Flea market finds, meet The Boys

Hi All! The other day I shared an eclectic collection of recent thrift store, flea market and Craigslist finds. Two of them ended up in our boys' room, (along with a couple DIYs coming up tomorrow)!

Actually, ALL of the boys' room is a second hand collection of sorts, like the blue bookshelves, below, which I found at the Lucketts Spring Market a few years ago.

But, if you look close, you can see the two newest additions which both came from the big D.C. Flea a couple weeks ago.

See the Mexican blanket on the floor? We're using it as a rug! These blankets are always thicker than a typical throw blanket and are easily durable enough to handle the heavy use of little boys.

And there's item no. 2: The aviation chart!

This was exactly  what I was looking for to stick above the second bed. The sweet woman who sold it to me at the flea market, (she decoupaged the map over a large canvas!), told me that she was hoping it would be taken for some boys. Clearly meant to be. We even found where we live!

Coming up tomorrow are two DIY projects that I whipped up for this room, (but could easily be translated for any room of the home). See you then!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

~Chelsea

This post was published under Chelsea's Garage, now affectionately known as StyleMutt.

School House Desk

I walked into a thrift store last week and almost immediately locked my eyes on this little gem of a desk.  It wasn't hard to miss since it was sitting right by the door plus that fun Kelly green color was practically flirting with me.  

When I texted a pic to Chels, her response was "Yay! Kelly green sends my heart soaring."  That settled it: he was coming home with me.  

Admittedly this photo really doesn't do the shade justice since it's reading more forest-y green here, but trust me he's a charmer!  What I didn't care for, however, was the original top: that laminate wood I can so easily remember bored classmates carving into in Freshman Geometry.  

Bueller?... Bueller?... Bueller?

The fake wood was flunking the desk's overall vintage vibe so it had to go.  I nixed it in favor of a freshly stained piece of real wood.

It's amazing how such a simple {and affordable} change-out can make all the difference.  I'm giving your update an A+ mister.

Now that old deadbeat top can no longer hold this vintage charmer back. 

And the top even pulls up for more storage!  A++ 

{Doesn't this take you back?  Who here remembers their old elementary school desk?  You know... back when we had lunch boxes and pencil boxes and everything we owned seemed to have our name written on it somewhere?}

There's even a sweet little pencil tray along the front-most inside edge.  A+++

{And I couldn't resist enlisting the help of the faux pull-down chart from my recent guest post.  It was practically begging me to be included in a vintage school house photo shoot.}

I could totally see this guy acing it in a playroom or nailing that extra credit as a quirky side table with hidden storage.

Now available for sale.
24"W x 18"D x 30"H {adjustable}
$75

  SOLD

Happy Wednesday,

~Cate

This post was published under Chelsea's Garage, now affectionately known as StyleMutt.

CG, here and there

Hi guys! The last few days have been pretty thrilling for Chelsea's Garage. Two of my personal favorite sites just featured work by CG! (And I know it's not cool to show high levels of excitement and you're supposed to act like you done it before and all, but here's the thing: I'm not cool enough for that. Getting excited is pretty much the core of my being and I get my socks knocked off all the time). So let's proceed.

FRIDAY was particularly special because my secret blog-mirer, Mandi, of Vintage Revivals, featured this chair in her weekly Newsletter, (which is a really cool extension of her site featuring a lot of her friend, Jamie's, awesome work). Jamie caught it on Instagram last week and picked it for a feature! Never heard of Vintage Revivals? Please hop over to check it out; then you'll get YOUR socks knocked off! (And while you're there, you should definitely take 10 seconds to sign up for the free weekly newsletters. They're loaded with DIY projects, free printables, and feature creative ideas from people around the world! And guess what? They're featuring another  Chelsea's Garage project in their newsletter this week which I haven't even shown yet here on the blog! So if you want a little sneak peek of that, then definitely get that newsletter! Just head over to Vintage Revivals, and enter your email address under where it says Weekly Newsletter on the left hand side)

Here's the chair they featured last Friday:

Then on MONDAY, I was so delighted to see that the IKEA Jennylund chair makeover was featured here on IKEA Hackers! I absolutely love IKEA Hackers! Seriously, what's better than a store that sells awesome, affordable stuff, and then an entire site dedicated to making that stuff better and more original?! IKEA Hackers is THE place to find inspiration for all of your IKEA pieces. 

Here are the chairs they featured on Monday, (yesterday):

Thank you so much to Vintage Revivals and IKEA Hackers for the nods! More exciting things are comin' tomorrow when Cate's weekly Wednesday edition is up!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

~Chelsea

This post was published under Chelsea's Garage, now affectionately known as StyleMutt.