Antique and Flea Market in Wiesbaden

A few weeks back I went to the Antik Markt and Flohmarkt in Wiesbaden. I first stopped in at the Antik Market which was just fabulous, but it was VERY expensive. The delaers knew that people would come from all over so the prices were much more than I was willing to spend. After going to many brocante shops and second hand stores in France, I couldn't bring myself to spend so much.

It was however fun to look. I love that they hold the market in the parking garage. Even though it was beautiful outside, holding it inside would bring out shoppers even if the weather was bad. I must also note that it was a little dark inside, but that didn't stop anyone from buying!

I did purchase an antique bed from 1903. You can see the photo below, it was beautiful and I sold it within a few days!!

I next stopped in at the FLOHMARKT (fleamarket) about 10 minutes away and this was a gold mine!! I had such a blast and picked up some real treausres. I seriously love this part of living in Europe. Things that you read about on blogs are right there at your fingertips. We are headed to the Frankfurt area tomorrow for 4 new shops and this weekend we have 2 markets lined up. One is an evening market-ooh how fun! More to come!

Lots of fabulous furniture!!

Love these old clocks

I purchased that same piece (the thing with the glass cone) for flowers in France for 5 euros, and I love it!! I will never sell it! Here they wanted 30!

Love that french settee

The place where I purchased my bed

Next was the Flohmarkt in the REAL parking lot

My shopping buddy!

Love this Bavarian trunk -SOLD

Old German playset

3 demijohns-SOLD

My bed from the Antik Markt

A Kosmos Brenner Milkglass lamp! These are the original makers of the oil lamp!! Keeping this one

Picked up this handpainted rocking horse for 8 euros! Love it and keeping it!

Lots of Omas vintage linens!! *heart*

More linen-a man just bought this for his wife for Mother's Day! Sweet guy

Vintage Peter Rabitt-I sold this one right in time for Easter

It was a good day!

French Vanity with AS Chalkpaint

Love Missmustardseed and her inspiring blog. She introduced me to chalkpaint. Although quite pricey, it is totally worth it as there is really no prep involved in painting a piece. I have painted several pieces already and I can't wait to do more. I love how the french boudoir vanity turned out. First I started with Old White and then painted over it with Louis Blue. The vanity sold within a few days and I hope the buyer enjoys it!

Before photo of the French Boudoir Dressing table

And after........

French Market Cabinet Makeover

I love living in Europe, not only for the travel but for the super great deals on furniture. Here is an example of a find that I recently purchased and remade for $20. The cabinet was 14 euros ($20) and I had all the supplies and paint aleady!!! A cheap remake, but so worth it. Enjoy!

Bathroom Renovation 2011

For the past 2 months we have been sharing our guestbath on the bottom floor.

I am excited to say that our bathroom renovation is almost complete!!!

I have put together an album of our renovation from start to finish and we are excited about the change. Andreas has done a fabulous job and I look forward to the other jobs that we will hire him to do.

The bathroom was not bad before, matter of fact to most Germans, it was a nice bathroom, however not really our style. Take a look at how our bathroom went from drab to fab. Our heated towel bar is being installed tomorrow and with a few minor touch ups and accessories, our bathroom will be ready for use.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves! Enjoy!!

I do have to comment on my new built-in shelf. I found a bathroom photo in a magazine and liked it alot, so I did model my new bathroom after this photo. The magazine bathroom featured a built in shelf so waa-laa, here is my built in shelf thanks to Andreas!

I LOVE the new tile that looks like hardwood flooring! What a great invention, esp for a bathroom!

Andreas and his lovely wife installing the 80kilo glass wall!!

My husband picked out the HUGE shower head and bar, but I think it is going to be nice!

Scott and I picked out the old cabinet together and it is not 100% finished. It came with doors on the front, but he had a hard time stripping the old finish in between the cracks and grooves of the door, so we decided to paint the bottom a marble color and stain the top. I am going to hang a curtain rather than put the doors back on. I LOVE having my sink mounted on the top!!

