Oh craiglist...I love you.  Especially the curb alerts!  In yesterdays post there were pictures of boxes of yard sale left overs, and a large stack of chairs.  As I was telling my husband that I wanted one of the chairs that was sitting at the curb, I noticed in that small picture a corner of an old dresser, buffet, or something large sitting behind the chairs.  All I know was it had tall legs.  So off he went with the truck.  As he pulled into the driveway, I noticed he didn't have any chairs, but the truck was packed.  To my surprise I received 3 vintage dressers. Ohhhhh, and my first thought was my friend is lacking a tv stand!

My husband said he didn't want to break up the set, but unfortunately, one piece is going up the street when finished.  The veneer was peeling horribly.  I have never taken veneer off before.  I knew I needed heat, and I thought steam might work better.  I have an old clothes iron in my cupboard collecting dust, so I tried it.  Sitting in my living room I used the iron and a metal scraper and removed the veneer from 2 of the drawers.

After 5 hours of stripping, and sanding this dresser, this is how it turned out.

There are so many bug holes through this wood, I hope I can bring out the beauty of the holes (and still look good with their decor).  Tomorrow, picking paint or stain.

So we picked the stain Zarrs Rosewood.  Here's what it looks like with 2 coats of stain. Just have to get some cool knobs from Hobby Lobby!  There is a new shopping area near us that put a Hobby Lobby in. I could spend hours in there!

I wish the stain wouldn't have covered up all the bug holes in the wood, but the piece isn't for my house.  It's what my friend wanted.
Here is the tall dresser painted.  It's now in my son's room, couldn't get a good picture with all his stuff laying around, but it gives you an idea!

And while I was at it, this other dresser was spray painted primary red, blue and yellow (it was in my son's room but took up too much space). I couldn't sell it in primary colors, so I fixed it up, and a woman purchased it to use as a tv stand as well.

                                                                        Awesome!

Oh what a beautiful day!  After weeks of rain, the sun is finally shining once again, and we can get outside!  So I took advantage of the beautiful day to work on my dining chairs.  I have 5 of them, but on seat bottom broke as I was sanding it.  So I focused on 4 chairs (since that's all we need for our family).  Sanding, priming and painting, that was my entire day.  But I am so happy with the color.  I am still experimenting on my technique on spray painting.  Even though today was beautiful, it was windy, and not very good for spray paint.  So I hid myself and the chairs beside the house and hoped over spray didn't cover too much of my deck and house. Here is the before and after of the chairs.  I haven't finished the seats, but for now they look much better than they did.

This rain is making me crazy! I know, I shouldn't complain, there are states out there having raging fires and drought.  But it's been raining for months.  I need the sun!  And it's really difficult to do any painting in the rain.  i don't have a garage or shed/workshop for my projects, so I need a rain free day.  I've been doing some small projects around the house. I found a set of mirrors at a yard sale that I have painted.  And I have a few empty picture frames that I have painted the same color. My living room is a deep red, and my furniture is all neutral, so I need to add some more color. Here is a picture of the mirrors.

I also picked up a foot stool.  It's yellow and already chippy paint naturally.  I don't know if I'll paint it, and I am kind of liking the split seams.  It's in my living room now, the living room that is in total chaos!