little red fox

what mimi wore--my vintage shop--now open for business! (finally)

At long last! My vintage shop What Mimi Wore is up and running! This is something I've wanted to do for a very long time and finally got around to it. Whew. This is a very large item to cross off my to-do list. 

It will be a highly curated mix of both ladies clothes...

...and shoes...

 ...of varying eras...

...and also some fun home goods-type stuff... 

...all inspired by my gorgeous, fashion-plate grandmother, Mimi.

(This is Mimi with my mom, Betty, the tiny Cupie doll in a bow tie.)

She understood thrift better than anybody I've ever known. She was a child of the depression, and strangely--a generation removed--her varied thrifty ways have affected me profoundly. She was college-educated which was incredibly rare for that time period and that part of the country, but she was also an incredible homemaker: a seriously wonderful cook and gardener, an incredibly organized and detail-oriented person in terms of housekeeping (she ironed her sheets). That house was managed like she got a major paycheck for it--she was like Martha Stewart because she could do it all and do it all well. She was an intelligent and capable woman who learned how to make do--but she always had a real sense of personal style and pride in her appearance. All this in spite of being a Mississippi farmer's daugher and certainly never in her life a wealthy woman. She always looked absolutely fantastic and always did it on a very modest budget.

I know there's no shortage of vintage-type shops, especially on Etsy, but this was something I really wanted to do and when it hit me how much of it was actually about Mimi...it seemed even better :)  

I'll be continuing to list more items over the next few days and after that, my goal will be to list new items at the end of every week, depending on what I find. 

I'm also slightly over the moon to have an official excuse to hit up my favorite local thrift and antique shops :)

 

before and after: the mantle project

We are very lucky that, as renters, we have been allowed--by very generous home-owners it must be said--to make this house feel like a home. They are very laid back, artsy people who are not afraid of paint or wall-paper or color. That doesn't happen very often :) 

When we moved in, they had recently repainted the entire thing white, top-to-bottom for the purpose of renting it so we had on our hands a big white box. As a lover of color, I couldn't wait to get some paint on the walls. Of course I was too impatient to get any pics before the paint job but the first thing we did--the VERY first thing we did--was get paint on the walls. 

No before pics=impatient. So bad. 

So we painted. Which helped. But it still felt so undone.

The problem was that the fireplace was kind of funny--just sort of stuck into the wall unceremoniously. With the darker wall color, it disappeared in a weird way. Obviously it had to have a mantle. My dream was a giant chunk of reclaimed, beat-up, 8x8 railroad tie or something similar. However, this wall was not going to support something that heavy. About 3 feet behind the fireplace is a hallway and it appears that it is just empty space inbetween two drywalls. So it had to be lighter and it also had to happen immediately.

See? So impatient.

I googled "DIY mantle" and found this blog post, RAN to my local home improvement store and got very serious for the next few hours.  

Her blog post gives good detailed instructions but to sum up--after putting the pieces together, I beat it up good to give it a worn, aged appearance. I'm sure I could have taken the time to locate some lumber cast-offs but I really felt strongly about getting it done that day. 

I think this is a good time to mention that I'm not sure if I've ever built anything out of wood. Aside from very basic frames in painting classes, I'd say pretty much nothing. Especially nothing meant to be pretty and functional. Diving in was my only option! So, I dove. 

I assembled it, filled the grooves with putty, stained it with two coats of Minwax's Special Walnut (which would be a great name for a pet, incidentally), called my dad twice to make sure what I was doing even made sense and somehow it did, polyurethaned it, let it dry overnight and up on the wall it went first thing the next morning. (I attached a 1x2 to the wall, then attached the mantle to that.)

Makes a profound difference.

 

And! The color/texture of the mantle also inspired me to solve the mystery box on the left. The house was built in 1991 when entertainment systems where shaped very differently. So these boxes you see on the left would have worked wonderfully with your giant box-shaped TV, your VCR and your video collection. I mean...ugh. 

