Wanderlust and Terrible Dust

Wednesday morning I headed to Kütahya, if you have been following our blog for 10 years and have an excellent memory, you might remember that we have an old house there.

It is about 500km from our home, normally I take the longer route as it is a highway but I took by accident the shorter one and I ended up in some cute villages which were also fun.

Traffic was mostly a bunch of geese :)

I was in Kütahy till Saturday evening. The house was in a much worse state, we never went there in the past 10 years. I didn't take any photos, everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, windows were broken and thieves even stole the doors and metal work of the windows. Time was not so kind to the building but it was the people who ruined it.

As it is a historic building I went to several governmental offices that might buy it. I also spoke to the new Mayor of Kütahya which is luckily not part of AKparty which is a big improvement and a lucky break. Hopefully, soon they'll buy it and renovate it, I'm not holding my breath but at least I did something about it. I stayed with friend's who are some of the sweetest people we know which was a ray of sunshine in the otherwise somber visit.

Newly Listed: Soft Fluffy Cat Bag

Soft Fluffy Cat Bag - Purple 3d bag, Vintage Embroidery, Velvet, Leather, Kiss-lock by StarBags
Door Photography, Rustic Purple Door Photo, Modern Farmhouse Art Print, Lavender Cottage by StudioSwede13
Flower Photography, Lavender Photograph, Flower Bouquet, Fine Art Photography by BLintonPhotography
Rustic Purple Flower Art Print, Wine Barrel Photography, Winery Print, Home Decor by jessicareisspix

Reclaimed Trashure

In Turkey having guests is a part of daily life. Very often still, women stay at home and these women often visit each other. Or families visit each other. No call or appointments, I know of families that have every evening a bunch of people over.
Before we had dogs we also got visitors, mostly neighbors, we hated it, lol :) As introverts, guests are exhausting and if those guests are people you have nothing in common with it is just a waste of time. Luckily the guests got less when our dogs became more, these days we get none, which is kind of perfect as we work from home so we really need the quiet and peace to be able to produce.

Why am I telling all this? Well with the number of guests typical Turkish families get, it is a standard thing to have nesting tables in your home. The more guests the more tables you need to put coffee, tea, fruit and such on it to be a good host. The table above was part of such a set, that is why the front is open so the other tables can fit in it. I found it on the curb with a tabletop all swollen by water, but the feet were pretty and solid so it came home. I have found such abanded pieces of such sets before, that is why I wanted to explain a little further, they are very common in Turkey. A good host has at least 4 such tables so when needed she can bring tea and coffee for 20 people at once. (I'm not exaggerating!!).

This sad piece got a makeover. First, the old tabletop and paintwork got removed.
I then cut driftwood and boat wood to create the top.

The wood got staple gunned to the table.

I painted the table itself rustically to match the top.

I added a driftwood branch (cut to size) to fill up the front gap.
And all wood I varnished to smoothen it a little and to protect the paint.

I love how it turned out!

• Saved table from ending up at landfill - check
• Cleaned up beach and reused those pieces - check
• Got a cool table in the progress - check

Yes, I'm very satisfied, I love reusing things and turning them in something functional and beautiful.

This cool one of a kind table is available at StarHomeStudio.

Check our shop for more one of a kind furniture pieces and driftwood decor.

Newly Listed: Green Sterling silver Sea urchin Earrings

Green Sterling silver Sea urchin Earrings with Pearls Double Pearl Earrings Ear Jackets Pearl studs by StaroftheEast
Beach Wall Art, Coastal Art Photography, Puffy Clouds, Cottage Decor, Beach House Decor by KateRyanFineArt
Green Sea Urchin nature photography print by AnInspiredLens
Hawaiian Art, Sea Turtle, Ocean Photography, Hawaii, Tropical Decor, Fine Art Print by PausePicture

Get the Look Vol.16

Love these different lanterns grouped together. Ours are adorable vintage brass ones with etched glass, 2 already makes a good start for a collection.

Splashes of red in a home sure gives some extra oomph, especially with a mid-century style. Our vintage architect lamp is super handy as it stays in any position you want, perfect for drawing and such.

I love the idea of a grouping of round art on the wall.

This marbled piece would be great and could be combined with pretty plates and round mirrors.

And embroidered hoop art would be great as well, we have a few in the shop.

I love odd glass pieces, these above are of a Pharmacy Museum. Below are two odd glass pieces too, but these are not from a lab but are actually vintage breast pumps :)

Cinderella Transformation

We purchased these 1950's chairs a while back. I found them so ugly that I resisted especially as we already have a whole bunch of chairs that are awaiting my tender loving care. But mum loved their potential so they came home with us.

The yucky brown paint and horrible fabric to match were I guess once upon a time 'fashionable'.

After peeling off old the fabric and the filling, and then stripping off the paint (with help of a non-toxic paint remover) they already looked a million times better.

They also had crooked front legs which I had to remove and reattach to straighten them, plus the entire skeleton needed some serious glue and nail reenforcements.

After that, they waited in a pile for a few months...

Until we finally decided what to do with them and I had finished a few older projects.

I painted the details which brought out the beautiful woodwork. Unlike pieces from the 70's-80's these are actually hand carved! How silly to cover up so much work with that ugly dark brown stuff.



I kept the old webbing but also added new webbing.

It got fresh new foam instead of dusty batting.

And then I cut this amazing handwoven damask linen with hand embroidery. I had painted the flowers according to this embroidery.

Oh my gosh, what a difference. Of all the transformations we've done this one seems to be the most extreme, from extremely ugly to extremely gorgeous, like the famous Cinderella scene, from a dirty girl to a shiny princess.

After painting the details I varnished the entire piece.

It seems that the chairs were not done by the same person, lots of small details are a bit different, which I love.

Besides the woodwork the embroidery is also not the same, making them matching but each also unique.

We are totally in love with them.

They are available in our StarHomeStudio shop among many other unique furniture pieces and home decor.