Shop Spotlight: Antique Avenue

I've been going through antiquing withdrawal lately. In the summertime, most weekends we'll take a little road trip, leaving the big city behind to explore small towns rife with old treasures. So when my fellow vintage-loving friend Tara at The Cinnamon Post mentioned Antique Avenue in Hamilton, I knew just where I could get my next antiquing fix.

The story of this shop is an intriguing one. The owners Adam Hughes and Tom Watson purchased the entire inventory from one person - a man named Darryl who had amassed nine truckloads worth of collectables, purchased from yard sales, auctions and estate sales over the last 30 years. Hughes and Watson, who renovated old houses for a living, bought the whole collection for $100,000 and became first-time shopkeepers, setting up their store in an 8,000 sq ft space on Ottawa St. N. in Hamilton. So fascinating, right?

Now you can understand why we jumped in the car and made the trek out on a very snowy Saturday last weekend. Lucky for us, the store was packed to the brim! Aisle after aisle of vintage goods, beautifully displayed. (Excuse the poor iPhone photos)

There was a bottle and jar aisle,

And a toy aisle,

A housegoods aisle,

An electronics aisle, a hardware aisle,

And some furniture too. There weren't many furniture pieces but I think the limited floor space probably means they have other pieces stored offsite. Hmmm. I loved these oversized tomes containing newspaper articles. Wouldn't they look great displayed in a library, stacked on the hearth of a fireplace?

Looks like quite the store right? But wait... there was more. The back third of the store was cordoned off by a black curtain. And there were just as many shelves there filled with unpacked boxes. Seriously, I think there was the next five year's worth of inventory back there, just waiting to be uncovered and unearthed, catalogued and itemized.

Were it not for a cranky, hungry toddler clinging to me, I would have settled in for the rest of the afternoon poring through those boxes. There's nothing like the 'hunt', right? I ended up buying a few things and I'll show them to you in another post. With nine truckloads of stuff to sell, I'm pretty sure this store will have some new treasures each time I go back. Maybe I'll bump into you there.

Antique Avenue

329 Ottawa St. N.

Hamilton, ON

The Goods

So I did a bit of shopping on our vacation. I bought a mix of things, old and new, stuff for me and lots of stuff for the kid. I'm a cheap antique shopper and anything with a price tag over $20 makes me think long and hard. I realize some of the things are old and rare, but really, if I didn't buy it, it would just sit gathering dust until it disintegrates or its finally put out by the side of the road with a "Free. Take Me" sign overhead... right?

Good thing I found some stuff at a price I was willing to pay :)

1. Got these little matryoshka measuring cups at the Urban Outfitters in Kingston. I thought these would be the cutest addition to Chloe's play kitchen. She loves to stack things so these nesting cups are big hit.
2. I LOVE this wooden carry-all I got at Funk and Gruven. Its solid and weighty and has a nice worn look. I think I'll use this in the craft area and store it with paintbrushes or little jars of buttons or beads or crafty things.

3. Also got this art pad at Funk and Gruven. Its used to give things a faux bois or fake wood look. Considering that Martha Stewart just came out with a paint kit complete with faux bois tool, I'm guessing its going to be a trendy look soon. Not sure where I'll use it yet. Maybe make a faux picket fence on the walls of Chloe's play area in the new basement?
4. I'm not sure what it is but I'm fascinated by antique tools lately. I hadn't seen anything like this folding ruler before. I already have a few yard sticks so this is nice to add to the collection.
5. Love this old school photo from Alleycat Antiques. The vendor told me if I looked real hard I may find the same person 2 or 3 times in the same photo; the photographer would take multiple photos and splice them together to create a single "yard photo" (a yard in length, naturally). I've seen photos like this in large groupings and they really give a dramatic look.
6. Of course I had to buy some milk glass to add to the collection. Found these milk glass salt and pepper shakers at Alleycats.

7. Like I said, vintage tools are really doing it for me. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these clamps. I saw a photo in this month's House Beautiful of vintage skipping ropes piled in front of a large modern poster that might have influenced this purchase. The juxtaposition was really cool so maybe I display the clamps with or on something really clean and modern.

I also bought this old chalkboard at a little place on Stanley Street in Bloomfield. Cute! The plan is to paint Chloe's play area in the basement with whiteboard paint so this little chalkboard can be hung on top of the chalkboard wall and provide a nice pop of colour.

I also bought a few other things I don't have pictures of: large old sugar sacks I plan to make pillows for the play area out of just like these featured on The Marion House Book, and some tiny chairs found at FOC that will go with Chloe's red table. Oh - and I bought some other things to make the play kitchen but you'll have to wait for the next post to find out what those are!

Tonic Living Custom Drapery!

I've kept you waiting on progress on the master bedroom renovation, haven't I? I don't mean to, but we're still waiting on the swing arm lamps and deciding on some art and other small projects so I'd hate to reveal the room before its all done. But hopefully, this will tide you over for a bit...

