Antique Chairs Revisited and Refinished and Reupholstered!!

Do you remember a few months back I took my beautiful antique chairs from my Aunt Bea down to finally be refinished and reupholstered?  If not, please go look back for the post titled "Antique Chairs" and check out the BEFORE pictures.

Then come on back here and see the after photos.  They are even prettier than I pictured they would be.

Here we go with the photos!!!

Above is chair #1.  There are 3 chairs and chair #1 is a regular standing there with it's 4 legs kind of chair.  It has the needlepoint on the front of the back with the new edging stuff that I found out is called "gimp" and then the nutmeg color velvet on the seat and the back of the back.  I am so in love with the way these turned out I can hardly stand it.

This is chair #2 which is almost identical to #1 except it sits on a base with a rocker spring and is a rocking chair.  It has the matching needlepoint to #1 as well.  Love this chair!!

This big beautiful chair is #3 and it is essentially a chair-and-a-half or a settee.  This is the first time I have seen it with the springs tied down.  They had become untied over the years and talk about bouncy!  Just sitting on it was like taking a roller coaster ride!  This settee is just spectacular now.

This little guy is the one and only foot stool that came to me with the set.  I don't know if that is the way they were sold originally or how it is the only one to survive with the chairs.  It is topped with the fourth and final needlepoint that I was given by my Nana.  It fit perfectly. And can I just say how lovely my rug looks in that photo?

Another shot of #1

And some close up views of the needlepoint and the velvet on the settee.

So, please go check out the before photos and now the afters and let me know what you think. I am beyond thrilled with them.

Now my only issue will be which of my children will get to inherit them.  Because I am not breaking up the set.  No way, no how.  They deserve to stay together.

And stay tuned for my dining chairs to be reupholstered!  The fabric is ordered and due in any time now.  I will post some before photos of them as well.  How on earth that current fabric got so stained is beyond me.

Thanks for reading!  Hope you all have a happy and restful Thanksgiving!

New Bed!

Okay, here's Old Lumpy.  I had already put the quilt in the washer and removed all the blankies and was stripping the bed when it dawned on me to take some pics.  So that's why you are seeing Old Lumpy dressed up in 29 year old sheets.  You might further notice that we have a shitload of pillows up there at the top.  Mr. Ed has 3 pillows and I have 4 1/2 pillows.  We do like ourselves some comfy pillows!

Can you see the big high spot in the middle and the two low sinkholes on either side of the place where you get high-centered?

Ooops!  They took the mattress out before I could get a pic of it sans sheets.  Goodbye old box springs!!

Look, here are the brave, strong delivery dudes bringing in the new non-lumpy mattress.  See how they have to park waaaaaay down at the cul-de-sac and then schlepp that bad boy up the drive and then up the stupid steps that are a step-and-a-half wide each?  I hate those stupid step-and-a-half steps.

Here is one of the delivery dudes setting up the new frame.  Pay no attention to all the crap laying around the room while we make room for the removal and set-up.

Here's the new box springs all covered with a clean dust ruffle thing.  Lovely, uninformative photo.

And there's the new mattress!!!  See?  It still has the "Do not remove under penalty of law" tags.  It's all cushy, plushy and comfy!!

My friends Little Eliza and Virtuous Yvette showed up just in time to help me put new sheets on my bed and then try it out.  Don't we look like we worked really hard?  Don't you love my bunny slippers?  Don't you wish Yvette would put her whole self in and quit playing hokey pokey?

Actually, Little Eliza came by and rescued Old Lumpy from the delivery dudes truck and had them load it up on her truck and she took it home with her and it is now a "new" bed for her and her new husband. Yea for recycling and repurposing!!!

And here we have two more satisfied customers trying out the new bed.  Aaaaaahhh!  Can you just feel the relaxation?

Mr. Big Ed and I have spent more hours in the that bed this past weekend than I care to count.

Next purchase needs to be new headboard and nightstands.  Those things are just old and tacky.

Hope you enjoyed perusing the old vs new mattresses in Chez Lisa Pie!

How hard can it be to find the perfect coffee/cocktail table?

Seriously?  How hard can it be?  I have looked and looked for several years now and just can't find anything that I love.  Nothing.

Everything is either too short, too tall, too modern, too ornate, not the right shape.  Whatever, they are just not the one I am looking for.

