I know right? Antique stores and Children – sounds like an oxymoron right there!
But before you start picturing strollers and toddlers and accidental breakages, I must confess, my kids are older and (cough) slightly more responsible. In fact, my 16 and 17 year old boys would normally have stayed at home, but they seemed keen to just get out of the house for a bit, so off we went.
But before I show you some pictures of our afternoon at the Woolloongabba Antique Centre, here’s a before pic of my latest project:
A lovely old sewing cabinet that folds out from the centre top.
So here she is outside in the sunshine ready for me to sand the top as I’m going to be leaving this part with a lovely wood stain finish.
But more about that in another blog post …
Back to our afternoon antics at the Antique Centre. There are so many wonderful Antique stores in Brisbane and one of my favourites is the Woolloongabba Antique Centre. They have a number of shops within the Centre and today I took a few pics to give you a little idea of what they have.
As much as my boys thought they could not possibly find anything interesting at an antique store, and my unconvincing attempts to look at it as a learning experience about our history, I lost them somewhere after we arrived and left them to browse by themselves.
The first thing you’ll notice when you walk in is the 50’s style Diner where you can chill and enjoy a cuppa and a bite to eat … have seen many a hubby hang out here while the wife is “browsing”, but a great spot to hang out with your girlfriends after a long day shopping!
(photo courtesy of www.woolloongabbaantiquecentre.com)
Here is Shop 80 – lots of retro tea-towels, signs and fun industrial stuff.
(If you like to play games, you can play “Spot the blogger’s daughter” in each of the following photos)
Down the back end of the store against the wall, you’ll find “Paint Me White“ – and this was the main reason for today’s visit. Sandy uses Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint to restore her vintage and antique furniture for some lovely French Provincial looking pieces. I needed to buy some more Chalk Paint for some custom jobs coming up, so here’s a look at her lovely booth!
Another shop loaded with retro furniture and street signage!
The items in this store tucked away in the corner, were reasonably priced. It was here I found a ceramic wash basin for the wash stand I had bought off ebay about 4 months ago. I tossed over whether or not to get it because I had not brought any measurements with me of the size of the hole in my stand to fit the basin. I did love the colours though, so I went for it and figured I could always use it somewhere else if it didn’t fit.
Here she is proudly … wearing the wash basin!
And here it is in my wash stand back at home. I think it will work well for now.
I loved the Farmhouse table in this shop (below) and the white cupboard on the left with the chicken wire front. Of course it reminded me of my wardrobe I finished last week with the chicken wire front and you can read about that HERE.
Loads of loooovely furniture!
And of course, we saw the lovely Susie from (Shop 2, across from the 50’s Diner). I’ve known Susie for a few years and she’s a crazy fabulous vintage dress, hat and jewellery collector. After a trip to Paris recently, I was glad to hear some of the amazing things she did and saw on her trip. Here she is with my girls modelling hats …. um, and a wash basin?!
The girls had fun – budding little actresses they are!
Met Elvis in there somewhere and gave him a crazy look.
Found a cup with … moustaches – a fad still in trend here in Australia.
And this hat my 10 year old is wearing actually belonged to her dad when he was a teenager. She found a matching pair of sunnies to go with it!
And what DID those boys get up to?? …. oh THERE they are!
Yep, they found the old pinball machines – still working – just add your dollar coin and have a go!
At dinner time we were telling my husband about the things we’d seen and one of the boys asked the question of the day: “Dad, when you were a kid, how did you keep track of high scores on those things?”
Ha! Good question. I’m guessing they either had good memories or wrote them down on a secret list somewhere.
Have a great day everyone, I look forward to showing you what I’ve done to that sewing cabinet using Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint. I’m using the colour Kitchen Scale and its looking fabulous already!
See you here or on Facebook!
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1 Comment
Connie
July 15, 2013 at 10:42 amI love your little sewing machine cabinet. It will be exiting to see what you do with it. I know you will make it beautiful 🙂
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Your blogging sister and follower, Connie 🙂