Happy (Belated) Birthday To Me

I've decided to start chronicling the updates I'm doing in my home as a virtual scrapbook of sorts.  I also have the fantasy that years from now my kids will be excited to look back and fondly recall the transformation of our house through their childhood.

For years I've wanted to change the layout of my first floor bathroom so the toilet wasn't visible from the kitchen prep area.  I've thought about taking the shower out and moving the door so the entrance was further down the hall (this idea was squashed when our master bath pipes burst and I saw the utility of an extra shower), I considered swapping the toilet for the sink so at least the sink is what you saw when you looked in, I thought hard about teaching my sons to close the door when the used the bathroom (clearly and exercise in futility) and then finally, the idea hit me...I needed a "barn door" on a red track that I could open and close as needed.

After a multi-day search on Craigslist for the perfect door, I stumbled across this beauty:

It is an 1869 locally-created, metal-wrapped wood fire door out of a local factory in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia.

It even had a metal track already attached.  I knew I had to have this so I called up my husband and asked if he wanted to get it for me for my birthday and luckily, he was more than happy to do so.

My sister-in-law and I took the exciting trek to and fro Philly to retrieve it. Our adventure included driving on the sidewalk, pulling random strangers off the street to help load it and then recruiting local pool guys in my neighborhood to unload it...this door is HEAVY!

This door lived in my garage for a few months until I decided who was going to hang it and how I was going to paint it.  I knew I wanted to paint it white to match the décor of my house but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do about the hardware.  After much trial and error, my eye was most attracted to the door being painted a stark white.  I knew I wanted a red track to mimic the red curtain rod in the adjacent room

I used my favorite red spray paint, Rustoleum "Sunrise Red" which to me, it the closest match to the red already inside my house.

Finally, on July 4th, my door was hung.  Here is the photo my contractor send me before he left:

 

 

He added some silver washers that needed to be painted and also suggested that I remove the paint from the brass plaque and use it as a focal piece which he couldn't have been "right-on" about.  Here is a picture of "The Door" in its final incarnation:

 

 

 

Here is some cuteness to end the post with:

 

 



Vanity Chair Makeover - and a new venture

As I do every year as the calendar nears its end, I have reassessed my commitment to my jewelry business.  While I love the (the majority) of people I have met through "Basil the Cat" and I'm super proud of my original designs, I realize that the key element to my business, passion, has started to lack.  My creative eye has started to wander and I have fallen in love with refurbishing furniture.  While I intend to keep "Basil the Cat" open, I plan on scaling down my designs, especially my one-of-a-kind creations and focusing more on pieces that I can more easily reproduce.  The majority of my creative juices will now be cathected to housewares, as "Elie the Cat" is born.

A couple of months ago, my cousin was throwing out this vintage vanity chair:

Not being able to imagine this piece ending-up in a landfill, I decided I needed to rescue it.  It was in pretty rough shape, it has been repainted green (which has begun to chip) and the vinyl seat was stained when I used it as a step stool to strip my curio cabinet.

I decided it was time to make this piece over.  My first stop was Jo-Ann fabric where I found a gorgeous remnant of vintage fabric for $2.00.

I took the seat off and removed all the staples that held the vinyl on (which I don't believe was original to the piece).  I then used the vinyl as a template for my fabric.

Starting on one side, I stapled the fabric on in overlapping pleats

I continued this all around the chair, cut the extra fabric, and voila...the new seat looked amazing!

 

 

I then took the metal part of the chair outside to spray paint it.  I had originally purchased a blue color to tie-in a small bit of blue in the fabric but I decided on a more antique-y white.  I covered the chair in white spray paint

 



and then I took some wood stain in "Dark Walnut" and brushed it on with a sponge brush and wiped it off before it dried to give it an aged look.  If some of the spots looked too dark, I reapplied the stain (counterintuitive, I know) and wiped it off again.  The result is a subtle aged look which I am totally in love with.

Not feeling like the seat was finished enough.  I decided to add a dust cover to the bottom

The End