I am trying to put something in a room filled with antiques that are mostly all rosewood and mahogany. So new stuff doesn't really go and lots of old things are not the right scale.  I don't know how to explain it.  I just know that when I see it, I am going to snatch it up on the spot!

In addition to regularly scoping out the antique and consignment shops locally, I peruse the offerings on ebay on occasion.  Here are a few little gems that show up when you search ebay for "antique coffee cocktail table":

First up we have a very shiny brass number with black glass on not one but two shelves.

The next one was really weird.  They claim it was a glass and rosewood table.  It looked to me like something Fred and Wilma Flintstone would have had.

Then you won't even believe it but there was a wagon wheel table.  Is this really an antique?  Would you serve cocktails on this thing?  Can you look at it and NOT think of When Harry Met Sally?

The next one is not a table so much as a grouping of tables.  Now, if I had a really cool 1950s early 60s vibe going on, I would grab these guys up in a heart beat.  Pretty cool.  Just not what I am looking for.

And then we have another table made out of a cart or farm equipment or something.  I couldn't figure it out.  I also can't quite understand why.

And this last one.  Well, I don't really know what to say about it.  Suffice it to say, that if Bruno had this one in the movie instead of the wagon wheel, he and Carrie Fisher might not have moved in together at all!

I can not envision a tackier coffee table than that one!  Heee!!!

Especially for Gladys

I was going to put Just for Gladys, but then I thought no one else would read this.  So, Especially for Gladys, it is!

Recently I showed a picture of my newly refinished (and reupholstered) antique breakfast room chairs and Gladys asked to see the rest of the set.  Or "suite" as snooty people are wont to say.  My breakfast room suite.  My sweet breakfast room suite!

So for Gladys, here are some pics of the other pieces of the suite.

This the sideboard.  It has my collection of Mexican gorditas sitting on top and apparently my skinny, scrappy and stripey teenaged-acting kitty Angus MacPhee sitting underneath.  What a sneak to get in the picture!

Here is a more up and down view of said sideboard so that you can see the lovely doorbell.  Oh yeah, and also my pewter and talavera cross collection.  Aren't they pretty?

This is the china cabinet.  I don't know what that weird little circle thing is on the drawer.  It is just on the  picture, not there in real life.  I love my china cabinet.

Here's a slightly more close-up view of the china cabinet.  Can you tell that it is full of crap?  Let me show you what I have stuffed it full of.

Walruses!  Walri!  I have a collection of really cute walruses/walri.  And I have chosen to display them in my china cabinet because Hello?  I have 4 cats.  Cats who don't know their own size, their own bulk, their own heft, their own lack of gracefullness.  Cats who knock shit off of table tops and shelves as they try to tippy toe amongst breakable stuff.

After half of my walruses/walri have lost tusks due to the cats, I put them safely inside the china cabinet.

And here is what is on top.

The three things on the left that match are Aynsley china pieces.  My sister brought me the cute little bud vase when she went to London.  Then my mom brought me the cache pot on one of her trips. And somewhere down the road she gave me the other piece with the cute little lid.  Isn't it a beautiful pattern? It's called Cottage Garden.  And who would love to have a service for 12 in that pattern?  Could it be me?  Oh, I love china!  I love a beautifully set table.  Vintage table linens, antique sterling, beautiful china.  I love it.

Anyhoo, the other things up there were all gifts.  The first plate with the dogwood blossoms was painted by my grandma.  And by the by, it will be her 92nd birthday in 3 days.  Holla to Grandma on her birthday!  The cute little rectangular plate was painted by a friend of mine when we were in Chile. And the big beautiful bowl was a gift from one of my doula clients.  It is hand painted with all different Texas wildflowers.  It is gorgeous and a bit whimsical.  I love it.

And look who decided to sit up top with the gorditas?  Oh, what a handsome boy that Angus MacPhee is!  Even if he is an evil teenager who wants to sneak out at night and cause me more gray hairs.

So other than the table that is the sweet breakfast room suite.  The table is covered right now with quilt squares, a sewing machine, scissors and such.  Rachel Pie and I are working on a quilt top that we started back in Minnesota 7 years ago.  We dug it out and started working on it again yesterday.  Pictures of the table will just have to wait.  I hope you can stand the excitement.