Vintage Revivals • Page 93 of 120 • Fearless DIY

My Best Thrifting Haul Ever. Fo’Real.

By Mandi | 10/04/2013 | 51 Comments

You guys. I cant even. I mean. There are not words.

I hit the mother load.

And by mother load, I mean hands down the best thrifting haul of my ENTIRE LIFE.

On Wednesday I dropped Dylan off at Preschool and had 2 hours all to myself. I have been feeling a little uninspired as of late, and so with a prayer in my heart for something epic to get my juices flowing again, I headed out to take on every store I could with the little time I had to burn.

First I stopped at Restore (it is a Habitat for Humanity donation center/ second hand building supply store) and found 3 of the best lights ever. In fact. I think I love these mid century hanging pendant lights more than anything else that I have ever found. That is saying a lot. Too much maybe.

Anyways. I spent $19 on each of them and $19 on this major industrial beauty. Doesn’t it remind you of the light I used in the Epic Room Makeover Giveaway?

I am not a big consignment store shopper, but on a whim I stopped at 3 different ones and found THE BEST CRAP EVER!! (Dixie Consignment, Owl in the Attic, and Sell It Again Sam.) And then topped it off with a few great scores at the DI (Utah’s version of Goodwill).

I mean, I am looking at this picture and trying to decide which item in it is my fave but its like trying to choose your favorite kind of cake. Impossible. The geometric diamond statue was on clearance, it had apparently been in the store for ages. WHAT?! That is blasphemy.

The skirted pink lamp is so retrolicious. And the art. The art is amazing.

I have major plans for the gold trunk, and little Native American rug. The paint by numbers painting is really fantastic and you guys know that I am a sucker for anything brass. The toadstool is going to be so great on a stack of books on a shelf.

The seeded glass float is a little more than I would normally spend but one of my favorite vases in the world is a bubble shape and I always wish that I had more. (You can see it on the long shelf in my living room on the far right). The green glass rhino is actually a little bottle and Dylan has named him Nino. Welcome to the herd Nino.

Is your mind blown as much as mine was? I literally almost started crying in each store, because I was so excited. Is that weird?

Needless to say, I am inspired and itching to find homes for all of these treasures.

Have a great thrifting treasure? I want to see it! Use #colddeadfingers on Insta and make instant frenemies. Or if you’ve blogged about it leave a link below so everyone can check it out!

It Is A Great Day To Be Named…

By Mandi | 10/02/2013 | 6 Comments

Happy Tuesday evening! This is a little awkward. I originally thought that this post had been published this morning, ran my errands ALL DAY LONG (someone shoot me) and came home to realize that it was in fact, not published. So hopefully this is a fun after dinner treat.

I love that you guys loved the MaskCara’s Office in a Box giveaway idea as much as I did. In fact, I think I am going to put a big old fat exclamation point on every room reveal by doing ” __________ in a Box!” giveaway. I always have so many left over treasures, and I cant think of anyone that I would rather share them with than you.

So without further adieu, the winner of MaskCara’s Office in a Box is Haley! Miss Haley, please reply to the email I have sent. You have 48 hours to claim your prize before another winner is chosen!

Also, I just wanted to give everyone a heads up, my AMAZINGLY talented photog genius friend Emilie just opened up her sold out photography workshops. If you have cute kids and keep taking crappy pictures of them, you should totally check it out. My photography changed when I took her class (I mean, who knew that Manual didnt stand for MOTHER OF ALL THAT IS HOLY!)

And the best part is that the price includes a class recording, so if you are like me (and always forgetting steps) you can go back as many times as you need to refresh the memory.

Check out her site for all the deets here:

Plus she is adorable. And my favorite.

Ok friends, off to work (I keep vampire/blogger hours).

Cold Dead Fingers // 1

By Mandi | 09/30/2013 | 8 Comments

Before you continue reading this post you need to do 2 things. Grab the nearest towel. Not dish towel, I am talking BATH towel. And for goodness sakes, back away from your keyboard a little. Drool is known to ruin those things. 2. Start repeating the mantra “I will not lash out in jealousy, I will not lash out in jealousy, I will not lash out in jealousy.”

2 weeks ago I asked you guys to show off your favorite furniture pieces, the ones that can only be pried from your cold dead fingers.

