Downtown Stuodio Salon: Painting a Mirror Frame and Vanity

Here is my work station at my salon, Downtown Studio and (facebook page). I have shown pics of this place before and of my work, and yet the place is always changing. That is the beauty of having customized work stations as opposed to the matching built-ins that so many salons use. We have a penchant for vintage and diy, and our style is reflective of the combined personalities of our salon family and our guests. The salon owner, Candice, painted, glazed and distressed this desk herself. The mirror was quite small, so we exchanged this brass mirror for the larger size.

I mixed it a little paint with some clear glaze and gently dry brushed some more turquoise and purple on the mirror and added for purple to the desk for a uniform look. The corner details are the purple Martha Stewart glitter paint. I also painted a picture frame for holding a Brazilian Blowout certificate to match.

A few carefully selected storage items hold all I need for a functional, yet pretty corner. I decorated an acrylic business card holder with trim, vintage buttons and jewels, the faux book holds foils for highlighting hair, a vintage bottle holds fresh roses and my chevron bucket contains formula info and other notes. The purple mason tip jar is gussied up with some hanging prisms.

 Our salon is in a very old building in a Historic town square, that once sold clothes and work denim ceiling high, but we love the industrial charm of exposed pipes and amazing, stained cement floors.

By using vanities and furniture combed through searching on craigslist, facebook garage sale groups, and local thrift shops, we have connected a community through reusing beloved furniture pieces, while at the same time, creating a salon with a lot of character and a flexible budget. We have had more than one client come in here claiming that a piece of furniture once belong to them as a child or a loved one in their family whose furniture they hadn't seen in years, and were thrilled to be reunited again with it.

 This wall now boasts two amazing, rare, vintage light fixtures, and a birdcage for storage. I will have to post those soon!

 

This stylist brought her heirloom vanity and vintage chair from home.

People often mistake our salon for an antique shop, as our windows are ever changing, and there are many antique shops on our square. We will eventually install that amazing door as our sign, so people will really know from the street just who we are. This is a wonderful place to work and to visit as a client and I am going to miss it so much when I leave! But at least  have helped create a little footprint through the floors, chandelier, my dresser turned make-up station, furniture, hair and events we have worked on together :)

Thrifted Vintage Master Bedroom Makeover

For those who have followed my blog over the years, many of you have seen my sporadically different bedroom changes, in three different homes. The first was the diy painting of the garage sale headboard here. Then the vintage linen room, then the plate wall  and total bedroom makeover (my favorite), and now in this yucky rental (with the nausea inducing mustard orange accent wall.) Well, it's the end of an era, because I just sold my pretty white headboard and my adorable vintage french provincial dresser last weekend. A bit is due to earning some cashola to get new baby girl gear, but I'm also going through a mega purging phase right now. I have boxes and boxes of clothes/decor/craft supplies/linens and stuff just waiting to get out of here. My room feels naked now without a headboard, so any free/cheap/diy ideas for that would be awesome.

But, I did find these two amazing vintage lamps the other day for only $12. I have been looking for lamps because all of ours have broken. I never find quirky/cool lamps in a pair that actually work at a thrift store.... and these lamps are definitely pretty quirky. A woman at Goodwill commented that she liked the lamps... if the shades were different, but I happened to love the silky drum shade and the pretty pale robins egg blue color, even though it does clash a bit with the interesting pink and green glass/acrylic (?).

The wall sconces were another find for $2 and the vintage crewel embroidery art was $3. I am not usually a big symmetry decorator, like my blessed grandmother, but I love the simplicity it brings to the space.

 I have a beautiful vintage crewel embroidery on a down stuffed wool pillow that accented this art beautifully, (as seen on a chair that I also sold, *sniff*)... but I RUINED it! I wasn't thinking and washed the thing... now it is all moldy and the embroidery colors ran. I am so upset with myself. I may just cut the front part off and try to frame it?

My little boys love picking me little flowers they find. I put one in my hair the other day and they thought I had magically transformed into a princess.

Of course, the end tables usually have medicine bottles, glasses of ice water, cell phone chargers and a way huge ugly alarm clock. But you know, gotta look a little gussied up for pics right? Since the thrifted tables are pretty banged up, and I still haven't sanded and painted them, I cut this vintage thrifted lace panel in half and now we don't get splinters on our end tables at night.

 

 My hubs' Far Side looking elephant piggy bank. And his studly glasses. He looks so cute in those glasses.

 A few slip covered pillowcases my aunt, the professional seamstress made for me. I stuff them with cheap (and washed) thrifted pillows. I love how she made me so many covers, I can change them throughout the seasons and always have a fresh update. That is the beauty of slip covered pillows people. I really need to get over my fear of sewing machines and just do it. Rae Gun has a great envelope pillow case tutorial here.

So, I got me a little mini makeover for now. I have a challenge on my hands on how to make this space a little more comfortable while spending zero money on a headboard alternative. I have found a few cute ideas out there, that I will likely be posting soon, do you have any free/diy headboard ideas?

