Treasure Box Wednesday: Playing it a Little Bit McCoy

As regular readers know, I've been largely in the midst of various interiors projects at my home, Waterhouse, lately. But over the weeks I have taken a moment at lunch or on the weekend to pop by the occasional thrift store or antique mall. (All work and no play makes Jenn a dull blogger, donchaknow.)

And today, I thought I'd share my couple of accumulated finds. The most surprising was this $0.69 carnival glass marked Fenton candle holder....

The flowers on the side are handpainted, and we even know the artist, as he signed it on the inside rim!...
"Hand Painted by Corbin Wind." Thanks, Corbin! Marvelous job you did. I'll cherish it!

Another find was this McCoyesque planter. It's not marked and I can't find it in my McCoy book...
But doesn't it sure as heck look like this REAL McCoy planter my friend Josette had gotten me for Christmas one year?...
Anyway, I love them both. And the cream planter was just a few bucks. So, McCoy or no, I'm happy.

And lastly, I found another McCoy planter-- this one completely irresistible to me given its color palette and smooth design....
And at $5, I think it's a lovely addition to the collection. (Also, it looks like it's just always been in my spare room.)

So, that closes the lid on this Treasure Box Wednesday. Join me again Sunday, will you, when we (weather permitting) take a little surprise field trip?

In the meantime, enjoy that spring sunshine!

Stepping Back and Looking Up

I don't think I've quite recovered from the faux finish stained glass window project of last week. (If you missed that one, click here.) But there were a couple of things I wanted to show you for this week, and the one item was actually very easy to do.

I'll start, though, with taking a step back in the livingroom, and showing you just where that window is situated. Now I've gotten to clean up the craft-related mess, this is where the window actually lies...
It's a small nook in the room that's been a challenge to decorate usefully, but which I finally think I have under control. The cabinet there which looks like an old library card catalog is in fact cleverly-designed DVD storage I got from Target online.

You'll see my friend Claire in England sent me this postcard from her collection-- a very themic choice!...

She'd selected it because when she was here in the US for vacation, we'd gone antiquing. And from that short time, she thought it somehow looked like the sort of art I like...

Amusingly, and unbeknownst to her, I have a Waterhouse print of the same model in a different red dress in my livingroom. I'd promised I'd show her, so Claire-- this is for you.
I also wanted to show a few of you who were asking-- including the aforementioned Claire-- the red velvet sofa I'd thrifted a while ago, all in place...
I'd taken pictures when it was leaning on its side, waiting to be put in place, but not actually in the livingroom where it would live.
Thrift stores have been wonderful to me in providing just the things my house seems to need, but I really hadn't imagined they would come forth with a red velvet couch.

You just never know!

Now, the simple project I was telling you about earlier is this handkerchief valence in my guest room...
I've had folks ask me during various Treasure Box Wednesday posts, "What on earth are you going to do with all those vintage hankies you keep picking up?" And to be honest, I wasn't exactly sure.
I just loved them as colorful little works of art, their flowers so bright and realistic, like small nosegays of cotton.

I'd considered making a quilt (if you search online, there are some lovely examples of how these can be done). I'd considered just framing a few. But recently, I started thinking about simply tying them together to make a light and bright handkerchief garland.


I think it works rather effectively. Rather like a happy little washline.

The room was bright with sun today, and I enjoyed the warm glow shining in here...I added back into the room a thrifted French chair I'd gotten a while ago. A nice place to sit and read, perhaps, for any guests who might stay.
And that about ties up this week's post! I hope you enjoyed taking this more Big Picture peek at the rooms.

Take care, and I hope to see you Wednesday for our next post!

Transoms and Transformations

With a title like that, I probably should follow with a Jane Austen theme, shouldn't I? Ah, can't you see it now?...Pride and Prejudice... Sense and Sensibility... Transoms and Transformations...

"A cautionary social mores tale about a witty yet naive, upper-class 18th century young woman, designing stained glass windows the same way she pieces together the shattered love lives of those around her..."

Okay, so... no.

Fortunately, my actual stained glass window project was a little more successful than my knock-off Austen.

Yes-- when last we left the project, I was hoping to take the boarded-up window I'd inherited in my livingroom and stylishly add this...
To this...
Then I'd tried a gel stain (which you can supposedly paint on non-wood items, as well) in Aged Oak. One coat looked hopeful-- like this:
Unfortunately, Coat Two ended up looking like this...
Really dark and still not spread evenly. A third coat would have made it almost black. And black would have been the opposite of Improvement. So I shifted my gameplan.

I decided to paint over it with a lighter warm brown undercoat, let that dry, and then went over it in a darker brown topcoat. Then woodgrained it. Here's the dark brown coat...

And, would you believe a variety pack of haircombs from the drug store served as the appropriate woodgraining tools?

When done, I went over the whole thing with a clear Satin topcoat, to keep the shine down so it would match the rest of my faux wood painted baseboards. (Thankfully, it does!!)

Then came time to add the stained glass window panel. As the stained glass was a little smaller than the boarded up area, I decided I would faux finish the rest of the board to make it look like stained glass, too.

For each layer of "glass" I used a light paint and dark paint in the same general color palette, and blended while wet.
So here are the edges all taped off and painted. Uneven gradations and variation will help make it look more like stained glass (I did a lot of staring at real stained glass to figure out how it worked!)...
Now the inside. We tape off...
And add the green. This is a combination of Forest Green Folk Art paint and some leftover wall paint from this room. That color is called "Celadon" by Eddie Bauer, in their Craftsman collection.
Now we move on to the middle block to surround the arced stained glass. This was done in some of the tans for the first layer, along with some of the brown used for the window frame. The corners also got a little pop of red...
And here I fit the stained glass panel into place, to double-check that it fits.
Last, I used some stick-on craft leading I'd picked up ages ago for another project, and added them in, extending the real-lead lines of the actual stained glass window in to the new faux ones.
And voila! Completed window!

Oh wait-- let's not forget the McCoy vase collection to match!...
Phew! I'm kinda tired now! Where's Mr. Darcy? It's time to take a nice, quiet night off.

Thanks for bearing with me everyone, while I completed the project.

And I hope you all have a marvelous rest of your week.