SunflowerHugs

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Secondhand Scores #26

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 checked the paper and there were two garage sales in my county this weekend. Yay!

The first sale was awesome--they had such good stuff. Since it was one of the first real sales in the area, there were a lot of people and I had to be quick and grab the things I liked before someone else did.

I got all this for $4.25!!

Coffee table $1 (I think it was hand made)
Large rectangular wood box $.50
Small Pyrex measuring cup $.25
Both metal lunch boxes $.50
Two cutting boards $1 each

After I got home and took everything out of the car, I was mistaken about the two cutting boards. I think they are just random pieces of wood--darn it! And $1 for a small piece of wood is so not worth it.

Like I said, there were a lot of people and I had to be quick, but I have to really make sure I take the time to look at what I am buying. Even the lunch boxes-they are so cool, but I am not sure what I am going to do with them.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

They Can't All Be Winners

I put the same amount of time and effort into every piece that I paint. No matter if it is a small table or a large dresser, whether it is solid wood or pressboard, they all get the same amount of blood, sweat and tears.

That doesn't mean they all come out the way I want them to. Some just don't make me as happy as others do. It may have been my color choice, or the piece's issues can't be hidden, or the technique I used didn't quite work out.
That being said, the pieces were still put up for sale at the consignment store. I know sometimes I am being my own worst critic and that someone may find what I did perfect for them.

This dresser was a beautiful shape, but the pink color on it threw me off and I just couldn't get past it.

I painted it a grey color hoping that after I distressed the pink color would pop through in a good way. It didn't. And the hardware replacements I had (that were in my budget) were just not what I had in mind.

This child size chair and table both already had been painted when I got them. I thought to layer on more colors so when I distressed it would look cool to see all the different colors.

I painted the chair with white and then both the chair and table a light blue. For some reason thought this intensely bright pink would look good on top. Because these are child size, I figured I could get away with the pink, but I should have skipped the blue because it clashed.

This two drawer table isn't made of wood or even pressboard--it is some kind of thin hardboard. To liven it up, I decided to add a graphic that went over the two drawers. I took a long time figuring out what graphic (from The Graphic's Fairy) to use and then sized it for the drawers.

I measured and remeasured, marked the centers on both the graphic and drawer, painstakingly applied it and smoothed out the paper, waited 24 hours for it to dry and then wet it to remove the top layer of paper to reveal the graphic. I put the drawers in place and as you can see IT DIDN'T LINE UP. Seriously?!

The dresser took months to sell, but the pink table and chair sold in one day and the French graphic table sold in a week. Go figure!

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Secondhand Scores #25

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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.

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