Raleigh bound

I know, I know, I know----we have been super slack about blogging.  Mostly with good reason though.  I had a MAJOR birthday in July and I have been taking birthday trips.  My friend, Renee, took me to Raleigh.  We stayed with her daughter, Elizabeth, at her cute place.

I'm just saying----there was ALOT of eating, shopping and cocktails.  

First, we went to the Five Corners area and ate lunch at a diner area in a drug store, Hayes Barton.  I had a grilled pimento cheese, tomato and bacon-----can it get any better?!  Yep--Renee got a grilled cream cheese and olive.

 We topped it off with a HUGE piece of coconut cake.  The entire time we were wishing for a similar menu in our neck of the woods.

We went shopping in the area.  There were several shops with anywhere from high end antiques to small gift items. There was LOTS  to see and LOTS to want.

Renee scored this great Audubon print at one of them.

Saturday we took off for some places that Allison had been dying to visit.  Finds was one of them.  The owner finds and up-cycles old items.  

I got some vintage Clarence House trellis wallpaper.  Not sure where I'm going to put it yet, but had to have it.

We then went to Form & Function.   

They had a great mix of old and new and I found a vintage ice bucket to feed my florentine need. 

They also had this amazing wood planking that was stick on! There were lots of different woods to choose from.  We were immediately wondering where we could put some in our houses/shop.  

Then since our stomachs were yelling, we headed to Beasley's Chicken + Honey.  Yummy, yummy comfort foods---mac and cheese, greens, beets, chicken.   And REALLY hot and spicy Bloodies.

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We loved every bite (and sip) of our lunch!

Next up was the much read about Furbish.  She was one of the first to upcycle old furniture.  Not much painted furniture in the shop at the moment.  Lots of accessories. Allison said it reminded her of Anthropologie.

Then to a shop with tons of furniture--Studio 123.

All day, we had been on hunt for a chair for Elizabeth and her husband Clayton's house.  We looked a bunch, nothing knocked our socks off, but she did find one at Studio 123 that she really liked.  It was a massive warehouse of furniture in various stages of re-do.  At $695, she wasn't ready to take the plunge.

After a few more stops, we ended up where we always do:  Homegoods.  As we were grousing about how we never find anything good at Homegoods/TJ Maxx anymore, lo and behold, a light beamed down from above and there was a chair for Elizabeth!  And it was a recliner too! Clayton would love this!  But it was one of those really good ones that don't look like a recliner.  Perfect.

THEN, we look over and there's another one that worked in Allison's house.  And it's a recliner for her sweet husband, Jon.  Major scores. All with a really great price tag!

After that, we needed a glass of wine, so home we went to put up our feet for a few before heading out to a delicious Laotian resturant that Elizabeth took us to called, Bida Manda.

Raleigh is a fun place to shop and to live.  It was a great trip and a wonderful birthday present!

                                             Karan

A Before and After

I'm not sure you can be in this business if you don't get excited about making something old, new or better, or cleaner or more functional.  We see potential in nearly everything.  Since our storage space and free time are both very limited, that can be a potential problem. No need to call TLC and report us for Hoarders, really, we promise. If we had a dollar bucket for every time one of us said "It would be great painted " we could eat caviar for lunch daily. 

One day several years ago I was making a donation run to one of the local thrift shop where we take the few things that don't sell here.  And out front I spotted a pair of chairs that were just dying for a makeover.  They have been sitting in my living room since then, untouched.  I've been drooling over Schumacher's Chiang Mai Dragon along with the rest of the design blogosphere for almost as long as I've had these "project chairs."  However, no where and no way can I justify using $200+ fabric in my house with these charming mutts.  You can read about that here.

I've looked for countless knock-offs and even ordered something from a bogus fabric website in my attempt to soothe the Chiang Mai beast. Needless to say, my chairs are still untouched.  A recent girls trip to Raleigh, NC inspired me to finally get cracking on my chairs after I picked up something totally different for the chair seats. I told myself, this is it. No more fabric. 

After we got home from Raleigh, the weather was wonderful and the humidity was almost non-existent for July in Virginia. It was God telling me, now is the time.

Here are the chairs, complete with a photobomb from Beatrix. 

They are caned with wide seats and arms, in great condition.  They look like they were re-covered by someone with a Swingline and prayer.

So I began to take off the top layer of fabric in preparation to paint them, unfortunately for me there was not a hidden gem of vintage Chinioserie fabric underneath.

My fabulous photography skills dumb luck, make the wood look really rich and beautiful. Trust me, it's not.

Here's the first coat of Navajo White - stay tuned for the progress!

Allison