New Life for the Patio!

With the warm weather finally (finally!!!) here, I started to look around at the yard and saw that there were a few things that needed fixing up.  For a city yard, ours is not too bad.  Big enough to have some seating, a trampoline and also space for my outdoor workshop....so on most days the yard looks like an episode of Sanford & Sons with various things strewn about.

We do have a nice area under a pergola where we can sit outdoors and eat al fresco.  But the old table and chairs that are there have definitely seen better days.

To be fair, I think we bought the set almost 20 years ago so the wear on it is not too bad.  I wanted to try to rescue it (my husband said get rid of it and buy something new...but we all know how this is going to turn out).  I love a challenge, and hate the idea of just putting things in the garbage.

Enter the Angle Grinder....one of my fave toys... I mean tools!  In just a few minutes it was sanded down and ready for finishing!

I thought that it would be great to have a metal table top...super durable, easy to keep clean and will be virtually indestructible outdoors.   There is a roofing company near our house that has become my go-to place for metal fabrication.  They've done shelves for me, a desk top and even a client's stainless steel kitchen counters!!  They are quick, super helpful and very very inexpensive.

I took my measurements and had them do up something to basically just slip right on top!

I also added some angle supports (from some scrap metal pieces I had around) to give the table more stability.  

I sanded down the 2 matching chairs as well, and added a couple of strips of wood to the sides for reinforcement also.

Here's the set looking better than new!

Now I just need to find some benches to go with it and we are ready to dine in style.

While I was at it, I decided to also fill in the cracks between the patio flagstone.  It's bugged me for years because they just trap dirt, weeds grow in them and it always look messy.   I used a product specifically made for filling in around stone.  

You sweep it into the cracks, then water and let harden.  I'm really happy with the result.  It was pretty easy and makes a huge difference.  I don't have a before picture but this shows how nice and even and finished it looks now. 

 Much less maintenance too...which is great because with summer on its way I just want to get out and enjoy it.

Hope you enjoy your weekend....it's the perfect time to get to all those outdoor projects!

Back again....after a bit of a break!

I haven't made an entry here in quite a while....since we started up The Leslieville Flea (3 years ago!!) things got a little nutty.   But I'm back here again and ready to start sharing what I've been up to during that time.
I've been lucky enough to work on a few custom projects for clients and I recently completed one that I just love!
A friend of a friend asked if I could create a "privacy wall" in their entry way.  They had opened up the whole main floor years ago, but now realize they wanted to create a more intimate space.  We talked at length about what they needed...tossed around many, many ideas (sliding partition wall, solid wall etc etc).  I knew what they wanted and had a vision...but couldn't quite come up with an exact solution.  There style is very much vintage eclectic...which is right up my alley...so we knew we wanted to incorporate some vintage and salvaged items.  The search was on and it proved to be more difficult than I thought.
Like most great problems, this one was solved by patience and research.  I looked high and low for just the right piece or pieces to create some sort of partition.  I looked at shallow cabinets as an option.  I looked high and low...for high or low book cases that might work.  Nothing seemed right.
Until one cold March morning...when into the Flea walked one of my vendors, carrying these spectacular stained glass church windows.  Search. Over.

You know when you get that feeling that "this is it!!".....I just knew that these windows could be incorporated into a partition that would not only be functional, but also be downright gorgeous.

Like a puzzle to be solved...I now needed to find the other pieces that would encompass this wall.  After re-measuring the space I realized I needed something approximately 7 feet by 2.5 feet to fill in the bottom portion.  Bingo!  Exactly the size of a door!  You may or may not know about my penchant for reusing doors, and this is exactly the opportunity where one will fit perfectly.  What I love about an old door is that it really looks exactly like a panelled wall.  The detail and quality of wood is better than anything you could build new and the character cannot be beat.
A trip into my meticulously organized storage container (aka the shed in my backyard where I throw everything into and hope it doesn't fall on me when I open the door) provided a door with these exact dimensions, give or take a few inches. You can barely see it...waaaaayyyy in the back!

I decided to flank the wall with two end pieces (made from vintage timbers) that would serve to provide stability, frame the panel and also fill in the extra length we wanted.

When I started to think about a structural partition wall I kept coming back to the idea of columns..because they would give structural support (the very purpose of any column) and also lend some real character and set off those windows amazingly well.

Again, the search was on....I have joined quite a few Facebook groups devoted to vintage and found an antique dealer that posted these columns.

