Elkorn Flea Market

 

 

Kim and I spent last Sunday at the Elkhorn Flea Market in WI.  I was not sure if I was going to make this one, but at the last minute was able to.  It was 75 and sunny, perfect day to shop!

Here is some of what we found......

 

 

 

I love these old telephone tables!

 

 

Cool rusty old drawers. 

 

 



 

Kim bought this little library table.  This was the main thing she was looking for. 

 

We saw quite a few church pews.
 

 



 

 

Wonder if some day Kim and I will wear hats like these women?!  :)

 

 

Here are some library type tables.  Most of these were pretty pricey. 

 

 

 

 



 

Not sure about this. 

 

 

 

 

 

So pretty, white and industrial. 

 

Hippie Tom's booth

 

Kim bought this metal cart.  If she didn't I may have.  It is so cool.  I did buy the rusty metal tray under it.  I acutally love that!  This lady has the neatest stuff!!

This would be neat in a little boys room or a mud room.

 

 

 

I like this vendor too.  They own a huge farm. They always have cool stuff that is priced fair.
 

 

Funny story.  At the flea market last September Kim bought these metal drawers.  We usually pay for our things and then come back at the end with her truck and pick it all up.  When we went for these bins the guy was gone.  This has never happened before, if anything the vendor leaves the item with the booth next to it or leaves it in the grass.  She spent $35.00 on these.  We could not wait to see if he was here this year.  We found him right away and he was selling Kim's bins!  We thought he might have them set aside just in case.  Nope!  He acted like he did not remember but did let her take them.  hmmmmmmm.

 

 

 

 

Our signature Hippie Tom pics!

 

 



 

**Kim may be the old sister wearing the funny hat someday!  ;)

 

 

 

Here are my finds.  I was on a mission for old mirrors and I found a few of those.  I also wanted metal drawers and trays, found those too.  And I wanted a big glass vase and I found that too.  The one I found is an old water bottle.  It is pretty cool. 

 

I also found this old chair for $2.00!  I already started working on it.  I am trying Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint on it. 

 



 

 

 

We had a great day in Elkhorn.  We got there at 7am with plans to shop and get out early.  We stayed well after close as usual!  :)

 

 

 

Painting a hutch

 

 

All I can say is painting a hutch is a lot of work!  Much much more than I anticipated!  Most of my projects I can get done in a few hours, not this one!  The end result though made it so worth all the work!

 

 

 This is the china hutch.  I found it at the Kane County Flea Market.  I fell in love with it the minute I saw it.  It was alittle rough, but still so beautiful! 

 

The cabinet sat in my garage for a few weeks.  I was not too excited to get started because I knew it may take awhile.  Little did I know!  :)
 

 

 

Here it is in my painting spot in the middle of my kitchen.  My family loves that!!

 

 

 

 

I knew the back had some water damage, but it was worse than I thought.  I decided to take the entire back off and make a new one.  TJ helped me with this, although it was not too difficult.  I had some leftover beadboard in the garage so decided that would work for the back.  I did not take a picture of that step, but we cut two pieces to fit the top and the bottom.  Then I painted them both with ASCP in Old White which is the color I chose for the cabinet.  Having the back off helped me paint in all the nooks and crannies!

 

 

 

 

 

Here is it with no back on.  This job was getting messy, I should have done this part in the garage! 

 

 

 

 

The bottom shelf also had some water type damage and was warped so we took that out too.  We used the beadboard and just put it in upside down so the flat side was up.  Perfect!

 

This was already more prep work than I thought it would be.  After we re-built these parts I cleaned it really good.

 

 

 

Then came my favorite part.  Painting with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  I decided to go with Old White since I wanted it simple and clean looking. 

 

When I say this is my favorite part, I have never painted an old antique china cabinet before!  There is a lot to paint!!

 

 

When I started painting I noticed that the paint was turning pink!  This was only on the existing wood.  You can see that on the bottom shelf the paint is fine.  This is the new shelf we put in.  I have never heard of this happening before so kept on painting.  Big mistake!  I ended up going through an entire can of ASCP.  I have never used one can on a project before.  It would not cover the pink so I kept adding more. 

 

I finally decided to google what was going on.  For as much wood furniture I have painted I have never had this happen before.  This cabinet must be mahogany, and when you paint over old mahogany it bleeds though pink!  I should have looked this up before I did 3 coats of paint!!

 

I called Carter's Cottage where I buy my ASCP and she confirmed this. It also has something to do with the old varnish they used in the 30's and 40's over the wood.  My next step would be covering the entire cabinet in a layer of Shellac.  This will seal it and prevent the pink from coming through!  UGH!!!!!

 

 

I bought a can of Shellac in clear and went to work.  This is like day 3 or 4 by now!  I also did this step in the house, probably should have stayed in the garage!  I put one coat of the Shellac on in all areas except the new shelf and the new backing. I let it dry overnight.

 

Then I headed back to Carter's Cottage for another can of ASCP in Old White.  I was at the point of just wanting this done and out of my kitchen!!!
 

