Dead Man's Shoes Vintage & Other Curious Goods

Don't you love it when you find great new local shops when you aren't really looking for them?  That happened to me and my mom over the weekend when we ended up at Dead Man's Shoes Vintage...

Alex was out of town on another business trip so I asked my mom to come for a visit and thankfully she hopped in her little red hybrid and drove on over from Michigan to keep me company over the weekend!   Or maybe she did just to make sure I don't end up in the ER like the last time Alex was gone?  Anyway....

Shopping adventure selfie with mom :)

We were out and about on Sunday heading to a few estate sales and one of the sales happened to be next to Dead Man's Shoes Vintage.  Naturally, when I saw "vintage" I told her we had to stop in to check it out, so glad we did!

The store had oodles of fun vintage clothing, shoes, accessories, furniture, home decor and other fun curiosities or as they describe it-  "A truly one of a kind collection of curious goods".  I also loved the way the store was curated, the mix of color and pattern throughout added to the fun retro vibe and made browsing through every little bit irresistible.

I have to comment on a few items now- the favorite being the Disposable Dress!  Did you know there was such a thing?!?!  The packaging said it was for "shopping, dancing, partying, funning, and house cleaning" and that it was "for today's Swingers".

It made me wonder if this is where the phrase "she'd look good wearing a paper bag" came from?  Because it is really just a paper bag... with a paper belt/sash.  At least it was water resistant and flame resistant so you can't soak your dress with a spilled a drink or get light on fire during your Swingers party :) 

Lastly, I have to tell you that the best thing about this store is that the prices are reasonable!  That's usually my beef with some vintage stores when you find great things but the pricing is outrageous.  I mean, that dress form in the above pic is $42!  Such a deal!

For all you local Minneapolis/St. Paul folks, you should definitely check it out!  After writing about the Disposable Dress I am kind of kicking myself for not buying it, should I go back and get it?

What did you think of Dean Man's Shoes Vintage?

Would you wear the Disposable Dress?

No update on the sofa situation yet due to Alex's business trip (and the warning he gave me if I buy a couch by myself).  Hopefully we'll get to decide and buy this weekend!

"G"...What a Lovely (and Mysterious) Vintage Trunk

As promised, here are some photos of the trunk we picked up at Hunt and Gather during our Valentine's Day adventure.

Everything about it was perfect for the color scheme we are going with for our Master Bedroom redo.  I loved every little detail including...

... the brown canvas (perfect with Behr's Bitter Chocolate), the gold dowels & lock, black metal edge clamps, and hardwood slats. 

 An extra little fun detail was this monogrammed "G." on each side of the trunk.  Too bad it wasn't a "Z." but the random letter is still pretty fun, makes me wonder what story this old trunk has.

Here is a look inside, it has some kind of garment holder/ organizer.  Not sure if it originally came with the trunk?

 If it did, my only clue as to where the trunk came from is this label on the garment holder that says "Thiss Luggage, Leather Goods, Minneapolis"

I tried searching the name and nothing came up. I also looked through old photos in the Hennepin Country Library's Online Special Collections Database and again, no luck.

So, the trunk's history is a mystery, but I am excited that we have a unique decor addition for our Master Bedroom redo! 

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.  We are having a very warm February day here in Minneapolis, so Alex and I are going to grab a coffee, walk along St. Anthony Main, and enjoy the sunshine!  I'll be posting some more Master Bedroom updates soon! 

Vintage Finds From Michigan To Minnesota!

I am the lucky new owner of quite a few vintage items this week!  As I mentioned on Monday, Alex was in Traverse City Michigan for the Iceman Cometh Challenge (while I got busy painting without permission- which I will follow up on later this week).  Anyway, my hubby was such a sweetheart and brought me home a couple unexpected presents! 

While in Traverse City, he spotted this vintage Ironing Board and Croquet Set at an antique shop and snatched them up to surprise me!

I just loved them!
 He really knows the way to my weird heart... random old stuff :) 

 I was sooooo GEEKED!  Especially because I just saw an antique ironing board at Bachman's Fall Idea House used as a sofa table.

Not completely sure if I will do the same thing with the board. I might have to see what it looks like in a couple rooms!

During the time Alex was gone, I did some thrifting of my own too and boy did I hit the jackpot! 

The first item I found was this oval gold framed mirror for $7.00!!!!  Crazy awesome deal right?!?!

 (Gratuitous Rocco photo included)

\

The mirror measures 20" x 31", Ikea has an almost identical mirror called "Levanger" measuring 22" x 37" that is $79.99!

