SunflowerHugs

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Secondhand Scores #25

When I was a kid my parents went to garage sales all the time. I admit I was totally embarrassed by it. I never really bothered going regularly until after I had my son. I realized I could get clothes and toys and things for him for pennies on the dollar and that is when my love for secondhand was born.

Garage sales are my favorite but I also go to flea markets, thrift stores and auctions. I am always on the hunt for furniture to paint, stuff for myself, my house, my kids and unique items that I could put to future use. I love the thrill of finding something that was once very expensive for as little money as possible.

In this series, I will share my scores to show you how much you could get for your hard earned money. Some days I hit jackpots, some days I get nothing, but I always have fun.

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I spent a few hours at an auction last Sunday. I specifically went to the furniture part of it, but after that was done they did a few tables of "smalls" so I scored some extra items.

This auction is relatively small, but they organize it so the better selling items do get auctioned off first and the mismatched one-offs go at the end. This is when I find my treasures. I got both tables for $1 each.

In the smalls, I got:

Stainless steel garbage can for $8
A super awesome cuckoo clock for $6

Turns out it is missing a few parts though

The two mason jars for $1 for both

These last things were from some random garage sales at the very end of the season last year.

Deer paint by number was $.25
Bottle lamp base was $.75
Sports theme table was $1

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Tall Green Dresser

I finally got around to paint another piece of furniture that I bought last summer. It was an off white tall dresser that I got for $5.

No structural issues, but it was painted with a textured paint that needed to be sanded off. I thought it was going to be one of those makeovers that I could do by just distressing the paint that was already on the piece. No luck. I used 60 grit sandpaper on my orbital sander and was only able to get the texture off--the paint didn't budge.

I painted it with two coats of SW Green Sprout color mixed into homemade chalk paint, lightly distressed it with a sanding sponge and waxed it with Minwax Finishing Paste.

I thought about changing the hardware, but I would need so many and I didn't have enough in my stash. So I soaked them in ammonia to remove the ugly paint that was on them.

Here are some pictures of the hardware after it is soaked in ammonia so you can see how the paint just melts right off. You can also see how it buffs to a shine with a green scrubby sponge.

After the hardware was clean I sprayed it with oil rubbed bronze because I didn't want them to be that brass look.

I haven't painted hardware in oil rubbed bronze in a very long time...I forgot how awesome it looks. It made those ugly pulls on the bottom drawers look so much better!

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Cream Cabinet

When I got this cabinet home I immediately started sanding the top.

It was so scratched and I wanted to smooth the scratches out before I started to paint. It was also missing some veneer, but otherwise in good condition.

I used an oops paint that I had that was a light beige. It was too beige for me so I mixed it with white that I had on hand. I did a 50/50 ratio. It came out a light cream like color and I was thankful it was pretty easy to do as mixing colors makes me nervous.

I mixed it into homemade chalk paint, painted it with two coats and distressed. Since the top sanded so well, I decided to stain it to see how it would look. But the spot with the missing veneer stood out like a sore thumb.

I didn't want to paint over the nicely stained wood, so I decided to hide the missing veneer with some strategically placed stripes. I've done this before on this red dresser and this grey dresser.

I got what I wanted with a stained top, but also hid the problem and wound up adding more visual interest to the piece.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

#Chalkboard Table/Desk

My husband found me this sewing table curbside a few months back.

I really didn't know what to do with it because the top flips open to a large hole since there was no sewing machine.

I was going to try to think up a way to utilize that hole--like other bloggers have done. In the end, I just screwed the top down so it couldn't open any more.

I painted it with a blue/green oops paint (mixed into DIY chalk paint). I used this same paint on this desk last year too. I envisioned the table next to a twin bed as a night stand, but since it is tall, can also be used as a small desk.

I wanted to do something to the front of it because I didn't want to put the handle back since there is no drawer there. I remembered I bought a bunch of these wood laser cut symbols from Michaels on clearance.

#JacksonPollockWorkTable

I texted the pic to my friend and asked her if she thought it would be cool if I put the * @ # across the front of the table as a decoration (she has a 13 year old daughter). She said it looked like it was the symbol for a curse word. Doh! Not what I wanted. She suggested using the # somehow.

After a little brainstorming, I came up with painting out the front panel as a chalkboard and use the # with it. What teenage girl isn't going to want to write a #WordOfTheDay on a table?

Too cute! It just makes sense to have this as a small desk/table for a kid's room. It is so petite, it could squeeze in the smallest kid's bedroom. And the fact that it is desk height makes it even better. #DoubleDuty

Sunday, January 5, 2014

2013 Favorites

Happy New Year! I decided to take December off with it being so busy and also, my furniture makeovers don't have holiday themes, so I thought it would be best to come back in January.

I was going to put together a "top 10 posts" of the year, but since 2013 was my first full year of blogging, my top posts show up on my sidebar under popular posts.

Instead I decided to put together my personal top favorite posts for the year. I think many bloggers can agree that what was their personal favorite isn't always a favorite on the blog.

Rustic Grey Dresser is my top favorite piece I have painted. Besides the fact that I got it for free, I absolutely loved the way every detail turned out.

Girly Vanity came together like a dream. The day after I decided to paint the vanity I found a bench to match at a garage sale. I used a beautiful purple oops paint and I topped it off with Disney's glitter glaze. The photos don't do it justice!

Cream Dresser with Fun Plaid was one of the first few pieces that I was able to sand down the top to stain. I also took the extra time to add the plaid on the side. I know it may seem like a small detail, but it was very time consuming and I questioned myself a lot while I was doing it. Turns out I had nothing to worry about because I loved it!

Beachy Desk & Chair makeover made me so happy. I loved the way the top came out like reclaimed wood and I thought the way I fixed the broken cane chair with jute was really cool. This one wasn't a big viewed post and also was a hard sell at the consignment store. It sat long enough for me to have to lower the price before it finally sold.

Burlap Sack Table Tops I thought was totally genius! I guess maybe it is a little too different, but the Mod Podge made the tops hard as a rock and I know they are durable. The red one sold pretty quickly, but the black one still has not sold. I have marked it down twice already and I think I will have to again to get it to move.

Buttermilk Waterfall Dresser was a big surprise to me that it didn't get as many views as I expected. It also just sold at the consignment store after many months. Dressers are always an easy sell, but this one didn't move. I really have no idea why--I thought it came out amazing.

Mod Podge Graphic Transfer is a technique that I just started to do. It had a great response at the consignment store, but I think since this is not a new technique in the blog world, didn't get many views.

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