once upon a time ..

back in the late 90s, rod and i had a little shop outside of waco along interstate 35 in a small town called elm mott - it's just a blip on the map ..

the building we had our shop in was a 50s era log cabin that is now slated for demolition as the new highway project will claim the land ..

i ran across some pics of our shop - some of you who traveled I-35 in the late 90s may remember the shop - the building is still there for the moment..

i painted the sign by hand .. i was real proud of it .. this picture is after we had been there for awhile and had planted purple verbena - which grew like wildfire ..


we later grew all kinds of rose bushes and flowers around the railing area and under the sign ..

the side porch was the perfect spot to lure people in ..there was a door on the side and one at the front - there was no air conditioning and we left the doors open during the day ..when the weather was nice ..

the interior was divided in half - the front half had a combination knotty pine walls and sheetrock walls .. the front half and outside porch of the building was shop and the back half of the building was an upholstery / work space .. i did a lot of upholstery work then ..

this was still when we were buying painted furniture pieces and stripping the paint off .. we only did that if the paint was an ugly color or we knew there was oak underneath .. now, we just sell it like it is or paint over it .. no more stripping furniture ..most all of the wood finishes in this picture if of something we refinished ..

a great square oak table - i loved the woven felt folk art rug on the table - and the tureens .. the table was painted yellow when we found it ..

this was a great little rocker i reworked - it had it's original finish, but was without a seat .. so we gave it an upholstered seat and a matching ruffled pillow ..

one of the things i was known for was taking old metal porch gliders and upholstering them with slipcovers and cushions - this was one i re-worked in denim and plaid with floral pillows .. i love the way it turned out ..one day i will do a post on nothing but the pictures i have of the gliders i have re-worked ..

this was a double rocker rod made - he took a regular normal size rocker and took it apart and extended it .. i upholstered it with a drop in seat cushion and padded back and a pair of vintage floral fabric pillows ..

this was a wonderful vintage art deco mohair sofa and chair .. i added the vintage barkcloth pillows for accent ..

don't forget to come see us in canton this month - Feb 25th - Feb 28th - we will be in Arbors 2, spaces 207 & 208A

laters,
troy