Mitzi's Collectibles Blog

Three Ways to Up-Cycle Vintage Books

In my travels to auctions, estate sales, and the occasional garage sale, I come across old books of many varieties.  The types of books I'm actively looking for are examples from the 1940's or earlier, with appealing covers.  Embossed faux leather, real leather, or "pretty lady" graphics on the cover are my personal favorites.  I also love the marbleized paper sometimes used on the covers, and sets of books, like "The Bobbsey Twins" or something similar. 

To display a group of books, like the "Tom Swift" set below, I just pile them casually around a floral arrangement or other focal point.

 

Maybe this picture from Country Living magazine better illustrates how a stack of books can add color and vintage appeal to a space:

 

Touches of gold are always a nice addition to a colorful book cover.  These German books are keepers:

 

Books that are plentiful and inexpensive include dictionaries, bibles, and sets of encyclopedias.  They are often begging for a new home, and sometimes I decide to give them one.  A bookshelf full of vintage books looks so much more attractive than a shelf full of newer books.  I love the mellow colors all mixed together.

   

Here is another picture from Country Living, showing a nice looking set of books on a shelf in the reading nook.  Maybe they aren't the focal point, but consider what the space would look like without the books.  I kind of equate books in an interior to nice background music.  You might not always be aware of it, but it definitely adds ambiance:

 

Have you ever wondered what happens to old books that haven't sold at the book store, at the library book sale or some other wholesale book outlet?  Sadly, even newer books that don't sell on the retail market are often ground up and added to a landfill.  Vintage books get shuffled around, sometimes for years, until they get wet in someone's basement and get tossed in the dumpster or meet some other undignified death.

 
 
To help save forlorn books that lack display-ability on their own and might otherwise meet an unpleasant demise, I think it is our duty as crafting "up-cyclers" to find new ways to appreciate old books.  My favorite way to dress up a disressed book is to cover it with a jacket of sheet music.  We all know how to do this, it's just a book jacket like the ones we had to make for our school textbooks years ago out of grocery bags.

 

I painted the top and bottom edges of the books off white, so they blended nicely with the sheet music.  To embellish them, I tied a dupioni silk ribbon around the middle and added a vintage millinery blossom.  Now these books are ready to dress up a shelf or become part of a table vignette. Obviously, you wouldn't want to stack them one atop the other, but you could stack several un-embellished sheet music covered books, then put the embellished book on the top of the stack.

 

When I find really decrepit books that have loose or missing covers, I like to stack three or so and tie some jute string around them.  Just for fun, I spray some glimmer mist on them to add a touch of gold or silver.

 

Sometimes I tie a tag on top with an old-timey picture  for some extra interest, or slip a cabinet card or postcard under the string. This stack got a granny cabinet card on top:

 

 

I love color, so the stack below really appeals to me.  I didn't alter these books, because they were in good condition, but I like the look of them bundled into a little trio with Granny on the top:

 

 

 

How do you display books in your home?  Do you use the traditional bookshelf method, or do you have a creative up-cycling strategy for them?  I'd love to know!

Mitzi

Mitzi's Five Ways to Add Vintage Style to Your Home

I know many of my readers have already added their vintage finds to their home, making their decor "eclectic" and interesting.  But I'm thinking there are some readers that desire that look, but may not know where to start, what to look for, and how to get the most bang for their buck.  This post has been created with them in mind.

First, I think every creative gal needs her own dress form.  These are so hot right now, it might be a challenge to find one at the price you can afford, but the searching is part of the fun.  I've been looking for quite some time for a reasonably priced wire dress form, and last weekend I finally found one at The Mega Mall Flea Market in Lansing, Michigan:

 

My wire form, made by Dritz, cost $65, which is about the going rate.  An older, wasp-waist Victorian style dress form with the "cage" bottom will run about $150 to $200, at least here in the Midwest.  A more common form from the 1920's to 1960's will run about $65 to $95.  The cardboard form in the picture below is very difficult to find, but very cool:

These adjustable forms with the gray fabric are the easiest to find, and they run about $45-95 here in Michigan:

 

 

