In addition to the dresser and mirror my mom and I found for the guest room, I found a few other fun finds on our two shopping trips to local antique stores. I still need to do a lot more exploring to find “my honey holes”, but that will come with time. I lived in PA for several years before I found all of my favorite places.
Junk Bonanza is coming up April 11-13 (more details are below) and I’m looking forward to doing a bit of shopping there while I attend to teach MMS Milk Paint demos and sell some antiques. It was a great event last year with top-notch dealers, so I’m expecting to find some antique pieces on the running wish-list for my house.
Anyway, here are the things I found while hitting some local places…
I bought this cute little wooden horse. It was just a few dollars and I love the shape and weathered finish on it. It looks like it’s off of child’s pull toy or something.
I also found a vintage t-square that I can use on my drafting table. It was filthy and needed a good scrub, but it was only $3.00 and it cleaned up nicely!
Along those same lines, I bought two old rulers. I loved the patina on these as well as the printed advertising. I use rulers all of the time in the studio to measure and use as a straight edge, so I’ll actually put these to use.
This ruler was my favorite…
I did find one piece of ironstone – the bottom bowl in the picture below. It was $15, so I couldn’t pass it up…
And, I bought an ottoman/footstool for $24! It is solid as a rock and has pretty legs…
Just ignore the upholstery! You know I’ll be fixing that soon.
I found a few other things, too, but I’ll share those in another post.
And, speaking of antiques, as I said above, I will be at Junk Bonanza April 11-13, 2019, in Shakopee, MN! I went last year to teach milk paint demos and act as their Instagram correspondent, but this year I will have a booth with Midwest Cottage Finds (one of my MMS Milk Paint retailers) in addition to selling our line of paint and finishes and teaching demos. I will have antiques and painted pieces to sell (mostly displaced items from my own collections, so it’ll be good stuff!) Chris of Midwest Cottage Finds is also bringing the most beautiful pieces. I want to buy all of the stuff she’s sent me pictures of so far!
We will also be offering paint-on-the-spot services for furniture for a small fee! It might prove to be a colossally crazy idea, but I’m hoping it will be a fun service to offer as well as a great way for us to show the milk paint on different pieces. I’ll share more details about it, but we have limited slots available, so send me an e-mail if you’re interested (marian@missmustardseed.com)
It won’t be like furniture-makeover-frenzy leading up to Lucketts, but I will be showing some pieces that we’re bringing over the next few weeks. Early bird tickets are on sale and I hope we’ll see you there!
i love the horse and Little Rock Iowa is only 37 min. from me.
Dearest Marian,
I know it’s been a long time since I’ve commented on anything. (It took me awhile to catch up on all your posts since caring for and losing my precious mom last fall. I know I’ll see her again in Heaven one day.) So happy your mom comes out and helps you with projects. Reminds me of my mom helping me with, not only projects, but she was our cook for harvest meals for more than 30 years. Treasure your time-it really does go fast.
LOVE, LOVE everything you do!! You’re a wonderful inspiration. You’ve actually helped me make some decorating decisions over the years and given me some things to ponder. Thank you for that! For anyone to be joyous that you fail in something is so very hateful to me and I don’t believe that anything you do is a failure it’s just a bend in the river. A change of direction.
I know this may be a dumb question, totally off topic, maybe you mentioned it somewhere, it’s been nagging at me for a very long time, but did anyone ever find all your golden tickets in the milk paint? You painting at the Junk Bonanza reminded me about it again. Sorry, in advance, for such an awkward question!
Love the Horse! It looks like it may have lost its wheels <3
What a great idea to offer the paint-on-the-spot service. I'm looking forward to your upcoming posts about the Junk Bonanza.
love your finds ! The ‘yellow dress’ picture always makes me smile….so happy!
Hi Marian! I’m curious, do you feel like there is less ironstone in the antique shops here in the Midwest v. what you found out east? I almost never find ironstone in shops here, but tend to get most of mine at garage sales instead. Also, I love your ‘colossally crazy’ idea of painting on the spot at Junk Bonanza! If I go this year I’ll be sure to check that out 😉
Off-topic. Did you know that Anders Zorn was born in ‘Mora’? I just noticed the book.
So funny Goedele, I immediately thought you meant Mora, Minnesota (because of course there is one). Now I realize you meant Mora, Sweden! Ha, silly me 😉
Yes ofcourse :). The Mora from the milk paint colour is the Mora in Dalarna, Sweden.
I am so jealous that you live in Minnesota now and I can’t go that far from VA! And I never got to go to Luckett’s spring festival of gorgeous antiques because I only just found you before you moved. But have fun, I know it’ll go great.
You are so talented. I wish I could take one hour with you to get my milk paint legs wet. I have never tried it. I also love the patina of old wood so I haven’t painted any of my wood antiques but some are very dark old dressers from my family childhood home and they beg for aa soft redo. I just need a color card to pick something but do not see that on your site? Also I have a curvy french piece for a vanity and it is a repro probably but wood dove tail drawers. I need a cream and golds or blue gray type? Any ideas?? Thank you. I love your finds and wallpaper.
I just finished my first two pieces using MMS milk paint and they turned out great. I’ve never painted any furniture before, but MMS paint is easy to work with … I loved using it and am now looking for other things to paint. The most difficult part was deciding on a color. : )
That Footstool is adorable! The legs are so graceful, it looks like the piece could walk away on its own.
Such great finds! I have that same T-square! Wished I lived closer to go to your booth. Have a great time!
The material on the footstool has the exact colors and pattern of the kitchen wallpaper in my ‘childhood’ home . . . early 1970s, and I was in my preteens. Funny how something so simple can bring back a flood of memories.
Your brushes look so good. How do you clean them to keep them so nice?
I love the horse too. It’s lines remind me of a Swedish Dala horse.
I have an ottoman very similar to the one that you picked up so I am eager to see how you transform yours.
Ah, the Junk Bonanza is on my bucket list, but that’s probably as far as I get to go. Too far to conveniently shop from Ohio. I love Ki Nassauer and all she does, not to mention I am an admirer of yours, too. Am so envious of your ability to make slip covers and your artwork! Have fun there.
Great finds and all so beautifully photographed!
I noticed in a couple of photos that there is an old letter with a Paris address on it—11th arrondisement, I think. Is there a story behind that letter? And my goodness, didn’t people have beautiful havdwriting back then….
It will be fun to see some MMS furniture coming up and the Junk Bonaza too! Have fun!
I’ll be at Junk Bonanza on Friday! I took a personal day from work! Couldn’t be more excited!
I chuckle at the T-square being considered “vintage,” as I have the identical one that I bought to use in my engineering drafting class at university back in the ’80s!
I had a good chuckle at that too! I still have my “vintage” T-square from interior design drafting classes in the ’80’s…..back in the dark ages as my children would say 😉
Google Dala horse. ?. It looks like the right shape.
I also have a similar, if not same , t-square from ISU in the early 70s!