Flea Market Finds Pt. 1

Hey everyone! It's been a while! We've been busy and I think both Sarah and I were completely unplugged this weekend. It was nice but I definitely am looking forward to getting caught up with everyone's posts!

Anyway, as I alluded to in this post, Sarah and I headed to a flea market a couple weekends ago so we were able to cross that off our to-do list. We found so many great things that I think we may become regulars! So in this post we're going to share Sarah's finds. Come back tomorrow to see what I came home with!

First up, we have this little chair that we walked away with for a few dollars. It's solid wood and in good shape. It's already begun it's transformation and we'll be sharing that later this week.

Sarah found these old cans for cheap and loved the colors and old typography.

As you can tell Sarah loves old posters and advertising and bought this old theater poster/hand out thing for a few bucks.

A Picasso print for $5.

An old purse for $2. It's marked Fendi. We have no idea if it's real, but it's pretty neat either way. I scored some great stuff from the same lady that I know you'll all be jealous over :)

Lastly, Sarah's been wanting an old glove form so we stopped by the local antique shop that we knew had some so she could pick one up.

I hope you enjoyed our first round of flea market finds! Make sure to stop back tomorrow to see everything else we got :)

Sincerely,

Ashleigh & Sarah

PS:

"come and open up your folding chair next to me"

Happy Monday!

...seriously! I'm going to IKEA today. The place that dreams are made of.

Before I leave I want a chair a quick little makeover Rachel and I did the other day. We went hunting for a little something something to work on and she found an old wooden folding chair.

She already had this one that she had fixed up:

A little furniture polish, spray paint and new fabric it was good to go.

So we were happy to stumble on this little chair:

We stopped to pick up some fabric and got to work as soon as we got back to Rachel's. She worked on reupholstering while I dug out tacks and sanded down the frame.

We wanted to keep it authentic looking so we just sanded down the frame to smooth out any major dings and rubbed it with furniture polish, leaving it distressed.

We measured enough fabric and then stapled it to the seat. The existing batting was in decent condition so we kept it.

The top was a little bit trickier because it was curved and we had to do both sides, but we made it work.

First we stapled the front. Then, using the old vinyl as a guide, we cut a piece for the back and used an iron to give it crisp edges.

I was able to salvage the existing nail heads so I wanted to use those. We hot glued the fabric into place so it wouldn't move around on us then pounded the nail heads in.

We also reused the original tufting buttons. Using hot glue, we covered them with fabric. This is probably a pretty jenk way to do this haha but it worked!

We put them vertically instead of horizontally to change it up a little bit.

And the final product!

For some reason I completely forgot to take a picture of the nail head trim in the back! If you follow us on twitter I'll tweet a picture later so you can see!

I'll also be pinning my favorite things from IKEA. You can follow me/check out my boards on Pinterest here.

And! If you love Rachel's style as much as I do you can find other posts featuring Rachel here, here and here.

We also worked on a coffee table and a garden bench (both freebies) and I'll share those with you later this week.

I'm off to shop 'til I drop!

Sincerely,

Ashleigh
PS:

Sheet Metal Memo Board

A few months ago I was thrifting and happened upon a frame with broken glass. I wasn't sure what I'd use it for but I figured I'd think of something so I threw it in the cart. Up at the counter I asked for a discount since the glass was broken. I can't remember the exact number but I know I walked away with that frame for less than $2. This was an incredible deal seeing as I knew I didn't need the glass anyway. 

I brought home my find at it sat in my parents basement for a few months. Here's the broken beauty:

After Sarah sent me the calendar she designed {you can find it here} inspiration struck. I wanted something clean and a little more modern. I've used sheet metal in frames before but I've always painted it. This time I thought leaving it raw would be interesting.

I primed and spray painted the frame with a semi-gloss white enamel. Then I picked up this piece of sheet metal from Home Depot. I usually use scrap that my dad has at his machine shop because it's free, but he was busy and I didn't feel like making him dig some up.

I think I paid about $6 for this piece. I had my dad trim it down for me with a band saw but since it's thin you could easily do this with snips. Then he used the orbital sander to buff a nice finish on it. You could probably do this with steel wool or something similar.

I used plain magnets to keep it simple and add to the "industrial chic" look. My mom liked it, and it looked nice hanging in her bedroom, so I let her keep it.

Frame- $2

Sheet Metal- $6

Spray paint- $4

Magnets- Left over from a long time ago

Total: $12

Mom, don't say I never made you anything!

Anyway, you still have time to download a hi-res calendar for April if you'd like. You can find that here!

Let me know what you think!

Sincerely,

Ashleigh

PS Linking up to:







 

the clean & the grungy

I officially decided this morning that Sunday is my favorite day of the week. It is the one day that everyone can walk slowly, take a deep breath, and relax before the week begins again. After going to the Met, Chinatown, and Times Square all in one day yesterday, I was definitely craving a much less chaotic day today.

A flea market & abc home would surely do the trick.

To my surprise, both were completely opposite places. I didn't know what to expect since I hadn't been to either, but the flea market we went to just down the street was literally inside of a vacant parking garage. (http://www.herebeoldthings.com/2008/02/antiques-garage.html) Both floors were covered in vintage gowns, costume jewelry, random oil paintings that I'm sure will never sell, and obviously so much more. It's always an adventure to see what you can find! I was mostly bummed about forgetting to put a memory card in my camera to take photos, but I will be back I'm sure.

I found so much inspiration from these old renderings of plants and animals..drawings to watch out for in future posts!

such a popular place!

Ashleigh, can't you see us buying all of these and staggering all of them along one wall??

Framing postcards or hanging them around is such a personal touch. A great reminder of places you've been even if you weren't even born at the time they were printed! You would never find postcards like this along the streets anymore!

Okay this place above was the flea market, now let's compare to abc home, which can be seen right below us here. It was seriously anthropologie's home section times one million. There are so many great finds here except they are about twenty times more expensive and they are brand new instead of decades old! You have to check out their website, but nothing beats walking in the front door and taking in all of the different aromas, colors, textures, and so much more. (http://www.abchome.com/)

It's 6 stories tall, but the only one we ventured through was the first floor gifts section..quite enough for one day!

This wooden piece is a perfect example about what there store is all about. They sell the most unique and gorgeous pieces...from stationery to cups & bowls to dresses for your kids! I did a wood sculpture like this last semester, I'll have to post about later on. Isn't this gorgeous?

And there are so many more flea markets and thrift stores to explore! A really good thrift store to find if you're in Manhattan that I have been to though is called Buffalo Exchange. (http://www.buffaloexchange.com/) The Goodwill here has pretty decent finds, but even so is more expensive than back in Columbus!

Sincerely,

Sarah