Nessen Lamp

I keep bringing home more lighting. I can't stop myself. I may have a problem. I may not have enough outlets.
I found this Nessen swing arm lamp yesterday at the thrift store. $5 and a very long frustrating wait in line is all it took to make it mine. It still has the Nessen sticker attached to the bottom. The linen lamp shade and cord are what gave away its age, but the body of the lamp looks like it could have been made yesterday. I believe that's the point to modern design. The lamp still has the diffuser at the top of the shade, which helps cast a beautiful glow.
Doing a little research shows that this exact lamp resides at MOMA and was first produced in 1927.

Finally feeling loved

Bertoia in good company

I was out of town all last week, so I didn't have any time to work on projects, but right before we left town I decided to do a little rearranging of the kitchen.  I decided I would move our stainless steel table out of the kitchen and in its place put our old pedestal table back in, and group my new Bertoia with the pair of Eames wire chairs I had bought a couple of years ago at an estate sale. I love the Eames chairs, especially only having paid $3 a piece, even though at the current time they don't match.
When I found the Eames pair they had been used as patio chairs, and one had breaks in the welds so bad it was no longer attached to the base. I took that chair to have it welded, and when I picked it up the man doing the work took it upon himself to also paint it. I'm sure he did this to cover up what mess the welding had made, but I wasn't sure I was going to paint them. Now, I like the contrast between the two but maybe someday I will paint the other one.
I do think the new Bertoia chair is enjoying the company he is keeping, and I hope he is finally feeling loved.

Free style pick'n

Before

appliance epoxy

plasti dip

after

Free style picking is a term I borrowed from the "American Pickers" , and they use this term for when they drive around and when they see something they could be interested in buying they ask the owner if they would sell it to them.
We were on a walk and I noticed in a backyard there was a lonely Bertoia accompanied by a folding lawn chair and two beat up wooden kitchen chairs. The Bertoia looked lonely and scared, not knowing how its life took such a turn that it would end up in a place this.
I asked the man out front if it was his chair in the backyard, and he said no its my neighbors, and he's not home. So, as I walked home I decided It was my job to rescue this poor lost soul, clean him up, and let him know he was loved.
I decided to drive by again a couple of days later, and I was lucky enough that the owner was in the back yard. I asked If I could purchase the chair, and ready for my rejection, he kindly said yes. He first told me he would feel bad charging me, since he had found the chair himself. But, after thinking it over for a moment, his reply was $15. I couldn't get to my wallet fast enough and handed him the money. He smiled and said he thought I was going to try to talk him down, and that he would have taken $10. he loaded the chair into the car, and we were both as happy as could be.
The chair needed some love, and as I had promised, I took him home, and began to bring him a new lease on life. I scraped him down to get any loose finish off, I took the seat off the base, and used white appliance epoxy on the seat and the used black plasti dip on the base. I did a few coats of each, letting them dry in between. And that is how this Bertoia got a new home. ( I also had to promise no more nights spent out side, this city can be rough)

a find, a steal, and a splurge

My find

My steal

My splurge

Spring cleaning is upon us, and that means lovely things are sent on their way to hopefully wonderful new homes. My find is this great vintage brass OMI lamp that was put to the curb by my parents house. This big hunk of metal wouldn't have last a minute in the city with the way the scrapers patrol the streets, but out by my parents, in their private suburban neighborhood , I was the first to have the chance at giving this lamp a new life.
My steal, is this great stack of vintage kilim pillows had for $2 a piece from a local thrift store. I removed the old cotton/poly inserts and put some down inserts inside to give them a more plush look and feel.
My splurge, is my husband new favorite chair purchased off craigslist. I had had my eye on this set for awhile, and pounced when the price was dropped. The only other chair I can find as a ID is labeled Selig, but I'm not completely sure that is the case. My first guess was Overman due to the shape and construction, thought you don't see a lot of real leather Overman chairs. If anyone has a better guess I would love to hear.
Now we have his and her chairs and ottomans in front of the TV like the old folks we are !

A DIY for anyone that has some time on their hands, and doesn't like the look of electrical cords

 I started with a lamp I found at a estate sale that was handmade by someone at some point. It was made into a floor lamp, but I felt that you weren't able to enjoy the best part of the lamp with it sitting on the floor. So I took it apart, used a hack saw to cut down the threaded pipe in the center, and then just rewired it to be a table lamp.

