Friday Love

I've been getting a number of requests lately for dining tables, dining chairs and buffets. Thanksgiving and the hosting season are surely upon us! And what a joy and pleasure it is to put your own personal touch on your decor and tablescape. My style tends to be somewhat minimal and eclectic, so I am particularly drawn to tables that are rather underdressed and informal. I'm not talking about an empty tablescape that lacks warmth or personality. On the contrary, actually! I think by tactful layering of color and texture, a table that appears simply dressed magically invites it's guests to linger just a bit longer than usual.

My inspiration? Mr. Norman Rockwell

I love this painting of the Thanksgiving table. It's beautiful and captivating, not because of any extravagant table decorations, but because of the smiling faces surrounding it with love and hope. 

Here are some photos that I also find inspiring for a simple, festive tablescape: 

Fashion Gourmet

Stylizimo

Julie Blanner

Lilyfield Life

French Larkspur

I know this is completely opposite of the spectacular tablesapes that are blowing up on Pinterest and the like right now. But to me, these tables are the gems that stand out.

So what do you think? Could less actually be more?

Have a wonderful weekend!

~Chelsea

Repurposing a Candle Holder as Chandelier

Posted by Cate

As you may have gathered, Chelsea's Garage is growing and I am honored to be a new member of the family - not only on the blog but also in life!  Chelsea and I met because I was dating her brother Caleb.  We hit it off right away and over our mutual love of design, do-it-yourself projects, and turning trash to treasures.  I didn't realize that with Caleb came such a steal of a family!  I stuck around and I guess Caleb thought I was a good fit and proposed this past spring ;)  Now I'm to be a permanent fixture as the new sister-in-law.

So let's start with a thinking-out-of-the-box project.  I found this guy at a thrift store for $5.  Loved the branch motif but it was just a little too big to put anywhere.  He needed a flat surface to be functional as a candle holder but in my tiny apartment, flat table real estate is hard to find.  So what to do?  Hang it on the wall and sacrifice it's only function as a candle holder?  Yes I could call it art but free wall space was also sparse...

Boom! I knew.  What's one of the most underutilized decorating spaces in your home?  The ceiling.  And it just so happened that I had the perfect spot of ceiling over a bland window bench that could use some pizzazz.

To get started I needed:

1} Sturdy Chain

2} 2 Ceiling Hooks

3} Large Jump Rings

4} Needle-Nose Pliers

I attached the jump rings onto the candle holder where they wouldn't slide off and would be balanced when hung on the chain.

When I liked the placement, I attached the chain and held it up to the ceiling to measure the length I wanted it to hang down.  Didn't want it too close to the ceiling that it would cause fire hazard problems and didn't want it too low that it would be in the way of any day-to-day life.

After installing the hooks in the ceiling, my out-of-the-box project was ready to hang!

Now it's your turn to think-outside-the-box ;)

~ Cate

Chelsea's Garage Announcement

Posted by Chelsea

Hi friends! I've got some exciting news which I've been itchin' to share with you! But first, a little back story...

Chelsea's Garage has remained a home based business for the past 2.5+ years despite some very kind and tempting offers to display and sell through some of Northern Virginia's most popular antique shops and barns. For this moment in life, however, it feels right to keep Chelsea's Garage, well, in the garage. I can work while my babes play in the front yard or take their afternoon nap just upstairs. I get to meet every person face to face who purchases a piece from me - a unique pleasure which I would have to sacrifice elsewhere. And finally, in staying true to my personal mission for Chelsea's Garage, I can create and offer beautiful, one of a kind pieces at reasonable prices because I have no overhead expenses such as commission or rent. Indeed, life in the garage is good and right for this time.

But the decision to keep my business home comes with it's own hardships. Owning and operating your own small business is both beautiful and trying. When you are successful, that blessing is yours to be grateful for and you can feel proud of all your work. But when things are slow and the business account is empty, you own that responsibility, too. I wish I could say that since I first started out in the Spring of 2011 that the business has enjoyed a snowball effect, growing exponentially and moving forward with zero setbacks. But that is far from the truth! While I can say that Chelsea's Garage has grown greater than I had imagined, I must also admit that there have been times of fierce discouragement. 

Nevertheless, I have felt a lot of peace about deciding to keep Chelsea's Garage at home. But, I've also discovered that doesn't mean I have to commit to working alone!

When my beautiful friend and future sister-in-law first expressed interest in working together, it just felt right. She has only just started, (and has her own job plus a wedding to plan), but it's been such an honor already to get to work alongside this creative soul and I'm excited about what she'll be sharing with us here on the blog, (you'll hear from her about once a week). She will no doubt inspire us all with her ideas and you'll even have the opportunity to purchase her creations through the Available for Sale link. She's begun to settle nicely into working on her own projects in the garage - a space which we not only share for working, but our dreams, ideas, and tons of laughs, too!

Meet Cate.

We are both excited about where this adventure will take us all, and are ever so grateful to you for your partnership through reading, sharing and supporting Chelsea's Garage.

Thank you for reading!

~Chelsea

Sunny pedestal table

Hi friends! It's a gray morning here in our little pocket of the world in Northern Virginia - which makes this post just perfect for today! My folks moved to a new house recently and the work they've done on it has been incredible! I've had the pleasure of getting to work on a few projects for them and am thrilled about the ones still ahead! Today I've got a very cheery makeover of a pedestal table which occupies a cozy nook in their kitchen. Loved this project from start to finish!

