'Welcome to the Cabin' sign on the desk with a little tinsel tree.

I found this gorgeous chalkboard at the Sacramento Antique Fair at Restore and Rework's booth.  I gave it a fresh coat of chalkboard paint filling in the 'swirls' at each end to make them really stand out, added a fresh coat of white paint and then sanded the dentil molding across the top to make it stand out a little more.

This was just the piece I needed to grab customer's attention when they entered my room the first time.  I wrote one of my favorite sayings on it "Each heart is whispering - Home, home at last!"  Very appropriate for both Thanksgiving and Christmas - it reminds me of being away at college and traveling home for the holidays!

I put my 5 foot round shabby pedestal table in front of the super chalkboard and added a plaid tablecloth.  The red star to the left of the chalkboard repeats the red of the little rocking chair and I left some of my table top decor on the table - tomorrow all the table tops will get decorated.

Next, I hung this fun wire cubby shelf with four hooks - perfect for stockings!  The 'joy' banner and the 3-D metal letter 'm' may not end up here but for now they found a place to settle.

By the end of the day, the view from the doorway into the room changed quite a bit!  I'm bringing in another table tomorrow so depending on how it fits in the space I left for it, I may need to move things around again. The stage will be set for all the Christmas decor.  I can't wait to add ornaments to the tree, banners, twinkling lights, and do all the tablescapes!

"Cherish" Room - Day Three!

My car was filled to the brim as I pulled out the driveway! One thing you get good at in this business is creative and strategic car packing.  The old spring mattress was the first to go in with a packing blanket on top since I was going to have to put my little black table upside down on top of it and I didn't want the table to get scratched!  More packing blankets topped the table and then the frames lay nicely on top of it. The painted letters all sat on the front passenger seat.  I brought along a few more seasonal items for my display and and a box filled with my tools for the day.

It was so nice to be greeted by a newly painted room!  I decided to start with arranging my frames.

The slender part of the wall was a perfect fit to start hanging the frames. Empty frames, both simple and fancy, are often requested by customer, with numerous creative projects found on Pinterest these days!  The most popular projects are chalkboards and bulletin boards.

Frames can also be used to create architectural interest on bare walls, and then filled with other wall art such as letters, mirrors, and wow! Actual artwork!  I try to create displays to give customers ideas of how to decorate their own homes.

Next up the letters! Now you can see what I needed them for!  I wanted to spell "Cherish" but I didn't realize I was missing the "C" so I decided to go with "Wish" for the Christmas season! Hopefully my "C" will come in by the time the holidays are over!

To create the feel of the holidays, I like to use fabric backdrops to add some drama to my space.  I found this amazing fabric which looked like a wood pile and it immediately said 'winter' to me. Using just safety pins, I folded the edges in to narrow the fabric width in order to match the space width, then folded the top over a dowel and safety pinned the fabric along the length of the dowel.

 Using safety pins instead of actually cutting and sewing allows me to use the yardage for another purpose once I'm done using it for a backdrop.  I screwed two garment hooks into the wall for the dowel to rest on.

 Luckily, two coworkers Karen and Betty, were there to help tell me when it was level - otherwise I would have had to climb up and down that ladder a million times to check and recheck.

I placed my little black table just in front of the backdrop and put a piece of burlap down to protect the top.  I purchased an artificial Christmas tree at Smith and Hawkins when they were going out of business and this will be the third year it has been my display tree.  I plugged it in to check the lights before putting it up and once again they all lit up, so five minutes later the tree was up and sparkling.

Wow - I guess I didn't focus well enough! The old eyes just ain't what they used to be! I'll get a new picture and replace this one as soon as I can! 

The black chalkboard to the left was the starting point for this grouping.  Paring the black metal pieces with the more rustic frames, echoed the black background and wood in my back drop fabric. 

 

With everything I brought put up, it was time to head back home to get some more painting done.  It's finally starting to look like I have accomplished something!  All the wall items need to be in place before bringing in the furniture as it's much harder to deal with hanging pictures, etc. when you have to move everything in front of it - that is one nice thing about starting a space from scratch!

Here's one more look from the doorway - I just noticed the oval mirror inside the large white frame repeats the oval of the white frame - glad that worked out!  The furniture in the bottom right of the picture still needs to be moved out of the space and then I can start working on the next two walls. Thanks for following along so far - more to come tomorrow!

Before and After: Chalkboard

After remodeling our kitchen, we were left with a whole bunch of cupboard doors.  The finish was well worn but they were still in good shape so I decided to try making one into a chalkboard.  I sanded it down, sprayed primer on it, taped off the raised frame, and painted the inside panel with three coats of chalkboard paint.  Since it is so close to summer, I thought the popular turquoise color paint would be best.  I painted on two coats, let them dry thoroughly and then sanded down the edges to give the chalkboard the shabby look. 

Now the cupboard door has been repurposed and is a fresh new chalkboard ready for a student headed off for college or to use for family messages in the kitchen!   This prototype came out pretty well so I will be refinishing the other old cupboard doors as well!   This one is now for sale at Melange!