Fake or quality brass? My first mean comment!

I can cross something of my blog list!

I received my first mean comment and here it is:

One more time in case the screenshot doesn't load:

"In my opinion, you took a few thousand dollars worth of quality brass lamps and turned them into cheap looking junk."

If you are wondering which post this comment belongs to, it was left on my painting brass lamps post.

Click here to see it.

First off I need to say that my feelings were not hurt and I'm not angry either. But I do feel like I have to reply to it, not only in the reply box under his comment, but officially with this post.

So here it goes:

Dear Thom,

I don't know how you can tell in my photos that these are quality brass lamps but what I do know is that you appear to find things in the blogosphere that you do not like, so you can comment on it. I on the other hand like to find things on blogs that I like or love and comment on it. I try to seek out the positive things. Why do you feel the need to leave a rude comment?

Especially since you can in no way tell by my photos if those nonfunctioning, disheveled lamps are actually brass.

Let me demonstrate something to you with this photo:

Do you see all the items stuck to the lamps? Well they are my children's magnets! What does that mean?
Magnets do not stick to "quality" solid brass since brass isn't magnetic. This shows you that these lamps are brass plated metal.

So let me tell you, I didn't ruin thousands of dollars worth of quality brass but I chose to paint magnetic metal. Do you have a problem with that too?

And just to clarify/justify my other brass projects like my shelf. See in this picture, the magnets stick as well:

Now see my little owl in the next photo?

The magnets do not stick!!! It's solid brass and guess what? I didn't paint it, because if you would have been following my blog, then you would actually know that I have developed quite the love for "quality" brass and embraced it in my home. I would definitely not want to paint it.

Here are also some more of my blog posts that declare my love for "quality" brass. Click here if you want to see them!

Like this lovely quality brass dresser (image via 1dbibs)

Or this stylish room with quality brass accessories (image via Greg Natale)

One more thing, even if I would have painted "quality" brass, there is such a thing as paint strippers, which would restore the former beauty of a painted brass piece.

I'd certainly be willing to strike a deal with you and personally strip the lamps again, so I could sell you the "quality" brass pieces for thousands of dollars.

After all, this is in the eye of the beholder.

Have a wonderful day Thom.

Cursed Corner Brass Bookshelf

So I finally wrapped up and finished the brass shelf in my "cursed corner". (The shelf was brass plated metal by the way, NOT solid quality brass. Click here if you want to see.)

If you haven't been reading along and are wondering why I call it the cursed corner, let me explain again.

This project started with the fact that I wanted to replace this Ikea shelf in my living room:

My children did a number on it with their toy baskets. I was also bothered by the fact that no big books and decor items fit into the cubbies. It's just a big bulky square that I originally chose for it's abilities to store my toddlers toys and to be able to get screwed into the walls for safety.

Well my kids aren't toddlers anymore and I was so ready for a change and when I spotted this 80's brass and glass shelf at the auction I knew I could turn it into something that I would love. It has the perfect size. I bought it for $35! Great price!

original auction website photo

Now it appears a simple project, right? Remove Ikea Expedit shelf and put up brass shelf. That's what I thought too but it just ended up being such a hassle.
I had screwed the Expedit to the wall and cut the molding to fit it in. I also painted around it several times. So there was a big mess to clean up and fix.

 I think everything that could go wrong went wrong from this point on and a small project turned out to be a long process. Did that ever happen to you?

• I cut the molding wrong several times and had to run back and forth to Home Depot to get more
• I lost the original screws to the brass shelf on one of those runs because I wanted to replace several stripped ones. Of course they were metric and hard to find
• I cut my foot on the half finished floor molding and I was barely able to walk.
• Lowes mixed the paint wrong that I used to paint over the messy wall, so I had to paint a second time.
• I wanted to build chunky white shelves. Yeah how about those? Do you remember? Well I changed my mind after finding out how much the lumber was and I couldn't find a cheap alternative. I was thinking the white Ikea Lack floating shelf, but they weren't deep enough. Why spend extra money if I had perfect glass shelves? So I did a little somethin' somethin' with them. I'll explain later.
• And last but not least: Fixing the shiny brass on the frame. I really didn't want it to be shiny. I wanted the golden look of the mirror that I have hanging over my small secretary desk. I bought Rub 'n Buff. Which took quite some time to get to my house and it wasn't as easy to apply as I had expected.  

