One down, 5 more to go

One project that we've been wanting to get done is finding new doors for our rooms in the house. The first door that was changed was the front door ( to a brand new single light door) A couple of weeks ago, we found a place that sells discounted doors from old or remodeled homes and we recycled this door to trade out for the one in our bathroom. I can't wait to find more of these recycled doors. They're less than half the price of a new one and it looks so good after the paint and the frosting of the glass is done. Problem is, it's a slow project, you never know when you'll be lucky enough to find another door in the size you want. Yayyyy, for recycled doors and taking a "green" approach to remodeling

More Junk finds...the BIG ticket items

Lately inspiration has hit me to blog more. Maybe it's because I've been stuck at home on the weekends 7 months pregnant with very little projects. So again I've been looking at my pictures on my computer and here's more of my favorite finds from E-bay, Flea Markets and Craigslist. I thank my lucky stars every day for my treasures. If I had waited any longer to figure out what I really loved for my home.. other people would have already beat me to the punch. Lately E-bay and Craigslist has been a barren desert- it's alright though.. I have way too much stuff anyway!

And the list goes on...

One of my all time favorite pieces that I really had to wait for was this rocker /chaise lounge. I fell in love with one just like it at the Lucky Strike Bowling alley in Anaheim back in late 2003. Back then we didn't have our house yet but that was one piece of furniture that I could'nt stop obsessing about. When I first saw it I had to ask the manager where they got it.. He said that it was a vintage piece so of course I searched high and low for mine. One day, in 2004 we were on our way to Las Vegas. Low and behold there it was on Craigslist. I made a deal with my husband.. If I won in Vegas, I could buy the chaise. He agreed, I called the seller, told him that I was out of town but I was going to buy it the moment I came back from my trip. I had to go all the way to the Hollywood Hills to get this beauty and as soon as we get this reupholstered.. It'll be the perfect addition to our daughter's room!

I bought my dining room set of chairs from E-bay. I had to get the set all with the full seats. I know there are some sets that come with two full seat chairs or just one and the rest don't have the full back and arm rests. It's not authentic Burke or Saarinen but I love it just the same. When I first started obsessing that I wanted this for our new house my husband did give me a couple of eye rolls but after I bought it and made the seat cushions work with the decor of our home.. I think he likes it as much as I do now!
We've changed out the table base for one we found in Chicago for $20 at the Brown Elephant Thrift store. The old table had an oval table top from IKEA and legs from there as well. We decided to keep the table top and just switch out the base to match the chairs. The picture of the table with the orange Panton chairs ( also a great Craigslist Chicago find) was taken when we lived in Chicago.

My last three major pieces that I found were from E-bay. The hubby had a vision when we bought the "Captain's Chair". This poor chair was a throw back to the 70's . Originally it had brown velour and brown Naugahyde. Luckily, my husband had the vision to get this beauty reupholstered in red velour and white vinyl and now it's a MAJOR piece in our home. Ok Daddy, I'll give you this one.. You were right! And I love it!Two more chairs that I got from E-bay for a steal.
This one lives in the corner. My Father in Law had to give it new legs because for some reason they got lost in transit. Good thing he's handy!


And last but not least.. One of my favorite finds I got in Chicago. This one needed some help. I fell in love with the shape of this chair and it really needs a professional to give it some real love. I did my best to do a decent job to reupholster this one and really, the only reason we decided to keep this was because our girls were so attached to it and it was only $80. So now it lives in the office and when it's nap time, they always have a place to nap in the sun!

My favorite "Junk" finds

I've been looking at so many old pictures of projects and I wanted to share my favorite finds that I've turned into "treasures" for my home. I believe there was a topic on one of my favorite "nerd boards" Lottaliving
That was called "Thrifters, Pillagers, Estate Salers..post your top 5 finds!"

Here's some of mine:

My bedroom I needed a dresser that wasn't Ikea. I had one of those white MALM dressers and when we moved into our house.. it didn't travel well :( The paint got scratched and it was basically falling apart. I found this on Craigslist for about $120 and here's how we made it ours.




I love to go to the Pasadena Rose Bowl. It's one of my favorite places to go "junking" I needed something really cute as nightstands for our master bedroom I found these
I notice this girl contemplating if she was going to get them. I think she was planning to use them to store her CD collection.. As soon as she turned her back, I made my deal with the seller and got them both for $30. Look what some white spray paint and some recycled thin MDF can do for ya!




