Project Complete. Vintage Mid-century kitchen chair step-stool thingy

 Before & After photo above.  After photos below.

I talked about the discovery and planning for this chair in the last blog post.  Now that it is done, I need to work on selling it.  I love doing these large projects but it is cumbersome when it comes to moving on.  I don't have the space for this stool in my home so until it it sold, it is just in the way.  Plus, because of the space issue... I can't really start my next project until this one is outta here! So, putting on my salesman cap now....

Summer Furniture project - refurbish a mid-century stool seat

 It is that time of year where the kids swim just about every day so I figured I needed a project to work on while sitting on the patio watching them.  I am in need of some accent tables, a table for under my TV, a desk for the baby or a bookshelf, so I started searching the thrift stores & yard sales.  I didn't find anything that I need, but thought that this metal chair/stool combo thing looked interesting.
To tell the truth, I have no place for this chair in my home and pretty sure that my husband will hate it but I wanted this project anyway.  I think maybe once it is finished, I will try and sell it.  After some research, I discovered that they are currently making a reproduction of this same chair!

When I found that, I panicked a little thinking, 'oh shit, I bought just a dirty stool that isn't even old!' but I took a closer look and this one is indeed, a very old version.  Also through some online comparisons I found out that it won't be super valuable once refurbished, but as long as I don't spend too much time on it, I will be able to turn a slight profit.  Obviously this business is more of a hobby than a business.

 At least I get to work in comfortable clothes!

I took it apart completely in about an hour.  I spent another 2 hours scrubbing off rust.  I like to keep most things original, so I soaked the screws overnight in a vinegar bath to get the rust off.  Today, (or maybe tomorrow) I will be working on upholstery, paint and then the real challenge.... putting it back together correctly.

Mid-Century Brody round back swivel Dining chairs re-vamped

I found these chairs on Freecycle (actually it was a complete dinette set, the table is now the kids' art table) and as you can see, they were pretty gross.  They had some interesting 80's style grandma cushions. I trashed those right away.

Every chair had ripped upholstery and rusted bases but the structure and functionality was sound.

I risked lead poisoning and sanded off the rust.

Then painted them.  My husband was not excited about the yellow, but they were yellow to start with and I think yellow is fun so he was overruled.

Then, weeks and weeks went by before I got around to picking the fabric.  Then I stripped off the old yucky vinyl to find that the insides were in good enough shape to not have to replace.  score.

This was by far the most complex upholstery project I've taken on because of the curves in the seat backs.  I used some upholstery fabrics that someone gave me years ago that I'll probably never use to make a test-run pattern before cutting into the good fabric that I bought.  Surprisingly, it only took one adjustment from my original draft and I was able to get the curves done pretty quickly.  The next challenge was putting them back together because it had been so long since taking them apart that I had forgotten which screw went where.  So basically after about 9 weeks, $35 in fabrics, a quart of paint & about 20 or so hours of work... I turned my free chairs into kitchen chairs to go with my Brady-bunch-orange bar.

Toys from the late 70s early 80s

Last night I was looking through an old Women's Day magazine from December of 1980.  I love looking through old magazines for their ads.  They are useful in helping identify the ages of collectibles and sometimes they are just plain funny.  Last night brought a little bit of nostalgia for my childhood. This page especially.

When this magazine was published, I had just turned 5 so this page was basically all the best things in the world for me.  I had many of these toys and if I didn't personally own it, I'd played with them at friend's houses.  I remember that Woodsey family log house being one of my favorites for years and years.  I still had my Lolly doll until last November when I sold her on eBay.

Many say that this kind of nostalgia is what made the movie Toy Story so famous.  Maybe.  I know it certainly made the classic toys featured in it become popular again.
I just can't get that Woodsey family out of my head.  It makes me so sad because my mom, who was awesome by the way, saved this toy for me but sometime in the 90s her basement flooded and many of the toys were ruined.  Unfortunately my Woodsey family ended up molded and I had to throw them out.  I found this family for sale on eBay and I'm so tempted to buy it.

(Woodsey family photo credit eBay seller NEWtique Boutique)

Wooden Cart rehab project

I picked up this wooden cart at an estate sale for 10 bucks.  I'm not really sure if it is old or if it is just dirty!  Either way, what I needed it for, it will be outside in the brutal south Florida sun so it is probably better if it isn't some valuable antique.

The above picture is after about half an hour of sanding with an electric sander.  I didn't get a close up shot, but there were wooden pieces that were flailing out at the bottom so I pulled on them and sure enough, whole chunks of some sort of wood paneling came peeling off.  My 3-year-old got a kick out of helping me pull these off.  But after peeling them & sanding the flimsy board underneath, I'm realizing that I'm gonna need to do some sort of additional treatment to these sides.  The top and corner pieces are solid wood, so they are sound, I just will need a 'filler' for the center panel.  Especially since this side is the one that will be closest to the pool and likely splashed AND in the sun for half the day. 

