March | 2014 | Operation Home

As some of you may know, I’m a thrift store/Craigslist junkie. I love finding and revamping (or not revamping) vintage pieces. They lend so much personality and warmth to a room. I would LOVE (with a capital LOVE) to grow our collection and am constantly on the lookout for new, quality finds. Pairing vintage with modern allows both elements to shine in their own right and it’s a combo that makes me happy. So, when I received an email from One Kings Lane promoting their new Home Decor Resource and requesting a post on how vintage and modern team up in our home, I jumped on the opportunity. Here are a few examples of what we’ve got going on….

First, we have My Beloved desk chair. I wrote about him in detail in this post, and yes, I still hear cheesy 80’s love songs in my head every time I see him (and Joey blames me for this happening to him, as well. Mission. Accomplished.). I got him for a steal at our local Goodwill. He’s a mid-century modern bombshell of clerical chicness with beautiful wood construction and an original vinyl seat. He currently is the only vintage piece in the sea of modern furnishings that composes our front room.

For example, our unassuming Ikea desk…

Our clean Friheten Ikea sofa…

As well as our hacked storage cabinet…

And I love the combination. The contrast in colors and textures and the simplicity of the other furniture in the room allow My Beloved to truly steal the show (whilst smiling back at me through the glare of stage-lights… Yup. I’m going with it.).

Next, we have Drex…

Our mid-century, Drexel dresser that I scored on Craigslist after an exhausting hunt. I love his tarnished brass hardware and rich wood tones. This area still desperately needs some large-scale wall art, but in the meantime, I’ve done my best to style him in a more modern way with a linear tray (which I lined with some retro-patterned fabric), sleek vases and a simple, brushed-nickel Ikea lamp (and, of course, Hootie… Nothing completes a room like a white ceramic owl in my book ;)) …

I feel like the differing metal finishes plus less-is-more styling gives Drex more of a modern appeal.

Our living room is another space where modern plus vintage come out to play. This combination speaks to our personalities so well. Updated, with a hint of quirk. Our media cabinet was in sad shape when I purchased him at a local thrift store. After a little makeover, he shines his vintage aura across the land….

The contrast of rich, cozy wood plus our clean, white floating Ikea shelves totally puts the wind in my sails. The simple leather chair adds some sleekness and masculinity to the space while the floral pillow and garden stool help to balance out that manly vibe. In my opinion, this wall wouldn’t have a speck of the personality it does without our media cabinet. He adds warmth to an otherwise linear, modern space that might have come off cold without him. In fact, when I placed him in his current abode, I stated, “Character, I’d like to introduce you to our living room.” (I mean, it’s only polite to make introductions). Fortunately, they happen to be getting along swimmingly.

Then, we have our coffee table. After we adopted Kivvy (our beloved Kivik sectional from Ikea), I was dead-set on finding a coffee table with character to balance out the cool, clean lines of our new sofa. I searched high and low and finally found our sweet rattan coffee table on Craigslist, which we purchased for a song…

A spit-shine was all this baby needed to reach his full potential. I absolutely love the tone of the bamboo which plays perfectly with our media cabinet. He adds glorious texture without taking up a ton of visual space thanks to his glass top. I love the straight lines of the bamboo which have just enough curve to bring in the interest he deserves….

Coffee table… You. Complete. Me. Now, I must name you.

Lastly, I thought I’d throw something small into the pot. Our train whistle, which belonged to Joey as a child…

It currently resides in our hallway frame collage as the centerpiece for the mix of more modern frames. I simply hung it from a nail with a piece of twine (as described in detail here). And here’s the wall as it stands now…

You can see I’ve made some changes recently, which I’ll describe in another post soon. The mish-mosh of modern frames and differing finishes along with the antique train whistle forms my very favorite wall-hanging in our house. It just wouldn’t be the same without our “something old” thrown in. The train whistle is the cheese to the frames’ macaroni. The peanut butter to their jelly. I’m not ashamed to admit that I have crushes on inanimate objects. It happens.

