Mother's Day Vanity

Beautiful detail!

I hinted and hinted and even sent a link to my husband. I saw this on Craig's List and wanted it so bad! I don't know why! Well on Mother's day 2012 he brought it home to me! I was so excited! But what should I do with it? I debated just cleaning it and leaving it as is since it was so beautiful, but something kept telling me to PAINT IT! What? Paint over stain? My mom would have a cow! But I went against my upbringing and dove in once school was out. My friend and I had a painting week in my garage-my husband said we only had a week before he wanted it back (BTW--he really never got it back, other projects took over.) So off to Sherwin Williams I went and pick out a light white...I just buy the samples because it works great and I don't have TONS of paint left over.. After cleaning it I started painting!

 

After painting it I knew I had to distress it! I had to find a way to make the details POP! :)

So using light sandpaper I started sanding away...Then I added a little glaze on the drawers only.

Here is the final project and I just love it!! You can see all the detail that you couldn't see when it was just stained.

 I did put the mirror back on..not sure why I don't have a picture of it with the mirror. :)

I have it in my bedroom now..I'm thinking one day I MIGHT sell it, but for now I want to enjoy it! :)

THE Cart

Well, I have mentioned and posted pictures of my cart I found at Lincoln Mill several months ago. I wanted to share the process with you.

The cart when we first got it!

My husband and I found this old cart from an old cotton mill's warehouse sale last summer. It was apparently used to carry the bundles around in. It has a distinct groove in the boards and I wish I knew what it's specific purpose was..If anyone can tell me, please do! I've been searching the web for pictures, but no luck yet. The owner of the building told us that he thought it had to be as old as the building which was at least 100 years old...we knew it wasn't all original,but the bones sure were old!

It has rusty, gooey wheels and old hardware on it. The 2x4's look fairly new, but we kept them there. I pressure washed the entire thing and actually it was so grimy and old that not much came off.

My husband and I debated all the ways to turn it into a coffee table, Take the 2x4s off, lay a piece of  glass across then we realized we had some great wood to use as a top....

Earlier that summer we had the opportunity to take some boards off an old house in TN. I cleaned, fumigated, and sealed the wood and my husband roughly put them on a 1x2 and placed on top of the cart. Now it had a table top!

He also removed the handle because it was long and just wouldn't work for a coffee table (It was NEW too.) We had to find a way to stabilize it, my first idea was to use old yarn spools as legs since it was from the cotton mill. My husband couldn't see how that would work and sent me on a treasure hunt..I found an old plant hanger and he tried to use that..then I showed him what I was thinking with the spools. DING DING!! It worked (but I refrained from saying I told him so). We had to place some wedges to level it out, but it worked perfectly. We then placed some felt pieces on the wheels so it wouldn't harm the hardwood and voila! Our primitive cart coffee table. Total cost for us Less than $75!!

Finished Primitive Cart Coffee Table

***Whenever you salvage wood from a location please be sure to fumigate it! You don't want bugs to emerge once you get it in the house! I will post my process soon!****

I Can't Get NO....Satisfaction!!!

I love the hunt for new treasures. Going to Antique stores, Goodwill, Thrift stores and then taking those treasures and using them in my home in expected and unexpected ways is so much fun. I have even found many treasures in my own home that I already had, but have refinished, painted, or repurposed them. I even enjoy the satisfaction of refurbishing an item myself. As I was working on some projects this past weekend I realized that I could pay someone to do this part for me (sanding, painting, cleaning), but why would I want to away the satisfaction to someone else?  "I can't get no satisfaction"....from that can I? I would not have as much pride in my treasures if someone else did all the work. They wouldn't be as much fun to show off if I just had someone else do all the work. So here I go again showing off some of my treasures I've utilized in my new home.   Thanks to the world of Pinterest, which is where I've gotten many of the ideas.

The old spool and cheese molds were found at local antique stores, the sign was a gift from my sister and her husband. He made if for us and I just love it!



I love colored glass. I love the blue and the orange and greens all together. The black one will probably move to a new home. I found the blue ones and orange ones at antique malls for under $15 ea. I found the green one at Goodwill for $2. :)



This wasn't a find I made. My sister gave it to me as a gift.
A local artist outside of Mempis made this and again I LOVE IT!

This is our famous headboard. We haven't completed it yet. We are adding a couple of boards and built in lanterns for night reading. Hopefully this will be done in the next few weeks. This door was from an old house next to my parent's property in TN. We took it down this fall and I cleaned it up, fumigated it and oiled it. Once we complete it and my bedding comes in I'll post more pictures and my process of using old barn/house wood.

These pictures are from my boys' room. We inherited my husbnd's old bedroom set from the 70's. It looked like it was from the 70s too. But I couldn't afford to go and buy a whole new set and couldn't see why I should. So my mom and I painted the set a medium gray using techniques I found on Pinterest. I then spray painted the knobs RED. (Both boys' favorite color is red).  Just this weekend I bout them new bed covers and curtains. I will post pictures of the completed room later tool

This is one of my favorite repurposing idea I found on Pinterest. We use them as towel holders in the boys' bathroom. I have 2 more that I can't find in the moving boxes, but as soon as I do it will make a neat usable display. :)

The FORK and SPOON!!! My grandmother had a set in her kitchen when I was growing up. My sister inherited that set, so I just had to go out and get my own set! Found at an antique store for under $15...a gift from my mom! LOVE IT~

UNFINISHED PROJECTS



These are my sewing machine drawers I found for $15 each at an antique store. I plan on painting them, changing the knobs and using them in my craft room. :)



This past weekend I found myself working on 3 projects at once! Cleaning and sanding the old lockers we found at Lincoln Mills Warehouse sale, painting frames to use on my refrigerator (to frame kids work in-another Pinterest idea), and painting frames and matts for pictures in the boys' room. Luckily the weather was beautiful and I really had a lot of fun!

These are future projects hiding in the corner of the garage. I have 4 shutters I can't wait to do something with and an old wooden window frame that I will probably turn into a picture frame, but I'm not sure yet. :)

Here is the famous CART! I'm turning this into a coffee table for our living room. Using old wood from the house near my parents house we are going to make a top for it. This is an original cart used in Lincoln Mill in Huntsville.

The LOCKERS!! I can't wait to finish these! we have 2 of them. Using them for storing supplies and bookbags. I worked on this this weekend and it wasn't too bad. Hopefully I will finish sanding and start priming them this weekend. So more pictures to come!

Well, that's all that I'm working on right now. :) I love sharing, so hopefully you will get some ideas and start your own treasure hunting and take pride and satisfaction in  knowing how hard you worked to make your home as unique as you are!

Happy Treasure Hunting!
Trish