The Background is Back

I'm not sure what happened, but my background is back.  I still cannot upload pictures to the posts, so I am still at a stalemate.

Please be patient.  I do have a few more blogs to upload that are ready to go. 

Until then........thanks for checking in.

Have a great day!

Black Office Desk with Automotive Striping Accents

One of my creative challenges in the new house was to finally create an office, a man cave for Mr. Thrifty.  As many familiar with someone retiring from the military, it comes with a lot of memorabilia.  To do it tastefully would be difficult at best.  I have incorporated the most important items into this office.  Many ideas are totally out of the box, but then again, that's the way I like it.

A desk or table was the first piece that needed to fill the space. I had been looking for a manly desk for quite a long time.  Once I opened up the option of finding a table to work as a desk, the solution was much easier.

                                          Recall the little white kitchen table. 

This item was redone in a post about my white kitchen table, featured as: My up cycled Thrift Shop Kitchen Table.  The white table was too shabby feminine to work in this space.

The white trestle table found a new life in the office. It was time to redo the table.  Black was an obvious color and much better suited for the masculine room.  The table was painted with two coats of flat black paint.  Then it was top coated with a layer of clear wax and then buffed to a smooth surface.  Something was missing.

 

The whole theme of the office was centered around West Point.  Many homes of retired officers tend to go the patriotic theme route when creating their home offices.  I wanted to do something different knowing that the school colors were black and gold.  This was my key to coming up with a masculine yet attractive office. 

 

 Many of the degrees and military certificates have the same black and gold colors in their frames.  The problem now was how to incorporate the gold details. 

 

 Believe it or not the auto repair store was my next stop.  I knew that these stores sold adhesive striping to put on cars.  The striping came in silver, white, black, red and gold.  At the time, I did not know if the tape would stick to the surface of the black desk since I had waxed the piece after painting with a clear wax. 

 

 

Once home, I took a rag and wiped down the surfaces I would be using to adhere the striping.  In the future, if I ever use this striping product again, I will not wax the surface of the furniture.

 

  I will tell you that this was a 2 man project.  Mr. Thrifty had used this striping previously so he knew how carefully it needed to be placed onto the desk.  You only get one chance to do it right since it wrinkles easily.  With that in mind, the two of us successfully applied the striping to the table.  It was the bit of  embellishment that this desk needed. 

 

 

 

 I used gold paint on the rounded features on the base of the table. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

The gold and black frames of the wall hangings blend in much better with the anchor piece of the room. 

 

 

                                           Stay tuned for future projects for this home office.

Upcycled Thrift Shop Kitchen Table.

The situation with the blog still has not been resolved.  However, I have made a few post entries ahead, so I decided to drive on.  I can now change the border and the header, but still cannot add images to the post.



This month will be devoted to creating a comfortable masculine office for Mr. Thrifty.  Since retiring from his military career, I knew that he would want to have his mementos incorporated into his office space.  There was to be no shabby chic white or distressed furniture in this room.  This was to be all things military.  My only problem was that it had to be 'tasteful'.  I'm sure he would laugh about that, but it took me a long time to wrap my brain around this feat.

My first challenge was to find a desk.

While living outside Boston, the base had a Thrift Shop that had great merchandise.  Many retirees would drop off their long time treasures on a weekly basis at the thrift shop.  I found this table for $30.00.  It could have been in a fairy tale cottage holding bowls of porridge years ago.

                           It wasn't much to look it, but the trestle base was a real charmer.

                                                                     
  The top was made of very rough pine planks. It was very warped and needed lots of help.  Any work on this project would  have to wait until our move to Washington, D.C.


When Mr. Thrifty ripped off the top, he planned to glue pieces of wood together, sand well and router all the edges. This was a new feat but more importantly, a new tool was purchased.

                                                                     
                                                   Mr. Thrifty working with the router.

                                                                             
Once the table top was routed, a few coats of high gloss white paint changed this sad piece into a stunning beauty.
                                                          

                                                                          
Looking back on this project done ages ago, I could not have done it without the help of my trusty partner.  When I have had an idea and don't know how to reach the end result, he can always save the day.  We are a great team.

He did an amazing job. At the time it was painted high gloss white and this became our eat in kitchen table.

                  Stay tuned for an update on how this cute white table becomes an office desk.

An Interruption

Two days ago I was having problems uploading images to the post.  Because pictures are so important to the blog, I started to get very nervous.

On Friday, I tried to work through the problem with no solution.  Last night as Mr. Thrifty was trying to help me out, my entire website turned a boring blue and grey.  I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach.

A lot of other posts have been affected and they are trying to correct it.  Google is trying to persuade users to use their new design template.  Not liking change, I am going to hold off for a few days posting until this is reconciled.

Anyway, stay tuned.  So sorry for the inconvenience.  I will be back with great posts for the office.

Starting a New Year with New Projects

Since the Christmas decorations will stay in place until the end of January, it is time for me to start back on the back load of projects.  Mr. Thrifty is wanting his work bench emptied so he can work on his own projects.

I started this project at the end of the summer and I need to finish it.