Oh yea, I totally scored with that DEALY-O!

My second find were these vintage embroidered pillowcases.  I thought they were beautiful and ooozed a vintage/ handmade feel.  Plus, they were only $0.99 each!  I couldn't pass them up!

My last, and perhaps favorite find from my trip was this vintage chenille bedspread.

I have been on the search for one of these to call my own for quite sometime.  

My grandma had one just like it, only in a white/ pink combination.  Growing up, the only time I saw a bedspread like it was at her house.  So for me, it is another sort of sentimental thing that reminds me of my grandma (like a couple other antiques we have in our house).

Besides that mushy stuff, of course I also think it is a unique and beautiful vintage textile I can add to my growing collection!   I was able to happily take this home for only $8.00! Not sure where it will end up exactly, but you can't go wrong with items you truly love (and feel connected to)!

Now I need to go play with my new 'toys' and figure out where they should go! Along with washing, bleaching, and ironing the bedspread and pillowcases (a must for used textiles of course).
****************
What do you think of the goods????
What would you do with the vintage ironing board & croquet set???

Head Over Heels Friday: Vintage Finds from Art and Architecture in St. Paul

I have a new favorite spot for vintage finds in the Twin Cities, Art and Architecture in St. Paul!  So many glorious, gorgeous piles of vintage goods... heaven! I am totally Head Over Heels!

~scroll to the bottom to see what I took home!~

I found out about this wonderful place from Megan over at Nomi Passenger.  She mentioned it during our National I Heart Thrifting Day adventure.  So glad we finally got a chance to get together and check it out!  They have just about everything you could want when it comes to vintage decor.  The prices are great (you can even bargain) and it is a bit neater than my other favorite spot Bauer Brothers Salvage.

I couldn't believe this mountain of crates!  Reasonably priced as well!  I wish I knew about this when I was searching for crates for my Dressing Room!

They also had TONS of maps!  Some were antique maps of the Twin Cities.  I was able to find one of our neighborhood from the early 1900's even before our home existed, it was pretty neat.

Here are a few other pictures of the shop...

(Pardon the blurriness- I didn't have the fancy pants camera with me...boo!)

We even found an old fencing mask mixed in with all the merchandise.  Megan and I couldn't pass up taking a goofy photo of me with the fencing mask on... On Guard!

Also a bonus, next door is Cupcake!  You can grab coffee, a treat, and head over to start thrifting!  It made for a perfect Saturday morning!

So what did I get???
This old wood crate/ caddy for bottles or kitchen storage

I'm thinking I might have to paint something fun on this, maybe a number or an old sign type thing?

An old metal crate to hold bottles

Sort of like this...

Did you notice a theme with those 2 items?  Both are for holding bottles... I might have mentioned before that Alex is into home brewing beer.  That means there are always empty bottles around because he needs to clean and reuse them for new batches of beer.  I thought it would be fun to get him a couple crates/ caddies for his bottles so they don't look quite as messy and can also help him transport bottles from the kitchen to his 'brewing lab'.

Lastly, I got this cute vintage wire basket.  I thought it would fit perfect on that old stool from Bauer Brothers that I refurbished.  We have been keeping the stool in our dining room and for now we placed the numbered chair covers I made in the wire basket.

We don't always have the covers on the chairs so I think this is a nice way to still enjoy them.

Are you Head Over Heels for Art and Architecture?  What about my vintage finds?

 Hope to get going on a project for the wood caddy soon!  Have a great weekend everybody!

DIY Vintage Stool Refresh!

I finished up my little $10 vintage stool project over the weekend!  Here's how it turned out...

What do you think? 

Most of you voted for option #1 in my previous blog post.  I decided to go with that look but also painting the chair back white so that if it had to sit with my other vintage stool they would coordinate (this was also my mom's suggestion- thanks Moo!).

 Now, here is the rundown for this simple little DIY stool makeover:

 First, I picked up my spray paint from Home Depot.  Both were about $2.97 each. I highly recommend the Rustoluem Metallic Finish paint, it looks like metal but it isn't super shiny like most metallic paint.

Next was sanding the legs, seat, and chair back.  I covered the sanding is my last post, but here's a visual so I am covering all steps.

Then I had to cover the seat and chair back so I could paint the metal parts of the stool.  This of course was not the fun part, I hate prepping for paint (don't you?).

 Time to spray away!

 Woo-hoo!  The paint was looking pretty awesome on those legs, I was pretty pumped!

