MY COUCH SLIPCOVERD IN VINTAGE CHENILLE BEDSPREADS

I finally finished my slipcovers! It is almost 2 years in the making. First it took me almost 6 months to collect enough bedspreads with all the different patterns for the cushions, then it took me another 6 months to find enough material for the body of the couch. Then consider how difficult of a time I had finding vintage white pom pom fringe trim- all not so easy. I have a total of almost 20 hours of labor for the cutting and sewing. Then all the time searching for all these different beautiful vintage bedspreads. Once I finished them, I stepped back, took a look at my labor of love and let out a big sigh with the biggest smile on my face. Aaaah , I finally finished them!!!they looks so super fantastic!!! I LOVE THEM!!!! I just had to share them with the world. I think these are the ultimate in vintage chic design :-) hope everyone has a happy, healthy and prosperous new years....

MY HOUSE DECORATED FOR CHRISTMAS

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! i know i did! I have also decided to take a few days off and spend it with my husband. Owning a store is so wonderful and rewarding , but it is also hard work. I find myself working 7 days a week and i have almost forgotten what a day off feels like!! Let alone what the weekend is!! So here i am taking a snow day. We are having an ice storm and expecting possibly a foot of snow. I couldn't think of a better time to rest at home and do some blogging.

This is my home decorated for the holidays. it took me 4 months to pay off this special white garland that i ordered in august in preparation for the holiday season. I wish i had the energy and the money needed to set up the whole house in august and try to get into a holiday issue of one of the wonderful home magazines I've been dreaming of being in. Now that i have my garland- i will try for a holiday issue next year for sure!!

i hope everyone has a prosperous , happy and safe new year.....

www.vintagechicfurniture.com

MY NEW HOUSE

So i have moved a few weeks ago to an idyllic little neighborhood in Schenectady called the Stockade. I JUST LOVE IT!!! it is a beautiful area with homes built from 1665 to the late 1800's. You may remember me blogging about the stockade town-wide yard sale in my older posts. Well as it turns out, many of the pieces i have bought there found there way back there, now painted, and happily in use in our new home. The greatest find was the lovely bench i blogged about and also a wonderful set on mahogany end tables that are perfect scale for our large bed. As many of you know, it is my dream to get featured in a magazine.In fact there are two big dreams I've had over the past few years- one , to have my own store, the second to be in a magazine!! Well I now have a successful store that will be open 1 year on October 30th. I am gearing up for a photo shoot real soon but i figured i would share with you all, the progress I have made - all this after just 3 days of moving in. Its amazing how, when something is right, it is really right!! All my furniture and pieces fit together so wonderfully in the new place. Ahhhh, how wonderful it is :-)

Funky Lime Green and Zebra Antique Loveseat

What a fun project this was. It was commissioned by a young girl and her Mom for her newly designed bedroom. They we both just thrilled when i delivered it, and I have to be honest, so was I. I just love the fun funky colors and the zebra fabric. it started out as just a frame that i purchased on ebay (for $10.) but the drive to get it took me over an hour each way. I will defiantly have to do something with this zebra fabric again soon, i just love it!

MY FABULOUS $10.00 BENCH & A FUN DAY OF BUYING GOODIES

How beautiful is this bench?? I am a new upholster, all self taught. I take on projects one at a time and somehow figure out what to do. This was purchased at a town wide sidewalk sale on June 20 th in the stockade section of Schenectady , NY - sidewalk sale because hardly anyone had a driveway or garage. The homes date from the late 1700 to early 1900's along side of the Mohawk River. They were so pretty. I went to this sale with my friend Jen from Tennessee who has a shop similar to mine http://www.vintagehomeinteriors.com/ - We walked around with our pink wagon in tow and filled up the truck repeatedly until we couldn't fit any more. So many people we're staring at us and all of our good finds. We we're so excited and proud of ourselves. So, back to my bench...It was very beaten up looking with springs popping out of the seat and tattered material- but WOW only $10.00, what a great buy, I thought? I think i just found my next project! The very next day pulled it all apart, started painting it, and as the paint went on I thought- oh how fabulous! I just received a white chenille bedspread in the mail just as I finished the distressing. I said, OH YES!! this is perfect!! I happily finished it and placed it on my showroom floor. I gradually fell in love with it and realized- I just can't sell this- this must come home with me!!! I thought, when will I see a piece like this again??? It now sits in my foyer and looks so fantastic! It looks very inviting and the perfect piece for that spot. I hope everyone has a great day.