 

 

If you look at the bottom the cabinet it is missing the trim piece.  I was going to live with this, but decided I wanted this done right.  I went to Home Depot and found a piece of trim in a remnant bin.  It turned out to be the exact size I needed, and it was FREE!  I found a little wood decoration to put on it.
 

 

 

I nailed on the trim piece and glued on the little wood swirly thing.   

After I shellaced the entire cabinet and let it dry overnight I painted it again.  This time it only took two coats and it covered pretty well.  After the two coats of ASCP I covered it in a layer of clear wax and then alittle dark wax. 

Here it is.......

Here you can see the new bottom shelf and the beadboard backing.

My homemade trim piece!

Before

After

I love this cabinet for so many reasons.  For one it has my blood, sweat & tears in it.  (literally!)  I also think it is just beautiful and very functional! 

When I finally finished this project I still had my original problem.  Where to put it!  I found a spot, but it opened up a huge can of worms and now I am re arranging my entire living room!  Love when that happens, it my favorite part about decorating!  :)

 

Found them!

 

I found my dining room chairs.  I only changed my mind a few times.  I did try the industrial look since I love old and industrial together, but it just was not what I was looking for.  Rustic and cloth is the look I wanted! 

 

 

 

For Rustic I had decided on a cross back chair.  Love these.   I almost went with this chair from Restoration Hardware.  It is the Madeline Chair.  The seat is rattan and that is the only part I was not a big fan of.  For a kitchen chair I like that, but not as dining room chair.  I did come very very close to ordering though!

 

Then I found this chair!

 

 

 

Looking at picture online I did not love it.  It is from World Market.  I read the reviews and someone had said it is a light weathered gray teak looking wood.  It does not look like that at all in the picture.  So I went to check it out.  I wanted a chair with that exact description! 

 

 

And this chair had it! It is rustic, weathered, kind of grayish, has a solid seat, and it is actually comfortable, perfect! I also got it during the 25% off sale so that was a big bonus! As I was walking around World Market I knew I did not want 6 of these chairs. I wanted something different on the end of the table.

 

 

 

 

I love the linen chairs with the barnwood!

 

So when I saw these at World Market I knew they were the ones! They come in a few colors and I went back and forth between the linen and a smokey gray blue color.  Linen won!  I also got 25% off these plus they only had two floor ones left and they were missing a few pieces so they had to take them from other chairs to fix them up.  SO I got an amazing deal and they look perfect! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Wow time flies!!!

I was out to dinner with TJ the other night and a friend I had not seen in a long time said she was just on my blog.  Then a few days later a neighbor said my blog inspired her to paint some furniture.  Another neighbor just told me she loved looking at my blog.  That is when I realized it was time to get back to my blogging!  I have missed it and I am so ready to get back at it!  What better way to kick it off then with a flea market!

My sister Kim and I headed out to the Kane County Flea Market this past Saturday.  We were sooooo excited to check it out.  This spring has not been the best flea market season so far.  It has been rainy, snowy, and cold!  Saturday it was perfect!


One of our missions for the day was a church pew.  Kim is building a new home and wants an old church pew in her foyer.  This one was an option, but the nice oak wood was painted and we were not sure how hard it would be to get it off.  It was on pretty thick.  We kept looking.


 

I love this kitchen island!  It is made by the guy who made my barnwood table.  He had some really neat stuff!  His business is growing!



 

My parents had these chairs! 



 

After a really long winter it was so nice to see all the flowers!




 

I thought this rusty little cart was neat!




 

Love this chair!  Kim beat me to it!  There is just something about it.  A little paint and new fabric and that chair is going to be awesome!  Kim got it down to $30.00 so it was a steal!




 

The vendor selling this china hutch always has awesome stuff.  Her booth is always packed with people and it is hard to see everything.  I noticed this cabinet right away and there was just something about it.  I do not need a china cabinet and was not looking for one.  But I have always wanted a glass doored cabinet. This vendor usually has finished things and the prices reflect that.  This cabinet was rough and was $75.00!  It is solid wood and sooooo pretty!  I managed to get it for $60.00 and I am so excited to get started on it.  Still not sure where it will go but will make room! 

Kim beat me to this owl cookie jar too!  I think it is so cute!  She got it for $10.00!  After that I was on the hunt to find another one.  We saw every animal cookie jar there is except an owl until......

I found this little guy! I paid $18.00.  I have plans to add a little more color to him too.  Check out these......

 

 

Anthropologie-$68.00.  This owl is identical to the one I found!  (only mine is an antique-it used to be avocado green I was told)

 

Anthro-$88.00

 

 

 

           Anthro-$128.00

 

I think we got a good deal!

I loved this metal cart.  I thought would be great on my patio for my garden supplies.  Kim thought it would be good for my dogs!  It was $350.00 so I will keep searching!

After a long day of shopping Kim found her church pew!  This bench is cool!  It was from a church that burned down and they salvaged some of the pews.  She was pretty happy!  (I am not sure if you can see, but Kim is pregnant, we are trying to get in as many flea markets as we can while she can still get around!!!)  I will push her in a cart if I have too!  :)

All in all it was a great day!  Can not wait to do it again!!