I let the paint on the legs and back support dry and set for a day.  Then I removed the covering from the seat and chair back and taped off the newly painted areas to safely allow for the painting of the seat and chair back.   Side note- I thought the stool looked pretty funny all covered up, like it had a skirt on.  I kind of reminded me of ET for some reason, weird I know :)

I then stepped out into the 100 degree heat (and full on humidity) to finish up spray painting.  Maybe that is why I thought the stool looked like ET?  The heat must have been getting to me, ha!

 Finally, I let the paint dry and then uncovered the stool.

Goodbye rough dirty stool...

Hello gorgeous refinished stool!

 I was happy that the stool still had a few rough spots so it still looks a bit vintage. 

 Here is a closer look at the metal chair back so you can see the paint a little better.  I really love how this color turned out, looks like an original metal finish.

The white and metal color also allow me to put it into whatever room we choose since it is pretty neutral.  For now it seems to have found a home in the corner of our dining room.  I thought it might be cute to set an old wooden crate or antique metal wire milk crate filled with my antique table cloths and napkins on top of it.... or maybe other vintage dining room accessories?
Something similar to one of these maybe?

Left: Anna White, Right: Etsy

Hmmm, must antique shop this weekend!

So, what do you think?  It was a pretty simple little project, I think figuring out what I wanted to do with it was really the hardest part, LOL!  But I did have fun with it, and thanks for the suggestions everybody!

Now what to do with those burlap sacks I got on Thrifting Day, hmmmm?

Have a great week and stay cool everybody (I am melting in this crazy odd Minnesota heat, ick!)

'Polishing' Fail and Stool Options

Someone was giving me an awful lot of trouble last night (and for once I'm not talking about naughty Sadie).  It was that vintage warehouse stool that I picked up from Bauer Brother's last week.  Grrr!

I loved all the suggestions you gals gave me in the comments (also the sweet messages that made me feel better about our home repair situation).  Ultimately your comments led me to a good plan for the lil' ol' stool.  Here's a little photoshop visual for what I was thinking:

A few of you said to leave it as is and just spiff up the seat and chair back.  I thought that might work, but I did decide that the legs had to be a different color, especially since the stool started to find a home in our kitchen/ dining area and those red hot legs were not very complimentary to the dark red paint on the walls.  So, I will be DIY updating the legs with Rustoleum's 'Gloss Gray Hammered Metal' (to keep the industrial feel) and will be leaving the seat and chair back as is in order to keep that vintage look (but with a little polishing).

With my plan in mind, I started sanding the stool legs to chip off loose paint and smooth out the metal surface so it would be ready to paint.

I then started to sand the seat in order to get it cleaned up. It was an odd surface to sand- it wasn't wood exactly, nor was it plastic.  Heck, it seemed kind of rubbery? Hmmm, Mystery Material Anyone? Sounds good, I'll take two!  I still don't quite know what material was I sanding. However, after exerting a little elbow grease while sanding away at the dirt, real grease and paint stains, it started to 'polish up' nicely......or so I thought.

After that I started to clean up the chair back a little bit.  I decided to get rid of the "warehouse" writing so it would look a bit fresher.  The chair back wasn't made of the same Mystery Material that the seat was made out of.  It was plain ol' paint and wood.

Then, I began to notice a problem...

My attempt at 'polishing' up the seat and chair back had completely altered their surface textures.  

Here is a 'before' photo:

And here is how they were looking after my sanding efforts:

 Boo...... Polishing FAIL!

I was really happy with the seat, but I think I killed the chair back.  I must have been sanding like a MANIAC!  I know I might just be super picky, but I'm not liking how the chair back looks like wood, and the seat looks like white painted plastic. 

So it looks like the seat and chair back are going to need a paint job also now.  Back to the idea board!

I started to look up a few totally new ideas, here's the rundown for what I am thinking:

1. Painting the legs and chair back one color (Gloss Gray Hammered Metal) and painting the seat an antique white?

 Or...

2. Still painting the metals surfaces the metal paint color, then painting the seat and chair back a dark brown (similar to a dark walnut wood color)?

Lastly...

3. Paint the whole stool white?

 If I paint the whole thing white, I might have the beginnings of a fun little set of mismatched vintage stools because my other vintage stool will have a color-coordinating buddy!

Yuck!  I need a better picture of this cute little guy!

Well, I did say I wanted a project to work on, I certainly got my wish!  What do you think?  

Option 1, 2 or 3???