So anyways, Modern + Vintage is a combo that I cant resist. They compliment each other so well. And I’m the first to admit that I’m still happily learning about this subject as fast as I can soak it up… I’m definitely no expert. But, I know what I like… and this is it. Non-cookie-cutter. With personality. Quirkiness, if you will. And nothing helps to match that description better than a good vintage piece. Which, coincidentally, is easily complimented by the clean lines of modern decor. Peas and carrots, people. Peas and carrots. 🙂

I have to tell you… right now, as we speak, I’m throwing mental hugs at all of my vintage finds and appreciating them all over again after having written this post. So, tell me… Where does modern + vintage fall in your style? Any one-of-a-kind finds that make glow in adoration whenever you glance their way?

I dare you to say THAT three times fast. Even better, do it in front of a mirror. I tried. I failed. I laughed. Yes, this is what I do in my spare time.

Anyhoo, I’ve been searching for a new nightstand for Lucas’s room for some time now, but never quite found what I was looking for. I wanted something that was light colored, or able to be painted a light color, with storage. His current night stand, as seen here…

…was too dark in my opinion and was falling apart. The bamboo pieces around the edges were falling off, and we’d lost the door handle. Normally, this wouldn’t bother me. I’d just fix it, replace the hardware, paint it and move on. What did bother me was that these pieces were basically stapled on. And when they come loose, there were sharp staples just waiting for Lucas to hurt himself on. And there was no telling which area would come loose. Lucas would just walk out of his room carrying yet another broken piece. So, it needed to go.

The other day I attempted to sift through No Man’s Land (our spare room/resident dumping ground for those who don’t know) and I came across a hand-me-down Ikea Lack table that was given to us a while back. I’d kept him (and his twin brother) with the thought of turning them into a headboard for Lucas’s bed. This plan never came to fruition because I didn’t like the scale of the tables with the bed, so they’ve just been taking up space in decorating purgatory ever since.

It’s funny how leaving an item alone for a while and then coming back to it later can give you a fresh, new perspective. Upon rediscovering the table, I realized that at least a temporary solution to the nightstand dilemma was waiting for me for free in our spare room this whole time. As I continued to organize our junk, I found a map that we’d used to find our way to Eureka Springs for our honeymoon years ago… And the thoughts connected.

Lucas’s transportation themed room + Map = YESSSSS!!!!!!!

So, I busted out my materials…

I started by cutting off the mustard trim on the edge of the map, as I wanted to finish off the table with it later.

Then, I unscrewed the legs a smidge to make it easier to trim out the top….

I thoroughly cleaned the table and used a liquid deglosser to rough up the surface. Then, I applied a coat of Mod Podge, which the little man helped with….

I applied the map over top and did my best to smooth it out….

Then, I trimmed the corners (sorry for the blurry pic. This is what happens when I multitask) …

Applied Mod Podge to the sides and folded over the edges….

Once I was through with this, I carefully lined up my border and applied it all around the edge….

And followed it up with three coats of Mod Podge over top. I did have an issue with air bubbles. On the bad ones I simply sliced a small hole in the paper and filled it with Mod Podge to allow it to seep under the paper, then I smoothed it with my finger. I probably should’ve applied a thicker coat of Mod Podge to the table before applying my map, but ya live, ya learn.

Here’s the final result….

It’s definitely not perfect. It has creases and air bubbles, but I actually like it that way. It looks leathery and weathered. I was actually thinking of tinting some Mod Podge and going over it again to give it more of an aged look. For now though, I’m gonna leave it as is.

I added a basket underneath that was also living an unfulfilled life in No Man’s Land to fill my storage requirement. It now holds the books that were in Lucas’s old night stand. I like that Lucas can always pull over his rocking chair and use this table to read or color or whatever. It has enough table surface to serve more than one purpose for sure.

I’m still going to keep an eye out for a more permanent solution as I feel like this table is a bit low for a nightstand, but for a completely free (and more importantly… SAFE) alternative to his old nightstand I think it’s a pretty darn good option. 🙂