The Carpenter's Attic

Before & After: Turquoise Hall Tree

2011-06-26T18:12:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite piece we have done to date! I found this great hall tree/umbrella stand at a local thrift store. It was actually in pretty good shape, it just needed a little glue, a couple nails,

some paint, and new hardware.

I could tell that it was a handmade piece, dating from the 30's-40's. I painted it a pretty turquoise color followed by distressing and glaze. I loooooove how the finish turned out! It distressed so nicely.

Close up of finish

The original hooks were a copper plated cast iron, that were really rusted. One of them was broken, so I ended up replacing all the hooks with new black ones. Hopefully the original ones will clean up and I can use them on another project!

The original hooks looked like this. Image from http://www.antiquedoorfittings.co.uk

New black hooks pop against the turquoise

The oval mirror was original and did have some silvering loss, but was still usable.

A little glass knob adds detail to the storage compartment.

And the final product.....

The full before & after!

Linking up to: Perfectly Imperfect blog link party and Funky Junk Interiors SNS

A couple projects + prepping for next Trade Days!

2011-06-05T19:18:00.000-07:00

We are prepping for the next Trade Days and also working on a couple custom pieces....in the mean time, here are some fun pieces that we sold at the last Trade Days. These are both made by Adam from re-purposed materials.

Set of crates - re-purposed from fence panels and color washed, then distressed. The chalkboard paint adds a neat little touch. These would be perfect in a mudroom to catch clutter, or in a kid's room.

Love this pair of little side tables! The legs are re-purposed from stair spindles and the tops are antique ceiling tins.

In preparation for our next Trade Days, we went to our first estate auction a few weeks ago and it was so much fun! We got some great stuff, including an antique fireplace surround/mantle, small cane chair, and vintage suitcases (one in a perfect turquoise blue color!), and more. We have also been hitting up the local thrift/resale shops. I found a pair of vintage Starline suitcases in the perfect peachy pink color. Will post some pics shortly!

Desk before & after!

2011-05-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy past couple of weeks! Our first Third Monday Trade Days in McKinney was a success! Between that and selling a few furniture pieces on Craigslist, we sold every piece of furniture that we had made! We look forward to next months Trade Days (June 17-19).

We are also looking at moving our work space into a warehouse space, so that will hopefully happen in the next few weeks.

We already have tons of great pieces to work on, but here's a before & after of a nice little desk we sold earlier this week. I hope the new owners love it as much as I do!

This little desk was $15.00 at a local thrift store. We were digging around in their back warehouse and I spied it from across the room. It had junk and a TV piled on top of it, but I knew it had potential.

We got it home and looked it over, it was a MESS! The contact paper on the top was at least 15 years old and had been baked on. After few hours of scraping and three coats of paint stripper, we revealed a beautiful solid wood top.

We stained the top a pretty mahogany color which complimented the green paint color.

I used Annie Sloan's Antibes Green Chalk paint, which at first was REALLY bright, but some wax toned it down and brought out the details.

Added some pretty fabric to line the drawers...

Added a touch of wax to the original knobs to make them look a little more aged...

And the final product...(displayed in our booth at Trade Days)

I LOVE how it turned out! It even looked great with that antique desk chair that Adam got from Craigslist (he sanded and re-stained and it looked amazing!)

One last look....

Wisteria Inspired TV Console

2011-05-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

You know the feeling, searching high and low for that perfect piece of furniture, the right color, size, shape, but not finding it and having to settle for the less than perfect piece. I was searching for a TV console, and loved this console table from Wisteria.

But it was too tall for a TV console and was also way out of my price range at $549.

Adam said he could build something similar. We started shopping around for materials and found that table legs at the home improvement stores are anywhere from $5-20 a piece. This piece was going to get pricey pretty fast! When we visited an architectural salvage store on a whim, we found these stair spindles and they were the perfect size and style!

The best part was they were $1.00 a piece!

Adam built a frame and attached a top...

I painted it a bright yellow....

And toned it down with some glaze....

The glaze and distressing bring out the details...

And it the finished product is exactly what we wanted! I got a couple vintage leather suitcases to store dvd's in.

Sneak Peak - Desk Before and After!

2011-05-07T19:26:00.001-07:00

We have been working all week to get ready for our first Trade Days! We will be at the Third Monday Trade Days in McKinney, TX on May 13-15.

Here is a sneak peak of a current project!

We got this desk at a thrift store and the top was covered in contact paper from the 80's. It took three coats of paint stripper to get all the goop off, but it was so worth it! The result is beautiful! Check back in a couple days for the full before and after!

Welcome!

2011-04-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Carpenter's Attic blog. We are so glad you stopped by! As you can see we are currently working on getting the blog up and running. Please continue to check back or choose to follow the blog to see new information and new products!

Thanks!