Eddie Ross: Before & After Guest Blog

Hi, everyone! Eddie Ross here. I'm super excited to be able to guest blog today for Lauren, one of Jaithan's and my closest friends! It's not something we do very often, but Lauren's definitely a designer after my own heart. I love the way she mixes new and old, classic and modern. She has amazing style and is so humble about it! Can you believe it's been over a year since we all met on our first shopping trip to the New York City flea market? In the blogging world especially, you never know whom you'll meet if you just put it out there!

Speaking of the old becoming new, here's a quick before and after with a sweet, little tray I picked up last week in Atlanta. I'd been looking for a piece with handles that went with our bar cart—something I could could cary and serve, say, two or three drinks at a cocktail party here at home. You never know when luck is going to strike, and this time around, it was at a tiny, hole-in-the-wall thrift shop in Norcross on our way to Larson-Juhl to prep for the framing party. It's a faux bamboo brass tray, probably, from the 50s, so stained with water marks, even I wasn't sure it would come clean. But for $2, I was willing to take a chance!

Flash forward, and we're back upstate, unpacking from the trip, when out came the tray, soiled and spotted as ever. Quickly, I went to the sink or, as I like to call it, the Restoration Department. Out came the gloves, Brillo pad and Brasso, my favorite polish for brass. Call me crazy (compulsive, neurotic, etc.), but I love taking something like this forgotten little tray from trash to treasure. A little polish goes a long way!

Fifteen or so minutes later—"scrub, Christina, scrub!"—and voilà! I love how the tray turned a nice matte finish while the crevices kept their tarnish, accentuating the bamboo. Here's something that cost all of two bucks that now looks like it could have come from the 7th floor of Bergdorf Goodman!

So where to use it? On the dresser as a vanity tray for cuff links and cologne? Passed hors d'oeuvres at cocktail hour? How about lining it with a pretty linen napkin for rolls at a dinner party? For now at least, I'm taking the Rat Pack-route, propping it appropriately with L-monogrammed highballs from our Etsy shop, Grecian lowballs from our friend Steve McKenzie, a shaker we picked up in Kansas City, and an Italian tiered tray from the Goodwill.

Talk about trash to treasure! Cocktails, anyone?


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Ahhhh love it!!!  Thanks so much to Eddie & Jaithan for putting together this awesome before & after.  The tray is GORGEOUS & I love the Ratt-Pack-esque cocktail set-up above...  SO ready for it after 9 months!!  (and for $2?!!!  INSANITY.)  I'm always floored by everything Eddie does but am never surprised by its perfection...  Mm mm good! 

xoxo,
lauren

ps- Guest Blogger up next week:  Maria Killam the Color Queen of Colour Me Happy!