Pop-up Sale

The Pop-up Sale was a success! Friends(with babies!) stopped by, we set up a beautiful sale, and some items were sold. But I learned that if I want to sell big ticket furniture pieces for more than "steal" garage sale prices, I need to do the leg work to market the sale. A lot of the foot traffic buyers are expecting low prices. I mean, who can blame them when you're setting up shop out of a garage? So I realized that in order to bring in the people that are looking for specific items, like a sophisticated dresser, I need to advertise and market to more people. I've been considering opening an Etsy shop as well to sell handmade pieces. This is all to say, I'm still trucking along in design, loving it, and wondering where do I take it next. Any advice would be appreciated!
So I wanted to share some of what we put out at the sale. And if you're interested in any of the pieces, let me know. It may still be available...

As you may know, we were selling this re-furbished dresser. You can find the before and after story here.

We were also selling these vintage wood crates. They are so handy to make easy, movable shelving or storage.
And we were selling a lovely assortment of vintage pieces from Laura's family.

The petite cabinet dresser is a lovely mid-century Lane piece. It has a beautiful cedar interior with a pull out shelf. I think this would be a perfect bar buffet.

We were also selling this vintage rolling, typewriter table that I re-painted blush pink and gold. It was originally a dark brown, and now I'm in love with it. It could be used for a bar cart, a side table, a tiny desk, a kitchen cart... the possibilities are endless.

And along with all this fab furniture, we were selling handmade coasters, hand-sewn stockings(designed by my sister and me a few years back), clothing, records, dish sets and artwork. And I couldn't have done it without my trusty crew, Laura and James.

Did I mention the babies?! They were definitely my most popular items.

Mia is the daughter of my childhood friend/stalker, Elie(we went to middle school, high school and college together, and I've lost track of who is following who). Mia was born 3 months before my niece, Fletcher.

They are bound to be the best of friends, or each other's stalkers. Basically, they're stuck with each other, which is great by me because it's double the cuteness.

Babies interacting with each other is about the cutest thing I have ever seen, and seems to involve a lot of poking. As you can see, Mia is a bit more agile. We had to prop Fletcher in the corner of the trunk so she wouldn't topple over. What a difference 3 months makes in the life of a baby! Well that's the pop-up sale in a nutshell. Remember to let me know if you're interested in any of the pieces in this post and I'll see you in 2016! Happy New Year!

Dresser Makeover

Hello Friends,
We are less than one week away from the first ever Fletcher Finds and Designs Pop-up Sale! I mentioned the sale in my last post, but I want to give you all the details now:

What: Refurbished furniture, found decor and handmade gift items
Where: 1030 Sanchez Street, San Francisco
When: Saturday 21st, 10am-2pm

And now for the reveal of another item that will be sold at the Pop-up this Saturday. This dresser belonged to my twin brother, Max. You might remember it from this previous post, in which I toured his tiny room.

When he moved to New York over a year ago, he passed this little beauty onto me. It's been sitting in my hallway ever since. I wasn't offended by its look in any way. Black and white is classic. It was just a little boring and needed some schuzzing. I decided to use a favorite color combo of mine, blue and gold.

I used Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Napoleonic Blue for the dresser, then spray painted the handles with Rust-oleum's Metallic. This rich cobalt blue, paired with glitzy gold gives the piece a mature and elegant feel, like it belongs in a stylish French woman's boudoir.

I had fun styling it with various items from my wedding: the slip that I wore getting ready, the cloth handkerchief that has "something blue", and a photo taken by my brother of my sister and me before walking down the aisle. I also borrowed the gold elephant from my mom's collection. I want it for myself. The standing wood mirror was found at an antique store in Healdsburg. I scored it for about $20 and am in love with it.

You may notice Emily Henderson's book, Styled, in the above shot. She is a favorite designer of mine and her book is full of helpful tidbits, especially about styling a space to tell a story.

If you're interested in making this dresser a part of your home, or just saying "Hi", stop on by this Saturday. I'd love to see you!

Wood Crates as Shelving

I'm excited about this post because I am announcing the first Fletcher Finds and Designs Pop-up! That's right. On Saturday, November 21st, I will be setting up a sidewalk sale filled with re-furbished furniture, knick-knacks and fun finds for your house. My lovely childhood friend, Laura, will be hosting it at her place in Noe Valley. More details to come, but write it in your calendar now and hopefully I'll see you there!
In the next two weeks I will be blogging about some of the pieces you will see at my pop-up, the first being these aged, wood crates.

