Thursday, April 18, 2013
Thrifty Thursday--More Colored Glasses
I found these lovely little vintage yellow glasses at the Salvation Army last week. They were marked 49 cents, and they were 25% off, so I got the set of 10 for less than $4!
I may need to (eventually) downsize my collection of colored stemware. . .
Friday, April 12, 2013
This Chest is Distressed
[Super long and overly-detailed post ahead; feel free to skip to the pics!]
Last weekend, I was taking a leisurely route back to my parents' house, trying to hit as many garage sales as possible along the way. I passed a small apartment building with a bunch of furniture and clothes sitting on the curb. Amongst the destroyed couches, spilled makeup, and broken CD's, I spied one thing that made my heart stop: an old, beat-up chest.
I had fallen in love with it earlier in the week when I'd driven past the building and had seen it on the porch, while the other items were already curbside. I knew it was a reject, a possible remnant of an eviction, but I wasn't going to walk up to somebody's porch and just take it. So when I saw it on the curb five days later, I couldn't pass it up.
Mind you, the top was covered in candle wax and grime and dust and pink sparkly nail polish and maybe some lipstick, and I had to dump some hair ties and random papers out of the drawers. It had deep gouges along the sides and bottom from being dragged out of the house. I half expected small animals to come crawling out of it. But this was a good, solid, old piece of furniture. It had dovetailed drawers, for crying out loud! And these huge, obnoxious, heavy, tarnished pulls which seemed straight out of the 60's. Or 70's. I'm not really sure.
And the wood of the drawers was scuffed and scummed up from those pulls, and from the dresser's previous owners.
But! Once upon a time, this had been a quality piece of furniture.
So I decided to load it into the Party Van.
This was easier said than done, as the process of moving Katsy into her new apartment, and moving myself out of my current one, had left the Party Van quite a mess. And like I said, this little dresser was heavy. But I took the top off, removed the drawers, and raised it up to the side of the Party Van, at which point I struggled for a few moments. . . until I heard a beep behind me.
A Latino gentleman in a large white van had honked his horn, and was shaking his head and holding up his hand for me to wait a moment. He parked, exited the vehicle, and grabbed the dresser without a word. We struggled for a few minutes (the Party Van's doors are only so big), before we removed a couple of things, moved some other things around, and were able to finally make it work.
This guy made my day. He's never met me, will never see me again, and got out of his car to help me not even knowing if we would be able to communicate (the only English word he used was 'Hi,' so I was able to put my Spanish degree to good use). But he pulled over and took a few minutes out of his day to make mine a little easier. When the job was done, he immediately started walking back to his van. He didn't even expect me to thank him (although I certainly did).
After that, I couldn't see out through the Party Van's back window, so I ended my garage saling and headed straight to my grandmother's house, where I hoped to complete the project in a single afternoon. I recruited our little sister Gaga to help me, since Katsy was at work. Gaga was home from college and, surprisingly, was up early and willing to help me out.
I couldn't find my camera that day, so there are no before pictures of this dresser. It kinda looked a little like this, minus one drawer and plus a ton of nastiness. This is a picture of a gorgeous Widdicomb chest (apologies, but I'm not sure where I found it) and the chest I worked on certainly was not this nice. We couldn't find a brand name on it anywhere, in fact.
So we sanded, disinfected, scrubbed, and scraped to try and clean it up a little. I had a quart of Kilz primer, tinted pink, which I'd found in the mistint section at Lowe's in KCK for $2.50, so that's what we painted it with.
The project ended up taking a couple of days because my little handheld sander broke (sad face, but don't worry, I got it for $5 at Goodwill anyway [but I'm still sad]), which required my grandparents to break out the scary rotating sander that they hadn't used in 30 years, and we decided to strip the dresser's top. This is when I learned that my grandmother is a master of furniture stripping. Oh my goodness. First we used Citristrip on the top, then we wiped it down with paint thinner, then she went to work on that thing with steel wool and NO GLOVES, then we let it dry overnight, and then I sealed it with wax. Turns out the dresser was made of beautiful wood (the top, at least, was mahogany) and my grandmother thinks it was a crime for me to paint any of it. Well, Grandmom, I saved it from the dumpster, so I get to decide what to do with it.
That first picture I posted is what the top looks like currently.
Here is what the entire dresser looks like now:
You may have some questions about this little lady. First, as my boyfriend asked, Is that the before picture? No it's not. I was inspired by Dionne over at The Turquoise Iris (seriously, check her out, she's a genius!), who does a lot of gorgeous distressing on her very colorful pieces. I'd love to become as proficient and as creative as her! Also, I got a little happy with the sander, so the side is maybe a little more distressed than I'd planned on. Second question: Where is the top drawer? Ah yes, the elusive top drawer. It is currently in hiding, because this dresser is going to Katsy's apartment, where it will probably serve as an entertainment center. TV on top, DVD player where the top drawer would go, DVDs and other stuff hidden away in the drawers. We've considered taking just the front of the door and putting it on hinges and maybe a chain so that it can drop down to reveal the DVD player, then flip back up to hide it, but we also think this chest could make a perfect changing table one day, so we don't want to cut it up.
