Curbside Recycling

This is one of the pieces I found at the curb a couple of weeks ago. The only thing that really needed repair was the large drawer. I reinforced the crack in the bottom of the drawer with metal strips, then filled in the holes with Bondo for wood since it’s so much stronger than wood filler. After that it was just a matter of listening to what the piece wanted from me. Sounds crazy, but every person I know who works with furniture does the same thing. No checks for this piece. Not even a combination of painted and unpainted wood. It wanted to be turquoise and it wanted to be dressed up with the antique glass knobs I had found at an estate sale a few months ago. So, after sanding off all the crud–remember this was found curbside–and cleaning it, I painted it turquoise then stained it to give it an aged patina.

Oh, and it wanted to have wheels!

It looks a little better than the before, don’t you think?

When in Doubt, Bring your Camera

Early Wednesday I set out in earnest to hunt. There was an estate sale in Independence–Eastern Jackson County, or “Eastern Jack,” where there’s supposed to be all sorts of awesome things at awesome prices, so I was pretty excited. There was some cool stuff, but I forgot that this particular estate sale organization is notorious for overpricing. It really was ridiculous, for resellers definitely, and even for casual estate sale goers who want to pick up a nice deal for a collection or a gift. I bought a few vintage Christmas ornaments, but other than that left disappointed. I stopped at the Blue Springs Red Rack on the way back to Kansas City to see if I could find a few things there to salvage the trip and at least buy some things to cover gas, but all in all the morning was looking like a complete bust.

Slightly downhearted, I punched in “go home” on my GPS and headed off. Generally I love my GPS and feel pretty handicapped without it (notwithstanding it’s maiden voyage in St. Louis), but the girl sometimes sends me in unanticipated directions. I was seriously wondering why I was driving north on Jackson Street when I thought the highway would have been quicker when–ta da–I noticed some guys were very considerately bringing some great looking furniture to the curb from an abandoned house! Does my GPS know me well enough now that she suggests the best picking routes rather than the fastest ones? I’ve often been jealous of picker friends who casually tell me they found such-and-such on the curb, and sold it for hundreds of dollars two minutes later. The best I’d done was a gnarly fireplace mantle that I picked with my daughters. Yesterday, though, I found an awesome three drawer oak dresser in just the right state of distress, and a large round wood tabletop that will look great with a chrome base that once belonged to a formica-topped kitchen table.

It wish I could share the curbside jumble in situ, but no camera. Next week when I head back to the warehouse, you’ll get before pics and soon thereafter, after pics!

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!