So this post is to explain what I did to get rid of the shiny brass and what I did to the glass shelves.

I used my $1 brass bookends as guinea pigs.

My first try was to just take the sheen of the brass and maybe have it age naturally. Well the sheen didn't come off and I tried several potent things. I tried lacquer thinner (paint thinner) and even heavy duty stripper right onto the frame but nothing worked. The shiny brass remained.

Then I moved to the Rub 'n Buff. I tried to apply it right to the brass and it got blotchy and uneven. I have seen several bloggers do that and for them it worked. For me not so much.
Check out Kelly @ViewAlongTheWay's brass Rub n' Buff lamp makeover here or my silhouette giveaway winner Andrea @OakRidgeRevival's brass Rub n' Buff lamp makeover here. Their lamps look great. My shelf is in the cursed corner though so it didn't work for me and this is what the finish looked like for me. I tried diluting it with deglosser but didn't like the results. I even sprayed the shiny brass with a mat clear coat and I tried liquid leaf. NO likey likey either.

The left side shows the blotchy Rub n' Buff, the right side shows the mat clear coat

This is 2 coats of Rub n' Buff on the actual frame. Very uneven!

I had researched Rub 'n Buff on other blogs and the stand out blog for it is the queen of Rub 'n Buff Sammy from ReNew ReDo. She has used it on all kinds of surfaces. Check out her ideas and Q&A here but she also mentions that shiny brass is tricky and that Rub n' Buff doesn't work well with it.

So I ended up priming the frame with metal primer spray paint. The first time I didn't wait the full 48 hour drying time and the Rub n' Buff ate away the paint. So I had to fix the primer again.

 BUT finally the Rub n' Buff stuck to the frame. Yippie!

It was hard to understand for my husband why I primed the gold shelf frame to just paint it gold again. Haha, but he doesn't need to understand it ;)

Now we come to the glass shelves and this is where the bracelet from yesterday's post comes into place. I loved the jade and gold of the bracelet. Since the glass was tinted green, I decided to try painting the underside of each glass white to bring out the tint. It worked! And I really like it. It doesn't mean that I might not change them out for my first choice, the chunky white shelves, down the road, but for now I'm really happy with this result. I used water based primer to paint the shelves.

Sorry for the bad photo but it was late and dark outside!

After this long post (if you made it through the entire rambling) you can understand why a seemingly easy project turned out to be such a long process.

And the hubby doesn't think that the shelf is hideous anymore. He said: "I never pictured it looking like this!" and I'm doing a happy dance. Mission accomplished!

I finally like my "cursed corner".
What do you think?
(Next I will have some small projects coming up with the new white picture frames and the $1 brass bookends)

Sharing at:

Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday
DIY by Design - Winter Blues Wednesdays
The Trendy Treehouse - Create and Share
Primp Juntion - Primp Your Stuff

Who has a hard time with change?

I started to fix the wall where I wanted to change out the book shelf. Let me tell you. It appears like a simple change but of course when it seems so easy it ends up being a major annoyance. It's just one of those projects where everything went wrong. The molding broke, the wall isn't straight, I cut my toes (badly) on the molding, I lost the original screws to the shelf, Lowes mixed the wall color wrong and I had to paint twice, I couldn't find Rub-N-Buff locally....bla bla bla. I think you get it, right? The list could actually go on and on.

Sorry for the bad light on the photos, it was late.
You can see the damage where the kids slid out their baskets all the time.

This is just a practice run with only some of the glass shelves to see if the new screws will hold the contraption.