I think we'll probably change out the knobs for something a little more exotic, to fit with Kat's apartment, but for now, I used some acrylic crystal pulls that were on clearance at Target. I'm so thrilled with how this turned out, and I love that it only took three afternoons!
Here's the dresser in Kat's living room! Who doesn't love Muppet Treasure Island?!
Real quick, let's break down the final cost of this makeover:
Dresser: free
paint+primer in one: $2.50, Lowe's mistint section
'crystal' drawer pulls: $7.48 for four, on clearance at Target
Minwax water based stain in rosewood, $5, on clearance at Wal-Mart
finishing paste wax, already on hand
paint stripper, already on hand
Total=$14.98
So what do you think? Am I crazy for pulling over and having a stranger help me load this into my car? Was the final product worth it??
I think yes.
Last weekend, I was taking a leisurely route back to my parents' house, trying to hit as many garage sales as possible along the way. I passed a small apartment building with a bunch of furniture and clothes sitting on the curb. Amongst the destroyed couches, spilled makeup, and broken CD's, I spied one thing that made my heart stop: an old, beat-up chest.
I had fallen in love with it earlier in the week when I'd driven past the building and had seen it on the porch, while the other items were already curbside. I knew it was a reject, a possible remnant of an eviction, but I wasn't going to walk up to somebody's porch and just take it. So when I saw it on the curb five days later, I couldn't pass it up.
Mind you, the top was covered in candle wax and grime and dust and pink sparkly nail polish and maybe some lipstick, and I had to dump some hair ties and random papers out of the drawers. It had deep gouges along the sides and bottom from being dragged out of the house. I half expected small animals to come crawling out of it. But this was a good, solid, old piece of furniture. It had dovetailed drawers, for crying out loud! And these huge, obnoxious, heavy, tarnished pulls which seemed straight out of the 60's. Or 70's. I'm not really sure.
So I decided to load it into the Party Van.
This was easier said than done, as the process of moving Katsy into her new apartment, and moving myself out of my current one, had left the Party Van quite a mess. And like I said, this little dresser was heavy. But I took the top off, removed the drawers, and raised it up to the side of the Party Van, at which point I struggled for a few moments. . . until I heard a beep behind me.
A Latino gentleman in a large white van had honked his horn, and was shaking his head and holding up his hand for me to wait a moment. He parked, exited the vehicle, and grabbed the dresser without a word. We struggled for a few minutes (the Party Van's doors are only so big), before we removed a couple of things, moved some other things around, and were able to finally make it work.
This guy made my day. He's never met me, will never see me again, and got out of his car to help me not even knowing if we would be able to communicate (the only English word he used was 'Hi,' so I was able to put my Spanish degree to good use). But he pulled over and took a few minutes out of his day to make mine a little easier. When the job was done, he immediately started walking back to his van. He didn't even expect me to thank him (although I certainly did).
After that, I couldn't see out through the Party Van's back window, so I ended my garage saling and headed straight to my grandmother's house, where I hoped to complete the project in a single afternoon. I recruited our little sister Gaga to help me, since Katsy was at work. Gaga was home from college and, surprisingly, was up early and willing to help me out.
I couldn't find my camera that day, so there are no before pictures of this dresser. It kinda looked a little like this, minus one drawer and plus a ton of nastiness. This is a picture of a gorgeous Widdicomb chest (apologies, but I'm not sure where I found it) and the chest I worked on certainly was not this nice. We couldn't find a brand name on it anywhere, in fact.
The project ended up taking a couple of days because my little handheld sander broke (sad face, but don't worry, I got it for $5 at Goodwill anyway [but I'm still sad]), which required my grandparents to break out the scary rotating sander that they hadn't used in 30 years, and we decided to strip the dresser's top. This is when I learned that my grandmother is a master of furniture stripping. Oh my goodness. First we used Citristrip on the top, then we wiped it down with paint thinner, then she went to work on that thing with steel wool and NO GLOVES, then we let it dry overnight, and then I sealed it with wax. Turns out the dresser was made of beautiful wood (the top, at least, was mahogany) and my grandmother thinks it was a crime for me to paint any of it. Well, Grandmom, I saved it from the dumpster, so I get to decide what to do with it.
That first picture I posted is what the top looks like currently.
Here is what the entire dresser looks like now:
I think we'll probably change out the knobs for something a little more exotic, to fit with Kat's apartment, but for now, I used some acrylic crystal pulls that were on clearance at Target. I'm so thrilled with how this turned out, and I love that it only took three afternoons!
Real quick, let's break down the final cost of this makeover:
Dresser: free
paint+primer in one: $2.50, Lowe's mistint section
'crystal' drawer pulls: $7.48 for four, on clearance at Target
Minwax water based stain in rosewood, $5, on clearance at Wal-Mart
finishing paste wax, already on hand
paint stripper, already on hand
Total=$14.98
So what do you think? Am I crazy for pulling over and having a stranger help me load this into my car? Was the final product worth it??
I think yes.
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