Here is where I started:

 I picked this piece up at an estate sale for $60.00.   Originally, I wanted to re-do it and put it in the powder room off the Great Room.  However, the area above the sink was not wide enough to fit this piece.  Changing course, the only place in the house it could reside would be the laundry room.  Now, I know you are thinking, the laundry room? 

                               I love the shelf at the top of it.  This is the before picture.

                                                                                 

       I am thinking of painting it black, distressing it,  adding a mirror and  some hooks and hanging it over my laundry sink.

                                                     
                                                                  Here is the closeup of the detail.

I have read on blogs that this is black paint that has the richest, deepest black color.  I ordered this paint on line at Woodcraft.

Upon reading about this paint, I wanted to appropriately prepare the surface for the paint.  The great thing about this paint is that you don't need to sand or prime the surfaces prior to painting.  I did sand just a bit just to be safe.


This is what the piece looks like after one coat.  It is a beautiful, rich, full black.  I will give it at least one more coat.

                                                 
I pulled out three vintage hooks, soaked them in vinegar and salt out on the back porch for two weeks and came up with this result.  Before screwing them onto the mantle frame, a coat of spray matte sealer will keep the rust from brushing off anything touching it.

                                                                       
I love the rust effect.  You can do this with any kind of metal out there. It adds so much more character.

Meanwhile, I had a mirror cut at the glass shop.  It has been laying on the dining room buffet for at least two months.  It did come in handy when I put the Nativity set up. 

                                                                       
                                  I'll keep you posted on the progress of this mantle piece.  Meanwhile, this month's posts will be devoted to the 'military' office.  Carry on.....

Into 2013

With a full year of posts behind me, I have tried to add a few features to the blog.

Added at the bottom of the blog, you will now see a spot to enter your own email so that when a new post is added, an email will be sent to your email address.  Let me know if this helps anyone out.

Another added feature is the posting of the most popular posts.

Also added to the site is the count of views.  This blog has reached almost 5,000.

Also, I would love for all my viewers to become followers.  I'm hoping that there are more than 13 visitors to this site.

I hope to continue to inspire all of you on Dens gens Creatifs in the coming year.  Let this be a new year of introducing you to new projects and ideas.

                                                                              

                                   Happy New Year!!!

Memories of a Child in Winter

I am the keeper of all pictures of old in my family.  I have always wanted to do an Ancestry.com search and find out even more.  I should put that on my list of things to do this coming year.

I should preface this story with another one.  I have been blessed in this life not to have one, but two amazing mothers in my life.  We lost my Mom before I was 5 years old.  I remember so little from those days, but I know it was a struggle for my Dad.  Two and one half years later, we were blessed to have Mom, which I will refer to as Mom Margaret, come into our lives.  She took under her wings  these 7 children.  As the years went by, 3 more children were added to the family. It is an amazing story and I always tell Mom now that it would make a great book.

 I would not be the person I am today without her positive influences.

Now back to my original story.  My first mother, Mother C Ann, had those 7 children  before she passed on. As I was hunting through my mass collection,  I came upon this photo of my Mom.  It was taken in the year 1922-1923.  Knowing about the depression of that day, the fur muff and scarf intrigued me.  The coat looks like it could be made out of velvet.

                                                          
This picture would be the inspiration for my winter vignette.  I recalled that I had bought a bundled up doll with red hair complete with muff and scarf at least 20 years ago at a craft sale.  She was always packed up in my Christmas decorations.  So as I was pulling all of the boxes out of the attic before Christmas, I made sure to pull 'C Ann" out to make a display come January.(My Mom, C Ann also had auburn hair.)


As I am writing this post, the temperature is about 28 degrees.  We rarely get such cold temps like that in Alabama.  It seemed more fun to create a winter display when the weather really did feel like winter.

Here is a picture of the woolen muff on the doll

Even though the picture of Mom C Ann didn't have a sled, the doll did.  I am almost starting to imagine fluffy snowflakes coming down.

                                                     
Referring back to the sepia picture, do you see the connection to this crafted little girl?  Uncanny, isn't it?

                                           
Because the picture of Mom C Ann looked like she was ready to go somewhere, I pulled out one of my vintage suitcases.  In it, I piled red covered old books.  My Mom was an excellent student, so I know reading was one of her pleasures.

                                                    
A bit of greenery.....

                                                         
  And for fun, I used some red and white baker's twine to attach the suitcase key to the Lucite handle.

                                                                 
The suitcase was propped up in the corner of one of my kitchen prep areas.  I thought it would be fun to walk by and  glance at the display.  I knew it would be able to reconnect me to my past.


                             I couldn't decide if I wanted to use one of my glass domes or not.

                                                                               
                                                       I decided to go without.

                                                                            
        For picture taking purposes only  the above picture was taken after I removed the curved glass that was set into the frame.  I replaced the glass for the final arrangement.  I think the curved glass gives the display a vintage effect.

                                                  
As I meander through the kitchen on these colder days, I stop and smile and reflect on a season long ago.


Do you see how one photo gets the imagination going?  Why don't you go to your box of old photos and create a memory display of your own?