Welcome to Merchant Square

Its been almost 6 months now that I have been sharing a "space" with my dear neighbor at Qcumberz in Phoenix. Qcumberz is a quaint little store located in the "Melrose District" of Phoenix. It has about 20 or so dealers with all sorts of things to sell from furniture plucked right off of a 50's tv show to super funky stuff I'm not sure where it came from. It has been a great experience but......I was feeling a little, "Out of place" at Qcumberz. You see, my style tends to be a bit more traditional in comparision to the other things you will find at Qcumberz. So how do you fix this problem? Well, you move.

Welcome to Merchant Square booth #58 "Vintage Barnyard". I feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to have a booth at Merchant Square. They don't often have open booths so when they approached Tana and I at the flea market we did in May and said they loved our "style" we were thrilled. For those of you that havent had a chance to go there, they are located in Chandler, AZ on Arizona Ave just South of Warner. You can also find them on Facebook. Tana and I decided to each keep "our" names...her being "Vintage Charm" and me being "Urban Barnyard" but for our booth we became "Vintage Barnyard". Isnt it just so cute? I love it and so far everyone else seems to really like our style too.

For right now, I am staying at Qcumberz until the month is over and then I will re-evaluate whether or not I can keep both spaces stocked. In the meantime I am one busy girl, blessed but busy. I'd love to hear if you have been down to Merchant Square.

Thanks for stopping by,

Kris

Super Chic Thrift Store Lamps

Have you ever seen a picture of something really bright and funky in a magazine or at a one of those real trendy stores and thought, "I'd love to do that" or "I'd really like to have those?" Well, I usually shy away from super "trendy" things and colors. Not because I don't love them but because I'm entirely too cheap to be constantly changing my style.

That was until I found the most amazing lamp at Target the other day. I was going through the clearance section and stumbled upon the most beautiful color of yellow lamp and coordinating shade.



This is the shade..."Where's the lamp" you ask? well, I was too cheap to buy it. It was marked down to $29.98 but I wanted two of them and the matching shades and those were $9.98 each and that would have made them $40 each and I wasnt willing to pay that much. So I left the store empty handed. But lucky for me it was Thursday and you know what Thursday is? Yep, that's right....its dollar day at Goodwill. Guess what I happen to stumble upon at Goodwill for $1.00



Yep....Not just one but two lamps




They were almost the exact same size and shape of the two at Target I had found earlier in the day. The only difference was that mine were probably 25 years old and a totally different color but I wasnt about to let that stop me. Of course if you remember I left Target empty handed, so I had to go back and get those wonderful shades. $2.00 for the lamps and $20.00 for the shades making them only $11.00 each. I guess I can afford that.....but wait is that what I really ended up paying???? NOPE! I grabbed the two shades that I needed and didnt notice until I got up to the register that they were attached together with some sort of plastic wrapping and when the cashier tried to get them apart she couldnt and said, "humm, I guess they are two for the price of one" SWEET!!! Make that two shades for $9.98 and two lamps for $2.00 making them $11.98 for TWO awesome lamps (well almost awesome).

The lamps were still pretty ugly, so I grabbed my trusty can of spray paint and went to work...



Not too shabby if I do say so myself





And here is the finished lamp with her beautiful shade!!!



I WAS totally in love with these lamps and even used them to help stage my recent buffet re-do




but apparently one of the couples that saw my buffet for sale on Craig's List loved them too and guess what? They bought them both....(and the buffet) I guess I will have to go on the search for some more awesome lamps. What have you found lately??? I'd love to hear your "Trash to Treasure" stories.

Thanks for stopping by,

Kris

I'm Contagious

Yep, you read that right. I'm contagious! Don't worry though if you have come into contact with me in the last few days, I dont have an infectious disease or some weird virus. I have officially passed on the "furniture bug" to my 13 yr old son Preston.



