Today is my one day off this week hooray! Medicine rotation= no free time! The good news about waking up so durn early is I've been improving my napping skillz, the bad news is I'm at the hospital a lot more often than I'm home. Or maybe it just feels that way...
Anyways, Jay and I took advantage of the fact that we're both off together to do a little combo biking/ antiquing. First stop: breakfast. If you have never stopped at Melange Creperie in Montrose I need you to stop reading this, go eat a crepe and then come back. It's ok, I'll wait. ... ... ...... I know delicious right? Moving on to furniture.
I've wanted a vanity table pretty much since we moved in a year ago because the lighting in our tiny bathroom is comically bad. I really like the mirrored looking ones but the price tag is unreasonable for us right now (or ever, $1100?!) and I think the fancy mirrored look would be out of place in our more rustic feeling bedroom (we have a barn door for a headboard). So off to our favorite consignment shops, Blue Bird Circle and the Guild Shop we went.
Blue Bird was a bust this time, but the Guild Shop was money! We found two great potential options.
Anyways, Jay and I took advantage of the fact that we're both off together to do a little combo biking/ antiquing. First stop: breakfast. If you have never stopped at Melange Creperie in Montrose I need you to stop reading this, go eat a crepe and then come back. It's ok, I'll wait. ... ... ...... I know delicious right? Moving on to furniture.
I've wanted a vanity table pretty much since we moved in a year ago because the lighting in our tiny bathroom is comically bad. I really like the mirrored looking ones but the price tag is unreasonable for us right now (or ever, $1100?!) and I think the fancy mirrored look would be out of place in our more rustic feeling bedroom (we have a barn door for a headboard). So off to our favorite consignment shops, Blue Bird Circle and the Guild Shop we went.
Blue Bird was a bust this time, but the Guild Shop was money! We found two great potential options.
Sorry for the wacky angles, you'll see in a minute how incredibly packed the Guild Shop is. I could barely get the whole piece in the shot. The one on the left is a sort of occasional table with weird little panels that pull out on the side, and the one on the right is a bonafide vanity already. You can see the little middle panel that actually flips up to reveal a mirror and storage.
You may notice that these look super similar. The main thing we were shopping for were the Queen Anne style legs because I knew that was what I wanted. We figured we would be able to construct the rest of the piece, but the elegant curvy legs were out of our area of woodworking expertise. So what to do? Our original plan was just to find some legs and then build the rest of the vanity, but here's a whole vanity staring us in the face.
Really it came down to size and a challenge. I liked the smaller table on the left, I don't want our room to be overwhelmed with a makeup table, and the price was only $45. Considering the cost of the legs at a wood supply shop ($25 each) this guy was a steal. The already-a-vanity-vanity was $120 and still needed to be completely refinished. Also it's style is too frilly for me. So I asked Jay if he would be able to re-purpose the table on the left (including new, more contemporary looking sides and adding a drawer) for less than the cost of the table on the right. Our challenge was born.
An aside: Jay is of the mind that "tools don't count," when we are making purchases for our projects. The reasoning is he will be able to use the tools for future projects. I disagree with this philosophy entirely, but he isn't spending my money on the tools so I let it go.
Before I show you what we did to this poor table when we got home, allow me to take you on a tour of the much famed Guild Shop.
You may notice that these look super similar. The main thing we were shopping for were the Queen Anne style legs because I knew that was what I wanted. We figured we would be able to construct the rest of the piece, but the elegant curvy legs were out of our area of woodworking expertise. So what to do? Our original plan was just to find some legs and then build the rest of the vanity, but here's a whole vanity staring us in the face.
Really it came down to size and a challenge. I liked the smaller table on the left, I don't want our room to be overwhelmed with a makeup table, and the price was only $45. Considering the cost of the legs at a wood supply shop ($25 each) this guy was a steal. The already-a-vanity-vanity was $120 and still needed to be completely refinished. Also it's style is too frilly for me. So I asked Jay if he would be able to re-purpose the table on the left (including new, more contemporary looking sides and adding a drawer) for less than the cost of the table on the right. Our challenge was born.
An aside: Jay is of the mind that "tools don't count," when we are making purchases for our projects. The reasoning is he will be able to use the tools for future projects. I disagree with this philosophy entirely, but he isn't spending my money on the tools so I let it go.
Before I show you what we did to this poor table when we got home, allow me to take you on a tour of the much famed Guild Shop.
For a general idea of how the store feels, here's a shot of the big furniture room in the back. We won't even get into the insanity of the clothing room. Too much old white church lady weirdness. As you can see it's pretty much a cluster of piled up furniture surrounded by art that I think most people would pay to have removed from their homes. Hit or miss is an understatement when it comes to this place, so always expect to be entertained but never expect to find what you're looking for. Unless you are looking for some wicked costume jewelry because ye olde Guild Shop is famous for that; just don't come looking for it on a Saturday or the ladies who lunch will have already taken over the place.
My really super favorite part of the Guild Shop is not furniture, but the strange nick nacks/ African tribal masks/ poorly finished ceramic animals.
There are some real treasures though. We did find our first table that we ever refinished at the Guild Shop.
And who could ever forget this guy?
A few more pictures for your viewing pleasure.
And who could ever forget this guy?
A few more pictures for your viewing pleasure.
As for the fate of the table? We came back with the "big car" which is my convertible with the top down (we had ridden our bikes originally), loaded the table into the back seat and headed home. Sorry we forgot to get a pic of that. It would have been hilarious.
Jay got right to work tearing the little guy into pieces, but that's for another post. Here he is in his future home though. Looks like a perfect fit.
Jay got right to work tearing the little guy into pieces, but that's for another post. Here he is in his future home though. Looks like a perfect fit.