Saturday Pickin'

That's it. I've decided. I'd rather be a hoarder than own an antique booth. Look at this stuff - white, chippy, unique. I want it, I want it, I want it. Where do I put it - my apartment is full. Maybe I'm already a hoarder. I don't know, I just don't want to part with this stuff!

Sigh, I need a house!

Baby Blue

Well, I actually finished these Baby Blues awhile back - even before the green with envy side table. They've just been sitting on my work table in the garage. I think I'm in love with this set, I'm pretty sure its my favorite that I've done so far.

I grabbed this set at a yard sale. The wood is cherry. Have you ever sanded cherry? Well, it of course turns even more cherry. And even when you prime it, the red shows through the white. You can't hide it. I tell you what, even when you paint it, the red shows through the blue. And even when you cover the piece in dark wax, the red still shows through. But, to tell you the truth - I like it. It's me. I love red and blue, can't get enough.

The first time around, these babies look like leopards. The distressing was forced (David's words), but it did look terrible. So, I primed over those parts and repainted. I went for a lighter sanding on the table tops and heavier on the legs. Love it. Did I say that enough?

Speaking of baby blues and love, I'm also in love with this sweet song Scott Avett wrote for his daughter.

Sharing at:

The Brambleberry Cottage
Miss Mustard Seed

Part Deux

As promised from yesterday, the rest of the finds, minus the old bed frame. Apparently, that picture deleted itself or something. Maybe its in the twilight zone. Either way, it isn't on my camera now. Bigger things were happening, like a flooding store! It's taken care of now though.

So here you have the barn door, a neat shelving unit, a utility spindle, and cotton seeder. And see over in the right corner the white piece? That's the picket fence I talked about here.

Blogging has been sporadic and will continue to be for, well I don't know how long. We are down to one computer from three! David has two broken laptops and a thesis to keep writing. One laptop needs a new screen since the back light went out. Although this is the older computer, it's probably the one getting fixed. The newer one (about 2 years old) has some motherboard damage that will cost $900 to fix - that's more than the computer!

I'll keep sneaking on when he leaves my computer alone for a few minutes!

Saturday Pickin' & New Friends!

Today was so awesome, I forgot to take picture of everything! I caught the last weekend of a warehouse sale and spent some money! Here's a few things I found!

So, at this sale, someone else was interested in those cubbies and immediately bought them from me after I bought them. She also picked through the store where I have a booth and my garage! You'll have to check her out at Lake Norman Antique Mall.

I went back to this same sale later and bought a cotton see planter, barn door, old rusty bed frame (the guy I bought this from was in his 60s and it was his great-grandmothers bed!), pink vintage table, and an awesome shelf. I will share pictures of these last finds with you tomorrow hopefully!

And coming up soon is the reveal of a barn shutter I made!

30 Minute Chair Makeover

I'm in love with this chair - I picked it up for $1 at a yard sale this weekend.
 

I love the waves across the top and the spindles along the back. It's old and perfect. So old, all the shine had worn off. The wood was perfect and raw, no sanding necessary. So what do you do with a lovely chair like this?

 You paint it of course. A perfect old flat white latex picked up at a yard sale for 50 cents. This chair was a a cinch to paint. I lightly dipped my brush in the paint, wiped off most of the paint on the side of the can, then painted. Since the wood was so worn, the paint brushed on heavily in some areas, and not so heavy in other areas.

It created the perfect time-worn look.So, now the chair sits on my patio with a rusty blue oil can that holds a pretty plant my husband bought me. Loving the spindles more now, actually I'm swooning over them..

 You can still see the wood grain on the chair, like the paint naturally wore away.

So, I call this my 30 minute chair redo. From getting it out of my car, to wiping away the cobwebs, to painting and letting it dry, it probably took about 30 minutes. I'm in love with this paint, and can't wait to use it on something else!

Sharing this at:

Miss Mustard Seed
Brambleberry Cottage

Green with Envy Sidetable

Well, here she is, number 7! And here's my first attempt at staging. Except that it's on my patio instead of inside - that's what only two windows in a living room will get you, along with the fast setting evening sun.

The picture below is the first "before" picture I remembered to take. The table had already been primed, I at least assume that's what was on it. But I didn't like the way it felt, it was just gross. So off it came with some 60 grit sandpaper and my orbital sander.

Getting into all the nooks and crannies without sanding too far down was a bit too hard. Still  learning here, but this is where I ended up. Next step was to tape off the top, since that was going to be stained instead of painted.

The first post I wrote was on choosing paint colors. Well, the name Katydid just caught my eye. Probably some complex with liking anything that sounds similar to me. But, Katydid did not look great on this piece of furniture. It's too bright. Is that because Fall is in the air and I'm craving dark warm colors? Maybe. But, this color just wasn't cutting it.

I stained the top in Cabot Dark Walnut wood stain, since that's what I had on hand. I think I let it sit for too long, but it ended up looking better on the end product. In this picture, it toned down the bottom color a bit, but still am not digging it at this point.

 Maybe distressing would help? I grabbed the orbital sander and stuck with the 60 grit for some heavy distressing. It just looks fake. Fake, fake, fake. This is really what my husband likes to tell me. It looks forced, like I'm trying to make it look old. Still learning.
 