A few months ago when he decided he wanted a "trick" scooter, he asked if I would buy it for him. Naturally, I said "NO, you already have a scooter and you never ride it." he of course then responded with something like this...."But mom, this scooter is way better then the one I have and I promise I will use this one ALL THE TIME" and again, I responded with "NO". Generally, this back and forth doesnt work with me when my children "Have" to have something.....I advise them that they will need to save up their money and because they are not huge fans of hard manual labor, they usually forget about it and move on to something else. Not this boy, he is extremely persistant. So, what did I do you ask? Nothing! He did it all himself....

He earned $20 for watching the neighbors dog while they were on vacation and he said to me, "MOM, I want to go with you the next time you go to the thrift store and look to see if I can find a piece of furniture to re-do" Sure, I said assuming that he would forget. But sure enough, the next day when I was ready to head out "treasure hunting" he jumped in the front seat....Ready to go!

He looked around Goodwill and he spotted a coffee table. He called me over to inspect it. "What do you think mom? Do you think I could sell this?" I of course saw that it was marked $24.99 and said, "Yes, I think you could sell it, but you only have $20 and this is marked $24.99" Hmmm...."Oh, dont worry about that mom, I printed off a 20% off coupon" Wow!!! This boy has actually been paying attention to me. Sure enough, he managed to get the coffee table for $19.97. Sweet! I was so proud, my oldest son had just made his first thrift store purchase! TEAR....ok seriously, though I was pretty amazed at how much thought he had put into it.

I told him that I would paint it for him IF he did all the prep work. Taking off hardware, sanding, etc....here he is getting ready for me to paint it.







He made a great profit and believe it or not was able to buy his scooter and still put away some money for his "NEXT" flip. I think I may have created a monster. Shhh, dont tell him but it's kinda cute!! Not only did he learn that Dad & Mom arent the ATM, but he also learned that if you want something bad enough and you work hard, you will be rewarded. Its a great leason to teach your children.

Thanks for stopping by,

Kris

Before and After's for the week

Having all the kids home for summer is proving to be a challange. The constant fighting, the empty stomaches that seem to never be filled and the sound of "Mom, we're bored" running through my head....my escape from it all??? FURNITURE!!

As promised I have taken lots of "before" pictures and cant wait to show you the "afters"


Remember this piece that Jackson was helping me with?

Well here it is all finished. I love the "Barn Red" color.





See these two dressers stacked one on top of the other??



Well the top one met an unfortunate fate when the "helpers" at the thrift store were "helping" me load it into my car.....notice the clamps and gorilla glue?



But here it is all fixed and painted a very bright but super cool funky "Peacock Blue" color...just in case you are wondering, this color is one of the top 2012 colors of the year...just a little bit of info for ya ;-)





And the bottom dresser was an absolute beast!! This thing is HUGE!! But I'm absolutely in LOVE with how it turned out. What do you think?








Well, hope you enjoyed some of the before & afters of the week.
I have lots more to show you but I must pace myself. Hope you have a great week and weekend.

Kris

Busy week of Re-Do's

Happy Summer ya'll! IT'S HOT!!!! What happened? It went from 85-90's to 110 degrees overnight. This weather puts a serious cramp in my DIY side. However I did manage to get several pieces done this last few weeks.

First of all....take a look at my To-do pile of furniture and projects just waiting for me in the garage



MASSIVE huh?? I know, I know....with a pile this BIG I even enlisted the help of the smallest DIYers of the family


He is so stinkin' cute!!

I found this old solid wood hutch, display cabinet the other day for $24.99 at the thrift store and I had to have it. I love the curves at the top and the fact that its unique and not super huge.




I lightly sanded it down and then into the "paint station" she went. Here she is all finished and isnt she lovely?





I also have been doing a lot of custom pieces for clients lately. I found these two side tables the other day and it wasnt long before I had a client dying to have them for her daughters bedroom.





She wanted them glossy white. I think they turned out awesome. Amazing what a little paint and some elbow grease will do.



I've started on a couple more pieces and I'll show those later, but until then here are a few more pics of some of the finished pieces I've done. I dont have before pics of these. I got too excited to get started. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Kris