After all the pieces had been found it was just a matter of putting them all together.  I added some trim and base pieces for support and structure and then installed the whole thing....white-washing it to unify all the elements.

The result?  A truly unique and beautiful wall that is functional, but also a focal point for the space.  It changes the feel of the room and creates that intimacy the client wanted in the front room.  I love it when a plan comes together!

Stay tuned for the next project...I've got tons of things up my sleeve just in time for the new outdoor Leslieville Flea season.

Just the right medicine....cabinet!

This week/months commissioned project was to build a medicine cabinet.  In black...out of an old window for the door and tin for the back.

A great client of mine who also hired me to do a custom cork and chalkboard asked me to build this to fit in her bathroom.

I had a great, salvaged window that was the perfect size to fit in the space and then I built the box around that.

She asked if it could have 2 shelves in it so I used some old salvaged barn boards for those.

To finish it off, because the door was glass, I asked if she would like the back to be tin (remember that great tin ceiling I rescued from the dumpster?).  I cleaned up a piece and attached it to the back.  It goes really well with the black finish, which I sanded off and distressed and then finished with a coat of furniture wax.

Here's the finished product:

Flea in a fit!

What a whirlwind....today was our annual fundraiser ...Longboard4kids www.longboard4kids.com....we had about 100 longboarders out and raised more than $7000 for our charity Coast to Coast Against Cancer which benefits kids and families living with cancer.  It was a great day and everyone had a blast.

Next up on the agenda is the first ever Leslieville Flea.  Little did I know that my visit to the Brooklyn Flea a year ago would lead to us opening up our very own Flea....but that's often how things happen for me.

Hope to see you all there...Behind the Duke!  Visit www.leslievilleflea.blogspot.ca for more info.

And hope all the Dad's out there have a great Father's Day!

Sharks and Fleas

What a whirlwind this past month has been!  After many months of planning my bizz partner Brigid and I found a space and founded The Leslieville Flea.  We'd been trying for so long to get a venue for this and after speaking with the guys at The Duke we found one.

I've been selling my stuff at various markets for years...but it's always been a hassle.  Long drives to load in and out and with little or no success sometimes on the day of sales.   Brigid and I starting brainstorming and concluded that we should just open our own market to sell our things.  And invite some other great vendors to join us.  And that's how the Leslieville Flea came to be!

www.leslievilleflea.blogspot.ca

We will be holding this market the 3rd Sunday of each month starting June 16th from 10am-3pm.  It will take place "Behind the Duke" at Queen and Leslie.  Their parking lot is the perfect location for our East End Leslieville Flea Market....and the guys there have been so great about inviting us to host it there.

We sent out the call for vendors and got some incredible responses.  There will be antiques, vintage collectibles, clothing, art, photography, jewellery....and amazing hand made and crafted designs. 

I've got so many great items that I will be bringing...after another trip up to see Ed (who proved to be a great resource for vendors at the Flea too)....my back yard/basement/living room/shed are loaded with items just waiting to show themselves off at the Flea.

I also managed to score another huge load of tin ceiling tiles from the construction site down the road....and they may make an appearance there too!

Hope to see you all there June 16th (which is the day after our Longboard charity ride...yes, I'm nuts)

The other happening thing in the house was a project for my youngest son....he wanted a surfboard with a sharkbite out of it to hang on his wall.

So I cut out the board from a sheet of plywood and then taped it off and painted it....super easy fun project and it looks great in his room.  I have to mention this is the first time I've used "Frog Tape"....always wondered what the fuss was around it....and it was really great stuff.  If you have to do any kind of precision painting this is the product to use canada.frogtape.com

Here's the surfboard in progress.....

So that's what has been keeping me busy around here....lots more projects in the works...but I'm enjoying this May 24 weekend right now...hope yours is fantastic too!

Coffee anyone?

This week my project was to complete a coffee table for my friends and neighbours.  They had been searching for a long time to find the right table to work in their living room that was newly redone.  They wanted it longer and skinnier than the typical coffee tables they found so they hired me to make them one.
Trying to find one that they both liked was difficult, as it always is.  The hardest part is trying to agree on a design that suits both people in the house and works for their family.

Another friend had coincidentally posted a table design to my Facebook page

 with this link to how to make it.  http://thelocker.typepad.com/the_locker/2012/02/diy-industrial-coffee-table.html

I passed it along to my friends looking for a table design and they loved it!  It is a great design....so simple, which I always find has the best results.  They were looking for a really interesting design with a reclaimed yet polished style.