I really liked these cool rusty wheels.  My husband suggested that I replace them, but I think they bring character so I'm leaving them. 

As I was sanding, I saw our dartboard case and thought that wainscoting would be a good idea for the flimsy side panel.  And, as you can see below... this is where it will be positioned so it makes sense.

I'd originally thought I'd stain it and treat it for being outdoors, but after seeing the inside of that side panel, I'm thinking paint.  I am not sure if I wanna do a slate gray that would look good with the stones on the house and that crazy orange door, or if I should go with a flat black to coordinate with the dartboard.  What do you think?

Still working on figuring out the age indicators

I haven't found any good sources for determining the ages of vintage American Tourister suitcases so I'm just working on trying to figure it out on my own.  I believe that the Tri-Taper is the oldest, the one with this kind of latch

But, that is just my guess.  Some other differences are in the handles.  There are these kind:

but I don't see many of those around.  The one I see most often is like this:

I have Tri-Tapers, Tiaras and the one that just says "Tourister" all having this type of handle.  I only have the one with that first handle pictured above (it is a Tri-Taper) so I'm assuming it is my oldest piece.
Another difference I've found is the American Tourister metal label.  Here are the two versions I've seen

again, with the later picture being the most common.

Score!! 2 New American Tourister Train Cases

Score, a photo by by Shelley Faye on Flickr.

Just brought these two babies home. They STINK! and are filthy. No worries... they will be beautiful by the time the sun goes down today.

Luggage tags on Vintage American Tourister suitcases

In my quest for information on vintage American Touristers I've found that I'm really enjoying looking at the details and the differences.  I have found very little factual information on how to date these cases so all I can do is keep collecting information.  One special little detail on the American Touristers is the cute, kitschy little tag.  The style is iconic but if you look closely, they aren't all the same. 

The above one is totally smooth and printed on the rubber or plastic or whatever these things are made of.  The one below is embossed and embossed without a color. 

The thing about these tags, is that they can't really be dated by the case that they are attached to because they are on a ball chain, which is removeable and can easily be added or moved from one case to another.  This one pictured below, came from an eBay auction and as you can see... the font is slightly different from the first picture above.  Someone could easily buy the tag and add it to any case.

To be honest, I've done it myself.  That is not the original tag for the red one at the top, it also came off of a gold Tiara overnight case that I sold a few years back.

If I were to guess, I'd say that the embossed tags were the older ones and the smaller font would be the most recent of the ones pictured.

Craft Show displays made from Vintage Suitcases

Probably the place that you'll have the most vintage hard-shell suitcase sightings would be at a handmade crafts show.  Especially the indie ones! They are so handy for craft shows because they double as storage. You can store your crafts inside, carry them into the show, open up the case and boom.... display is done. (ok, so there is a little more work than that in setting up a craft show booth but still... you get what I mean)
The other day I was surfing around the web looking at suitcases when I came across this

http://pommes-frites.blogspot.com/2010/07/craft-fair-booth-display-vintage.html

Adorable right? I've bee using my vintage cases for my craft show displays for awhile, but I've been using just the plain case... as is.  Mine didn't have anything fancy, I just open it up, arrange my softies inside and sling my banner over the top, see... here's me

(above picture taken by Eric Bojanowski for the Sun-Sentinel article about Odd Duck)

But, I've got one case that I never used because it is HUGE and any softies that I prop up indie just don't fill the vertical space. So, I figured I'd get crafty.  I dug out the saw and managed to cut a piece of peg board the right size to fit inside.

I didn't permanently attach it because the interior if this case is pristine and I just couldn't bring myself to make permanent changes.  Surprisingly I was lucky enough to get the size of the board just right and it just sticks in there by itself held on by the interior trim! Honestly I don't know what I am going to use this for because I don't really sell anything that would be displayed hung from a peg board, but oh well... I am still proud of my handiwork.  Next I'll paint the peg board to match the suitcase and sometime between then and my next show... maybe I'll find a use for it.
Below is a picture of my kids trying it out to make sure it holds strong enough.  They were running around just hanging up anything they could find.  Here we have a pac man plush, a sugar skull plush, two aprons and a wii remote.

I found a seller on Etsy who makes and sells these sorts of vintage luggage display cases already made for you.  I also found several tutorials on how to make Vintage Luggage into craft show displays.

http://www.lynnminneydesigns.com/2011/07/12/tutorial-tuesday-vintage-suitcase-to-craft-show-display/
http://greenupgrader.com/15758/vintage-suitcase-craft-project/ 
http://leafytreetopspot.blogspot.com/2011/01/friday-finds-craft-show-display-ideas.html

If you are looking for a vintage suitcase to upcycle,  eBay is an easy way to find one without having to take repeated trips to the thrift store with your fingers crossed.