Making Mondays: Sideboard Before and After

Not so long ago I posted about some of the delicious redos around the place, and I mentioned some things I had my eye on at a local second hand place.  Well, I couldn't resist any longer!    This is one of the results (with another one to show you soon!)

We discovered this under piles of old clothes and got it a ridiculously cheap price (including delivery...those poor guys didn't know there was 5 flights of stairs to carry it up...eeek!)

I took a let's do this quickly as possible and see if it works out approach.  And I'm wrapped with how it turned out.  It definitely turned me into a second hand furniture addict ...umm, ok I think my Mum might know that I was pretty in to it already...and my poor husband sure does - he is usually the one sanding and staining and polishing :)    Here is the before shot:

This is what I did:

I gave it a good wipe, took the drawers out (the before photo already has the drawers out) and then I took off all the handles.   I didn't sand it at all.  I just couldn't be bothered and in the end it didn't seem to make any difference!  Yay! 

Then I painted it with white 'yagli boya' (which directly translated means paint with oil/oil paint - so I'm guessing this means enamel paint?)  It was shiny, thick and smelt pretty strong!

When painting over the detailed pattern parts I made sure that I didn't leave any pools or drips of paint.  Ummm, I wasn't so careful when I was painting the bottom edges near the sheet I had put it on.  It totally stuck and the paint went through all over the place on to the wooden floors.  Ahhhhh!  It literally took me hours to clean off.  

Anywaaay...I gave it three coats, letting it dry over night each time and I also painted the handles.

Once it was dry I put the handles back on.  Finito!

I'm sure that there are better, more thorough ways to do this...maybe sanding and a coat of something at the end???  But I was totally thrilled with the way it turned out, no more work necessary  :)

Crafty Gatherings: The Redo

We are painting at the moment - and that, combined with a little set of draws and a cupboard that I have my eye on at our local second hand store, has had me obsessing about furniture 'make overs' and before and afters.  I want to get them to help with the slight (read out of control) storage problem in my studio. 

So this weeks crafty gathering is all about the redo. 

First up are two pretty cupboards  from a favourite of mine for thrifty finds and beautiful redos:  Dottie Angel

Then some recent favourites from the home of the 'Before and After':  Design*Sponge

The first is Melissa's 'dungeon room' makeover - Don't the white walls make such a difference! Can't wait for mine!

The second is Lauren's Nursery.  I like all the pale tones with just a couple of splashes of colour.  It looks like such a gorgeous little attic room - so airy and calm don't you think?

Oooh!  And guess what?  My French and Italian Countryside wallpaper for Studio Nommo was featured on Bloesem Kids!  Yay!

What's getting you inspired lately?

For me at the moment it is all about colour - the fresh new colours of Spring, soft colours, blossom, vintage pastels.

There is a great post over at decor8 at the moment by Leslie who does a monthly column there called Colour Me Pretty.  Image below is from that post.  Isn't it gorgeous.  And, growing up with a father with a passion for roses, I have loved these beautiful old style roses for so long.

At the moment I am in love with these illustrations by Marcus Oakley.  They have such a cool retro feel and the colours are a little darker than the pallette I am into for my own work, but I love the subdued dusty shades.

Marcus Oakley
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The soft dreamy colours of Yvette Inufio's photography:

I am always drawn to vintage luggage like this for some reason - And I love that she is also a librarian!

Yvette Inufio
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Flickr
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What are you inspired by at the moment?

Vintage heaven

I have found the best place for everything retro, vintage and antique in Istanbul! Finally! You might remember that when we first moved into our new apartment I was on the look out for some second hand/vintage furniture. Well, at the time I didn't have much luck, but I have now found the spot! It's not just one shop - there are streets and streets of shops!

If you ever come to Istanbul this is a great area to visit (if you're into this sort of stuff that is). It is a little off the tourist radar, but only a short taxi ride from all the standard tourist sites. Just ask one of the locals to direct you to Çukurcuma. Recently gentrified, it is full of steep and narrow winding streets and gorgeous old buildings, some renovated and well maintained, some just asking me to move in and care for them!

I am planning to visit again as soon as the weather cools off a little (too hot for dragging myself and Yashar around too much at the moment). On that visit I will get the details of the stand out stores (I didn't think to this time - I was too excited at finding all these places to get any details). I did manage to pick up these two cute posters though - I particularly love the Orient Express one.

I think this area is my new favourite area in Istanbul.

Some Table TLC

Here it seems that if you see something old that you like you have to jump in and get it as soon as possible! Senol saw some gorgeous old chairs a few days ago in a nearby front yard and wanted to ask the owner if they would sell them. But he was too slow! A few days later they had been put in the rubbish and taken away.

So when we spied this table in the old shed at the back of our apartments we pounced. The landlord was happy to give it to us.

It took some major cleaning, getting rid of spiders (luckily no scorpions!) and washing off years (probably decades) of dust.

I love it! I think it could fit right in some of the photos I posted when I was searching for apartment furniture inspiration. I just had a look at the photos from that post and it so similar to the blue table -I hadn't even realised! I was going to use it for a sewing table, but I am loving the top too much to cover up with all that junk.

So instead it now looks like this:

It is my duty to shop!

Great news! Senol (my husband) accepted a job offer and that meant we got to sign up to rent the apartment we wanted! I am both excited and relieved! The apartment is a bit old but has gorgeous views of the Bosphorus. It is in an area called Yenikoy, a beautiful green part of Istanbul that I am looking forward to getting to know better. We had a good chat with the owners of the building. When they first moved there, about 40 years ago, the whole area was just full of quince trees. Now the area is part of busy Istanbul, but it still has a little village atmosphere I think.

So, since we have just moved to Istanbul from Australia we will need to get everything for the apartment - woohoo - it is now my duty to shop! So I scoured the internet for some inspiration. I was thinking Danish design, some cool second hand/collected things, timber, handmade, not too over done and not like a store catalogue -and I couldn't find anything like that -until I found Emma's Blogg. It is fantastic! So much inspiration in the one spot! All of the photos in the post were found on her blog (wish they were mine!)
Now I just have to find stuff even half as cool! Tried to find some second hand/collected type things today, but no luck so far. It seems that buying second hand just isn't the thing to do here. Usually when I ask someone if they know a good flea market in Istanbul (in Turkish 'Bit Pazar') they look slightly incredulous and don't really understand why I would be interested when I could buy new things. I think there must be good stuff somewhere in Istanbul, I just have to find it! I will find super cool second hand goods even if it kills me!

Treasure found!

You know those days...when you wake up early, the sun is shining and you are ready to get things happening. Today was like that.

I started to unpick some of the stitches (oops!) from the toy bag that I have been making for my little baby boy. I love these fabrics! I will show you more once the bag is finished. I have been sewing interfacing between the two pieces of fabric for this bag to make it a little sturdier -is that what you do?

We even got into some spring cleaning today. At the moment we are living at my mother in law's house (gasp! I know! But she has been great and it is very handy until we get ourselves set up here in Istanbul). Anyway we were cleaning out this little shed type thing when I heard the question "shall we throw this old sewing machine in the rubbish?" My ears pricked up! I quickly ran over to have a look...

and it was gorgeous! And definitely in need of some tender loving care. A project! I love it! And it would be perfect for my dream studio... hmm any ideas about how to get rid of the rust?

My mother in law remembers buying this around the time that my husband was born. Sewing clothes for him when he was little. So I asked her ever so sweetly, well as sweetly as I could in broken Turkish, "instead of throwing it in the rubbish, would it be ok if I had it?" "Yes?" Yay!