I know for sure that I want to dull the shiny brass. I don't like it at all. I tried to dull it with lacquer thinner since that is what was recommended on another website, but it didn't work. This shelf is brass plated and not solid brass. I envision it with a mat gold finish and chunky white shelves.

Now for the shelving part. I was hoping to be able to just use some Ikea Lack shelves but they aren't deep enough. Then I went to Home Depot and Lowes to see what the lumber would cost to make some chunky shelves myself and it would end up being way over $100, which I don't want to spend right now. I'm going to continue to search to see if I can come up with a cheaper solution for my white chunky shelves.
First I'll focus on making the brass dull.

The hubby asked me yesterday in a very annoyed voice why on earth I would rip out the perfect shelves (by the way they were totally beat up) and replace them with something so hideous. Poor Jarrid, he just doesn't do well with change. Never did! But that's exactly what I need...CHANGE! It's still undetermined if it's a good change but I'm doing it regardless. Haha! I have the vision but I'm not sure if I'll get to achieve it. I'll try. Do you ever feel like that?

If all fails, I'll strip the brass and make it silver.

To the right of the shelving, I'm going to paint a painting on a canvas that has been sitting in my basement for years. My husband isn't happy about that either. That actually cracks me up because you should take a look what was hanging there before.

Yes, a male nude painting by Jonas Gerard. When I brought it home from an auction years ago, he was kind of mad and asked me where on earth I was planning on hanging that "thing" (his finger extended and pointing at the "thing"). He so wasn't feeling the living room placement. He told me that he doesn't want to look at (giggle) a penis every day.
And now several years later, like I said before, he just can't bare the change.

Him: "Where did you put that painting?"
Me: "Oh, I didn't know that you liked the penis painting that much?"

Silence...

Change is bad, very very bad for him.

There was actually a time when I covered the "thing' with a starched cheese cloth. Yeah, you heard right! But I didn't want kids that returned to their parents after play dates to tell them that we had inappropriate artwork in our living room. Can you imagine?

Truth is, I was sick of looking at the "thing". It's not even a nice looking "thing"! Not that those "things" are nice looking anyway...Alright this got a little weird. I'll stop. I'm still keeping the "thing"-painting in my hoard though. It's not going anywhere as of now.

Do any of you have another alternative on how to dull the brass plating without stripping it? Let me know. I'm waiting for the Rub-N-Buff to finally come in the mail, so I can try that.

Tschüss

Brasselicious!

If you are following my facebook page, you saw the brass and glass shelf that I wanted to buy at the auction. Well, I bought it for $35. And if you would have told me a couple of years ago that I would be interested in buying a fugly brass shelf again one day, I would have told you that you are completely insane. Lots of would haves isn't it? Haha!

Well SOME brass has been growing on me again, as is quite evident.

I never got rid of my gold Christmas balls since I always loved to mix gold and silver and then last year the gold chevron lamp shades came into the house. I bought the $25 chrome and brass coffee table and I have been seriously obsessed with brass animals. And lets talk about the Target Nate Berkus gold decorations. I bought the gold sea urchin, the brass hammered bowl and I love the gold vases from his line too.

And I have to say that I'm smitten with this bathroom that I discovered on Pinterest.
I want to do something just like it in the worst way. It is perfection!

image via Greg Natale

image via Greg Natale

image via Greg Natale

 Isn't all the white and gold just delicious? Love it!

I want to replace the white Ikea shelf by the fireplace with this larger open brass shelf from the auction. I have been wanting to put an open shelf on that wall because we have a air vent on that wall that is kind of getting blocked by the current shelf.

original auction photo

I have been contemplating a couple of possibilities for this shelf.

• Should I dull the gold (I'm still not too thrilled about the shininess)? The Nate vases have the perfect shade of gold. That's how I'd like to have the shelf.
• A part of me still wants to strip the gold completely and reveal the silver metal underneath.
• Should I replace the glass shelving with white shelves?

I know that all of the above options would look good in our living room.
I'm leaning towards dulling the shine of the gold and making white shelves instead of the glass ones.
I'm hopefully going to start this small project during the Christmas break.
So what do you think? Fill me in!