A BIG GIRL BED FOR A HAPPY LITTLE GIRL

When a client sent me pictures of her happy little girl Lucy, i knew i had to blog about it and I realized how long it 's been since I had. One of the first sales i made on etsy.com was this bed . When I got these pictures it made me so incredibly happy. This makes what I do SOOO worth it. What a joy to bring a smile and happiness to a child. I will blog again soon because I just really have to show off my new antique loveseat i made. I love it so much that I'm not sure i will be able to art with it- it may just have to come home with me....

GREAT OLD BLUE DRESSER

What a great dresser this is ! It is really old circa 1820-1830. Since opening the store i finally decided it was time to paint something in a color other than white. I love white distressed furniture and every piece in my home is white. People were labeling me as the pink and white store, so i figured lets just shake it up a bit and allow some men to comfortably enter with some colors other thank pink and white. Not to mention I wanted to show the range of my painting abilities. I am very proud of the way this came out. I love the distressed look to it. I hope you enjoyed seeing it today, too!:-)

Happy Easter To All

I hope that everyone has a wonderful day . Enjoy all that life has to offer . Surround yourself with beautiful things that make you happy. The most beautiful being the love of friends and family. May your lives be filled with love, happiness and all things beautiful.

The new favorite corner of my store

I love this area of my store. I rearranged a few big items, as well as taking down some of the inspirational window art i had done using all the magazine clippings of loved rooms that I have saved for years. I felt it was time. At first I desperately needed then to take up some wall space in my store when i first opened in November. Now, I had collected a bunch of terrific mirrors that I wanted to bring down to eye's view. As luck would have it- I found a matching pair of vintage chenille bedspreads that i have fashioned into slipcovers. They have wonderful thick fringe. At first I wanted to take them home, but with a teenage kitten\Dusty-cat I should say, He's bigger than my older cat boo boo bear who is 5 now. The bedspreads have tufted loops so i re-thought that, as my Dusty loves to sink his claws into some things. He's a good kitty, but I could visualize these getting a little tattered looking real quick. They are so wonderful and I really love them. I am currently on the hunt for more chenille spreads. I love each chair I do and cant wait to make another. I hope everyone has a great day :-)

Cute Little Pom Pom Stools

I've had these little stools for many years. I purchased them at a discount design store. In there first life they we're black with furry zebra fabric.I would put them around my coffee table and they we're great for friends to gather and talk. I decided, after painting the metal bases, that I would be bold and cover each one in a different favorite fabric. I collect trims, especially vintage pom pom fringe trims. The hardest ones to find are these really large ones i used here. The turquoise is one of the hardest colors to get, and when i took it out of it's storage bag, i realized i had just enough ,plus 3 inches left over- perfect!! I've also wanted to do the same with my dining chairs. Sometime i fight myself over going to the wild side because it just seems a little too crazy to mix all those different colors and fabrics. When I did my moms couch, I went through the same inner fight, and when i was done, it looked SOOO fantastic!!!! Which means, I should get going on those dining chairs . My biggest dilemma is: all lime green bush fringe , or mix'em up depending on the fabrics I decide to use????? Hot pink, light pink , lime green, yellow , bubble gum pink, and.... um? I would have to think of what other color brush fringes i have..... Oh!! of course-turquoise!! I hope every body had a great day :-)

A FABUOLUS FIND!! vintage wrought iron trees

I look at some of the fabulous things people have found and I wonder how they found something soooo great??!! Then, it happened to me!! These were custom made for BLOOMINGDALE'S in NY . What year, I do not know? What I do know is that they are solid wrought iron. They are 9 feet tall. Had holes where crystals hung. We're from an estate of a lady 96 years old. They were made for a display then sat in Bloomingdale's storage until they were almost thrown away. She rescued them and had them in her home for many years . When they were disposing of her unwanted things, these once again were rescued from a dumpster by a fellow junkin friend of mine in Long Island. They were bent and in great need of my love to make them fabulous again. A pair of pliers, a trip for one to the welder (it was bent on one stem, beyond my ability to reshape) and 34 vintage iridescent crystals that I've been hoarding for any future goody i find, and wow!!! they are just so stunning. I am imagining they are unique. I don't think any other exist in the world like it and if I didn't have a old home with 10 foot ceilings , i don't know where i would have put them. I AM SO IN LOVE WITH THEM! now i am wondering? Do i leave them chippy and rusty or paint them ?

