The Vintage Bicycle Gets a Makeover
If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I recently closed my antiques store. For many years, this vintage bicycle greeted our Blu customers as they climbed the steps to enter our little store of treasures.
But what you might not know is that for two years from 2013-2014 I had a second store in McCalla Alabama called The Yellow Building. And yes, it was a yellow building. Sometimes you just have to go with logic.
Vintage Bicycle Acquisition circa 2013
I bought this vintage bicycle from a Yellow customer. This is what she looked like originally:
I envisioned her at the entry to the store…her basket overflowing with beautiful flowers. She was blue. But she needed a refresh. So I gave her a quick coat of teal, attached some baskets and set her outside.
When I decided to close Yellow, it was only natural that she assumed the welcome position at the entry to Blu. And that is where she sat until we closed in 2019.
Since then, she has been sitting at the bottom of our deck stairs at the rear of the house looking sad and in desperate need of a makeover.
Just look at this gorgeous patina! This was the result of standing guard outside in the Alabama weather for 6 years.
Commence the Makeover
Today is the day! Although I love her patina, I wanted a fresh new look. So I checked out the paint color selections at Home Depot. Rustoleum has a tremendous selection of spray paint colors.
I narrowed it down to these.
And I decided on the grape. I also bought white for the tire walls and seat, black for the tires, and silver for the spokes.
I started with the lavender since it was the color covering the most surface area and the most intricate areas. Since I didn’t have any painter’s tape on hand, I used cardboard to mask off the areas that did not need to be grape. Pop taught me long ago to do what you can with what you have. No need to rush out and spend money if you can make do with what is on hand. I gave her two coats.
Once the second coat was dry, I used my cardboard to block off the area around the tires and sprayed them black. I continued with my cardboard barrier for all white areas, and for the spokes.
Secrets of the Trade
The handlebars were quite rusty from exposure to the sun and rain. I gave them a quite light sanding with my 3M sanding block. Then I used an old trick to restore the chrome. I took normal aluminum foil from the kitchen, wet it, and rubbed it all over the chrome. The result was shiny chrome. It wasn’t restored 100% but it sure looked much better.
And here she is with her new paint:
Adding Bling
All that was left was to add some gorgeous flowers to the baskets. I replaced the front bicycle basket with a vintage straw basket. I imagine it once had some sort of handle that over the years was removed. It was the perfect shape for ol’ Blu! Hmm…I suppose she needs a new name now!
I am an avid gardener with never enough time to garden. Consequently, there are many many varieties of lovely plants in my yard that always need dividing.
And indeed, I had a ton of succulents on hand to use for my newly upcycled vintage bicycle. I did buy one plant at that was quite full in the hopes that it would cascade over the baskets.
But, it is July in Alabama so I decided that succulents would be the most logical choice.
The Big Reveal!
I even had a few giant succulents tucked out of the hot sun. They were perfect.
I mean, can you ever REALY have enough succulents? You never know what you might need them for…like a vintage bicycle upcycle! Right??!!
OTHER GARDEN POSTS
Comments 1