We started by building the sliding shelf for our giant modern TV using plywood, heavy-duty drawer sliders, and a piece of trim. 

But I could not figure out what to do with the box-space on top. Some friends said a sculpture, and I considered making something I could hang from the top like oh, I don't know, maybe a mini hot-air balloon installation! What? A little too obvious? 

It went months sitting there unfinished before it occurred to me that it needed to connect with the other side of the wall and still not feel "too important." 

I think wood is pretty much always a good solution. I love looking at wood and I love what it does to a space: instantly makes it earthy and accessible and warm and un-fancies everything.

 

The clock is from West Elm and the wonderful wooden owl is from my mother-in-law. 

 

Kinda fools you even close-up :)

Next step: framing out the rest of the fireplace. Coming soon!

(sorta) before and after: the ottoman project

Here she is. Lady Labor of Love. 

The problem is that I forgot to take a picture of the before... but I want to tell you that it was hideous. This thing is about 2 feet across and it was covered all around in a dirty, apple-green/pucey velveteen. There was a lot of wrong that happened in the 70s but these strange velveteen colors are tough to take. 

You can see a glimpse of it here:

A terrifying piece of furniture. And it was but one small equation of what was a big ol' sectional. However...it was free. Like the iron chairs from the last post--it was also a cast-off from a movie set that needed a home, so I brought it here to a home that needed an ottoman!

Pros: $0! It's on wheels! Seemed to be a fairly straighforward upholstery project. 

Cons: Puce. The cost of fabric. Turns out it was NOT a straightforward upholstery project. {Though I think I am realizing that 1) there are no straightforward upholstery projects (except *maybe* slip seats); and 2) all good upholsterers are American Heroes.} 

My first step was finding a way to deal with the fabric issue. So far the project had cost me $0 so it would be ideal to keep it that way. I thought about doing some sort of sophisticated patchwork from my fabric stash; somewhat in this vein. But I didn't have enough fabrics that looked to be in the same world to make it look anything less than chaotic once they were all together. Sure, I could have thrifted some but aside from denim (which I don't love on furniture in general) or suiting wools (which I didn't want to pay to dry clean), I felt like it was a potential waste of time looking for approximately 2 1/2 yards (I was guessing) of similar-enough fabrics.

I also felt like I needed something kind of bold and graphic to off-set the traditional rugs, and pull in the navy I had both in the dining room and on the living room wall. On hand, I had some off-white cotton duck and some left-over paint from painting the dining room set and there it was: I'll just paint the dang fabric myself.  

With no other real plan than watching the William Powell marathon on TCM, off I went. I disassembled the rather upsetting puce velveteen to make a pattern and got just enough to get the thing covered.

The fit was really challenging. Which is code for it looked horrible and I had to re-do it 83 times, almost quit altogether a few times, cussed a ton including yelling at the ceiling, hurt two fingers, and cried once.

But here she is.

I've had thoughts of going back and painting a little more to adjust the colors somewhat but it'll do for now! The good thing about it is that though it was covered in a criminal fabric, it was built really well so you can sit on it, kick it around, put your feet up on it but also set drinks and food on it--everything I wanted it to be.

Including being $0 :)

 

before and after: stylish dining (set)

Hello and happy pretend winter! It's so wonderful I'm almost afraid to talk about it in case it isn't real--but its been spring-like so far this winter. I believe in magic and unicorns now. This totally reminds me of the ultra-mild New Orleans winters and it's blissing me out. I know it probably means the world is ending but is it bad if I still like it?

On with the show...If you're a reader of this blog then you probably know that I love entertaining. I love planning the menu, I love a thematic cocktail, I love cooking and all kitchen doo-dads and accessories, I love setting the table and dishes and linens and silverware and glasses and mixing and matching all the goodies involved. So when we moved to our new house in September in the Hudson Valley, the very first room I focused on--of my absolutely epic To-Do list for allll my Re-Do projects--was the dining room. I think most people would probably start with a bedroom or a living room and that would make much more sense. But subconsciously I think I felt that if I could have a dinner party--just knowing it was a possibility however unfinished the house was--it would start to feel like a home for me. 