My next suggestion is displaying a bird cage.  These come in many varieties, often with a helpful stand that will keep it off a table and add some height to your candles, ivy, or whatever you decide to put inside.  There are lots of birdcages for sale at flea markets and resale shops, some of which are being made in China, so you have to be careful.  Buying one at an antique mall would assure you that what you are getting isn't a reproduction.  At any rate, I'd stick to a metal birdcage with a brand name like "Hendryx", usually stamped on the door.  A real fancy example might cost up to $150, but a birdcage without a stand, like mine below, will run a reasonable $35-$55 at an antique mall:

Next, how about something architectural?  Think about a door or some shutters. These are plentiful and can be found at many estate/tag sales, antique malls, or flea markets.  Consider putting shutters around a window inside your home, or propping an old screen door as a focal point on a boring wall.

I spotted some shutters at an estate sale marked $2 each, but it was the second day of the sale, so items were 50% off.  Therefore, they were only $1 each.  Can you say "bargain"?

A panelled door can be hung sideways and made into a "headboard" for your bed.  Heather Kowalksi from Pretty Petals has used a painted wood mantel as a headboard in her lovely bedroom:

  

 

Heather uses the panelled door and rail from a baby crib to great effect in her dining room:

A larger view of Heather's dining room, including the door and a dress form:

Sally Arnold, a dealer at the Antiques Market of Williamston, displays a screen door with a wreath in her booth.  And there's a nice dress form too!

 

The old aluminum awning below could make a cute "canopy" above a twin bed, don't you think?  Or a hood over a stove?  Some imagination is necessary here!  I took this picture as I was cleaning the awning before putting it in my antique mall booth for sale in Williamston ( for $75):

 

When I think of antique furniture, "comfort" is not the first thing that comes to mind.  Modern couches are, for the most part, much more comfortable than their vintage counterparts.  A vintage mohair couch or horsehair stuffed settee might look great, but feel itchy and uncomfortable.  Consider a smaller upholstered piece, such as a chair with fancy tufting or a club chair.  These old, well-made pieces with lush vintage fabric will add a lot of vintage style to an interior, and can often be purchased very reasonably.

The golden chair below is one of a pair I have flanking my fireplace:

 

Let's take a closer look at the beautifully done tufting, the numerous upholstery tacks, and carved details on my chair:

If memory serves me correctly, I purchased two matching chairs for $60 apiece.  Just try purchasing a similarly detailed, well-made chair from a furniture store nowadays.  You'll be paying $60 in sales tax alone!

Now, where do you go to find such a great deal on an upholstered chair or loveseat?  I frequent secondhand furniture stores and estate sales for them.  You'll want to make sure there aren't springs popping out of the bottom, and conduct a "smell test" (remember that Volkswagon ad where the two fellas find a chair by the road and load it in their car?).   Most carpet cleaning companies will shampoo a chair or loveseat for a reasonable price ($50 or less), so keep that in mind.  Ideally, we want to find an upholstered piece from the home of the little old lady who kept everything covered in plastic.

This clean-as-a-whistle loveseat was sold by yours truly back in September, for $195:

I sold this crewel fabric wing chair about a year ago at The Antiques Market of Williamston.  It had a small hole in the seat, which I repaired with fabric from the arm cover.  I think I sold it for about $85, and the repair was barely visible:

 

My fifth way to add vintage style to your home is to display a collection, preferably of something unexpected.  Now some people are genetically hardwired to collect, and maybe even hoard, objects.  If you are not one of them, then you need to gather several similar objects and call them a "collection".  For example, a grouping of Mason jars with old clothes pins can be interesting.  Consider adding a few to a bookshelf for interest, or even as a centerpiece.

 

Sets of books can be attractive outside of the bookcase, for example, they can be piled on a table and used to elevate something, or stacked beside a couch or chair.  The picture below is from Country Living:

 

Let me emphasize the charm of groupings of something unexpected.  Perhaps a bouquet of yardsticks housed in a wire waste can would be cool, or a bowl full of thread spools.  Just a simple gathering of blue bottles adds a lot of style without costing much at all.   We're talking garage sale here, probably a couple dollars for a nice size collection.

