What Is that????? The Reveal

Ok here the is cabinet with some of it's parts laying on the top.  A lot of you guessed this to be a stereo or old radio cabinet.  Nope!

This sweet cabinet is called an Expand-O-Matic dining table!! Yep those are the leaves on the top of this cabinet.  These were made back in the late 60's and early 70's.  The leaves stored in the inside of the cabinet.

The top draw pulls out and becomes the end of the table when extended.  As you can see the extension bars open up to any size seating from 2 to 12.  The leaves then fall into place and you have a table.

Here is one very similar to mine that I took off of pinterest.  You can see how it opens up to a full table.

These are the leaves before we sanded and painted them along with the middle table leg for support when the table is fully extended.

Terry sanded down the piece so it would take the cabinet paint.  Believe it or not I was planning on leaving this a light colored natural wood if it sanded nicely!  Nope it had sections as you can see that did not come out well from sanding.  Just years probably of poly and the different types of wood.  So white paint was going to take over!

We had to paint this inside due the house due to the cold weather we have here in Illinois.  However,  the sanding part was done outside in the garage!  Sorry Terry but trying to clean up all those fine dust particles for the next three months was not going to happen!  So outside this piece went to get her sanding.

My living room then became a painting room for the cabinet and all her parts.  

We used Lowe's special cabinet paint.  I love this paint.  It is specifically made for painting cabinets.  No primer needed.  It goes on like glass and the cabinets hold up very nicely.  We have used this cabinet paint on the kitchen cabinets and they still look great like the first day we painted them.  You can tint this to any color you want including the 100's of white shades.  I just use the semi brilliant white that it come in.

As you can see in this before pic the bottom of the cabinet was ok but I felt a little dated.  So Terry and his tools took some left over molding from when we made the island and finished this to make if feel more updated.  You can see this in the next picture.

Please excuse the grainy pictures but if I wait for good light and a sunny day it might be April to show you this piece finished!
I added new hardware for the upper drawer and left the hardware that was on the doors below.  Just gave them some white paint and sanded them for a distressed look.

The leaves all store nicely in the cabinet.  There is still room on the other side that I will put some serving pieces and a table cloth or two. 

Here is what the table looks like when you pull out the faux drawer.  You can see the mechanisms that pull out for each leaf.  This table expands to fit up to 12 comfortably.

I put in about 4 of the leaves to show you how this works.  They slip in and have little pegs that fit into the holes in the next leaf so the fit nicely together.

I love this piece.  Since I do not have a dining room in this tiny house this gives me a dining room table to entertain my guests when needed.  Then I can be put back away in this cute cabinet that does not take up a lot of space.

Oh how I wish I could get a better picture of this piece finished.  It really is pretty in this room and the finish came out really nice.  I guess that is the draw back of living in the midwest during the winter!  Some days we see sun but this week we are not going to see much sunshine.

Hope all of you are having a wonderful week.
Just trying to stay active and not feel the winter blues with no sun.

Have a great rest of the week.
Kris

Project News and Vintage Hollywood Schwinn Bike

This piece is done! Well you are still seeing the before picture here. 

It has been a rainy and fog filled day.  So every time I tried to get a good picture of this piece finished it came out very grainy. 

 I need a sunny day and I will show you how sweet the re love came out on this piece and reveal what it is.

 I promise!!  Hopefully soon!

In the meantime while I was on my lucky resale site I found this beautiful vintage Schwinn Bike.

It is the Hollywood Edition.  Not sure what that means but I just love it's cuteness.

Here are some of my garden bikes from our past Junk Chic Cottage homes.  

I have really missed having a  garden bike fixed up cute in with my garden flowers.

I think this one I found today on my favorite resale site for $25 is going to clean up nicely. Maybe just maybe some paint and some beautiful flowers I think I will have a nice addition to my summer garden this year.

I guess from what the seller told me this bike is still rideable too.  Hope nobody rides away with her after I give her some love and flowers this summer out in the garden!

I promise the reveal of the new piece is coming soon.  Just wish me some sun filled days and I can click off some final pictures.

Have a great new week.
Hugs,
Kris

New Project

Happy Valentine's Day

Sweet Terry brought me home this beautiful bouquet of love.  Each Valentine's Day he brings me a bouquet of all my favorite flowers.  Hydrangea's, pink carnations and beautiful white roses.  Reminds me that Spring and Summer are hopefully around the corner soon for us here in the midwest.

I am working on a new project to show you soon.  What on earth is this you ask?  Well stay tuned and I will be showing you soon what this will be transformed and re loved into.  Peggy my design assistant is curious too!

I will give you a hint.  These were made in the early 60's by a company right here in Chicago called Saginaw.  I have been looking for one of these pieces for awhile.  They are rare to find in great condition like this one was.  I had to drive to Fondulac Wisconsin about a 2.5 hour drive from where I live in Illinois to snatch up this piece.  It was well worth the trip in a snow storm I might add to get this beautiful piece of history.

As you have heard me say we are learning to live small and utilize and be creative with the space we have.   We are working creatively so this tiny house can accommodate our needs.  This piece is going to be a great piece to have in this tiny cottage home.

Stay tuned hopefully this weekend I will have this piece ready to show in it's new re loved style.

Terry and his mighty tools have been working hard on this piece to make it new and pretty for our cottage decor.

Have a beautiful day.  Happy Valentine's Day.
xoxo
Kris

New Project Reveal

Remember these two treasures found.  I said I had a vision for both of these lovelies! My vision was to incorporate these pieces into a new kitchen island.

My vision originally was to use this frame for the top of the island.  That did not work so instead we framed out the french pastry sign for the front of the island.

