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?

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!

Mea Culpa, Formica-Topped Table

Okay, this is what I had to work with. Originally, this table was assembled in the usual manner, legs on the bottom, top well, on the top. It was pretty cool, not the coolest formica-topped table I’d ever seen, but the price was right and I didn’t think I’d be doing too much to it before reselling–de-rusting and cleaning. Well, I purchased this before I rented my workspace, so it bravely withstood a couple of rain storms standing in my driveway since my garage was too full. As a result, the formica started to separate from the base of the top. Thinking it would be a pretty easy fix, I started gluing (Gorilla Glue, if anyone’s interested) and tried to pull everything together with those ratchety things. What with the the angle of the table, and the ferocity of the glue and various user errors with regard to the ratchety things, it sort of ended up looking like the unfortunate picture on the left. The legs were still awesome, so I waited patiently until a different tabletop would come into my life.

And, it did, last week.

Fast forward. The curbside table as a whole was pretty beat up, so I just salvaged the top. The biggest challenge was figuring out the best way to marry the new top to the chrome legs. I thought I could simply attach the legs to the top, but the height wouldn’t have been correct, so I used parts and pieces from the original top and made it work. After many pieces of sandpaper (by the way, a tip: That purple sandpaper you can get now? It really lasts longer than the standard stuff.) it was ready for paint. I think it’s fun!

Nota Bene: This design is not a target. It’s a bull’s eye. Really.

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!

Ch-ch-ch-changes…

When I bought this drop leaf table, it was standard issue “shabby chic.” That is, painted white over layers and layers of other paint, then marked up to a ridiculous price. I found it at a garage sale of the reseller who couldn’t manage to sell it. Imagine that. So, the price I paid wasn’t quite exorbitant, but I definitely paid more than what I should have, given the labor I put into it. Yes, folks, I stripped it all down. My original plan was to take the legs and base down to its original light-colored wood, then do a simple tabletop. Well, well, well. Another Plan B! I resorted to chemical stripper on the legs because of the number of layers of paint and I tell you, the color those legs ended up was frightening. See left. Gag. So, I had to paint. I had just used kind of an olive drab on an old file cabinet and really liked the color. So, O.D. for the legs and base. I’ve been dressing up furniture legs lately with little contrasting color “socks” and I used a nice rich red on these.

I learned from the legs not to use chemicals on the top, so I went back to what I really like to use to remove paint–a heat gun. It worked great on this. When I sanded off the residual, there was a wonderful greenish tint to the bare wood. I wanted the wood darker, though, so I added some mineral spirits to a darker, non-red stain, and applied. The color perfectly complimented the O.D. legs. I was happy. The large black checks completed the look which I then coated with 5 layers of varnish. I love this table!

Stories

I love the way this chest turned out. I bought it at an estate sale close to a year ago when it was just a very large plywood box on legs. It’s what was inside that made me buy it. There were newspapers dated 1936 from Austin, Texas, and the most bittersweet letter from one sister to another. These are the things I love about this business. The objects you touch have stories; they’ve been part of lives before mine. This piece in particular felt somewhat sacred, so I left it in it’s original condition to see if it would sell, newspaper and letter included. Well, my homely box just sat there, making me sad. So I changed it up a bit. I cut off the existing short legs and attached industrial strength rollers, then painted it. I love the way the distressing turned out and I love the color. The turquoise paint right out of the can was a bit garish, so after painting and roughing it up, I stained it with a light oak stain that had enough yellow in it to really bring it to what I was envisioning.

So, how big is this chest, really? You could probably smuggle a family of four out of the country in it.

I’m going to sell this piece, but I’m keeping the letter.

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!