Thrifted Thursday: Red and white and pink all over

I know I haven't done a Thrifted Thursday post for a while. It's not that I haven't been thrifting (boy, have I!) it's just that I haven't bought much that wasn't clothing for the store. You can see (and purchase!) all those goodies here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/practiceintime .

And since my birthday was last week, my son and I went on my third annual Thrift Crawl last Saturday. 'Cept it wasn't really a thrift crawl; I went to a bunch of local antique stores. Usually I prefer thrift store prices, but I've been to almost all of my favorite places recently, and we got a late start (went to see Max Raabe Friday night! Love!). So it was strictly neighborhood shopping.

Jayson is such a good shopping buddy, has a great eye, and loves a bargain just as much as I do. We had a blast- hit 3 antique stores, ate lunch and had a milkshake at the counter at Sine's 5&10 (his idea!) and each got some treasures.

First I found a really neat cheese grater. Actually, it's a potato ricer (made in Germany, pre-war) but will work for cheese. I've scraped my knuckles way too many times with my box grater (nothing like a little blood with your cheese!), and this is easier for kids to work as well. Red and white, for my kitchen. It was $8, which wasn't a bad deal, considering that I saw a couple more in worse shape for $50+. I also picked up this adorable 1930s/40s canister set. It's in really great shape- barely any scratches or wear to the decals- for $12. I loved it in the store and now that I have it home, I don't think I'm going to be able to send them up to the cabin (which I initially purchased them for). They just fit so perfectly into my kitchen decor. 

 Jayson found this cool wall plaque.

 He has quite a collection of these vintage nature scenes (16 and counting). He bargained the dealer down to $10, which was a decent deal, and I'm glad we bought it because it is one of the nicer ones in his collection.

I also bought these off of ebay last week. I've been wanting some chalkware fish for our bathroom for a while now and when these came up I had to have them. They are Miller Studio, mint in the box. They actually still have the googly eyes on them. Pink and black- perfect for our bathroom, and a good deal at $9 for the pair.


I think they like their new habitat:

Trash to Treasure: Kustom Bathroom Scale

This is another one of those projects I have had hanging around forever! Just like the TV-quarium project, I have had this old bathroom scale on the back burner for years. Literally, like 10 years. 

It had been a wedding present to my in-laws back in 1960. After a while it got too rusty and grungy to be in the bathroom and they had it sitting in the garage. I asked if I could have it, since we have a pink and black bathroom and it would match. I knew it would take a lot of work to get back to being usable, so I just stored it in the basement for a -long- time.

For all those years, my main concern was that I wasn't able to find the "correct" vinyl to restore the treads- pink textured with sparkles (!). I would have settled for just plain pink upholstery vinyl, but I could never find just the right shade to match the tile and the pink paint I already had.

Then I saw a great bathroom scale restoration done by the folks over at the Hepcats Restorations blog (thanks guys!) using black step tread material, and finally had my lightbulb moment! I didn't have to find original vinyl, I could do something a little different.

So we disassembled it, peeled off the old vinyl and stripped the paint.

The back got a coat of Rustoleum textured matte black and some new rubber feet. 

The top got several coats of pink paint. Notice the strip of original vinyl on the right, and how closely the pink matches! My husband used to be an auto body tech, so he did the prep and painting- much better than I could have done!

I masked off the shoulders and a strip on the front to leave the original chrome. Then I smoothed out the edges with a little pinstripe. Cleaned up the dial and painted the wheel and the "Detecto" emblem with black. 

Since I was going to be able to cut the tread material to whatever design I wanted, I decided to have a little fun with it and do a flame pattern. I did need to cover the holes in the top, so I had to take that into account when cutting the treads.

So here it is! Another item crossed off the to-do list, and a fun weekend project. Might even make stepping on the scale enjoyable!

Vintage Towels: the Finishing Touch

So you spent all kinds of time and money restoring a 1950s pink bathroom, seeking out vintage pink fixtures and just the right accessories, but something is still missing.

Or, you want to add a touch of vintage style to a modern bathroom. What is left?

Vintage sculptured towels!

I recently read a great article over at retrorenovation.com about how vintage-style towels are making a comeback. Apparently all those sculptured and textured towels from your Grandma's linen closet are hot stuff over at Anthropologie, Pottery Barn and even Kmart. Who woulda thunk it?

Why, you and me, of course.

See, it just so happens that here at the PIT we got hep to that jive long ago. I'm here to show you some of my vintage textured towels from the 50s and beyond! (It helps to be the only one in the family with a genuine 50s pink bathroom- I inherited all of these from Grandmas and Aunts over the years. No icky thrift store towels!)

Two of my favorites, both textured plush Textron towels.

 Close up of the large one- this is my favorite!

A matched pair of bath and hand towels. I have two sets of these, plus wash cloths. They probably are the closest match to my tile. These are Cannon sculptured towels like those mentioned in the article. The only downside to all this fabulousness is that the bath towels are about half the size of modern ones. So just use two!

Three of a kind! The middle one is a light green; I usually use it in the other bath.

This is another of my favorites.

I love the pink trim band!

 I bet I'm not the only one that remembers these.... I think we also had matching sheets back when I was a kid in the 70s. I think my eyes are burning.

And for those who call the 80s "vintage", see ET in that image? LOL

Hope you enjoyed your trip through the Chez QT linen closet!