Vintage Tavern Sconces & other Basement Lighting

It's pretty obvious that I can't design a space in my house without using something vintage. We searched flea markets with our basement design in mind but didn't really come up with any lighting fixtures that fit our taste. Well, my dad came to the rescue with these awesome old tavern lights.

They looked pretty junky when he handed them over. They were full of grime, crusty decades old cigarette smoke from the tavern where they lived combined with being stored in a musty dusty garage for years after that. But I love a good vintage find, and Adam loves old beer goodies so we took them home and cleaned them up.

The pair of Schlitz Bottle Sconces will go behind the bar next to the barn beam floating shelves. They're for sure from a local tavern in my hometown area, and from the late 50's. Just for fun, I did a little bit of googling and I found a few sets listed on Ebay. Guess how much... almost 300 bucks for the set! YIPES. That wasn't even in our budget to buy new sconces! Glad we got these babies for free.
Can be found on Ebay here: Schlitz Bottle Sconces.

1959 Schlitz Tavern Light

My dad also gave us a globe Schlitz light. This one is magical because it not only lights up but the globe spins. A quick google search verified this one was not as old, from the late 60's. I found the Schlitz globe light listed on Ebay too.  I'm surprised they are going for this much. We're not ever selling them, but it's fun to look up the going price of these old finds!

These oldies have been cleaned up and fitted with new wiring for a new home in our basement bar.

We also have been pretty annoyed with each other over the search for pendant lighting for the bar.
I wanted something ORB, and rustic looking.
Adam wanted small--like smaller than they make. But they lights still had to be 'manly enough' for a bar, and had to be adjustable height.

We ended up with 5 Kenroy Home Carson mini pendants.

The color and finish is perfect, and we both agreed on the shape. At 8 inches, they are a little larger than Adam wanted, but we compromised and he's hanging them a little higher than I normally would agree on. Who knew so many ridiculous arguments could be had over lighting. Now we know.

When we were building I had about 95% control over the lighting choices. Adam only vetoed a few of my picks and mostly because they were over budget. This time, he counts the wet bar as his space, so we had to compromise.

Under Construction Basement Bar

Our contractor is building us a beam in the ceiling to help show a separation of the wet bar and the family room. We have a nice separation with the flooring and I wanted to carry that up to the ceiling too. These pendants will be attached to that barn beam.  You can see above where the electrician roughed them in yesterday.

We'll have a few sconces on the barn beam poles in the hallway. We decided on these Globe Electric lights.

We think they'll pair nicely with the pendant lights, and the rest of the fixtures in our home.

We plan to have most of the lights in the basement on a dimmer so we can set the lighting to whatever we like for movie nights, parties, or just hanging out as a family. We're really looking forward to getting this space finished up in the next month or so. It's been lots of work on evenings and weekends.

What do you think of our lighting choices? Would you pay $300 for a vintage light fixture?

Dinner Party: Serving Wine...Only Wine.

I've never did the ~holiday tablescape~ thing before.  To be completely honest...I do sort of think it's a tad crazy to set up a fancy table setting just for pictures on the internet. Maybe some people really have people over after they set this all up and enjoy an elegantly styled dinner and drink fancy sounding drinks. They maybe even use those cute paper straws--and maybe they don't get soggy.

Today, I officially join the other bloggers in the crazy club--errr imaginary guest table.  My mother-in-law was cleaning out her basement and gifted me some old white tableware. Plus, I had an entire day off to myself this week. Adam worked and Ben went to the sitter. I caught up on laundry, gave Scout a bath, watched reality tv (90 Day Fiance anyone?), and then had a little extra time to spare.
Sooo there I was, setting the table for non-existent dinner guests with no fancy dinner cooking in the oven--and no plans for cocktails out of chic straws that evening.

I don't have anything to serve. Except sweet potato puffs, and wine. I always have wine.

But check out this lovely fall view of Bishop Creek.

Maybe take it all in while you enjoy a glass of Bishop Creek Wine? See what I did there?

Let's talk a minute about the blanket scarf. Every blogger in blog land seems to have one of these blanket scarves in their fall tablescape. They also seem to be wearing them all over fashion blogland. My blanket scarf is so soft, snuggly, and I love the print. But to be honest, I have not worn it more than 5 minutes. It's HOTTER THAN HECK. I mean this thing is H-O-T. I immediately have a sweat mustache about 90 seconds after it's draped over my shoulders. It does better as a little blankie on the couch, or draped over this table to be honest.

Have you ever set up your dining table with no dinner plans? 
Does your blanket scarf do more good on the couch or the table than on you?