Linked to:
Thrifters Anonymous 
Her Library Adventures Flea Market Finds 
Nester's It's Not Perfect But It's Beautiful 
Between Naps on the Porch 
Chic on a Shoestring Budget 
Remodelaholic

Tufted Headboard and Resin Tortoise Shell Tutorials

 

I am pretty much in love with most everything Jenny from The Little Green Notebook does. From her tutorials, her interior design projects and the room tours she features, all are an instant hit with me. Though I love me a good tutorial, some have been seen done so many times. But she really takes upholstering and refinishing furniture to a whole new level. Since I have about 5 pieces I need to redo, this is giving me a little, tiny, kick of inspiration.

tufted headboard tutorial

resin tortoise shell table tutorial

 

Homefront: Best Yard Sale Finds Ever

This little end table for $3. It has MAJOR water damage on the top, and is missing a knob, but it's charming and looks cute with our end table we found on the side of the road for my husband's side (that I still need to paint). I will be sanding the hey out of it and painting it a creamy, very, very soft dove gray and replacing the top knobs.

Oh yes, my old Ashley headboard., shown here in our old bedroom. I think I got it for $15 or something, and painted it white. Most everything else in these photos are thrifted from thrift shops or antique malls by the way.

 

This dresser we painted for our boy's nursery and added modern knobs. It was maybe $5. I also love this vintage child's desk. I believe it was about $7. Oh, I miss this room in our old home!

This large painting at a garage sale for $7. Kind of steep to me, but it adds much needed color to my massive brick fireplace, and I scored tons of stuff at that sale (like a few full bags of awesome vintage earrings for $1) so I thought it was fair. I am planning on painting the frame a creamy white soon.

 (some of the earrings)

This wrought iron wall hanging for $1. It's large and heavy and was an ugly, partially oxidized brassy iron color. I painted it varying shades of turquoise and patina, with white for glints of highlights. I later replaced it with a frame gallery wall, but it still looks nice in our entry way.

This changing table for $30. We repainted it, added fresh modern knobs and used it in my son's nursery. Then, I relined the top with a really cute lime shelf liner and we use it for kitchen storage now.

I have tons of favorite yard sale finds by ways of clothes, jewelry, knick knacks and such, but maybe that can be for another post. *Linked to Nester's Best Yard Sale Finds EVER linky party.

Homefront: DIY Painted Stripe Accent Furniture

I've run across a few striped furniture pieces that have really called to me (shown later in the post). So, I wanted to experiment with something small. In 30 minutes, I had a new look, and now know if it's worth doing a larger piece in the future. (it is)

Last year, this adorable plant stand broke and I was only left with the top. My husband pretty much thought I was nuts for saving it. I glued it with E6000/hot glue (can't remember which)  to a candle holder pillar. Now I have this cute little pedestal cake stand, though I wouldn't put a cake directly on it because it isn't sealed.

I spent about 60 seconds laboriously sanding the top and side that I would be painting. If you do not want the unpainted part to be distressed, then sand after you put the tape down.

I took some electrical tape and made my stripes 2 strips worth. I used that little tape piece between each set of tape I laid down to make sure they were the same width apart. I think blue painters tape would be better as my tape stretched out of shape too easily and didn't lay down as flat so the paint smudged.

I took regular white craft paint and watered it down, and painted the exposed areas. Then, I pulled off the tape while the paint was still wet. I was able to get those smudgy areas off the stripe edges by gently wiping them off with a damp paper towel. If I were extra ambitious, a bit of black paint would have worked too.

After the paint dried, which was really quickly, I lightly sanded the stripes. Though, I think I will go back and sand it down more for less contrast. (I think white and a soft gray would look perfect.)

before in black

after

Stripes on a small piece is a fast and simple change that adds just a touch of spunk to a corner. And if you don't like it, no biggie, just paint over it or sand the heck out of it.

*More stripey furniture inspirations for you*

 My House of Giggles striped painted table. I love how her stripes are varying widths and how she kept the side of the top base the one stripe color. She does another striped table top with wide stripes here.

 In the Fun Lane painted the stripes from the top down the front for a coastal beach feel. 

 Her sea side dresser isn't technically striped, but  with the drawers painted a different color and the addition of hand painted numbers, it gives a same effect. Perfect for those who have a hard time making straight lines.

I love the muted tones here. It would work well in so many settings and wouldn't be as difficult to decorate around should your decor change. 

Great Oak Circle has a diy post on this table she painted. Love what she did to the writing desk.

 I truly adore love this home featured in Coastal Living. The idea of doing the large stripes on a dining table is lovely. I am pretty sure this is how we are going to do ours now. 

This Mini-Kildare dresser by TreeHouse Trading Co. shows that there are lots of ways to play with stripes and colors, especially on detailed pieces with doors and trim. 

*Linked to Strut your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple, Transformation Thursday @ Shabby Chic Cottage, Life as Lori's Get Your Craft On, Fireflies and Jelly Beans' Show Off Your Stuff, The Shabby Nest Frugal Friday, Tater Tots and Jello DIY Linky, Finding Fabulous' Frugalicious Friday.