I think I've also mentioned that we were doing this on a Budget Among Budgets. As in, the ideal price was $0. And while I did score a bunch of free stuff on Craigslist and other sources (which you'll be seeing soon), this set was not quite free. But it was close! We got the 8-foot table (including the leaf), a buffet and 6 chairs for $100. We had to drive to the Poconos but let's just label that an adventure and call it a day. One does what one must :)  

Hideous. It's not completely clear from the picture but unlike the table top (because why would you ever want to match the table top to the bottom of the table?), the legs are a light yellow/cream with green edging. (Those are the terrifying chairs in the background, btw.) 

And the buffet. All I knew was it had potential, and it was within our budget. The only two things I could afford to care about!  

C'est voila!

Holes refilled, both pieces completely sanded, both pieces painted 2-3 coats and both pieces polyurethaned (3 coats), hardware replaced, and many days later--our new dining room. 

Both pieces were painted in Benjamin Moore's "Soot." I have to admit, I wasn't expecting the navy aspects of this color. Though I love it--I did expect more of an off-black or charcoal color. I love the calm, moodiness of it. Especially with the light art on the walls and the colorful glassware popping off the darker surface... 

Strangely enough (or perhaps not), the look I have been into is what I'm calling "Victorian Gothic Natural History Museum Vintage Glam." Ahem :) I know, I know, it's a little on the nose...but you can't be anywhere other than where you're at! And here's where I'm at!

Most everything you see was thrifted, or found at an estate sale. Terrarium made by me (whole post to come on those later)...

...vintage juice glasses (which we use for wine) given to me by my parents, cocktail glasses found at a thrift store...

...and a mix of wedding gifts and thrift store finds. 

I started to paint the chairs from the set the same color and reupholster them but not only were they incredibly hard to cover, I could't find any fabric that I liked that was affordable. I still have an idea of what I'd like and one day might get back around to doing them, but for now, we have 4 different mismatched wooden chairs which I quite like, and two incredible cast iron chairs scored for free from a movie set! 

I love these guys. I'd love them if I paid for them! I love them at either end of the dining table but they'll probably one day be replaced by some high back upholstered chairs. Either way they'll always be somewhere in my house. 

 

The lantern (below) is a work in progress as well. I saw a fancy, high-end version on Apartment Therapy and have been slooowly aquiring vintage crocheted doilies to make my version. I deeply, deeply hate track lighting so my plan is to distract your eye away from it somehow (and maybe one day replace it). I'm thinking this lantern isn't quite right for this space but it'll probably work somewhere else in the house once I'm done...

The "bar" as it were is a shelf that we found on the sidewalk in Brooklyn and painted, then added some hardware to hold glasses upside down (what are those called??). The fur box holds table linens. I'm on the lookout for something fun to go on top of it...any ideas welcome!

 

And the centerpiece(s)...

...are constantly evolving and changing but for now its thrifted lace pieces, thrifted mixed glass candlesticks, an amethyst cluster, lotus root flowers in a vintage ball jar, and antlers. The beautiful silver branch candlesticks were a wedding gift--one of my very favorites... 

I'd love to one day get a rug for underneath the table but until then--we've had numerous dinners with friends here and it all works beautifully. It gives me such a crazy-good feeling because we re-used and recycled and worked within our limitations, we saved a bunch of money and though it was hard work--multiple coats of both paint and polyurethane isn't as easy as I had hoped!--I absolutely love that feeling of looking at something and knowing I did it, I'm the only one who will have it just like this, and it's personalized in a way nothing mass-produced from a store could ever be. 

That said I am so sick of painting/gluing/stapling things the thought makes me want to start crying. 

Coming up: a successful re-upholstery project! (...Of which there sadly weren't many...live and learn!) Also: pickling! And art!