P.S. In some of the photos above, you can see a sneaky peek of my new chevron jute rug. See more of it here. I'm loving it!

Flea Market Find: Vintage Metal Bed

Hello!  Not only have I not been blogging...but I haven't been to a flea market since November. That's like not having a diet coke since November, or candy. Rough times.

One Saturday, Adam ran some early errands and when he walked in the door he said there was an estate auction in town then quickly realized what he had said...

Of course there was no taking those words back. We loaded up the car...baby and all that goes with--and headed into town. It was a gloomy, rainy day. Serious auction goers know when you go to an estate auction when it rains-it pays. Not many people want to stand in the rain. I was right, everything was going for a steal. I practiced resistance and did not bid on every little thing. Even all the cute chairs that were going for 3-5 bucks. I had my eye on one item. A metal bed. A rusty as heck metal bed. 

I'd seen photos on pinterest of awesome iron and metal beds and I wanted one for our master bedroom. 

The sweet rusty patina. 

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With muted bedding and other flea market finds all around you while you are snoozing....the perfect dream land!

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Antique ones usually come no bigger than a full. We have a king now. There would be no way we could downgrade. Plus, Adam is so darn tall we can't really get a bed with a foot board anyway. My vintage bed dreams didn't seem like they'd go anywhere. Until that day...

See, if you are new here I will let you know, we're in the process of finishing our basement. Lucky for our friends and family not only will there be a family room, a full wet bar, but we'll also have a guest suite down there.  This was my chance to get that rusty patina iron bed in my house--even if I wouldn't be the one getting beauty rest on it.

Here she is. It looks like a pile of junk to some people. To me, a serious treasure.

After outbidding one other person... the bed was officially mine, and only for 10 whole bucks. A serious deal. The flea market gods were smiling down at me because the rain held out too.
Unfortunately for Adam they were not smiling at him...the downpour began as soon as he was loading it up. Ben and I were already waiting patiently in the car. Oops.

I cannot wait to get the basement bedroom situated and set up in it's new home. It's going to be so dreamy. It only needs a little fixing up before it's ready for dreamland.

Jamie from Southern Revivals explained how she sealed in rusty patina on her fab antique metal bed frame she scored. I plan to do the same to mine.

Please only pin from original source at Southern Revivals! 

Gah hers looks so cute in her son's big boy room. Those arrow stripes are so awesome too. Now I will be on the lookout for a twin version for Ben's someday big boy room...

Score anything good lately at a sale or flea market?

Nursery Dresser Makeover: From Wild Tween to Vintage Preppy!

When we shared Ben's Vintage Nursery we said the "before" on this dresser was pretty wild...here she is:

Wild is right, yes? That would be neon green, bright purple, and pink, orange mixed in there too!

This was in my sister's room when she was a tween. Her bedroom was painted all crazy. Like, I'm talking Nickelodeon themed colors, and stripes, and neon, with zig zags on the wall. I wish I had a photo to show you. But you will just have to imagine the colors from this dresser--but up the crazy x1000.
Prior to becoming purple beast, this piece had been in the family for awhile. It actually belonged to my great grandparents. I'm not sure what the original dresser color was, but I'm going to guess it wasn't this bright. It's nothing fancy, but it was nice to have a piece from my family for his room.

The plan was to stain the top of the dresser a deep walnut brown, and paint the rest in a bright chalk paint blue. Adam had to strip the top of the dresser for me (paint thinner not pregnant lady friendly!) And scrape all the layers of paint off.  And I'm talking layers. This dresser had been painted several times before the Nickelodeon tween room.

When we got the paint off, we realized the top was not ~real wood~. Adam took the sander to it and lightly sanded the top to make it smooth.

We were ready to begin!

Since the top was not real wood, we used Minwax Gel Stain in Dark Walnut. The gel stain works on fabricated wood.

This was after the first layer of stain...not so bad but needed another coat.

I used Webster's Chalk Powder paint, mixed with Sherwin Williams Blue Plate. The chalk paint powder is all natural, so it was safe for me to use it while I was pregnant.  The nice thing about chalk paint is that the piece doesn't need to be primed or anything, just wiped down and painted! 

I mixed it with Sherwin Williams Blue Plate and used their Harmony brand of paint which has 0 VOC. 

I probably would have been fine with regular SW paint, and a mask, and outside..but I was a spaz about that sort of thing. I also avoided ham sandwiches and JIMMY JOHNS for the whole first trimester. Now that was hard to do!

Anyway, it took me one weekend to paint it. Mostly because I was tired from being pregnant. I had to take 600 breaks. It could have been finished in one day by a non-pregnant person. The paint dries SUPER fast, and there was hardly any sanding involved.  