Once the design was agreed upon, I set about finding wood for this piece.   My friends wanted a bottom shelf added as well so I had to figure out how to work that in too.

Of course, if I am looking for reclaimed materials and hardware it means a trip to visit Ed.  I hadn't been since before Christmas and it was great to see Ed and his wife, their dogs and 2 of their sons who were there working on some projects using the reclaimed wood and hardware for clients of theirs.  Seeing their workshop in the barn I had the biggest pang of envy....that would be my dream workshop...in an old barn surrounded by endless amounts of raw materials????  You'd never see me again!!

In case you are trying to reach Ed, his contact info has changed.  He takes visitors by appointment and you can contact him by email at :  edwardcasella@hotmail.com or by telephone 905-888-9181

I always love heading up to see him because he has great ideas for projects and never ceases to amaze me with what he has stored in that barn.

I found two pieces of wood for the table....one solid piece 22"by over 6' long!!! This was just the kind of thing I was looking for....and another piece about 13" by 6' long for the bottom shelf.  I sanded them down and cut to size for the bottom shelf and length of the top.

I headed to see the orange aprons to get the pipe and fittings for the legs.  When I bought the pipe, they cut it down for me and put it through the threading machine.  It turned out to be too high (the pieces were too long) so I went back and they recut and threaded them for me...I had to ask nicely to get them cut shorter than their posted minimum length but they said they could do it and delivered.

This is my bundle of pieces and fittings for the legs.  I had to wash them off and then assemble them.  I also gave them a coat of clear laquer to prevent rusting.

Here are the legs assembled....

The round "flanges" are perfect because you can screw the top wood piece right to them.....the bottom shelf I attached with "C" clamps...which are just that....c-shaped clamps with holes on either side.  They wrap around the pipe cross support and then screw to the underside of the bottom shelf.

To finish the wood I used a new product.  It's a urethane but is a combination of oil and water based ingredients.  So it is easy to clean up after but has the durability and won't show those cloudy water marks you get from pure water based products.

Here's the finished product.

My friends love it!  And it was such a fun and easy project to make!

Dumpster Diving

This week was pretty fantastic.
On Thursday I was part of a shoot with Curtis Stone...the Australian Celebrity Chef...fun day and great client.....and the week just got better from there.

Later that night as I was taking the dogs for a walk I spied some antique tin ceiling in a dumpster around the corner from my son's school.  I've been keeping an eye on this dumpster and finally hit the jackpot.  In case you didn't already know I am a little addicted to garbage picking!

I climbed up to have a better look and noticed there was quite a bit of old tin ceiling still attached to the wood strapping.....I quickly walked the dogs to the park and then headed home to get the van and some tools.

I grabbed a claw headed hammer and crowbar....and my teenage son who wanted to come along.

Parking the van beside the dumpster we started pulling out the tin and prying it off the wood strapping.  Then a man came out from the building they are gutting....I asked him if they were throwing the tin out....and if so, could I have it.  He said "sure" and then showed me the rest of the ceiling around the corner!!  I couldn't believe it...the entire ceiling from an old store had been ripped out...complete with the tin crown moulding!!

We got to work and managed to salvage about 25 pieces of 2 foot square tin and some lengths of crown molding too.

My son got right into it and was a huge help....very proud mom moment indeed!

Then he spied some objects in another pile and pulled them out.....

They turned out to be vintage industrial mixer parts!!  So cool!
I am going to wire these into hanging pendant lamps with those Edison bulbs that are so popular right now....sort of like this:

What a score!! Can't believe how lucky we were....when I went back the next day it had all been removed and taken away.  I am so glad I took that walk when I did.

Turns out today I struck it rich again......another walk with the dogs ....on the beach this time.  We had a huge storm yesterday and the waves crashed in about 100 feet up on shore...which makes for fantastic scavenging.   I spied this piece of wood and loved it for the metal attached.

I

I'm going to dry this out, clean up the metal and paint the word "BEACH" on it with an arrow...then hang it from the chains on the wall in our kitchen....can't wait!

I'm off to see my guy Ed on Monday to look for some wood for our school's bench project and a coffee table project for my friend....hopefully my luck will continue!

All in all it has been a great week for finding treasure...hope yours has been just as fantastic!