Glorified Milking Stool?

This was a simple and fun little project with a couple of good tips for you! I found this unusual three-legged chair at a garage sale and, again, I put it up for sale without much more than cleaning it. I thought it was unusual enough that someone would want to incorporate it into their more traditional decor.

No dice. So, what else, I painted. Now, I really hate hand sanding–I used to take great pride in my hands and nails, but alas, no more. I probably would have let this project sit indefinitely if it weren’t for some great product advice from Dale Luetjen at ReDeux. Liquid Sander is my new best friend. Seriously. If a piece has been overly painted or has gouges in it, you really have to break down and sand or otherwise remove the old paint, then patch if necessary before you repaint. This piece was perfect for Liquid Sander, though, since it was in good condition–the dreaded legs took no time at all to clean and de-gloss. I sanded the back with a orbital sander because the decorative painting likely would have shown through otherwise.

The seat was fun and simple, too. I created a random criss-cross pattern using blue painter’s tape (the tape is blue, not the painter), then rubbed in the turquoise paint with a cloth, so it stained the wood. It’s finished with semi-gloss lacquer. I prefer lacquer to polyurethane because it dries quicker and harder.

Voila!

Plan B

Always have Plan B. Or C. Unfortunately, sometimes D, which in my mind is give it up and donate the damn thing to your favorite charity. Luckily this little chair only required a slight variation in what I had originally envisioned for it which was to simply clean it up. When I started the cleaning, though, I realized the wood was pretty messed up in some places and really couldn’t stay natural.  I also realized there were two matching holes in the vinyl on either side of the chair which looked unfortunate. So, I painted the wood goldenrod and donned little checks on the sides of the seat. And gave it an all-over scrub. Voila!

Here are two little tips for you:

Don’t believe it when wood fillers (any of them) claim to be stainable. They’re really only just a tiny bit stainable which means you’ll never get the match you want.

When you’re picking, make sure you give everything you’re interested in more than a quick once-over before you buy. I still would have grabbed this chair, but I would have been more realistic about my plans for it.

Picking in Paradise

It was fortuitous I had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to take my daughter to the airport for a 6:00 flight to California. After she was checked and boarded, I headed straight to the Blazing the Trail Day community flea market in Dover, about an hour and a half from the airport. Because of the early hour, I actually arrived before most other dealers and was able to find some wonderful things at great prices. I ran into my friend Brenda at the first stop, but thankfully she looks for different things than I do. (Otherwise, I don’t think she would have told me about this in the first place!) I know for a fact I wouldn’t have been able to pick this uber-cute child’s rocker that with a little TLC should sell for significantly more than what I paid for it.

Isn’t this beautiful? This is where a bunch of the vendors sold their things. Sometimes it really is great to get up before the sun!

My Checkered Past

My first, long-neglected blog was focused three ways, as I sorted out where I would go after early retirement from a very large greeting card company in Kansas City, Missouri. I’m a designer by trade and previous employment, and I really couldn’t see giving that up entirely, so that was focus number one. Secondly, on a lark, I took a bartending course and thought about getting a job serving up booze and wisdom to poor souls in a smoky joint somewhere, so I bloggedly dabbled in mixology, too. Finally, I had recently stumbled upon the mother of all junk stores that had a stockpile of restaurant ware which inspired me to buy a bunch of it to sell on Etsy. Of course there were all sorts of other things to buy and sell besides restaurant ware, and plenty of other places to go to buy it. To say I jumped into this third category with both feet would be an understatement.

The blog was fun, and more importantly, over the months I kept at it, it became clear where my real passion lie–junking, or picking, or thrifting, or antiquing, or whatever you wish to call hunting down previously used, pretty old merchandise. Since much of what I found was too large to easily sell and ship from my Etsy shop, I eventually acquired a booth in a monthly vintage market to sell my things.

In the beginning I wasn’t much interested in furniture. That changed radically. I love furniture–not perfectly lovely, as-is furniture, but rather homely, neglected, in-need-of-love furniture that I can transform and at times repurpose into something unexpected, useful and perhaps even beautiful.

A few months ago, I rented a work and storage space so I could refurbish more efficiently than on my patio, garage, kitchen and living room. More recently, as I was painting a checkerboard pattern on the top of an abused, yet beautiful oak teacher’s desk, my endeavor acquired a name–Checkered Past.

I started selling my furniture (and stuff) at Urban Mining Homewares then spent a few months at Bottoms Up, both of which are occasional vintage markets, open only the first friday weekends of each month. All that’s going to change at the end of this month, when I move into a small space at the River Market Antique Mall, which is open seven days a week. While I’ll be selling “stuff” too, I hope my little space at River Market will be piled to the rafters with reclaimed furniture that people will love to have in their homes. (I’m staying at Urban Mining, so I’ll have two places in Kansas City for you to see my work.)

I want to chart my progress and share some of my projects, with plenty of before and after pictures and perhaps some how-to’s thrown in as well–hence my new blog. Today I picked up an amazing steel wardrobe (dented and neglected, of course) at Goodwill that will be my first before/after piece. I hope you enjoy the process and perhaps gain some inspiration along the way to give a little TLC to some of your own furniture.

P.S. I’ll do the TLC for you! I do custom work!