Labor Day = Post-Isaac Chore Day

Happy Labor Day!  Power's back on here (but still lots with out it -- see red).  

Time to clean up this....

(fence down and yard debris.  play structure still sound....great lookout tower to see rest of the 'hood.)

and clean out this....

(stinky from loss of power for FIVE days!)

So thankful to have been here during the whole Category 1/Tropical Strom shenanigan:

(Highlands, NC)

(you can't see his smile...but my dog was also in heaven here.)

Seven years to the day Katrina hit, Isaac struck.  My thoughts and prayers go to all those in Braithewaite, Plaquemines and other areas that  flooded, and have to deal with the real mess all over again.   

As far as our beloved NOLA, our new levee system held, but life got pretty miserable and sweaty for all those without power for days and days (some still).  It's hot here, people!

But this is the price we pay to live in this grand-ole wild party we call a city.  The reality is: as the wetlands go, we become more and more coastal, and more and more susceptible to these storms -- whether they're a Cat 1 or a Cat 5.

As DirtyCoast says:

XOXO to all.

Happy Labor Day/Post-Isaac-Mess-Dealin' Day!

Furniture Graveyard

Ever wonder where old hotel furniture goes to die?  If you have a taste for a bargain, and you can use your imagination, you have got to check out any Hotel/Furniture Liquidator -- every major city has one, or two or many.  

So it's not exactly high end shopping.  More like hold your nose, be prepared to sweat (this one has no AC), and try not to be too turned off by the dust and grime layering half the items. What you can expect are lots of $25 lamps, $50 chairs and sofas, $40 headboards, etc.  It is the Rodeo Drive of Cheap. (Again, only if you bring your imagination).

My eyes just light up at those price tags and all the nothings that I think I can turn into somethings. 

Here is a $40 chair from a Liquidator I reupholstered in Kelly Wearstler Sand Strie.  One of the most comfortable chairs I own.  

And bonus, when you buy something this cheap, you can afford to use expensive fabric.

$25 Artichoke lamps:
(I bought a pair now in my living room)

Thought about gold leafing them, but didn't need any more gold in the room, so I just gessoed, spray painted and added a new shade.

Excuse the mess on the couch. 

The moral of this story is some old furniture is like a cat -- 9 lives and all that.  Remember, it's not illegal to shop in this graveyard.*  Have fun!  *(I'm such a fool for a metaphor.)

Coffee/Cocktail Craze

Hollywood regency cocktail table via ebay.  Marbelized top and brass legs. 

While my love of coffee and cocktails is nothing new, I have a serious obsession with vintage coffee/cocktail tables lately (*see post below).  (What's the difference between coffee and cocktail table you ask?  Nothing, one just sounds fancier.) 

As always, thank you ebay for sustaining my habit, and for providing blog content.

More than anything, I just have an addiction to scouring ebay for great finds -- and lately its been tables for some reason (not that I need one).  So if you know of group therapy, or are looking to do an award winning Ph.D., just let me know. (I also have an oxymoronic, but slight infatuation with lamps-- just don't tell the doctors).

This is pretty glam/cool....(with glass top, oh la la):

Very cool cocktail table base for 245 that was on my ebay watch list, even though I didn't need it.   It's just so cool though.  If I had the space, I could be a hoarder of coffee/cocktail tables and lamps.
Cray, cray -- Kat?

Here's to a week of excellent coffee and cocktails (clink mugs and glasses)!
-me

Friday Finds

Here Kitty, Kitty....

Up for grabs on ebay: a fabulous Kittinger Mid-Century coffee table for @$800.  These are going on 1stdibs for anywhere btwn $4,000-$5,0000!  This one looks to have a few age spots, but you could perhaps strategically hide them with books, etc.

Here is one similar featured in Elle Decor:

Identity Crisis: Frankly, I envision this table in a more luxe/deco setting as opposed to rustic lodge.  But, hey that's just my opinion, and you know what they say about those...there's always room for a second one.

Have a great weekend!  

Humpty Dumpty is Getting Smashed

Do you think Humpty drinks SkinnyGirl cocktails?  Unlikely.

Everybody has one – that place in your house where the excess lives.  Sometimes it’s just a drawer, or maybe it’s a spare closet or empty corner cabinet filled with all the idle, perhaps unattractive, accumulations of life. 

Admit it...you have a room that needs to be Put Back Together Again too. 

These Humpty-Dumpty spaces should come with warning labels: Beware of Infestation.  Junk multiplies, and soon that one junk drawer becomes two (I have two in my kitchen alone), and the door to that cabinet/closet takes extra muscle just to shut properly. 

Take my advice: talk Humpty off the wall, before all his pieces clutter your house.

It’s time for an intervention when an unintended space, i.e. something that is not a closet, cabinet or drawer (a room per se), becomes your clutter receptacle.   

   

Clutter Cops Crime Scene:  Once a place to serve up high-balls, the functional but drab wet-bar space became my clutter recepticle in the recent redecoration.  I painted the cabinets and upgraded the hardware a few years ago, but its sat untouched since.