Here's a cabinet I got at the Pasadena Rose bowl for $15. I painted it and I bought it some new knobs.. I think it turned out pretty cute . It holds our office supplies and it lives there now.


We had to get this dresser for the guest room.. I won it on E-bay for $80 A little paint, a little cleaning and Voila! It's a brand new dresser!!


Here's a couple more things I won on E-bay

Artist Palate shaped coffee table for $25. The story is that it was the coffee table at the Wilhelmina Modeling agency back in the 80's. I had to paint it lime green and put casters on it. I'm not too crazy about the legs ( they're kinda chunky) but the casters work out cool if I had to move it.

The frame, the lamp, the phone.. all E-bay wins as well!

More Junk finds to come....

My favorite movie set..."Down with Love"

The other day I remembered one of my favorite movie sets and how it inspired me to decorate with this style in mind.. Have you seen the sets from "Down with Love"? I love that movie because I love the sets- They are so colorful and don't even get me started on the fashion.... The movie itself is definitely something you should catch on cable but set drool factor is a perfect mid century modern 10 !!
Check out what I mean-



YUMMY!!!!

Oh yes.. I remember THAT project too

While living in Chicago I had the chance of decorating 2 of our apartments. This design was totally inspired from the movie "Down with Love" We had this huge wall that needed that special "something" and I was dying to try to replicate this wall sculpture for our place.. check it out-

This is what the set looked like...


This is what we did to our apartment




I think it turned out great! We used vinyl (again) for the strips and we got the curtain rod hangers from Ikea. It was a fun project.. I was really sad to see it have to come down- The best thing about the project was knowing that it could all be done- on a budget!

Taking it back..old school

Since I've been in the process of 'nesting" I have been able to take a look at old projects that I've done... (some of them I wish I still kept) Here's one project that I did in our old Chicago apartment. It was inspired by George Nelson's marshmallow sofa - But instead I made it a headboard.
Materials needed :
A plain metal headboard with bars ( the one I found was at the Brown Elephant thrift store for $20)
8 plywood circles
Colored Vinyl ( I used orange and red)
Thick upholstery foam
16 "rigid ties" used for wood or "conduit fasteners"
Staple gun

Here's what I envisioned it to look like when I made the plans...

Here's what the fished product looked like- I'm still bummed that I didn't at least get to keep the padded vinyl circles I made but I was in such a rush to get out of Chicago and back to LA, I figured.. it was so fun making it- I probably could make it again someday.

Slowly but surely..

Ok, I know it's been a while but here I go with the latest update. We finally got the chance to paint the bricks in the front of the house. I think it turned out very nicely. It looks a little "colder" and "industrial" then the look of brick but we think we like it so much more than what it did look like. I finally got the change to organize all my stuff (putting pictures in albums, turning VHS tapes into DVDs, throwing stuff out and organizing our lives) before it gets all turned around when our daughter arrives.
Crappy things that are going on with the house... We are going to have to move to San Francisco in January for God knows how long so we're going to have to rent out our house again. Hopefully this time we find some decent tenants that won't jack up our house by letting their pet rabbits eat away at our moulding or decide that they make our home into a marijuana grow house. ( Yes people, this has been done to us!) Now our kitchen sink won't drain properly and unfortunately the house wasn't built with a "clean out pipe" to let the water go directly out into the sewer.. This doesn't happen to homes that are built on foundations- Our home is built on slab. So money is really tight right now.. I guess that's what you deal with when you own a home.. it's always something. I guess the other improvements are going to have to wait till the sink gets fixed- May be finally getting that rock garden done or putting in all that horsetail bamboo and taking out the rose bushes...Yeah, things are going to have to wait.

Nesting and getting things done!

Hello all- quick update.. Since I've been pregnant and slacking I haven't been able to write about all the things that we've been doing to our home to prepare for our little girl's arrival. Well, I finally got her a piece of art work for her room. Since she will be joining a pack of girl pugs ( all of them I like to refer to as her "sisters") I thought it would be appropriate to get this piece for her .
I found this on Cafepress and I thought it's not a typical thing to see in a baby's room but since she has 4 "sisters" she might as well abide to the rule.."Peace, Love and Pugs" just the way we've always liked it in our home!