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>> 7.22.2014

I started this little blog nine months ago, and today I hit the 10,000 page view mark! It's a small milestone, but I don't have any grand intentions with this blog other than to share my projects and ideas to anyone who will listen, so the fact that my blog has been viewed over ten thousand times is an honor.

Knowing that I would be hitting that milestone soon, I started thinking about what I could do as a thank you to those of you that follow my blog. I thought about all sorts of stuff but nothing felt right, and then it hit me. What do I love to do more than anything, and what do I love to share on my blog more than anything? Thrifting!

So here's the deal. Leave me a comment telling me what your favorite blog post of mine has been, and on Saturday I will randomly choose a winner from those who comment. The lucky winner will receive.....drumroll please....... a treasure that I have found (or will find) on my thrift store hunts! I don't know what it is yet, but it will be something fabulous, and something relatively small for shipping purposes. Sorry, you probably won't get an awesome dresser in the mail.

Many of you might think this is a totally lame giveaway, but for those of you that can appreciate a good thrift store find, this is going to be SO. MUCH. FUN! Imagine winning something but having to wait for the package to arrive to find out what it is, and knowing it is coming from someone with impeccably classy thrift store taste and a knack for finding the good stuff? You know you wanna!

So please, leave a comment, and tell your friends! And thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! Posted by Mandie McMurdie at 11:29 PM , 15 comments Master Bedroom Updates

>> 7.21.2014

One outdated black vinyl headboard: Free Two yards of woven fabric: $15
Button makers and staples: $12
Two amazing sisters to help you with the project: Priceless My two younger sisters came over to help with some projects this past week, and one of them was reupholstering our master headboard.

Initially I wanted to buy a new headboard and was looking at styles like this: But then one day I looked at our headboard and thought, although it's a little boxy, I could recover it and I bet it would look great!

So my sisters came over and deconstructed the headboard and stapled the new fabric on and started on the buttons. I finished the buttons after they left and mounted it on the wall and easy as that, a new headboard for under $30! After I took the first photo I found this pair of glass lamps for $20 ea. Oh, and then there's the wall. I decided that with a neutral headboard, it was time for some color on the wall, so I went with Wrought Iron by Martha Stewart. It's incredibly hard to photograph, but it's an awesome color and really completes the room! 
Posted by Mandie McMurdie at 6:05 PM , 2 comments Brass in the Rough

>> 7.16.2014

It's a busy day/week but I wanted to share a short little post with you.

I have really grown to love brass. Not the 1980's shiny fake looking brass, but the classic, mid century kind. And I only love it in small doses as accents here and there. So when I'm at the thrift stores, I always look for cool brass pieces, like this awesome brass peacock. The other day I found this brass vase at a thrift store for $4. I loved the lines, but it was tarnished and unloved. One way to tell if it is solid brass, and not brass plated, is by holding a magnet to it. Solid brass is not magnetic, but if the magnet sticks, it is probably steel or cast iron, with a brass plating. In this case, the magnet did not stick, so it was solid brass. Score.

I took it home, got out my trusty Brasso, and went to work. After polishing once with paper towels, I polished again with a soft cloth, which made it really clear and bright. I think I am going to leave this vase out on our kitchen counter for our kids to put their pretty weeds flowers they like to bring me. So next time you are the thrift store, and you see something brass, forget the stereotype and try to think of brass in a new way!

Posted by Mandie McMurdie at 4:19 PM , 3 comments Lurve Seat

>> 7.14.2014

We have lived in our current home now for almost 18 months, and early on, my vision for our front room was to have a piano and a seating area. We already owned a lot of pieces that would work in that room, but it needed some additional seating. So this is about how it looked for a long time. It felt really incomplete, but because the room isn't super large, we knew whatever else we put there needed to be the right size and scale.

Over the year, I experimented with a couple of thrift store love seats.

This vintage one pretty much got a heck no from the hubby and family, although it did solidify in our minds that we loved the seating arrangement. I kinda liked it, but it was a little too granny chic. The second one was a total fail. It looked great at the store and it was clean, but when I got it home it was just way too much beige and clashed with the chairs, walls, floor....everything. And it looked way too Rooms to Go contemporary for me (no offense.) Somehow I overlooked all of that at the store because the $90 price tag was too tempting. Good news is I sold both of these love seats on craigslist for more than I purchased them for, so I wasn't out any money. For the longest time I had my eye on this love seat from Target. It was small, neutral and I liked the style, but every time I saved up enough money for it, it was either out of stock online, or it wasn't on sale anymore. It cycled like that for over a year, and then they raised the price because of its popularity I guess, so I finally decided to give up on it and look at other options. My problem is that I'm picky, but I am SUPER cheap. Bad combination when you want things to look just right. I really wanted a love seat for less than $350, and of course everything I was finding was way over that.

I liked these two from Macy's, and they mark them down pretty low (around $500) when they are on sale, but regular price is $800+. Yikes. I also liked the Karlstad from Ikea, but I resisted because I have a thing with buying ikea furniture. I feel like its a furniture store for the masses and I didn't want to get sucked in. But once I sat on the Karlstad and looked at the price and color options, I realized it was exactly what I needed. So I got over my Ikea snobbery and took the plunge. I picked the Sivik slip cover, which works great for the room (and isn't nearly as dark as the picture,) but what I love is that you can get a slipcover custom made, so if I ever want a change, I have options. I'd still like to put a rug in this room, but aside from that, I think this room is finally complete!
Posted by Mandie McMurdie at 2:13 PM , 2 comments The Caillou Vase

>> 7.01.2014

I got this vase for fifty cents at Salvation Army the other day. It has a gross 1980's peach paint job, which immediately made me think of Caillou's head, a nightmare in so many ways. But despite that fatal flaw, I liked the shape, size and price, so I bought it. When I got it home I checked out the paint job, which, like thirty year old wallpaper, easily peeled away once I got it started. I peeled and scrubbed away all the nasty peach paint and realized I kinda liked what was under neath. Bye bye creepy, whiny headed vase! My sister is redecorating her office, including a huge wall of beautiful built ins, and coral is one of her colors, so I decided to do a dipped look with some coral paint. I used Martha Stewarts Multi-Surface Pearl paint in Rubber Ball. First I taped it off. Then I applied one coat of paint, let it dry and did two more coats. The finished product is definitely better than the original! And not bad for fifty cents! Posted by Mandie McMurdie at 9:04 PM , 0 comments