To say that I am blown away is like saying that it only gets mildly stressful during an episode of Breaking Bad. Which is in fact COMPLETE bull crap. (sorry, this is the last time that I will reference Breaking Bad, I am just a little obsessed. Which is also complete crap, I am horribly addicted to it.)

Moving on.

I was hoping when I announced that fun challenge that a handful of you would play along…what did in fact happen is that every time a new Instagram would pop up on my phone, I would literally go through the grief cycle.

Denial: Insert huge gasp “NO! What?! NO!”

Anger: “Why couldnt I find something just like that?! The Secret has failed me again!”

Bargaining: “I wonder what I could sell…I be she would take my 4 yr old. Or maybe one of her family members needs a kidney, I mean I do have 2…”

,Acceptance: “Life is so disappointing sometimes…”

I was getting a stomach ache from all of the jealousy swirling around inside. And you know what they say about misery loving company…

So instead of just one post, we have embarked on a journey. A journey my friends, to show you all of the cool vintage stuff there is in the world, and hopefully inspire a few more to get outside of their comfort zone and open your eyes to the possibilities.

These are just a few of my favorites, there are many many more to come.

The Casa Pino:

I like it when my animals match my decor…

Jenda_Bean:

Yard sale find ($10.00). A coat of new paint and some wax on the top and the result… a new favorite piece in my daughter’s room. (Now if we could only find the perfect wall color….). #colddeadfingers

Black and White Obsession:

Another #YardSale find! It’s as comfy as it looks! #OutdoorFurniture

jsrizo:

Let me introduce “Goldie”. She sits at a stunning 7ft in length. Perfection.

Aishlyric_ix:

Brass & glass end tables. Think of all the ways I can rearrange these… #thrifted #vintage

I know. You are ready to call these ladies not nice words. So here is our plan. Lets make them love us, then maybe they will leave them to us in their will? Too soon?

If YOU have something amazing that you want to show off post it on Instagram with the hashtag #colddeadfingers so we can all check it out!!

pssst! just a friendly reminder that today is the last day to enter MaskCara’s Room Makeover in a Box Giveaway! Enter here.

psssst again! If you are in the need of a pick me up, check out this song. One of my favorite friends from my college days wrote and sings it. She is mad talented and the song is such a tear jerker that stopped me dead in my tracks. I think we can all use a reminder every so often about what really matters.

Plywood Pinwheel Art

By Mandi | 09/27/2013 | 54 Comments

If I have said it once, I’ve said it 1000 times. Art is hard. Art is either expensive, or so mainstream everyone knows that you bought it at Target. I would LOVE to learn how to paint (sigh, one day friends.) but best news ever… you can totally make this art with zero skills.

Last month I was flipping through the September issue of HGTV Magazine (my fave!)and saw this image.

It stung me to my freaking core. Now I know that there was probably mad technique involved. But to my pick-it-apart-until-I-figure-it-out mind, I saw peg board, straight lines, lots of color, and texture. And immediately thought, I can do that. Or at least do something that is inspired by it.

In Cara’s office we needed some art that was large and in charge to balance the entire wall of shelves that are on the opposite wall. Without something that took up a lot of space the room would feel very weak on one side. I also knew that filling in all of the spaces would be too much for the calming, comfortable vibe that I was going for. Hence the inspired by, not exact replica mentality. Side note: if you see something that you love, the funnest part of the entire operation is taking what you love about it, and making it your own.

Surprisingly the biggest hurdle that I ran into in this project was the fact that Cara and I both have small cars and couldn’t fit a 4×4 piece of ply in them. Which lead to using 2 2×4’s. In this case we had to take a page from my girl Nester and just say “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.”

Start by gathering your supplies. You will need a few different types and colors of paint. Acrylic, Watercolor, Gold Leaf Paint , and plaster are the ones that I chose. The Plaster that I used had really great packaging, so that is why I bought it. Valid reason right? I mean, that guy is so cute.

The most important supply in this art project is a roll of painters tape.

I am a ScotchBlue™ girl until I die, for this particular project I recommend using the ScotchBlue Advanced Multi Surface with Edgelock. Because you are painting on Ply you wont need to worry about pulling up the fresh paint. So get the one with the green writing.