I spotted these beauties on the street in Alameda. They were in pretty rough shape, with rusty nails popping out and splintering wood; I'll admit, I almost left them for the next furniture schmuck. But I couldn't resist and took them home. The great thing about these is:
1) they were free
2) they didn't require much work
3) they can be used as mobile shelving or storage
When I got them home they needed a good cleaning and sanding. Then I reinforced the crates with some new nails and wood glue and finished by painting them with a coat of polycrylic.

The fabulous thing about these wood crates is that they have many uses. You can use them for storage: housing blankets, records or plants. You can use them as shelves for books, artwork or for your collection of rocks in jars(OK, maybe me and Diane Keaton's character in Something's Gotta Give are the only ones with a collection of rocks, but you never know). I think the styling of these crates should be called, "The Rustic Professor." I used a lot of James' things and tried to set the scene for his ideal afternoon: reading and drinking tea.

If you want this look to be yours, don't forget to come to the Pop-up on November 21st!

Changing Table/Dresser Makeover

Hi Friends! Sorry it's been a while since my last post. So may things have been happening. First, I broke my right pinky playing Ultimate Frisbee. Oops! That kept me from picking up a paint brush for a while.

AND on May 28th, my sister, Claire, gave birth to Fletcher Annabelle Brown. Yes, her name is Fletcher, which is awesome and potentially confusing. It's our family's last name and my sister and her husband thought it would be a nice way to use both surnames. I'm slightly sad I didn't have a baby first so I could have used the name. Also, if you have a baby and the nurse asks whether you want the bow on the hat, I vote bow all the way.

So what have I been doing with myself? All the fun jobs of an aunt, like burping, changing, holding, marveling, and generally "loving every minute with this damn crew(great quote from The Royal Tenenbaums)." So on top of all this baby rearing, my sister and her husband were in the midst of a kitchen remodel. As a result, they lived with my parents for the first three months of Fletcher's life, and now they are finally moving back in. By the way, I highly suggest living with family with a newborn-- lots of people who want to help!
One of things Claire and I got super excited about was planning the nursery. One of my good friends, Kathy, was moving out and donated some furniture to me for my refurbishing addiction. Thanks Kathy! One of the pieces was a sturdy wood dresser that is the perfect height for a changing table.

It was fairly plain, so it was a great canvas for doing something more fun for a baby's room. I pondered many ideas, but knew that I wanted to introduce color in an interesting way. Finally, with the help of Claire's approval, I decided on the design. Check out some of my rough sketches below.

First step was sanding the dresser. After removing the old varnish, I found that I really liked the coloring of the natural wood, so I wouldn't be staining the drawer fronts or the top. Next, I painted the frame of the dresser with Annie Sloan's Pure White chalk paint and sealed it with Annie Sloan's clear wax. The next step was the trickiest-- measuring and taping out the lines for the design on the drawer fronts. That took a lot of patience and the help of a patient husband, who politely pointed out when my lines weren't matching up right. When I was finally satisfied with the lines, I jumped into painting. I used my stash of various chalk paints and mixed my own pastel colors of pink, blue and turquoise. After painting a few coats of the colors, I painted a primer on the other lines that I was going to spray paint GOLD. Yay!

Before I could spray paint, I needed to cover the freshly painted pastel colored lines. Should I have done those steps backwards? Perhaps. But spray painting gold and then pulling off all the tape was super satisfying (except for when I found that the paint had seeped under the tape, argh! I took a box cutter to scrape away the extra paint and was good to go).

The final step was sealing the wood with Polycrylic and we were ready to bring it over to my sister's house. So here's the big reveal. It looks awfully cute in the nursery, and much more cute with Fletcher laying on top. One of Fletcher's favorite things in the world is getting changed. If she's in a sour mood, the quickest way to put a smile on her face is to put her on the changing table!

And just so you know she wasn't laying there by herself, thinking, 'Why isn't anyone changing my diaper?', here she is with mom.

The felt bunting is a leftover homemade decoration from our Double Wedding. And the pretty bird painting is by an Italian artist named Irene. You can purchase her original watercolors on etsy.

I hope you noticed the fun, freshly painted pink door. The rest of the room was painted white, except for one wall that was painted with black chalkboard paint. I look forward to revealing the rest of the room when it is all set up. Bye for now!