Disrobing Furniture

Last Monday, the upholstery gods smiled down on me.  I got an e-mail that a last-minute spot had opened up in the upholstery class starting that Wednesday and my name was first on the wait-list if I still wanted the spot.  Yes please!!! Our beloved antique chair needed some serious freshening up, and since I have big plans for it in our living room, I jumped on the opportunity.

As soon as the class started Wednesday evening, the teacher had us start breaking down our chairs- aka tear it apart.  I almost couldn't do it!  I should have started with a chair with no emotional attachment.

WARNING, if you're of the furniture faint of heart or just don't have the emotional fortitude to see a naked chair, I'd stop reading now.

I warned you.

Disrobing chair pictures commencing in

...3...

...2...

...1...

At this point, I was sneezing up a storm.  Disintegrating fabric and original horse-hair stuffing are the stuff allergic dreams are made of.

Once I got all the fabric, stuffing and burlap off, I had precisely 50 kagillion staples that I had to remove from the frame.  I counted. (just kidding, I'm not sure I can count that high... and certainly not while trying to efficiently remove staples)

At the end of the first 3 hour class, I had an entirely naked and staple-less chair.  Isn't the wood detail pretty?

It's minorly heartbreaking to see our chair like this, but I know the end result is going to be Awe Some!  I'm so excited to start putting the chair back together this week.  Especially since I think I finally settled on a fabric (that even Hubby approves of):

I think this gray ikat might be just the statement this chair needs without screaming for attention.  mmm pretty.

As an upholstery novice, I'd love to hear about your DIY upholstery experiences!  Any tips and/or tricks I should know?

Marché aux Puces

I hope you had a wonderful, heart-warming and stomach-satiating Thanksgiving!  Although I loved traveling, I'm thankful today to be home sweet home. Within the past year, Hubby and I have developed a habit when we travel- we try to find some neat vintage treasures to help commemorate our trips.  So much more fun than coming home with plastic, mass-produced souvenirs.  We (attempt to) seek out vintage stores, antique stores, and flea markets and it turns into an adventure not only finding the stores, but finding items too.  Granted before this trip, our scavenger hunt only extended to travels in New York City and Montreal, but now we can add Europe to the list.

I can't say that we had time to go treasure-hunting in Germany (poo), but France was a different story. With the help of our river boat's friendly concierge, Dora, we found a few places to poke around in Strasbourg. A couple were closed, one was a bit too 'crafty,' one was way beyond our price range, but as per usual, the flea market- or marché aux puces (as Google translate informs me) was just my style.

We located the flea market after a guided tour of the area and we. were. cold.  After turning a few corners and getting away from the touristy areas, we found a cute (almost a bit too hipstery) coffee shop where we were able to warm up for a few.  I'd love to tell you their name, but I don't speak any French, and their sign was just a bunch of hipstery symbols, so....

Beyond the rockabilly music that was just a bit too loud, the hot chocolate was delicious, Hubby says the coffee was tasty, and the vibe was great.  Why am I talking about a coffee shop when I should be talking about a flea market??  Do you notice the vintage TV on the counter?  They had the place decorated with a fun collection of vintage goodies, so I had to ask them- any good vintage stores around?  Sadly, (as the girl at the counter told us) Strasbourg is lacking vintage stores, but the flea market is where you can find some good stuff.  OK.

Finally warmed up and on a mission, back to the flea market we went.  They had a huge variety, but the tough part always come in making a decision.

If I didn't already have a vintage camera, this would have been very tempting-  look at the options!

Can I interest you in creepy taxidermy seemingly attacking an even creepier wooden mask?

At this booth, I definitely had to remind myself that our luggage wasn't big enough.  That chair? the side table? and how about those rugs?  I loved the pattern on the folded red one, I just wish it had some slightly different colors.

Naturally, I couldn't leave a French flea market empty-handed.  I ended up with 2 small treasures that were easily transported home.  The old lock is about 5" tall for reference.  The carved edelweiss on the top of the box puts a smile on my face.

I hope ever country has flea markets.  I want to go to them all.  Every single one.  That's totally attainable, right?