Start by finding the center point on your wood. I chose to make mine off center to make it a little more interesting (*cough* and so I didn’t have to measure anything *cough*) from there you just start taping.

Make sure that your center point is where both pieces of tape meet (seems a little obvious, but I had to retape a few times because I missed the mark.)

Mix your paint, water, plaster, whatever you have planned for this strip, and get to it. Quality tape=perfect paint lines every time.

When you are using water putty, mix it with an acrylic paint color. If you try and use an oil based paint you are going to have major problems. Remember my love, that when you are rocking the plaster that you want a lot of texture. Smoothness= Lameness. Got it?

Peel off your tape while your paint/plaster is still wet, it will hold its shape, but you will see some seepage from the water. This is totally fine and will dry.

I LOVE the loose watery effect of using watercolor on wood. Because there is so much water involved in this paint, once again seepage will happen, but that is what makes it look SO AWESOME. These stripes are like the cool kids in high school, they don’t care, they are just going to do what they are going to do and everyone is going to be insanely jealous and try and figure out how they are so effortlessly awesome.

The really fun part of this project is customizing it to something that is perfect for your house. Mix colors, channel your inner Da Vinci and make sure you send me pictures!

This post is a collaboration with ScotchBlue™ Painter’s Tape. To join the creative community, visit www.facebook.com/ScotchBlue.

Its Almost Like A Telepathic Clapper.

By Mandi | 09/26/2013 | 3 Comments

A month ago I shared a post with you guys all about Lutron and their motion sensor light switches. I installed one in my garage and one in my master bedroom, and I wanted to update you now that I have had a chance to live with them for a while.

I am very happy to report that Court has not once come home and been upset that the garage light is on. It makes me feel like singing this:

To be honest it wasnt something that I thought about anyway (that was the problem) so the sensor has made things better with minimal effort on my part, which is always a good thing.

My master bedroom on the other hand, totally noticably awesomer.

When I installed the Lutron switch, I had it set to the default factory settings. Which is ideal for something like a garage, but a horrible idea for something like a bedroom. Every time Wallie jumped off the bed the light would turn on. By the next morning I.was.over.it. I knew that I had a setting wrong because no one would sell something that made people this stabby. I reached out to Lutron and found out that I needed to change the setting to Occupancy (which means that you manually turn the light on with the light switch and then it will auto turn off on its own).

The thing that I love the most is that you can set the amount of time that will pass before it turns off. I have mine set to 15 minutes. It is the PERFECT amount of time for me to get settled into bed to work or, if we are being honest and looking closely at the last week, getting caught up on Breaking Bad (which by the way WHAT!?!) It is always at the 15 minute mark that I wish the light would go off, and now it does. It is like Lutron is a marriage counselor, magic genie, environmental activist, and mind reader in one little package.

Lutron is running a discount code through the end of October if you want to get in on the magic. You get 25% off Maestro occupancy/vacancy sensor dimmers and switches on LutronStore.com PLUS one free Claro single-gang wallplate ($4.90 suggested list price) with each qualifying item. Enter the coupon code wholeftthelightson.

Have any questions? I would love to answer them!

This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Lutron. All opinions are my own.

MaskCara’s Office Source List

By Mandi | 09/25/2013 | 21 Comments

So many treasures so little time my friends. Lets get started! Oh, but first I feel like I need a little bit of a disclaimer. One of the things that I love/hate about being such a hardcore thrifter is that so many of these fun items that really make the room arent readily available. The plus side is that the room is one of a kind, the down side is that if you want something,well you are sort of screwed.

For this post, I am going to be sharing all of the shopping sources. If there is something that is not listed it is because its a project and the tutorial is on its way!

It is a little hard to tell in the pictures how small Cara’s room is. It had to have a couch (or some sort of seating) but a regular sized loveseat would have literally taken up 1/2 of the room. For weeks I scoured every source imaginable and came up short. Then one night at 2 am I found an ad on Craigslist for her settee. It was at an Antique store in (what we very lovingly refer to as) the dirty strip club labyrinth. Unless you know EXACTLY where to turn, every road leads to herpes.

