She's SOLD!

I sold my first piece.  It was really difficult for me to part with this beauty. It was a dresser that my husband picked up along the side of the road for free. It was dirty, and I'm not sure if someone tried to paint over the varnish, or if it was so much furniture polish build up over the years.  Here's what she looked like before.

It took some elbow grease, but I got her all cleaned up.

I followed directions of many of my favorite bloggers a bout making your own chalk paint.  So I mixed up some black.  I left the drawer front and top natural, and painted the rest.
Here she is, and now making someone else very happy in their dining room as a buffet.

And while I waited 3 days for a buyer...lol, I followed more fav bloggers and made some drop cloth curtains for my living room. I bought a 9'X12' drop cloth at Ace Hardware (my hubby works there so I get decent discounts). Right now the are plain, I am trying to figure out if I want a design on them, or some trim for the edges.  Not sure right now.  But they are hanging.

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!

I love yard sale season

At the beginning of yard sale season, the kids and I went hunting.  I found this sad dresser in someones yard.  The had a sign for $20 on it, I got it for $15 since they didn't want to carry it back in the house.  I love old, real wood furniture.  Someone had painted or stained this black, and it could have been perfect for that primative look.  but I really wanted to see what was under there.  So I stripped it.  And stripped it again.  Boy in the hot sun, the stripper kept drying on me, so I had to apply another layer. But then I was seeing the beautiful wood underneath.  So all I did was sand it, let it dry and applied wipe on poly in satin.  The details on this dresser are awesome.  i still haven't found the perfect place for it, so right now it's in my living room holding all our dvd's.