My Mom’s Dresser

I have been wanting to do some blog posts but it just hasn’t been happening lately.  I feel like I am treading water these days and am constantly behind and trying to catch up.  My health isn’t great and I’ve been dragging lately energy-wise.  It stinks, but that is life for me, I guess.

Anyway, it is Saturday morning and I am in bed with my laptop and a headache.  So I thought maybe I could get a quick post up about my mom’s Christmas present.

You may remember THIS post where I asked for advice on what to do with this piece of antique furniture someone had put out for the trash.

Well, a few people threw some ideas out but I still didn’t really have a clue how to fix this thing.  I finally decided what I needed to do.  I wanted to leave some of that beautiful wood grain showing on the front but that door was sooooo thrashed and the top was bad too.  So, here is what I came up with:

The blue color does not read well in the photos but it was a really pretty greyish blue.  I created vinyl sticker stencils with my Silhouette for the door and the top.  I put them on and then painted over them and then removed them.  My parent’s last name starts with “E”, thus the monogram.

It took a lot of work to fix this thing.  I used regular wood filler to fill the corners on the top and all the places on the door.  On the door, the place where the hinges were attached were so worn down hinges couldn’t work there.  I tried filling those up with wood filler but when I went to sand it it all crumbled out.  SO I had to chip that out and then used an epoxy wood filler to fill those in.  After that I had to use a file to get them down to the right height for the hinges to fit in correctly.  Same with the little door pull hole. 

I sanded down the drawer fronts and top and then stained them.  After that I used a spray shellac to seal them and the inside of the dresser and drawers.  Remember, this had a very bad smell to it.  You can still smell it if you put your nose inside the drawers but the smell does not permeate the house, which is good.

I went for a chippy paint finish, done by chipping off paint with a putty knife.  Very easy was to distress.  I finished the piece with an antiquing glaze and a clear wax. 

Honestly, it think it looks AMAZING!  I wanted to keep it for me.  But my parents really like it, I think.  It looks great in their house. 

Here are some more pictures for you.

Had to cut a new shelf for this cubby. 

Lined the drawers with scrapbook paper.

What do you think?  I am amazed that something destined for the dump could look this good!

If you want to “pin” this I won’t be upset at all!

FRAME WREATH {Before and After}

I picked up an old frame at a garage sale a few months ago.  I knew it had great potential, even though it had ugly Plexiglas in it and a picture of two old people, lol.  I knew just what I wanted to do with it.  And I finally got it done!  I turned it into this beautiful frame wreath for the front door!

Do you LOVE it as much as I do???

Here it is before:

I guess I could have dusted it off! oops.  It has a couple small cracks and chips on one of the raised parts.  But I love how that adds to the character and makes it seem really old!

I had to remove the glass and picture which had been glued in with some kind of weird rubbery glue.  It was hard to get the glue off, but once I did that the rest was textbook.  I gave it a light sanding to rough it up a bit.  Then I spray painted it with Rustoleum Lagoon in satin.

After it had dried for a couple days, I used sandpaper to distress it.  Then I glazed it with a brown glaze I have.  I finished it off with a protective clear coat.  I ADORE the way it turned out!  I want to keep it sooooo bad, but I told myself I would sell it so that is what I am doing.

Price: $38 plus shipping.  Please email me at remarkablehome@gmail.com if you want it.  This is a one and only, so first person takes it!

CHANDELIER MAKEOVER {Paint}

I have a candle chandelier in my kitchen.  I love it.  I think it brings a lot of character to the space.  We recently took it down to put up streamers for a party we were having.  Having it down for awhile made me realize how much it closes in the room.  I feel like my downstairs is so dark.  I am always trying to lighten it up.  I used to feel like it was light enough, but then I think our trees got big and now we get too much shade.  I am a person who needs sunlight…I think I am addicted to it actually.  So, I really dislike when any part of my house feels dark.

Anyway, I love my chandelier but I didn’t want to put it back up and make the room feel darker again.  I left it down for a long time.  But I finally decided to paint it and see how it would feel.

Here it is before.  I LOVED the rusty finish on it.  But it just wasn’t working in my house anymore. (The ribbon was part of a party decoration for my son’s milk and cookies party)

So, I hung it up from the swing set out back and started spray painting away.  I used a white color.  I finished it, brought it in and hung it up and didn’t love it.  It was just sooooo WHITE!

So, I took it down and glazed it.  It looks a little better now and I am getting used to it.  I may have to take it out back and spray it with some off-white paint.  We shall see.

Here it is now.

Don’t mind my messy table.  Ignore that I STILL haven’t painted those mirrors and hung them up.

Here you can see the glaze a bit.

What do you think?

 

Dumpster Dive Buffet: Need Ideas

Can you believe someone put this out for the trash?

I drove by this in someone’s trash one Sunday morning on our way to church.  I think the house had been foreclosed on and this got left behind….probably because it is HUGE!  I wanted my husband to let me take it home, but he wasn’t too keen on the idea.  We didn’t know where we would put it.  AND we were late to church and were in our Sunday best!  So, we left it there.  I was sad but figured someone else would pick it up.  We went off to church and when we came home it was STILL there!  But still, we didn’t pick it up.  I thought about it the rest of the day.  I just felt awful that it might actually get taken to the dump.  The next morning I drove by again thinking it would for sure be gone and it was STILL there.  So, I called my husband and told him I had to have it.  So, he brought over the truck and somehow I assisted him in getting it into his truck.  It is HEAVY!

I forgot to take a picture of the REAL before picture.  Those 12 squares on the doors had some ugly transparent tiles with flowers etched on.  It had some hardware which I think we will put back on.  But a couple of the pieces of hardware were bent.  In this picture my husband has already spent several hours sanding it down.  I broke the tiles out of the squares into a garbage bag. I also hammered the bent pieces back into shape.

Since this picture I have stained the top a VERY dark stain called Ebony.  It is nearly black.  I was intending to paint the piece a very light greyish blue.  And then I was going to glaze it with the ebony stain.  But now I am scared.  I am not sure what I should paint it. I am afraid I will pick the wrong color. I did buy some wood appliques to go in the squares.  This will give it some more detail and will be a part that will take a glaze very nicely.

Anyway, I am just wondering if anyone has any fun ideas for painting this piece.  I think we are going to use it in our loft under a flat screen.  I will put all our photo albums on the top.  The drawers will hold movies and one of the drawers is missing behind the door so we will put the DVD player there.

I need to get this thing finished and out of my garage.  It is taking up valuable space in there!

If this was your piece, what would YOU do to it???