So on a whim and a spare moment, I decided to clear it out, mix my own color (that was interesting), and put it back together again in some fashionable manner. 

All the King's horses and all the King’s men (uh, me)….
and I sort of put it back together again.   

The color came out pretty well -- it's sort of a pinkish/purplish greige in a very high gloss.  I want to accent the space with gold (going for a Hollywood Glam Look).  The gold leaf wall sculpture was a $20 el-cheapo purchase from Michael's.  I used wire-cutters to snip off the dinky looking birds and other stuff and spray painted the leaves gold, et voila!

'Mr. T' -- our once lime green Foo Dog finally found a home, plus a light grey paint job:

Mr. T, our Foo Dog:  "What you talking abt. Foo(l)? Quit yo jibba-jabba!"  

Waiting on another gold framed pic and possibly a little bar stool to upholster
(in the fabric you see in corner).

Yes, I literally upped the bar this past weekend.  It still has a bit to go with styling etc., and I've got another picture getting re-framed.  I’ll post finished version soon!

Til then, at least Humpty Dumpty has a placed to get smashed, properly.   Cheers!

Summer Blockbuster

Summer kidnapped me and left the blog Home Alone, but the only thing breaking into this house was The Usual Suspects:  vintage finds, re-up projects and a compulsive re-arranger (that would be me).

If you recall, the fabulous coffee table find created The Perfect Storm to redecorate, and plunge into a creative Matrix around here.

Remember me? (don't pay attention to the background...work in progress)

Mission Impossible this was not.  Moving art, and furniture from one room to another until Twilight and beyond is Much Ado About Nothing for me.  It’s Love, Actually.

Here’s a little sneak preview of the coming attraction in the den:

I can’t wait to show you photos of the ‘final cut”!

Until that project's finished, here’s a little Hide and Seek fairytale to celebrate the end of my summer hiding.

 

Who's hiding now?  (note the zebra hide on the floor & french chair in
the corner - an ebay find waiting for her knight in shining new upholstery) 

Once upon a time a Sleeping Beauty was resting on the living room floor.  Things around the house got a little Tangled.  Yes, the hide from the floor is now on the chair.  From Cinderalla to Beuty and the Beast:

   

Thus, The Never Ending Story of my house (ha ha).  More on the shake up soon.

Possum on the roof....and a snakeskin table

He's such a stud.  That's my five year old in the background
having fun with the stud finder I just showed him how to use.  

Chapter two of my house swirling around in a twister à la Dorothy's in the Wizard of Oz.

scratch, scratch, can I come in? My first houseguest for the day.

First, I woke up to strange sounds coming from the bathroom (like something or someone was in there).  The danger-seeker that I am, I opened the door to discover a very large and fat possum hanging out on top of the skylight on the roof.  He began frantically scratching at the window, and obviously wanted to come in.  Of course, why wouldn't he want to chill here -- my house probably looks like familiar territory to him: wild.  (Unfortunately, I couldn't grab the camera quick enough!  I'm wondering where he scurried off to...probably to his new home, our attic. anyone have the # for Animal Control?)


Speaking of wild animals.  A buddy of mine passed on two yards of this fabulous faux snake skin:

B. Berger faux leather/ Sand Serpant

I've been trying to figure out a creative use for it, and since the creative cyclone hit the house, I decided to change the look of these two side tables I was never really crazy about.

Picked these up on the cheap at Home Goods
@ 4 yrs. ago, and never liked the ugly brass finish, but liked the shape.

So.......

A little paint, gorrilla glue, and a lot of elbow grease later:

I haven't had time to complete the second table yet, but this one came out pretty cool!  I think they'll add texture to the room, and look really interesting.  Needless to say, they look a lot better and more high-end....

and I know my new marsupial friend would agree.

Hurricane in the house!

wowsa!  incredible tessellated coffee table....wow!

Welll, every story has to have a beginning, middle and end.  The above table is the opening chapter in this mini-novella.  It really should be a soap opera, the way my week has gone, although I pray Marlena from Days of Our Lives does not make an appearance as the Devil. (That was from my college days when my roomates would tape that soap, and we'd watch it instead of studying for finals.  Did I just age myself?).  

Chapter 1:
I was vintage/antique/consignment shopping the other day with another talented eye (she's the best), and spotted this puppy!  It's an incredible Maitland-Smith tesselated coffee table (these things sell on 1stdibs for abt $3,000 -- and usually found in cream...this is a very unique emerald green (love)).  Needless to say, I got this for MUCHmuchmuchmuchmuch less (less than that even).  

It's an incredible piece and now I have to redsign the whole room around it.  So, of course, now the whole house is being redecorated, everything is for sale on craigslist, etc. and it looks like a hurricane hit the interior of the  homestead.  But this is progress, folks.  I love getting all crazy and changing up the chi/vibe of my own home every year.

Can't wait to post Chapters 2 and up...!