BASIQUES BOUTIQUE

Heathers House

I was finally able to take just a few pics. at Heather's house when I was there taking pics. of the chairs.

She still wouldn't let me take a full picture.  She can't decide on the back splash.  Here  are a couple of shots of the upper shelves.  She tore out the upper cabinets and went with open shelving.  The cabinet with numbers sits on the right of her oven.  She bought an inexpensive single unit, glued on and painted the appliqués and topped it with a piece of butcher block that my Mother had left over from her kitchen remodel.  The rest of the counter tops are concrete.  I'll try to get more pics. later!

Her vintage doggie collection.

I'm thinking that next weeks Cheap Chic post may be  about old picture frames.  Heather does amazing things with them!

Hope you're having a wonderful day!

Denise

CHEAP CHIC

Sorry this post is so late!  It's been one of those days plus this was primarily Heather's project so I had to drive to her house to take the pics.  I know....wah wah wah! 

So............about two weeks ago, we went to one of our favorite haunts "THE RINK" antique mall here in OKC in search of that one special piece to use as a project.  We had already decided that this would be a paint project to show all of you the great potential in all of those ugly pieces of furniture out there!

So much great stuff with so much potential and a lot of great "stuff" that was just ready to take home and use!

Then we spied it!................

The perfect piece!

 

Oh yeah!  It's hideously ugly.   One of those chairs that were a dime a dozen at one time .  The upholstery was in decent shape, it just needed to be cleaned up a little!  Now what to do to update this chair?

What you will need for this project.  A vacuum cleaner and some Frebreze for that upholstery!  ha ha

Blue painters masking tape.  Cream NOT WHITE interior latex paint with an egg shell finish.  Brown craft paint.  Any latex based non yellowing clear top coat.  Clear inexpensive rhinestones or buttons of your choice.  Your glue gun.

Unfortunately, we do not have any during pictures of this project.  Remove the cushion and set aside.  Carefully mask off all of the  rest of the upholstery.  If you're anything like me, you better cover it all with plastic. I tend to get paint EVERYWHERE, including all over myself!  Leave all wood exposed.  If it has a high sheen you will need to rough it up with sand paper so that the paint will stick.   Get ready to paint!

Yeah.........I know........you're saying "this will never work!

I beg to differ!

After!

So.....after you mask off your piece, you'll paint the entire piece cream.  It will probably take two coats.  The reason that I said not white paint is because it will look dirty after you glaze.  Let dry.  Water down your chocolate brown craft paint.  This will be your glaze.  Be sure to get plenty down in all of the crevices and apply as lightly or heavily as you prefer.  Let dry.  Coat the entire piece with your clear top coat.  This is what protects the paint and YES that craft paint will stay right where you put it after you have top coated your piece.  Heather uses an expensive oil based glaze that she has specially mixed.  The cost is about $40.00 a quart.  But take it from me, if she says that this will work I promise you it will work!   That girl is a master painter!

The last step....heat up that glue gun and glue those rhinestones right over the existing buttons in the tufts of the back.

Before                                                      After

Close up of the top back.  After.

We paid $45.00  for this chair at the antique mall.  But just think, if you had been the one who purchased it at a garage sale or estate sale, you would probably have paid about $20.00!

I know this because...................................

.....................that's how much Heather paid for this chair.  The upholstery (again) was in perfect condition and a super cute pink/salmon damask.  The wood was again, brown.  She painted it a turquoise blue.  It  now sits in front of her computer.

Pillow with crown.........Teresa Sheely

Pillow with stripes........Vintage

Pillow with Eiffel Tower.....Urban Outfitters

Hope you loved this project.  I'm ready to go out and find a chair of my own to paint.  Where else could you get a brand new chair for that price!

Now that is definitely CHEAP CHIC!

Denise

HELP US PLEASE!

 

Hello!.......Bella here speaking to you!

We need your help!  My Mommy (that would be Heather) and my DeeDee are heading in a new and exciting direction with their lives and their blog.  So....along those lines they want to create a new blog!  It's just that....I am so SICK of listening to them moan and groan about how they must be computer illiterate and "why oh why can we not figure out this banner stuff and how to add side bars and so on"  and then one of them will say "it can't be THAT hard!  Other people do it!  We're  not complete dumb dumbs!"

So....they need to decide.  Stay with typepad and figure it all out , or try blogspot.  Having someone design their blog this time is out of the question.  They spent all of their money on my pearl necklace and my adorable new leopard carry bag!

Any advice and help you could give them would be greatly appreciated!  I think that they really would prefer to stay with typepad if they could just get a little help from all of you experienced bloggers out there!