I finished it with a dark wax by Fiddles N Sons brand... Which Webster's recommends for use with their products.

Here it is all done up in Ben's room.

The pulls were from Menards hardware section. I'm more of an Oil Rubbed Bronze hardware girl, but the brushed dark silver just looked so much nicer.  They also go nice with the DIY bookcase in his room. We'll share about that very soon, along with some other great details!

See the rest of Ben's vintage nursery!

Ben's Vintage Inspired Nursery

Photos of Ben's nursery are here! I'll provide more detailed info on our DIYs in the room in a later post. Today, we'll just share the vintage goodness!


Vintage Rocking horse, a gift from Ben's Great Aunt Wendy sits in front of his Jenny Lind crib.

This giraffe used to hang in my childhood bedroom.

My dad made this zen garden for me a few years back. It sits on his side table.

A view of one side of the room.
The chair is missing from the room right now, as it sits in our bedroom for now.

The bookshelf was a DIY which we will share later in the details post!

Plenty of room for more books!

I used scrap fabric from the baby showers to tie back these Ikea curtains.

This corner of the room turned out perfect. The dresser was a DIY makeover. Can't wait to share this makeover... you won't believe the crazypants "before"!

We used the Billy from Cardboard Safari above the changing table. We'll talk about this DIY with you coming up too!

You may remember this hilarious President Scout print from Uncommon Goods I shared a few months ago.

His mobile was a gift from a dear friend.  It goes perfect in the room, and is something I would have chosen for the nursery myself.

All photo credit in this post goes to the talented Andrea Beltz from AB Photography. She did our newborn photos which we L-O-V-E and snapped a few photos of the nursery for us too! Sharing one of our favorites of little Benjamin below.

Isn't that face the sweetest? Happy Friday!

Oh, p.s. A reminder we have a GIVEAWAY going on right now with Body After Baby! Ends in a few days! Awesome for new moms, expecting moms too...would be a great baby shower gift too! Enter here!

Ben's Vintage Inspired Nursery: Preview

Ben's room is not done yet. Will it ever be done? Like the rest of our home, I'm sure I will always be changing out the decor and adding something else to the DIY list.

The BIG reveal will come super soon. Today we've got a few sneaky preview shots!

Way back in November I shared our nursery inspiration and a few flea market finds. We mostly stuck to our ideas, and added a few other items to the room.

We talked about how there wasn't really a theme in the room other than "cute old stuff we like". We pretty much stuck to our ideas, and even did a few DIYs in the room I can't wait to share with you...

More to come!

And, in case you missed it, BabyN's birth announcement on the blog!

Spring Vignette and Mantel

Finally! Was that a long winter or what?  Spring is here, and apparently so are the April Showers...which I keep reminding myself...

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Then sadly, I remembered I didn't even plant May flowers. I did plant a few June flowers. Gah, not good enough. I made a mental note to plant 5,000 tulips for next Spring. I need tulips in my life!

Anyway, my favorite "Spring-y decor" in our house is our entryway.
This old sewing machine table is really beat up, but I kinda like it that way. To create this vignette I shopped my house and the thrift store.

My sweet baby lamby greets guests at the door. I think she fits perfect in the Spring theme.

I took some cheap-o dollar store plastic eggs and mod podged some old book pages to them. Then stuffed them in a mason jar. Done.

I found a few ducks and bunnies at the thrift store and gave them a few coats of silver spray paint.

QUICK STORY: When I posted the above photo on my Instagram, somebunny (my mother) demanded she have the bunny holding the egg for herself. So off to her house this little rabbit went...

EDIT: here is the bunny in his new home, on my mom's kitchen counter.

Anyway, back to the vignette. The chalkboard was an old frame from Family Dollar of all places. I sprayed the frame white then used a little antique gold rub and buff.

Add a spritz of fresh grocery store flowers for a cheap and true spring touch. (If you are smart and planted yourself some tulips, you are lucky, you can use those!)

I love decorating with old books. The funny thing is, I pick them up for a quarter at the thrift store, and my husband ends up reading them. If he knew I ripped out the pages of some to make these eggs he would may or may not be cranky.

My mantel also had a few Spring additions. I made a burlap and lace banner one evening with a girlfriend at our monthly "Wine and Design"

Added a few little bunnies too, and my mantel is ready for Spring!

See my Winter/ New Year Vignette.
See my Fall/ Autumn Vignette.
You can jump back and see my Christmas Mantel right here.

What do you do to get ready for Spring in your house?
Do you have Spring flowers popping up?