 
 

Nobody displays blue glass better than Heather Kowalski of Pretty Petals:

 

I love vintage graphics, and paired various downloads from The Graphics Fairy with some of my old bottles to make an inexpensive but stylish display:

 

Last but not least, look at the fantastic display of platters, created by Theresa of 612 Riverside, using some vintage garden fencing:

Isn't she clever?  Be sure to check out her blog for some great Michigan style, and wonderful artistic creations.

OK, just for review, here are my Five Things That Add Vintage Style to Your Home:

1.  Dress Form

2.  Bird Cage

3.  Something Architectural

4.  An Upholstered Piece

5.  A Collection/Something Unexpected

Would any of you readers like to add to my list with one or more of your own ways to add vintage style to your homes?  I'm all ears.....

Mitzi

Home of the Brave!

One of our neighbors transformed his plain saltbox colonial with a daring paint color.  Here we see the house getting prepped for painting (it used to have black shutters):

Now just take a gander!  A paint sprayer was used to give one thick coat of rich mossy green paint to the aluminum siding:

The red brick chimney really "pops" against the green.....(yes, I watch HGTV):

I think they are pretty brave to attempt such a huge change, but I'm totally on board.  Won't some nice landscaping in front, a wreath on the door, and a collection of pumpkins on the porch look great?  If it was up to me, I'd consider painting the front door lemon yellow.  Or burnt orange.  A red brick porch and walkway would be marvelous too. What would you like to see added to this house, if anything?

I've wanted to paint my house a color ever since we moved here 12 years ago.  "Anything but white" has always been my motto.  We have aluminum siding too, and I've also considered replacing it with cedar shakes (I really dislike vinyl or aluminum siding), but I haven't been able to really justify the expense of taking off the siding or painting the house, because it would be for purely decorative purposes, to satisfy my whim.  To compromise, I've replaced black louvered shutters with cottage style shutters painted green, and a once white door has been painted a brick red.

If this were your house, what would you do?  I'd love some suggestions, readers!

Mitzi

P.S.  I just discovered a cool website that predicts color trends in fashion and home decor.  I want to pass this on to those of you interested in such things:  www.pantone.com

 

I Almost Forgot: The Necessary Room

In my last post I covered my booth spaces at the two antique malls where I rent space.  I totally forgot the most important room in any antique mall:  the "Necessary Room", aka the Ladies' Room.  Last summer, I was given the challenge of re-decorating the ladies' room at the Antiques Market of Williamston.  It was a two-stall bathroom, with brown stained wainscoting that added some nice character.  I decided to paint the wainscoting a cream color, and used Ralph Lauren's glaze in Tea Stain over the cream.  It left a really great darkening in all of the ridges of the wainscoting, exactly what I wanted. 

This picture shows just a bit of the wainscoting, along with some of the items that I had for sale a while back.  The letters were gold painted cast aluminum, from the facade of a Woolworth's store.  They have all been sold since I took this picture:

 

I made a three-panel screen with decoupage sheet music, shown on the left of the following pic.  There are several nice mirrors that I included around the sink area.  These have all been sold, too.  I guess the Ladies' Room is a good place to sell antiques!

The ceiling includes a collection of gold frames in various shapes and sizes, attached with screws.  These are not for sale, they are just there for detail.  The mall owner, Bob Rogers, helped me attach the frames.  We pre-drilled holes on two sides of each frame before using the screws to attach to the ceiling.   

 

I think the frames would look great all painted white, for a more subtle effect, like a coffered ceiling.  Or painted a color....lots of possibilities!

Happy Tuesday,

Mitzi

Living Room Makeover In Progress: Going Green

My husband, Joe, and I have lived in our current house for 12 years.  We've done our fair share of painting, home improvement, and decorating, especially the year after we moved in to the house.  I have some great memories of my friends volunteering to help paint our living room and dining room.  We listened to a great box set of 1970's Greatest Hits as the four of us painted our golden living room and cardinal red dining room.