MY CHENILLE SLIPCOVERED CHAIR

How sweet is this???? i made this from a vintage chenille bedspread and added vintage pink pom pom trim, which I've had in my collection of wonderful vintage trims that i have been buying for about 5 years now -i just love trim. I had purchase several chairs that came from a remodeling of the marriott hotel in Long Island, NY ( which coincidentally is where i am from). They were red, but I'm sure you will agree - it looks soooo much cuter in this adorable pink slipcover !!!
This was sold to a wonderful lady named deb- she owns THE PINK PIG in Westport NY. She loved them so much she decided to order more. I went to visit a lady that i knew had some, in fact, she was saving them for me. I was off the next day to her home to get them. Oh they are wonderful - purple and white, pink , and white with little pink and blue flowers , 2 2 cute!! I cant wait to get sewing :-)

my first chenille bunny

So,I finally did it. I've been thinking about it for a long time. Then (more than) a few weeks ago bought the pattern. Then spent a few weeks looking at the pattern. Finally i decided I was going to be brave and take on the challenge. Not bad for my first try. I figure i had better like making them because i am about to buy 5 more vintage patterns of different animals including a lamb (easter is right around the corner) a hobby horse head, a sleeping puppy dog and a kitty cat. Now....... i cant wait to get them :-)

The cutest french antique pink chair

WOW! on sunday, a dealer came by from NYC. He has what i can imagine to be a really high end antique store. He decided to bring me some things because his store is a more traditional store with wood pieces and not too much painted pieces. However, he has many storages filled with lovely antique painted pieces ( he promised to bring me a white painted stick and ball victorian mantle next ) This is soooo beautiful!!!!! - well, not when i first got it!!! It was however, painted white and distressed but the paint darkened so much that i repainted it. I decided to use this wonderful rose fabric. I just finished it. I LOVE IT!!! I wish i could take it home , but i have to sell SOMETHING every once in a while, he he he !!!

snow day!! taking pics of my home

These are just a few rooms in my new and very large house of 2000 st ft, built in the 1860's with 5 fireplace surrounds. I am nowhere near done yet!!! I still need some more furniture, some more mirrors and wall hangings, and some decorative items. Let me also say that i am only renting this house , so the colors are not my favorite (although they are nice) they are not me! If we were to buy it (i really do live this house) i would paint it in lovely patel shades of robins egg blues and pinks :-) I have an eat in kitchen, a large dining room, a big foyer, all the rooms are large and wonderful . It has been alot of fun decorating it. I am waiting for that next wonderful piece to come my way, so i can paint it and bring it home to my new wonderful home. I will surley blog more about my home soon, when i do more things to it. i hope everyone has a wonderful day :-)

my grandmas china franciscian desert rose

OMG!! This guy just walked into my store with a box of this china. It was his gramdma's.It was the same i remember as a child . MY VERY OWN GRANDMA had this as well. I remember eating from them in her pink kitchen as a young girl. I also just saw this in a magazine and i thought- I WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO GET SUCH A COMPLETE AND LOVELY SET LIKE THAT!!?? WOW , what a surprise. This set is in perfect condition, service for 8, 2 serving platters, 2 serving bowls, 2 sets of salt and pepper shakers , a gravy boat and a condiment dish. I AM SO HAPPY!!! Is'int it beautiful??

My new store vintage chic furniture - i did it!

I was told by fellow friends in this business to make a blog. Find new people, people find you and share your thoughts and ideas with the world! So, where do i start?? I guess the first and most exciting thing that i would like to share with the world is, that after 4 1/2 years of painting shabby chic antique furniture- I OPENED A STORE!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!!! Its always been my dream and i have arrived!! I found a lovely old building at 182 River st. Troy NY, what a lovely old building, on a lovely street, right in the antiques district. It has been hard work, but boy is it worth it! Everyday when I walk through the door I just am amazed at where I am today. The sense of accomplishment is just the most incredible feeling! The next best thing would have to be the response i've heard from people who walk in the door. They gasp, They sigh, they say such lovely things about how much they love it, how good it makes them feel, how happy it makes them, and one of my favorites were "it feels like i've died and gone to heaven with all this white".

I guess i should say now that my whole store is white! The furniture is all white(distressed white), the walls are white, the accessories are white, and even the floor is white. Then of course followed by pink, soft blues, and any other pastel accessories i can find. I have a wonderful workshop area in the back for painting a lovely store front with the two cutest display windows and in the middle a great office/ sewing area. More blogging to come........ i'm hooked :-)