The Apple Street Cottage

As you may already know, I had a friend drop-off several items for me from a house that she and her husband are rehabbing.  One of the items was an oak footstool with dirty, worn fabric and legs that could be described as 'humble'.  A little bit of elbow grease turned it back into its old self.   At first glance, it was a mess.  That's a technical term, right? Step one was to get rid of the dirty upholstery. There were two layers of it attached with LOTS of nails and tacks. Underneath all of it was some sort of cotton batting and wood wool. It immediately went into the trash. I went to work on the wood with a sander.  Once it was smooth, I gave it one coat of Red Mahogany stain and two coats of polyurethane.  Look at that gorgeous wood grain! I cut some batting to fit and glued it in place.   I found some pretty peacock fabric, cut it and stapled it along the edges and underneath. Some simple trim was added to cove...

A few weeks ago I received a text.  It said, " Any interest?" And included this picture: I couldn't type out, "Yes!" fast enough! I love gossip benches and rose-back chairs.  Not to mention, I already own a rose-back chair and this would be the perfect complement to it. A few hours later, it arrived.  Yes, that's right, she delivered it. In all honesty, it wasn't in bad shape at all.  Clearly, the seat needed to be redone, but the wood wasn't bad.  A couple of nicks and scratches, but nothing major...except for the table top.  At first, I thought it was mold/mildew so I gave it a good scrubbing... ......and nothing happened.   My husband took a look at it and suggested wet-sanding it.  Having never wet-sanded in my life, he gave me a crash-course.  Having a puddle of water on wood is counter-intuitive to me, but, let me tell you, it did the trick! Did every mark come out?   No. Did I care?   N...

  When I started this project most stores were closed or only doing curb-side pick-up, so I dug through my closets and found a few items to use.   I gathered up my silver bowl from a yard sale last year, a piece of floral foam, a package of 4 (yes, I'm only showing 3 here) flags, and some silk geraniums that I've had for at least 10 years.   This project is too easy...put the floral foam in the bowl, add flowers and flags, and you have a patriotic centerpiece. If you don't want a centerpiece, head outside with a couple of flags and put them in a planter with red petunias! Trust me, the petunias are red.  I took this pic at least 6 times at different times and they still didn't truly  look  red. The last idea I have for you involves a jar from the recycle bin, a flag, Mod Podge, some raffia, and a tea light. The first step is remove the flag from the stick.  That was a bit of a challenge, since it was stapled with an elec...

Let's face it, when it comes to decorating the walls of our homes there are so many choices - wallpaper, photographs, paintings, mixed media, the list goes on and on.  Please allow me to share my latest acquistion. Recently Emily from Photowall contacted me wondering if I would be interested in collaborating with them offering me three options: wallpaper, a canvas, or a poster.  Naturally I said, "Yes!". Since there isn't a straight wall in my 100+ year old house, wallpaper was out of the question.  I really wanted a canvas, but wanted it to look like a painting, so I started looking around their site.  To say I was impressed would be an understatement.   There are thousands of choices all organized by categories - you can even use your own image and have it made into a canvas, wallpaper, print, or poster.  It was so much fun looking at all they offered! I added 12 choices to my 'favorites' on the site and quickly narrowed it down to 2.  S...