Please hurry!  This is VERY important to me as I will be an important part of their new blog!  They're even talking about featuring me on their banner!  I just knew that I would "go Hollywood" one of these days!  I mean, just look at me! 

Love,

Miss Bella

THURSDAY

Just having one of those days where I'm not motivated to do much of anything.

Maybe sit and read a book.

This is a sitting area/alcove in our bedroom.  It looks like a wonderful place to spend an afternoon. 

The vintage sofa that Heather painted for me and I had reupholstered is one of my favorite pieces.  It was in hideously horribly ugly when I found it.  Unfortunately, that khaki colored fabric does not clean well.  Had I realized that when I purchased the material I would have gone with something else.  At the time I was just looking for something inexpensive.

I'm sure everyone has a golf ball just lying around on their bedroom floor!  Ha Ha!!

I moved this shelf from the den to the master bedroom.  I had thought about selling it.  Thank goodness Hubby talked me out of that!  I am in love with the way that it looks next to the bed!

Really just a collection of small odds and ends.  Heather calls it my little alter to "stuff"!

Sometimes I long for pastel colors.  I would have to change EVERYTHING so that's just not an option.  Anyway it's a cozy nice room to hang out in and read!

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About the cord covers.   No I don't make them.  They are available at The Market here in the city.  I would say that you probably want to measure about double the length of your cord to make them scrunch up nice and full.  I know that they are available in several lengths and they are NOT inexpensive.  I would like to cover all of my cords, it certainly looks nicer.  But I'll have to keep buying a couple at a time as I can afford them.

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Oh GREAT!  Hubby just walked in the room and the first thing he said was "your pictures suck."  Everyone's a critic!

Guess I'll go work on my photography skills (NOT) hope everyone had a great day!

Denise

WEDNESDAY (AGAIN)

Well.....when I asked Heather this morning if she had seen my post she said "yeah, and your photography SUCKS."   A  little brutally honest if you ask me but I can always count on that girl for the complete truth.  Anywho....that sure burst my little happy bubble!

Felt so bad that I just got through taking some more pics.  Hope these help a little.  The glare on that glass was just impossible to get rid of!

Here's a little better view of my new storage area.

Are these any better? 

I finally gave up and just took everything out of the jar so that you could see it better.

Hope these help some!

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Just a little tease concerning next weeks Cheap Chic post!

It will be about looking past the "ugly" and seeing the potential in.........uh.........something.  I don't want to give away too much.  But you are all going to LOVE this one!

Speaking of ugly.......here is a BIG before of the two additional chairs for my dining room.

Come on now......look past all of that ugly and see the potential in the shape of that cute back and those French legs!

No.....this is not next weeks project.  We have something that we think is much more fabulous! 
Stay tuned!

Denise

CHEAP CHIC

Storage storage.....I'm always looking for new ways to store all of my supplies.  This weekend I put another shelving unit in the guest room and it actually worked out better than I thought that it would.

Wire baskets and jars.  My favorites are the clear jars with lids that you can purchase at Wal-Mart.  They are available in two sizes.

Store all of those little vintage goodies in a jar and then display on a shelf.  You have......once again.....created an inexpensive work of art!

Sewing supplies in another.

The larger jars are also cute to create your own special little vignettes.

This weeks Cheap Chic project.....................................

You'll need

• 1 large covered jar
• stick-on cuties from the scrap booking aisle
• inexpensive ribbon from the craft store
• your own special goodies to place inside

Design the outside of your jar and place stick-on's where you want them.  Although I probably would have preferred something to spell "HOME" that was a little more frou frou I already had the stamp shaped stickers.

Cut the narrow ribbon into long streamers.  Oh, I forgot to mention the little beaded ornament that I clipped on the ribbon.  A clip on earring would also be cute.

I went with a spring bird theme which always seems to be a favorite of mine!

I think that this would also be super cute in the bathroom.  Use more stick-on rhinestones and maybe spell out "Bath" in French in some glitzy and glamorous letters.  Then fill with those little white soaps that I know all of you are starting to collect!  There are ton of ideas that you could come up with.  How about a baby theme?  Fill with cute little gifts and put the babies name on the outside......a perfect gift that will have everyone talking about how clever you are!

This project actually turned out much better than I had originally thought that it might.  So much so that it now graces the middle of my harvest table!

Get busy girls!  This one should cost a little less than $20.00!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Denise

HAPPY VALENTINE DAY!

We hope that your Valentine Day is everything you wish for!

Have something deliciously wicked!  Maybe with a nice cup of coffee.

Enjoy your beautiful decorations!

Relax with the delightful scent of Lavender!

 

Curl up with a good book!

Dream of the beauty within its pages.

A delicious decorating book that I would definitely recommend!

Go for a walk!

What ever you do today, we hope it's a perfect day for you!