I think it looks pretty good on the front of the island framing out the french sign.

Terry used wood he had and we bought a six panel in stock door from Home Depot for the sides of the island.  Used left over molding from the remodel of the basement.

Found these stools on a resale site.

I would have loved to have found an old vintage door for the sides but no luck. So the in stock door was the solution.  Terry used moldings for the top and bottom to frame the island.

Here we go.  Here is the new Island painted pretty.

I love this old french stenciled sign for the front of the island framed out with the old vintage frame.  It is hard to see in the picture but the detail to the old frame is still there even with painting it white.

The backside of the island is open so the ladder back chairs can fit under there.  Plenty of leg room for us to sit comfortably at the island.

Great story about these Ballard chairs.  I went to 5 yes 5 different Home Goods stores, Pier One and a few furniture stores looking for the perfect stools for this island.  Could not find what I wanted.  They were too dark or too big etc.

Then I found these stools on Ballards and put them in my cart.  They were on sale for $125 each plus a $20 dollar surcharge for shipping.  We had to leave for a family outing so I left them in the cart to finish my transaction later that evening when I would return home. 

In the meantime I was fooling around on my phone at a resale place and OMG found these exact two stools from Ballards being sold on this site for $50 for the set.  I emailed the girl selling them and found out she only lived 15 minutes from me and she also said she would take my offer of $20 each. 

What a score and I saved myself so much money.  Terry could not believe that they were the same chairs from Ballards.  When we picked them up sure enough they had the Ballard tags still on the legs of the chairs.  SCORE!!!! 

They were in the dark wood as you could see above in the before picks and a little too high but some paint and Terry and his mighty tools to shorten them we had a win win on these stools.

Now the new island ties into the butcher block counters in the kitchen.  Makes the two rooms feel as one now.

Taking a crusty old frame and a pretty stenciled french pastry shop sign along with some left over wood and trims and you can imagine and create a beautiful island.

I have to give a big thank you to my hubby Terry and his amazing tools.  He took my vision and made it come to life.

Now we can sit and have coffee in the morning at this sweet island.

Wishing all of you a wonderful start to the new week.
Yeah!  for February.
Love that it is a short month and then we can slide on into March and hopefully an early spring!

Hugs,
Kris

Parties:
Inspire me Tuesday
WOW US WEDNESDAY
Create Bake Grow Together
HOME MATTERS
Dishing It & Digging It
talk of the town party 110

Special Delivery Winners

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday.

I was going to wait and reveal the winners drawn from the giveaway with the reveal of my newest project I am working on.  The project is taking a little longer than expected.  Real Life got in the way this weekend so Terry and I had to suspend working on this new piece.  Hope to work on it during the week.

 I would like to get the winners their flu giveaway sniffs and hand sanitizer and a few extra valentines treats I am adding.  

If your name is listed below you are one of the lucky winners drawn.  Thank you to everyone that left comments I wish I had one of these special deliveries for all of you.  If you name is listed here please email me your address and your treats will be on the way.

Winners:

Deezie

Lisa Texas Decor

Julie Creative Life Style

These two lovely treasures found are coming together nicely in my new project piece.  Hope to have that done sometime this week to share.

Have a great start to the new week.
Hugs,
Kris

New Cornices and Sneak Peak Project and Giveaway Winners

Happy Friday.

Hope your week was a good one and the weekend will even be better.

Terry has made me cornices for the living room and the kitchen and dining area.  I love them they give character to my windows.

I have been wanting him to make a couple for my bedroom windows too.

Terry had some left over crown and wood and I had some of the textured paintable wallpaper so we were able to make up two new cornices for the bedroom windows.

These where the windows before the cornices.

I just had up white wood rods.

This is the pattern of the wallpaper that we used on the cornices.

The paintable wallpaper gives some texture to the cornice.

The cornices tie in with my old vintage door headboard.

Sorry again about the grainy pics.  Just the way it is with whites and trying to capture the beauty.  I do not have expensive camera equipment to be able to capture the true beauty of whites.  You will just have to take my word for it.  These pictures do not do this room justice.  The whites are crisp and the light is gorgeous that flows in this room.

 I am on the hunt for new curtain panels to give some color to the room.

My duvet on the bed has light colors of white, gray and light blue.  So I am hoping to find maybe some light blue gingham or light patterned curtain panels to finish my windows.

Now on to the sneak peak.

Terry and I were babysitting our two granddaughters and we all decided to take a ride out to a nice vintage market shop near their home.  Love love love this shop.  It has so much chippy beautiful treasures.

I found a couple of items in the shop and I am very excited to have a vision of what I could create with these beautiful pieces.  After all I have that man with the tools that knows how to use them! 

This beautiful stenciled french pastry sign and this old crusty frame.

It was love at first sight when I saw this beautiful sign.

The upstairs of this shop has an attic area that you can find clearance discarded items at great prices.  In the lonely corner of the attic behind some old pieces of furniture was this old crusty and in need of love frame.  I immediately dug it out and said yep this will work for my vision of what I want to accomplish.

This crusty old broken frame is going to be re loved along with the french pastry sign into a new piece of furniture for our cottage home.

Yep! A new piece of furniture will be made out of these pieces.  That frame is going to become something special on the new piece of furniture.

Stay tuned I am excited about this vision coming to life.
Hopefully Terry can begin to work on it this weekend.
It is in the 50's here in Chicago land today.
Woo Hoo that is a heat wave for us.
Sunshine and 50's.  I am taking it all in.

Stay tuned.
I will have the winners of the give away picked this weekend and I will post the names when I reveal this new piece of furniture.

Stay tuned.
Hugs,
Happy Weekend.
Kris