Another Frame Restoration & Art Post

I decided to get out of the house the other day and go thrifting at Value Village. I often walk away empty-handed, but on this trip, I found a few treasures.

I was there mainly to look for more old frames to frame some of the art from a few posts ago. I ended up finding this:



I initially liked it mainly for the frame, and I didn't think much of the painting, but as I turned it over, I got more interested. Althought it was professionally framed, someone had torn the back open.

The canvas has a sticker on it with an eagle from the "American Photo Supply Co." of Chicago. I was only able to find ONE other photo of a similarly labeled canvas on the web, and that painting was dated 1949. The top also shows a stamp from the "American Art Co. - Distinctive Pictures - Picture Framing - Quality Artist's Materials, Tacoma Wash." This company is actually still in business.





I'm fairly sure that it's oil, but it's not very shiny, so it's either been left unvarnished, or it could also be gouache. Either way it's a pretty decent painting, and I only paid 5.99$ for it. The frame will need just a few touch-ups to the gold paint.

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Last night, I stumbled onto another old frame that I had in a box in the basement. I don't remember where I got this one, but it was probably a yard sale find. It looks exactly like a gilt antique mirror (the kind with the fragile gesso/plaster decorations), but it's actually FOAM. It must have been cast directly from a mold made from an original frame because it has all the details you would expect to find on the real deal.

The original paint was gold, but then someone painted it white (and did a sloppy job of it). As purchased:



I wanted it "antique gold" again, but stripping it was out of the question, so I just sanded-down the paint blobs, and gave it 2-3 light coats of cheap, bright gold spray paint.



Obviously the new gold paint is too bright and fake looking (especially if you put it next to an old antique gold frame), so I remedied this by rubbing-on a medium brown glaze with a paintbrush and a rag.

SO MUCH BETTER:



It looks like it might have taken a lot of time, but the entire thing was done in just a few hours (most of the time was waiting in between the thin coats of spray paint, since I was doing one side at a time, and rotating the frame every 15-20 minutes. The glazing process only took about 15-20 minutes. The last step was a light coat of satin varnish (also aerosol).

This frame will go on the church litho print.



Detail:



I also scored some curtains for the Office, which need slight modifications to work, so stay tuned for those soon (ish).

Party Prep & House Progress!

Alright, I'm still figuring out how I want to lay out the table, but things should work out okay with the blue napkins/placemats. I also dug-out some brand new cutlery that I had bought years ago, and a new set of 8 glasses (also bought ages ago). The great thing about these is that I didn't have to spend any money on them. All I really need are wine glasses, and I'll get those either at Wal-Mart or the dollar store (not something I'll use often, but handy to have, since I like entertaining).

New cutlery:



Glasses (which match my "day-to-day" ones, but they're not the same size):



And so far, this is more or less how the table will look. Everything is laid out, but I still have to wash everything. Plus, the party is only in a week or so.



EDIT: Oh! I also totally forgot to mention this, but the crummy old table I'm currently using in the dining room didn't have any leaves for it (it was a 10$ yard sale find), so I ended up making one out of an old door from the former upstairs kitchen! I just sawed-it down, and routed out spots for the pegs (I couldn't actually drill holes for the alignment pegs since the door had a wide routed lip around it). It's not perfect, but with a table cloth over it, and a few wooden cleats under it to keep it in place, no one would ever know!

House Stuff!

I did a bit of work on the house today, and two things got done.

I decided to finish painting/finishing the shade holders, and rewiring the antique light fixture in the "L Room" upstairs. I wasn't sure if I'd have enough wire to do the fixture, but as it turns out, I did.







And yes it will have to come down again when I finally have a chance to work on the ceiling drywall.

You can see the fixture (unlit, but half finished) in this past post:
PAINTING! And How to Install Crown Moulding by Yourself!

And a job that I've been putting off for probably a few months now, is finally done (except for final nail hole putty sanding): installing the rest of the baseboards in the "L Room". I've been dreading this simply because it's an outside mitre on two long boards (hard to cut on the table saw), and I also wanted to make sure which pieces of baseboard, from my stock of new and old pieces, I should use. I ended up going through ALL my baseboard pieces, measuring them, and writing down a full list, then measuring ALL the walls in the house that need baseboard reinstalled (some was butchered, some was damaged, and I removed most of it from the main floor). Then I assigned pieces to certain rooms based on lengths (all on paper with a sort of map), and ended up with some usable pieces. I actually have almost enough pieces for all the main rooms except the dining room, and 2 or 3 10 foot lengths (which will have to be new stuff).

That said, here's the (mostly) finished corner!



Once the putty can be sanded, I can go ahead and silicone both doorways (main and closet) in that room, check the rest of the old baseboards, and then prime and paint all of it. But I might wait until I finish the two windows, and do everything in one shot.