The store is called Not Just Antiques and it.was.AMAZING. If you are in Vegas, it is a must stop. There were 3 or 4 sofas/chairs that would have worked wonderfully in her room. But after seeing the settee, we knew it was meant to be for $200. The matching item in the picture was a set of chairs.

While we were there we found a whole multitude of treasures. Like the card catalog for organizing all of Cara’s makeup for $350

The amazing crystal art deco chandelier for $120. The cord was miniscule and needed to be attached to something longer. After wiring them together I covered the entire thing with duct tape to 1. hide the ugly electrical tape. And 2. to make it look like it was intentional. Its like magic yo.

a bunch of vintage and antique beauty items like these lovelies:

and just like when you are Christmas shopping for everyone else, you have to get something for yourself too. So I bought this awesome Kilim rug that has been gracing a few room shots lately.

The trick to getting great prices at stores like this is to play my favorite game Lets Make a Deal (I have a whole post written on the art of negotiating here)

Cara LOVES Kevyn Aucoin. Like border line stalker love. So we framed the cover of his book Making Faces. The little bike picture is one of her favorite quotes. Both frames are from Homegoods. The plywood pinwheel art was a DIY (it is SO GOOD right?!) and the tutorial will be going up on Friday so you can make your own! Pillows from left to right are Nate Berkus for Target, Homegoods and Homegoods. The throw is also Homegoods.

The wicker table was a thrift score treasure that I found for $15. Tutorial coming for the makeover.

Books are thrift store, lace potter is Homegoods and the succulent is from Home Depot. The rug is from (you guessed it) Homegoods. The brass lamp was another thrift store score for $20

The original plan was not to put in drapes, but it was just needing something so Cara picked up these blue velvet ones from Ikea for $59.00. The silver antlers (just like the ones I am giving away!!) are Homegoods, and the Vogue cover was printed online.

The assortment of boxes and jars are mostly thift store finds that were painted a different color. The purple jar and the bird art are from Homegoods. As well as the hexagon mirror, qtip jars, mirrored box, star, wooden inlay box, and flying pig. Miracle the barstool gets a post all his own really soon. The blush mirror I had in my hoard after taking down the Wall o Mirrors. The geode string art tutorial is right here if you want to replicate that project.

Try framing wrapping paper for a quick punch of pattern. This wrapping paper was purchased at The Container Store.

All of the supplies for the industrial pipe shelving were purchased at Lowes (tutorial coming for that!) A few of you have asked about the price and if I remember correctly, it is around $600 for all of the supplies.

One of my favorite ways to really infuse specific colors into a space without making it too “Look at me! I am trying to make the room look more pink!” is to use books that are the colors you want. (I also did this in Hailee’s Living Room with teal.) Make sure too look behind the cover protectors to see what really lies beneath. Is Cara really going to read “A Smart Girls Guide To Sports”? Um..no. BUT it is the perfect shade of pale pink, so it stays.

If you need a neutral, try flipping the books so that the spines are facing the wall, or take off the covers for a worn Restoration Hardware vibe. (Geode from Homegoods)

Obviously if I could only shop at 2 stores it would be a thrift store and Homegoods, the key to creating a room design that looks collected, is to collect. Find things that you love and store them until they have the perfect home. Your husband might not love it, but sometimes he has to take one for the team.

If you have a specific question about an item, leave a comment and I will be more than happy to answer it for you!

Dont forget to enter to win the MaskCara’s Office in a Box giveaway. Just imagine, a HUGE box of treasures so that you can recreate this room design in your house! Enter here.

MaskCara’s Office in a Box Giveaway

By Mandi | 09/23/2013 | 30 Comments

I think that this is one of my favorite giveaways of all time. I hope you guys feel the same way!! Last week I showed you MaskCara’s brand new office (it is one of my favorite rooms EVER!! Check it out if you havent already!)

Today you have a chance to win MaskCara’s Office in a Box. I mean, of course not her real office, but a whole bunch of amazing treasures that have the same Industrial Glam as her rockin office.

All through the weekend I have been sharing sneak peeks of what is inside on Facebook and Instagram. If you happen to have missed them, here they are again (plus a few more…)

So fun right?!

I have something really fun and top secret going on at my house today, cant wait to tell you guys all about it!

Enter the Rafflecopter below to have your shot!

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