 I then, not being able to find the color of cloth cord I wanted to use, set out to make my own.

I started with cotton yarn and then spent a couple of hours wrapping the cord from end to end. Making sure I was keeping it tight the whole way down. If I needed to stop at any point I used a bull clip to hold my yarn in place. One I finished wrapping the whole cord I tied the ends in a knot, and put a small dab of glue to keep the knot from coming undone. Then the next step is to take crochet thread and wrap from the other end. I chose a different color so that there would be more visual interest. I didn't wrap this part as closely together and I tried to keep it from looking perfect, but still keeping it wrapped tight. Once you finished wrapping the second material, set the knot with another dab of glue. And your done. I used materials that i already had on hand, so this was a cost free makeover for me, but can be done for about $10.

A couple of things I've been working on

I recently found this vintage wooden telescope tripod at a local thrift store, and immediately knew it would be a great lamp base, not a new idea, but I have always loved the look. It was easy to wire using a vintage cloth cord( that was is perfect condition) and then the lamp shade came from a different thrifted lamp. The shade has a great texture to it when its on, and I was happy with the aged color of the shade. I originally had pictured a drum shade, something on the modern side, but when I found this one I thought the shape would mimic the shape of the tripod.

The project just cost a total of about $25, which includes the tripod, the cord, the socket was pulled off a old lamp, and the cost of the vintage shade including the lamp it was attached to.

I also made a couple of new pillows for our sofa. I was wanting to switch out the old velvet ones since it seemed they were more suited for fall/winter pillows.

One thing I always grab at estate sales, that usually cost nothing, is old painters drop cloths. There is so many uses for them, and new they will run you about $25. So I decided to cut a couple of selective squares out of one to be my spring summer pillows. I love the way they turned out! I just used two old down feather pillow forms, I then chose a vintage gray fabric from my stash, and I thought If I did a contrast welting on the pillows it would help keep the pillows from looking like they had accidentally had something spilled on them, and needed a wash. So, the gray fabric was used for the welting and the back of the pillow, and with the amount of drop cloths I have I was able to pick out one that had some paint colors on it that complimented the colors going on in my living room.
Both projects were simple and quickly completed, yet still give me a great sense of accomplishment.

Our entryway with a new rug

We recently came across another vintage wooden scaffolding in an alley, and brought it home. Its quite a bit longer than the other one, so I decided to find a place for it I would redo our entryway. We started by just using a set of 16'' hairpin legs that we already had, and simply attaching them to the underside of the scaffolding. I then just used Wax n' Feed to wipe down the dry wood. I may have used walnut Danish Oil on the other one, since it has a little more warmth to the wood. I will probably do that to the new bench. I then put them butting up to each other
on two different walls, and placed two rolling metal bins underneath each one, for shoes. We are a family of can't seem to put our shoes back in the closet, where they belong, causing us to need lots of storage at the front door. We have the metal lockers for coat storage, there is a large basket next to the lockers for hats to be thrown. We also have a set of hooks for purses, bags and dog leashes. Hopefully this will address most of the mess at our front door.

I hung a vintage set of curtains, trying to disguise the fact our neighbor has had a bright blue tarp on his roof for at least a year. I'm hoping the curtains are temporary, but I could no longer stand that being the first thing you saw entering OUR house.I also made another carboy lamp with cloth covered cord, that is sitting on our new bench, The hanging fixture is one that I change out often, for the lamp du jour, and currently I'm using a great wabi sabi type shade. I tried to buy it at an estate sale, and they just gave it to me, not understanding why anyone would buy a beat up shade. I love the texture of the old shade, and underneath the fabric is fiberglass, making it nice and heavy. In the top picture you can also see our "greetings" sign found via alley way.

And least but not least is the new rug brought home today from an estate sale. I have spotted little glimpses of the rug in the preview pictures, and decided to make it to the sale just to check it out. I'm glad I did. Even after seeing the rug in real life I took the tag but told them not to roll it up yet because I wasn't quite sold. Sometimes its hard to tell how something will look in completely different surroundings. When I flipped the rug over, the tag said 100% virgin wool , made in Denmark, and the style was called Moroccan. The $40 price tag sealed the deal. I will take it to have it professionally cleaned, I threw it down just to vacuum it, and like the way it looked in the entryway. I feel like at the moment there is a lot going on in this room, but with the color pallet being so soft, it works for now.