Denise

THURSDAY

Thank you all so much for your encouraging and much needed comments!  We appreciate everyone of you sooo  much.  Blogging has recently begun to turn into a kind of "therapy" for me so I won't be going away any time soon!

Look what we found!  These definitely come under the heading of CHEAP CHIC! 

Now how much do you think that these super cute, glittered, and dye cut cards would cost?  We found them for $1.00 each at Michaels in their dollar bins!  Don't ever pass by those dollar bins!  There's some great stuff to be found  if you dig and dig. 

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I'm still sewing up a storm here lately!  And I am absolutely going to be checking into an Etsy shop!   Hubby told me just today that if I could just make enough to pay for my health insurance and bring a little bit more home that it would be awesome if I could stay home and make money.  Here's keeping my fingers crossed!  I sure wish this darned economy would improve!

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Here are some closer shots of that bathroom wallpaper.  Sorry for the quality but it's super dark in that bathroom and I just couldn't bring in enough light.

It's a designer paper from Waverly  it's been up for about five years and I don't have any idea if it's still available.

I also painted the cabinets in that room.  Again lousy pictures.  Sorry!

It's hard to tell but they're blue with a gold under tone.  I really love my crown knobs!

Close up of the shower curtain fabric.  I found it in the closeouts at T.J. Maxx for $10.00!  I just LOVE cheap stuff! 

Someone said that I shouldn't say "cheap" that "inexpensive" sounded better.  But I say cheap is good, cheap is our friend, so I'll just cheap cheap away (haha) and be darn proud of it! 

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If you don't stop by before then......Here's a Valentine that I'm sending out through my blog to you!  Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Love to you all!

Denise

CHEAP CHIC

Well......Tuesday has been a "hail" of a day around here!  As in hail and tornadoes all over Oklahoma today!  Very unusual for February.

I mean BIG hail!  That's a golf ball in the middle to give you an idea of size!

So.....it slowed me down a little on my Wednesday post but I finally got it  (almost) all together!   >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

CHEAP CHIC  IDEA #1

We love silver. I mean cheap silver that is!  Silver plated tarnished silver that you can find at antique malls and estate sales for next to nothing.

There wasn't a piece in this bunch that we paid over $10.00 for!

 

Just $3.00 for this one!

The pattern on this one is of course stamped, but when I got it home and cleaned it up I found the inscription "Ft. Sill Okla" engraved in the middle!  So you never know!  There might be something fun under all of that dirt!

This tray was a real cheap piece but it looks great in my closet with all of my eye glasses and other goodies on it.

Tuck a little vintage piece inside of a silver cup.  Display soaps in the bath on another.  By the way, many of the soaps that I collect are Hotel soaps.   Solid white or cream are my only requirements!

Dig out your old photos to display.  Show case perfume bottles and other cuties on your dresser or side table.  The pearl "B" we discovered at Michaels for $1.00!

Of course seasonal displays are always perfect displayed on silver.

And why put jewelry away in a drawer when it can become a bedroom accessory!

Go neutral with sepia toned old photos and other yellowed and aged goodies.  Create a theme like I did here with the baby photos and shoes.  The bits of lace and ribbon add another texture for interest.

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OKAY............here's your CHEAP CHIC project for the week!

We purchased this entire lot of old "silver" at a local antique mall for $3.00!

When I began digging through it I found several spoons that were well used and perfectly shabby and vintage.

I gathered up some old jewelry, buttons, and glue.

And created my own little works of art.

The neutral with pearls and rhinestones was hands down my favorite!

One thing that I needed more of were tiny seed beads to fill in between my larger pieces.  One of those things that the storms prevented me from getting.  I also think these would be wonderful if you filled the spoon (they are larger serving spoons) with candy, brought tulle up over the spoon to hold it in place, and tied it with a cute ribbon.  There again I had intended to do a little quick shopping so that I had a picture to show, but was unable to get out.

Display them with other silver pieces.

Use them in the bath to scoop scented bath beads. 

 

Just display them on a tray with other interesting items.

This was a quick and easy project and I'm only sorry that I didn't have more vintage jewelry to use.  It's one of those things where after you get started the creative ideas just start to take form one after another.

In my guest bath.  I do love my silver!

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday!

Denise

SUNDAY

I came across the most heart wrenching post  this evening.  Please say a prayer for this family.  Their beautiful little baby passed away today.  My heart and prayers go out to the McClenahan family.

I found a post-it-note in my husbands writing laying on the desk where the computer is.  I don't know where it came from.

• I am blessed
• I am favored
• I am prosperous
• I am healthy
• I am whole
• I am a victor not a victim

Words that we would all due well to remember when we see what real suffering is.  God bless this family in their path ahead.