Twelve years is just about long enough for one paint color, at least in my mind.  Although I loved the colors we chose, it's just time for a change.  Last summer I painted over the red dining room in a taupe to transform it into my now beloved craft room.  The summer before that, I painted Joe's home office the deep blue that Ralph Lauren uses on his Polo cologne boxes.  At Home Depot, Ralph Lauren has an entire display of paint chips, and we were able to find one that matched the signature color.

Over the past weekend, Joe and I painted our golden living room Behr's "Retro Avocado".  It's a very rich color, and I'm pleased with the results.  There were a few tense moments when we first put the color on the wall when we weren't sure it was going to look good.  In fact, the color reminded me of the substance Linda Blair upchucked in The Exorcist.  But once the whole room was finished, it looked great.

Is it unlucky for dogs to stand under a ladder?

I've learned to never judge a new paint color against the old wall color:

Go bold or go home!

I was all set to purchase new drapes but our crewel embroidered drapes looked fine next to the new color.  Instead of dry cleaning, this year I thought I'd save money by throwing them in the washer.  They seemed to handle the washing fine, but after the tumble dry I noticed they had shrunk a lot in length.  Oops.  I forgot the embroidery was done in wool.  I'm going to try to find some long fringe or trim that I can sew to the bottom edge so they touch the floor again:

I like to keep my paint supplies organized, as you can see here:

I'm not stopping with just paint in our living room.  I have big plans to add beadboard and a chair rail all around, and perhaps built-in shelves at one end of the room.  A recent estimate for this work by a highly skilled carpenter was higher that our budget would allow, but eventually it will happen.

Now I have a question for you:  Should Behr re-name their color "Linda Blair Green"?

Mitzi

Vintage and Old-Timey Goodness Hits the Mainstream

Have you seen the August 2009 Pottery Barn catalog?  The cover shot (below) shows a pile of patchwork pillows and quilts and touts "Vintage Style:  Classics That Stand the Test of Time".  Indeed.  As I leafed through the catalog I grabbed some sticky notes and earmarked numerous pages that I found interesting.  In general, I like the Pottery Barn look, but primarily because they incorporate genuine vintage treasures in their displays, and that's what I zero in on when I look at their catalog.  For example, page 28 shows a bedroom with a stack of old suitcases as a focal point on one wall.  They aren't for sale.  So why would they have them there?  Well, because old stuff looks better than new stuff, that's why!

Now, if you have the same catalog, or can look online, check out their "Handmade Quilts" (pgs. 6 and 7 in the catalog).  They show a selection in patterns such as variations on "double wedding-ring" and "tumbling blocks", ranging in price from $119 to $449, all brand-new and imported.  Well, I know you can find beautiful vintage quilts at similar or even lower prices at most antique malls.  Of course, you won't find quilts big enough to cover all of a king size bed, but there are creative ways around that problem.  Actually, I like the look of a solid color bed spread (new, if you must) with a nicely folded antique quilt at the foot of the bed.

Let's look at page 26.  Notice the antique typewriters?  They're hot right now!  They also show some new prints by designer Charles Fradin which depict six different typewriters.  Next, flip to page 125 and check out the large wall art depicting antique typewriter keys.  At $349, it gets me wondering how I could make this with Mod Podge and enlarged photocopies of typewriter keys. Now to page 34, which shows a giant globe on top of stacks of books.  I just sold a similar globe in my antique mall booth.  I think a globe adds so much pizzaz to a library/study which is naturally filled with rectangular shapes (books).  It's nice to have something round in there for variety.

I had to repair a golfball size puncture on the large globe below in the Arabian Sea.  Maybe you can see where it is......

OK, now to page 44 (are you still with me?)  They show several framed maps hung on a wall, and stacked on top of the TV cabinet.  Oh, on the previous page I just noticed the lamp with a "Map Drum Shade", which is for sale.  You can make these yourself so easily with a self-adhesive lampshade and a vintage road map (even newer maps can be made to look old with some tea or coffee staining).

This particular Pottery Barn catalog also uses vintage movie projectors and reels to great effect, apothecary bottles, "found dough bowls" and "found oversized wine bottles".  I think by now I've gotten my point across.  I want to encourage you to go out and find some great vintage and Old-Timey treasures that will add spice to your abode.  Go ahead and take a catalog with you for inspiration!