I’ve mentioned my Nakshima love before….swoon….
I think that a piece of live edge lumber is in my future….I have a cunning plan to pay homage to the master. Stay tuned.
The Regal Beagle really needs these to go with..no?
Lottery Pick
Author: ModFruGal
Switcheroo
Much better. I had planned to create a photo wall above the buffet, but didn’t like how the others were working with Blurb’s photo. I’ve had this Walter Inglis Anderson print for years and decided it needed a facelift. New frames can be as fulfilling as a new paint job in a room…it changes everything.
Southerners know Walter Anderson..especially in the Delta, but if you haven’t heard of him…check him out. The Museum is still struggling to save much of the work damaged in Hurricane Katrina, and the best variety of his work is sold by his family here.  I’ve been toying with getting a print of one of my old favorites…Water Spouts, but in looking around, I noticed Wild Orchid, which I hadn’t remembered seeing before. The nature drawings have always been my favorites and I truly love so many of them.
Coffee Table
I found this coffee table in Fairview for $30 and just knew, despite its problems, I could make it work. It was covered in rings from drink glasses and had what appeared to be some ink in the wood as well. It didn’t have to be perfect since I needed it for the playroom…and it would get treated harshly. From Uno to Lego, this table would provide what we lacked so now…how to get it cleaned up? I somehow sensed that sanding alone would not solve my problems (and it didn’t) so I turned to the net for answers.
Oxalic acid is what I needed….4 out of 5 DIY dorks like me seemed to think that this stuff can take the stains out of almost any wood. I could order it online….but was determined to find it locally. I head out to Lowes and start reading labels…I was about to give up when I spotted the deck cleaning section and, lo and behold…Deck cleaner is primarily composed of…..oh yeah, oxalic acid. I grab a gallon and rush home with unrealistic visions of having it finished by nightfall.
Having already sanded it the day before, all I had to do was:
1) apply an acid/water solution to the stains
2) let sit for 30 minutes
3) then rinse, and seal once the wood dried back out.
Well, in the end I treated the stains with 4 different solutions of acid to water, strengthening it each time until I finally just put the deck cleaner on the stains neat. THAT finally did the trick..but to be cautious, I’d spent hours getting to that realization. To seal the table, I had bought both tung oil and linseed oil and decided to go with the linseed in the end. The wood looks great and I’m probably going to put another coat of linseed oil on in a few days after the other coats truly soak in. Well worth the effort…I think the Playmobil knights and pirates agree.
Trestles v. Sawhorses
What timing! I just had to point out the Tolix Trestles in this afternoon’s post on Remodelista. $595 v. $50 for 2 trestles (posted earlier today). Yes…theirs are chic, sleek and French with no bolts showing..but the legs don’t adjust from dining to coffee table height, now do they?  Both are powder coated steel. If I’m paying $1200 for a complete table…I don’t want it to look even CLOSE to something that might get done for $75. There is always this danger with an industrial chic look. Designer v. Down and Dirty… you decide…just sayin’.
Poor Man’s Patio
I’ve bemoaned my current outdoor living situation…or really, the lack thereof, before. Until now…we only had 4 small chairs and 2 of my water heater tables on the small deck outside the kitchen. We hadn’t reassembled the back deck yet since Phil/lipa is STILL on the prowl (don’t EVEN get me started.) The point is, we had ample space, but nothing organized for outdoor entertaining. I had houseguests coming for a week and the weather here was unseasonably pleasant for late August/early September. We HAD to have a place for us all to hang comfortably outside and I only had a few days to get it figured out.
Since we were not yet sporting a new deck or patio…I needed to make one…fast and cheap, because anything I do will be bulldozed when the real landscaping begins. There was a flat area just beyond the deck off the kitchen that was nothing more than mud and stones with a few weeds thrown in. This, was the perfect spot for my poor man’s patio.
I bought 15 bales of pine straw for about $65 and started spreading it around to create the floor of my “patio”. I sprayed some weed killer before I put it down (and it needs another round already.) I loved it. It kept the mud from getting tracked in, and made a kind of “soft” floor for us to enjoy. I didn’t have an outdoor dining table anymore and we were adamant that we dine a-fresco in the glorious weather. I figured it was time to go for the industrial approach.  Material list – very simple: Powder coated metal sawhorses ($25 each-adjustable height legs a MUST) and plywood picked up from Home Depot. My Crafty Counterpart connected 3 pieces of plywood together to get the length we wanted and bolted it down to the sawhorses for stability – they come undone just as quickly for disassembly.
In order to hide the lovely plywood, I get a big roll of chocolate brown burlap from JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts. I’ve been using burlap for outdoor table coverings for years…cheap, easy and customizable. If you buy a bolt of it ($3.00/yard) then it doesn’t matter how long your table is…just keep rolling it out and cut to size. If you want to get fancy, fray your edges by pulling out the last few rows of thread..it gives it a much more finished look. I ran out of time, so no fancy for me this round.
I found some chairs at the flea market last spring for $7 each and they’ve been sitting in the garage, waiting for their debut. They came from a church in Evansville, Indiana and they were perfect for the Regal Beagle’s yard. Plastic seats, metal legs and surprisingly comfortable – SOLD. I bought all 11 he had. Some have paint spatters, but luckily, I didn’t need that many right now so I could save that project for another day. That’s it. Instant dining area.
I had some furniture that needed work, but was still usable with a few cushions. I scrounged in the attic to find some old cushions to throw on the broken metal Woodards and then, we were ready to chillax in the yard. And chillax we did, while watching our friends the owls do a little evening hunting. It’s not pretty…it’s more like the Regal Beagle goes Redneck, but it was just the ticket. Sometimes function simply must trump form. As we sat out in the moonlight, listening to the cicadas in the forest, I didn’t care how ugly it was…and neither did my guests.
Stejnar v. Maskros
I always wanted an Emil Stejnar chandelier for my last house, and the funny thing is that the pricing was all over the shop for those a few years ago…I could find them on e-bay with a single broken flower for about $400…so I figured if I sleuthed enough…maybe I could get a good deal on one without broken glass…although, with all those flowers, a single broken one could easily go undetected. I was hopeful.
Then something happened…I missed the watershed moment, but Kelly Wearstler or some other wildly popular designer from a few years back must have featured one, because, for the past couple of years..this is what they are going for:
Stejnar is all wrong for the Regal Beagle, too formal…but Ikea has felt our pain once again and offered up their new Maskros. The shelter blogs went nuts for this when it was unveiled in Europe a few months ago…but I hate to feature anything you can’t get your hands on yet, so, I waited until it showed up here. Sure, it’s paper, not Austrian glass, but a great look on a budget. If I were trying to pull it off in a more formal setting, I’d group several of them at different heights and the drama of that alone would distract many from the fact that your statement chandelier is paper! Tord Boontje has been doing very well for years now with his paper chandeliers/pendants at the same price point, so why not Ikea?