The window coverings are up! And boy, do they add some personality and colour to the room. At first, I had wanted to have a single wooden blind across the three windows like I've seen in so many decorating photos but we went to RONA and the draperies lady highly recommended we don't go that route. She said that wood blinds will warp and distort over time because of sun exposure and moisture changes and given the large size we wanted, it would be very evident. Oh - and the custom size would cost us in the neighbourhood of $700!! Yeah, scratch that idea. We ended up getting three wood roman blind shades in a standard size for about $75!

And then there's the curtains... how I love them. I'd debated getting custom drapes or getting something off the shelf like this or this or this. But the colours and patterns were boring and I would have to get some of the drapes black-out lined as well. I decided to ask my seamstress who did the curtains and upholstery for the nursery and the deck but her quote was too much to swallow.

Then I remembered Tonic Living. I'd ordered fabric samples from them before and I remembered they also did custom work. So I asked for a quote:
- curtain panels for 11' wide window, 1.5x fullness
- top pinch pleat
- using their yummy Sweet William in Teal fabric
- blackout lined
- custom length of 90.5" (from the bottom of the curtain rings to just grazing the floor)

They came out perfectly.

And the quote? Less than $390 Canadian including tax and shipping :) I fell off my chair, I tell you! It would cost me much more to get an off the shelf product customized with blackout lining and shortened.

I can tell you I was a little nervous ordering something custom sight unseen (though I did order a fabric sample beforehand - only $1 per sample!) but I need not have worried. Tonic Living was an absolute pleasure to deal; their customer service is top notch and the quality of the end product is great. They're based out of Toronto so I was glad to patronize a local company to boot.

Since I was so happy with the product, I thought I'd do a little mention of Tonic Living here on the old blog. If you are in the market for fabric or custom sewing, definitely check them out!

And lucky you - Tonic Living is offering you a 10% discount off any order (no minimum)! To get the discount:
- enter the coupon code RAMBLING on the first page of the check out process in the coupon code box
- plus, Canadian customers with postal codes starting with L, M or N get free shipping on orders of $50 or more (pre-tax)

What are you waiting for? Get fabric shopping! And I'll get back to slowly putting my room together ;)

Shop Spotlight: Frontier Sales

It seems HandyMan and I can't get enough of antique hunting these days. I'm on the lookout for a hutch for the living room. We found a great reproduction piece at Cornerstone but I'm sure with a little patience we can find something more authentic and at a better price. This weekend, we dropped by Frontier Sales, a treasure trove of a store filled to the brim with an eclectic mix of old and used furniture.

There were quite a few things that caught my eye. Like this cabinet. I love the oval handles and the trimwork in the glass doors. If I didn't already have a dozen half-finished projects sitting around the house, I might have scooped it up and painted it a la Eddie Ross.


This set of six rattan chairs was calling to me too. I like the interesting pattern of the backs. White paint is great for bringing out features like that. Pair it with some graphic fabric on the seat (like elements of style did with her dining chairs), and you have a some real standout seating.


If I were redoing the nursery, I would have scooped up these next two pieces. See that orange chair... solid wood construction, smooth rocking motion, sturdy foam, and comfortable... all for $45! Recover it in a pretty fabric like we did for our nursery glider and you'd have a perfect place to rock baby to sleep. The dresser would be a sweet piece in a little girl's room. I loved the curlicue details and the ring drawer pulls. For this, I'd paint it a robin's egg blue or pale pink and put some fun wrapping paper to line the drawers. Or you could paint the drawers like The Stamford Wife did with her dresser makeover.



When I saw this room divider, I immediately thought of this headboard featured in Canadian House & Home. I think a high lacquer black would really bring out the intricate details of this piece. Its a nice ethnic piece... mix it with rustic and modern pieces and white walls to make a statement.



Love these two headboards. The caning on the first piece isn't something you see often on a headboard. Such a nice, delicate look. I love the curves on the peach headboard. The velour fabric needs replacing, maybe with something dramatic, like the popular Chiang Mai fabric from Schumacher.



We didn't find the hutch we were looking for, but its always fun visiting stores like this to get ideas and the creative juices flowing! We're off to the Aberfoyle Fall Antique Show this weekend so fingers crossed we find something we like there.

Shop Spotlight: Cornerstone Home Interiors

HandyMan has been on vacation the last two weeks and we've had a wonderful time exploring our city. It amazes me that I've lived in Toronto my whole life yet there are still pockets of the city that I've never visited. Based on this post by my fellow blogger StyleNorth, we headed over to the Roncesvalles village. I wanted to check out this store:




Cornerstone did not disappoint! I loved the eclectic mix of furnishings on display... everything from Mission-style cabinetry, Tuxedo sofas, Louis XV chairs, harvest tables, modern leather sofas, tufted ottomans, Chinese sideboards, Art Deco lamps... I could go on and on. I fell in love with the painted cabinetry, especially the bookcases and buffets in French grey and buttery yellow. Sigh.




They have a huge store in Toronto and an even bigger one in Cambridge. I will definitely be back.

All photos courtesy of Cornerstone Home Interiors.