I still have work to do on the cabinet once my beadboard arrives from AMERICA!! You can't find beadboard in Germany or in France; well atleast at the home improvement stores that we have been to, so when I found out that a friend that used to live here was coming back, I ordered 10 sheets of beadboard and had it put into her household shipment!!! So thankful for those perks!!! Also, the wall color is called Evergreen, but it looks more stone like in the container. Oh well, I actually like the color and it adds a nice contrast to the stone tiles!!

Don't you love the wires coming from the wall above the sink? We had Andreas run wiring for sconce lights, but do you think I could find any that I liked? German lights are SO ugly-no offense if you are German; I really love your country, just can't stand modern decor. We went back to France where we purchased our sconce lights for our bathroom downstairs, but they no longer carry them, so I am on the hunt. I wonder how difficult it would be to rewire some purchased from America? I like the ones in Restoration Hardware, so I guess we shall see!

We are also going to have an estimate on a new window, not sure why they put in privacy glass when this bathroom sits about 20 feet above the ground!!! Oh well, I can totally picture 2 smaller windows with some panes. One can dream right?

Vintage Treasures

I haven't blogged in a while, but having 4 children now is definitely an adjustment!

Now that I am a mom of 4, the Lord gave me a peace about quitting my job and so officially on 10 March 2011, I will be a full time stay at home MOM!!!

Living in Europe is absolutely amazing, so now cutting our income in almost half will be quite the adjustment, however, I have found a way to help make up for some of that income loss. Not only can I make a little extra money; I am finally following my dream of buying and reselling furniture as well as restoring or redoing other pieces.

We are so blessed to live just 25 minutes from the French border and so 2 of my friends and I are making regular trips to buy quality pieces at great prices. I am also shopping on German Ebay and the deals are great!!! This is my dream job and if I make money at it great, but just being able to stay home with my baby is the greatest gift a mom could ask for!!! Below are a few of my treasures from just the last 2 weeks. I have to move my inventory quickly because a lot of the pieces are large and we don't have tons of extra space for them.

I love every piece I buy and they are super quality!!

This first piece was purchased off of German Ebay and this man was selling all of his Oma's things (Grandmother's items). It was a lovey piece, but also a little sad to think that this was used so much and it has a great history behind it and now it is no longer in that family. The lady that purchased it was very excited as her grandmother had a very similar piece.

This next piece is just amazing. It actually won 3 pieces that were very similar. This large buffet, a smaller matching one and a secretary. This were made in the 1930's in a local village not to far from here and all have the original oil paintings on the doors. The lady who bought this large buffet also purchased the matching smaller one and I am keeping the secretary for now as it is just lovely and a real treasure. The piece was so large, I had to keep it in my hallway!! Again another real piece of history. Check out the beautiful barley twist on the sides.

On one of my recent buying trips I found this vintage picture of Jesus as a child. The frame was just beautiful and the picture was obviously a real find!! The man who purchased this piece was so excited to hang it on his wall!!



So today my 2 friends and I, as well as their husbands purchased some amazing deals about 2 hrs into France!!! I am just in awe of this piece below. This vintage French bookcase/display cabinet is in pristine condition. My husband did some research and this style of cabinet was made in the 1940's. Again, this is another large piece that I could just keep and if it doesn't sell, then I won't be completely heartbroken. (It was hard to take a good photo without my railing in the picture!-Sorry)

The carvings are just beautiful and the wood grain is fantastic.

The doors open so smoothly and it came with the original key-just a lovely piece!

I also purchased this smaller french buffet today. I was originally going to paint it white, since I love white painted furniture, but I thought I would try and sell it as is just to keep my pieces moving. If it doesn't sell within the next week, I will totally put my shabby chic touch on it. In my next blog post I will share my most recent German find, all painted white!!

The wood on this piece is lovely as well and it is such a functional piece!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope to get better about blogging more often, and especially sharing my new treasures. I would love to buy for antique dealers in the States at some point as we are in such a great area for finding top notch pieces at rock bottom prices!!!

Have a blessed weekend!