Paint or Varnish? Weigh In!

I have been "off" for 17 days.  WAY too long to take off and hope to keep or increase my readership.  I feel awful, but I have been just that busy.  Moving.  Again.

I honestly don't move a lot.  I lived in the same house for over 15 years.  I had been divorced for two years when I finally moved into a smaller place.  With  my daughter working in another city, the house was just too much for me and my son.  I moved into a gorgeous apartment, but really wasn't happy with apartment life, at least not right now.  Still, I decorated it, and took advantage of the vintage style of the place, using lots of my vintage and antique home decor and furniture.  It looked amazing...but...

My daughter came home after a year, and suddenly there wasn't enough room for two clothes-obsessed women.  The closets in the apartment were tiny and we were literally dressing out of bins.  Couple that with the three flights of stairs and the onset of plantar fasciitis in both feet, and couple that again (?) with a landlord who was a "weally angwy guy" and I knew that when lease time came up again, I just couldn't stay.  Another move.

I have always hated moving.  I hated just moving to school in the fall, so this was really going against my grain.  I tried my best to move back into a house, albeit a smaller one, but the timing just wasn't with me.  I ended up moving into my mom's for a few months.  God's timing is always so much better than mine, and by waiting, I found a cute little house that's just perfect for the three of us.  I'm uber-excited to decorate again.  At my children's request, we're going a little less retro and a little more modern.  I'm totally up for the challenge.

I went on an extreme thrifting trip today with about 20 other women.  We took a "party bus" and noshed on goodies like cheese and crackers, scones, veggie wraps and croissants, washed down with several different flavors of mimosas.  I found so much, so so so so much!  One of my favorite finds was three pairs of brand new sheer curtains for my bedroom.  Yesssss!

You can't tell here, but there's a yellow thread running down the length of each panel.  This is going to look amazing....trust me!

And with the move and the decorating comes a plethora of new projects, or old ones that I am now in a big hurry to finish.  I had the three bedrooms painted yesterday, and I'm waiting for beds to be delivered.  Everything else in the bedrooms is going to be "old stock" but with a new twist.  The still cold weather is not helping my progress.

One such project is this table, purchased at an estate sale about a year ago for $10.  The hairpin legs were rusty and rough, so I took my trusty can of gold paint out and gave them a quick spray:

Attaching the legs was easy, even though everything was pretty rusty and stiff.  And one of the wingnuts was missing a wing.  That one took a little while.  The tiny feet in the picture belong to my companion for the day, five year old Myles.  

If this weren't upside down, you'd know that this is a "Watertown Slide" table.  It had leaves at some point.

http://www.gardnerscrew.com/pdf/tableslides.pdf

This is one of the things I've been saving for my next home.  I refused to sell it---it's been well-loved, and I'm continuing the tradition.

 So what about this top?  Paint or varnish?

 Pay no attention to the dirty socks in the corner...

I have a set of vintage kitchen chairs that, regardless of what my kids might say, are staying.  The frames match the legs of the table.  I love it when a plan comes together.  I love it even more when I have no plan, and it comes together anyway.  Pretty much my philosophy on life in general. 

Next up:  Painted side tables.  I'm thinking bright green.  Bright green matches nothing in this house, but remember what I said about having a plan.  

Keep reading to see how my new, old little house takes shape!