My Mom picked out this table from World Market

Indeed, the Cooper Round Dining Table is a beautiful table in raw wood. But how fun it is in the sunny color she picked out, (Saffron by Restoration Hardware, mixed by Benjamin Moore)! I love how the yellow pedestal and the steel top play off of each other! ~Gray and yellow~ one of my all-time favorite color combinations.

This little snap of color is just perfect in their light kitchen. Very inspiring!

Oh, I definitely see myself taking my sweet time to eat some meals there...

The low-down:

-Since the wood was super soft and porous, it did not sand very well, (it just pulled up in splinters). 

-So I got right down to painting!

-7 coats of Saffron in semi-gloss by Restoration Hardware, mixed by Benjamin Moore

-3 coats of Minwax Polyurethane clear semi-gloss sealer

Thank you for reading!

~Chelsea

Friday Love

I've kind of got a thing for pumpkin bread; a year round kind of thing. So I am pretty happy that it is finally an appropriate time of year to share my obsession and weekly habit. I found a recipe on simplyrecipes.com and after making it just a few times had it memorized and down pat. It's been my babes' favorite treat the past few years and is a pretty inexpensive one at that. My favorite part about this bread, though, is the way the aroma fills every room. It's a smell that engulfs me in delight. My home could be utter chaos, but when that pumpkin bread starts baking all is as it should be.

It's funny, my folks have moved a lot throughout my lifetime, but wherever they have lived always smells the same to me; the sense of smell is a powerful tool that can bring such feelings of comfort and joy as I feel when I walk into my parents' house. I wonder if the aroma of pumpkin bread will be what my little ones associate with home as they grow older. I bake it every week!

If you try this recipe I hope you enjoy! Have a wonderful weekend!

~Chelsea

Our living room

Hi guys! We rearranged our Living Room a while ago and while I had updated it on the Tour Our Home link, I thought it might be fun to walk you around the 'new' space and explain some of our changes. 

Then

Now

I really enjoyed the room the way it was before. But as the furniture refinishing business goes, pieces are constantly moving in and out of our home, (a flow which I've noticed my kiddos are completely immune to at this point), and when just one little piece sells and moves on to a new home, sometimes that sparks a complete room re-haul.

This is what you see when you walk through our front door.

The white armchairs define the Living Room space without completely closing off the Dining Room. What I love about an open floor plan is the opportunity for socializing to flow from one space to another. 

This metal table from Target was the only new purchase for the Living Room. I wanted a really airy piece between the chairs to keep an openness between the two rooms.

The antique church pew was a Luckett's Spring Market find this past May! I didn't do a thing to it, (besides clean it). Love the chippy paint revealing the original forest green underneath!

My old college buddy, the wrought iron leg side table. I painted it Old White by Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, and added faded grey stripes in Paris Grey, also by ASCP.

I love me a naked lampshade. Thinking about covering it in chicken wire for more visual interest. I'll get back to you on that... (I spray painted both my table lamps in this room in flat black Rustoleum spray paint).

The old grey cabinet I painted in a custom mixed soft grey and gently distressed.

The big wood and wrought iron coffee table was a Christmas gift from my Matt. He found it at a thrift store while out with our boys last fall! My man sure knows where to shop for me... :) The wooden shelves next to the bench were from a barn sale - a friend found the piece for $5, (and since she had no use for it I was the lucky beneficiary)!

Looking across the room from the Dining Room.

Thank you for stopping by!

~Chelsea

Repost: Paper Wreath Tutorial!

Hi! Today I am re-posting one of my most frequently checked-out DIY tutorials - the bookpage wreath! I posted this tutorial last November but wanted to get it up a bit earlier this year. It's just such a beautiful wreath that is fun to leave up for a longer season. It doesn't scream 'holiday' but gives off an understated warmth and coziness of the holiday season. And if you try this or any other homemade wreath projects, please take some pictures along the way - in a month or so I'd love to share your beautiful creations here on Chelsea's Garage!

How to make a bookpage wreath

Supplies:

-2 books of slightly different colored pages for a bit of contrast in your wreath

-Stapler

-Craft glue

-Black paint & small brush

-13"-14" foam wreath frame

 Step 1:

Paint the outside of the pages of your books black. This will give each individual page of your wreath a little punch so you can see the contrast

Step 2:

Tear out pages one by one and shape into a cone. Staple the ends. I make the outer edge of cones on the wreath like this....

...then I make all the other 'layers' of cones in the wreath like this, with a double fold at the bottom of the cone.

Step 3:

Drag a strip of glue across the bottom of your cone

Step 4:

Stick the cone on your wreath frame, tucking in each cone one next to the other, working from the outside of your frame towards the inside. When you are starting a new 'layer', make sure you are tucking the cones in close to the previous layer so you don't have bare spots.

*As you work your way in, your cones will start facing the inside of the frame, as you can see in this picture. Once it looks like you can no longer see much green of the frame, do one final layer just as you have been doing, but face the cones outward. I tried to get a couple pics of what I'm talking about...look at the inside of this wreath - you can see how the very inside cones are facing out, and the layer of cones above them are facing in.

 Your beautiful final product!

 The photo above is a year old and that wreath was given to a friend. The photo below is a recent shot of the wreath I made almost 3 years ago; I love how it has aged to a deeper color over the past few years, (I leave it up year-round)!

This is one of my favorite DIY projects. I got my books at a thrift store for pennies a piece, the black paint and glue I already had here at home, (but you can purchase them at Michaels for just a few bucks), and the wreath frame was around $10 at JoAnns Fabrics, (they are a few bucks more at Michaels, around $13, I think). So it's a very inexpensive project that looks worth much, much more.

Thank you for stopping by!

~Chelsea