Vintage 1965 Thomasville Chairs

How was your weekend? Mine was spent at wrestling again. Saturday and Sunday!
The kids were excited that it was finally the first of December and they could start opening their advent calendars. When my son was a toddler I actually had a homemade calendar with 24 individually wrapped presents. Now that my kids are older and in the Lego craze, all they want is a Lego calendar. Star Wars for Noa and Lego Friends for Lilly.
The only thing that bothers me about the calendars is that it makes them get up earlier to open their next door, haha! But they are special memories and I cherish them.

Today I want to share a project with you. A while ago I purchased these two 1965 vintage Thomasville chairs.

I really like the curves in their shape and of course my first instinct was to paint them white once again with a turquoise damask fabric but then I saw this fun, multi-colored striped fabric and remembered my favorite orange color that I had left in the garage. And voila this is what I came up with after the usual sanding, cleaning and priming.

The upholstering was a little tricky, because I had to keep the stripes perfectly straight.

I love them I think they are fun. Aren't they? I can picture them in a kids room, at a small bistro table in a kitchen or maybe in an all white or plain office where they'd stand out.
They will be available in my Etsy store soon. I think I want to take some more nice photos first.

LOVE this fabric, don't you?

Talk to on Wednesday,

linking up to:

Primitive and Propper
Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday

Holy Lamps they are big!

My mom is gone and I was in a serious funk yesterday afternoon. It is hard for me to talk/write about this, especially since I know my dad reads my post (Hallo Vadder!). Every time I voice how sad this makes me, my parents think I'm unhappy or ready to get a divorce, which is not the case. I'm just stuck between two countries and missing my family so much, but that doesn't mean I hate it here. Do you somewhat understand what I mean or do I make no sense?

Anyways, lets get down to business...my bloggy friends on Facebook already know that I've been eyeing up these lamps. Well yesterday morning I finally went and bought them. I saw them for the first time when I went to look at a wing back chair and the guy selling it just unloaded them from his truck. I dropped everything and asked him what he wanted for them. He told me $40 each. Woah! I asked him if he could do less and he said no.

I decided to not get them, because I knew the hubby wouldn't be too happy with another set of lamps and they were way too expensive. The shades need some serious work.

They stuck with me and I couldn't get them out of my head. They kept popping up on craigslist and after 3 weeks they were down to $15 for the pair. Nobody wanted them. Are they crazy? Or am I? Haha!

So my mom and I before she headed to the airport stopped by his house and bought them. She liked them as much as I did and the price made it easy.

So here they are. Turquoise and Gold Hollywood Regency Gigantors!

Yuck, look at those shades. The scale is awesome but they need some serious work.

And look how huge they are compared to my chairs. They are bigger than my 6 year old daughter.

They read f.L. Co. 1963.

They remind me of the show "Bewitched". I used to watch that show in Germany all the time and maybe that's why my mom and I liked the lamps. And the guy I bought them from (he is actually really nice) said that his aunt who passed way said the same thing. That's the reason why she loved these lamps so much. So maybe it was meant to be?

Now that i have them at home, I have to admit that they dwarf everything else in my house. They are THAT huge! I have ideas in my head on what to do with them but some of those ideas will (for sure) not work in my home.

My thoughts right now are that they would look phenomenal at my sister-in-laws house. I mentioned her living room (that I painted a couple of years ago) in an older post. Here it is again and sorry for the quality, it's one of her iPhone photos. I need to go over to her house and take pictures.

Wouldn't they look cool in her circus living room? I think so! If you ever get a chance check out her bakery "Vegan Treats". The bakery has been named one of the World's 10 best bakeries by "Departures", an American Express magazine. How cool is that? And if you are vegan then I'm sure you've heard about her already, right?

I think I'll have to let them sit somewhere for a little to think about it. I call it brew and stew in my head.

What do guys think? Please do tell!

Talk to you on Friday. I've worked on a Christmas project that I'd like to share with you.

Bis bald.