Handbags and wallets ! All hand painted! One of a kind

All hand painted wallets and canvas tote bags by Emmanuel Saltis www.artfulruins.com  https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtfulRuins?ref=hdr_shop_menu

An adorable red bench !

This beautiful bench, originally was a brown boring bench from a breakfast nook set. After some serious sanding and replacing the hardware, it became a jewel to our store. It was made in a shabby chic style with distressed edges. I added some roses on the back panels to make it more glamorous. It sold fast and now it decorates a beautiful house in Idyllwild, CA.

 

 

Ready bench in the store

roses painting  detail, and on the right side you can see the original stamp of the company that made the bench back in 1950's

The brown color inside was the original color of the whole thing.  I found it to be in a nice contrast with the red

 the bench in the store

 


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 Emmanuel & Sky www.artfulruins.com

1920's dining set! Like new!

Hi all! 

 

This is the awesome 1920's dining table we have at the store! The design I did on the surface matches the new upholstery.

the table in the store

 

but.. The table was not in the best condition when it arrived to our hands.. Was like this : 

 

 

 

 

chairs in original condition. preety bad huh?

the plain surface of the table, in bad condition as well..

 

 

 

 

We stripped down the table and chairs from all colors and removed the old upholstery. Then we found this beautiful fabric for the chairs.

 

I used all natural dyes to give to the wood this beautiful walnut color, and then painted on the surface this original design that we wanted to match the chairs. After several layers of good varnish the table was ready.

 

 

This dining set is up for sale at:

 www.artfulruins.com

Emmanuel & Sky

Old stuff with great potential! DIY

          Sometimes you might find in your garage or in your storage room an old piece of furniture. Most of you will just place it next to the garbage bin with a "free" sign on it. DON'T  do that.! Take a better look at it and imagine it in a different color, try to picture it with stripes, with dots or with a scene painted on it. The same could happen with a space or with your house.

When Sky and I found our space for Artful Ruins, it was.. ruins for us. That's how the name came...

take a look at this picture , an old lawyer's office, with 20 + years old carpeting, plain white walls and no style. None!

However, we loved it! wasn't the space that someone will give you, ready, perfect; it was a challenge! 

First, we needed the previous owner out of there. And that was the easy part! within a month he was gone, and his furniture..

It was almost the middle of September when we finally received the keys for the store and we had less than 20 days to the opening day! In fact, we had only the evenings free to work there because of our daily jobs. 

We removed the old nasty, commercial 20+ years old carpet and let it bare concrete.

Getting the inspiration from one of my paintings of Greece, we decided that we want to model our baby after this scene..

...and we started with the floor, it needed to change, to be more inviting, more Mediterranean ,more colorful. The real stones or marble was a very expensive solution, and we definitely didn't like carpet!


I decided to paint the floor. I used stains, primers and sealed varnish...

Now everyone admires the result and we are very proud of our floor!

did the walls...

add a "brick" wall

Aaaand it was ready, with much work, plenty of hours, sweat and only by 2 people, us! Ready to be filled with art, re-crafted old furniture, antiques and

1950's Ethan Allen re-crafted entrance table

everything we and our clients like!

view from the outside

              Emmanuel & Sky, www.artfulruins.com

A small gallery to host the Art!

I always needed a space to host my art. even I have had many art shows and exhibitions, I always wanted to be my space which I can make as I really like. Finally, I found this space. a small cute place in San Diego, between normal heights, North Park and University Heights! A dear artist, friend of mine, Shirley, told us- to me an my partner- about a  space available next to her store, last August. We thought about it.. for 10 minutes! !0 minutes of thinking for a serious commitment. some people called us crazy, I know that! but we did it! with a lot of effort, sweat, and much work our little gallery was having a grand opening on October 4th 2013!  I couldn't believe that in such a small period of time we were ready. It took us  and a half month to make the store "livable and lovable" to remind a home, or a living room.. 500 square feet, of awesomeness.. !

 To choose a name for your space, isn't an easy task. many names came along. we wrote them on paper, erased them, did combinations of our names, memories, things that meant something to us. for almost a week the sleep wasn't visit me; only words and more words, some funny, some ordinary, some meaningless. Until the name was found. the combination of what we really love! ARTFUL RUINS! because in the ruins u can find art, or create art, or preserve the existed art.

If you want, you can visit our web page at : www.artfulruins.com and why not to check us on Facebook!  Our little space, contains, art. all kinds of Art, not only mine, also from others. Also, you can find there handmade items, re-crafted treasures from some other eras, vintage and collectibles.
 We tried hard, and we are very pleased with the results. in there , we have what we love most; colors, desire, and feelings. Because Art is all three, and you can add a third element; LOVE !!