 You can kind of see the primer through the distressing here.

Well in the end, I just rubbed heavy amounts of wood stain all over the side table, then rubbed some of the excess if it looked splotchy. I think it helped give it a mature, aged look. After everything dried, I went over the top with water-based polyurethane and over the bottom with Minwax clear wax. I'm happy with it!

I couldn't find the pull that came with the dresser. Did it even have one when I bought it? I don't know. None of the other pulls in the garage or house matched up to the holes. So, I had to just borrow some knobs from another piece. There they are, staring at you like headlights. The drawer and I will go to Lowe's tomorrow. I'm thinking bronze, something like the knobs.

So, below is the recap, beginning to end.

Table bottom

• Paint - Valspar Signature Colors Katydid (CI240)
• Distressing Technique - 60 grit sandpaper and Orbital Sander
• Stain - Cabot Dark Walnut 
• Wax - Minwax Clear Wax 

Table top

• Stain - Cabot Dark Walnut 
• Sealant - Rustoleum Waterbased Polyurethane

  What is your technique for changing a too bright paint color?

Sharing this on:

 Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday! 

Furniture Sneak Peek

Just a little sneak peek at what I'm about to finish up. This is my 7th piece of furniture and I'm loving this one!

More Saturday Junkin' and Going Crazy

So, I've been a MIA this past week thanks to a mixture of dogs and headaches. I haven't crafted or painted, but I did get back in to the grind of things on Saturday with some early shopping! Up at 6am to hit some yard sales - here's what I found!

I drove 20 minutes to a yard sale to grab a table before someone else bought it. I walked down, found it at a price I was comfortable with and claimed it immediately. Well, I got home and looked at the ad again. I didn't buy the right table. This table is funky and hodgepodgy. First, the leaves of the table have nothing to hold them up, so no lifting there. Second, it looks like someone kind of through some legs together and never finished. Each side has 3 legs. I thought about ripping the middlish leg off, since it doesn't have a symmetric partner, but then there would be a big gap in the railing that connects the two outside legs. So what do you think, do you like the asymmetrical nature of these legs? I'm thinking the legs will be white with a wood top.

**Update: So, I still have a lot to learn! Apparently this is called a gate leg drop leaf table. That "middlish leg" will pull out and hold up the table leaves. Awesome!! So, this find isn't so weird and broken. Now I'm excited to paint it!

It wasn't really a successful yard sale trip, where I come home with tons of junk to shove in the garage like I'm a hoarder.  But, I did get this cool rusted out bucket and some tools.

 

See those Allen wrenches there on the left? That is such a coincidental find, because on Friday we realized we needed one. We found two in our toolbox, but unfortunately they weren't the right size. I grabbed this set for $5. Yard sales are a great place to find tools, or unused paintbrushes, or almost whole rolls of purple painters tape and cheese cloth.

I also grabbed this cute little dresser. And here is where the crazy part comes in.

You see, I paid for this dresser - and it has no top. CRAZY, RIGHT?

 

The previous owners used this ugly chipboard faux granite top. It was too big and, come on, it's ugly. 

The only reason I bought this dresser was because it didn't have a top. I've seen a lot of projects lately of people ripping off tops and creating a farm table effect with wood pieces. So, my plan was to go to Lowe's and by some boards. Lucky for me, some lady disabled her garden planters and put these out for free! Just need to be cut and stained (and beat up pretty good to look old)!

 

Did anyone else find some awesome junk on Saturday?

Hillsville Flea Market

Family trip to Hillsville Flea Market today! This was our first time and we had a blast! I was ready with my storage cart ($3 at a yardsale - STEAL!) and my apron! David said I'd be the only one there with a cart and people would make fun of me. So not true, everyone had a cart or a wagon...and vendors were charging $15+ a cart at the market!

Needless to say, it was VERY crowded and pretty hard to push a cart through there.

People were even parking on steep hills - CRAZY.

But, there was a fun variety of items to be found. Such as gorgeous painted furniture.

 To tons and tons of glassware.

There was even homemade  ice cream made with single piston engines!

But, the best part of all was the loot we brought home!

Not pictured here is a table my sister bought. I had told all the husbands there was no point in driving the car to pick up the stuff in the picture. I mean, you saw the traffic above - crazy! So before talking to us, they went and picked up all this stuff and carried it to the car. Now, we parked in the first parking lot as you entered the flea market area....it was a hike! So, after that my sister bought the table. Lesson learned - do not tell men not to drive car, then ask them to drive car. So..we started carrying the table and everyone looked at us while we were nuts! David called, so we had to put the table down - I proceed to talk very short with him, bringing more stares until one vendor took pity on us. (This table really wasn't heavy..just awkward!) He suggested we go ask a certain person for hand trucks. Seeing we would decline, he insisted that he would go get the hand trucks (which really was a wagon) and walk with us until we meet up with our husbands! How sweet!(I personally think he wanted to get us crazy ladies away from his booth so we wouldn't scare the customers!)

Overall, it was a fun time - did anyone else go to the Hillsville Flea Market?

Flea Market Pictures were taken by my sister, Audrey Whitlock Photography.