Beachy Beauty

This is another one of the tables I picked up from my co-worker who is China bound. This table was from her grandparents and survived her, two sisters, college parties (and adult parties I have attended),  her own three kids, and numerous foreign exchange students.  I am not gonna lie this thing was beat up, gauged, scratched, and more. However, it is still sturdy as all get out.

I love the big chunky legs on this table...they remind me of my own! This table screamed beachy to me so I decided to paint the legs with creamy white (again thinking of my own legs) for a whitewashed look and the top in my fav, Sherwin Williams Watery. I distressed it a bit and added a top coat of Annie Sloan Soft Wax.

This baby would be perfect in my beach house if I owned one. Since I don't I will be selling it.

I also painted two side tables to match. They have great storage and style.

The funny thing is while I don't own a beach house a co-worker does. She saw these and wants to do a trade for these. It is a win-win situation. I get two nights in her beach house, she gets the tables. In a way I guess I do get to enjoy them in a beach house!

Sweet and Petite

My husband called me a few weeks ago and wanted me to come look at a tablesaw he found at a garage sale near our home. I have been wanting a tablesaw and he figured this one would meet my needs. He is so sweet to think of me. However, when I got there I found out the real reason he had called was because they had a signed Trailblazer basketball. "Oh I forgot to mention that," he said.
We ended up with the tablesaw, the basketball and quite a few pieces of furniture. I am sure he regretted calling me in the end. The good news was he was there to help me load it and he had his truck.

This desk was one of the pieces. It looked like it was from the 30s or 40s. It had a nice back on it that would allow it to be a floating desk in a room.

Upon taking off the hardware last night I came to realize this desk isn't as old as it appears to be. I think it is an 80s copy catter. The construction is sound, but not the same as an older piece.

I stripped the top and the wood underneath was beautiful in my opinion. I decided not to paint the top and to simply add a coat of poly to it. The roping detail was pretty dirty. After spending some time with a toothbrush and soapy water I realized there was no way I would be able to restain it without some major effort. I decided to paint it and use dark wax on it to bring out the details.

The desk is painted in Annie Sloan Paris Grey and the drawers are Old White. I top coated the rest of the desk in clear soft wax.

I have been so busy trying to get the yard and pool summer ready that staging my furniture for pictures isn't a big priority. Part of the problem is we simply aren't home during daylight. With both kids in baseball I come home and get things ready for the next day, clean up and then we head out to a game. We typically get home around eight, eat and  then I head out to the garage to work. Let's just say lighting isn't at its prime at 9:00 at night. Someday.

Grain Sack Table

A friend texted me and asked me if I was interested in a drop leaf table she was giving away. You already know my answer.

She is a tiny thing and the two of us loaded it into my truck (which isn't tall, but for my 5' 2" body it is), Shewoman style.

The table is structurally solid, but the finish was in rough shape. It got even rougher after it sat in front of my garage for a few weeks in the blistering heat.

Originally, I thought about sanding the entire thing and then restaining it. It has a simple shaker design to it. However, after sanding for awhile I realized in the words of Sweet Brown, "Ain't nobody got time for that." My mid century night stand stain job also helped dissuade me from my original idea.

I LOVE the grainsack craze that has been all over Blogland. I took inspiration on another table (a much smaller version) I spotted on one of the numerous Blog Parties I frequent. I painted the table with Annie Sloan Old White and  painted the stripes in Sea Serpent from Sherwin Williams. I love this color as it is not quite navy, but not a bright blue either. I top coated it with Annie Sloan Dark Wax.

 A major malfunction occurred at this point. The tape pulled off a ton of the Annie Sloan base color. Yikes. I went back and repainted those spots, but the paint was uneven. The result came out looking like this:

 I will go ahead and say I LIKE the result so I meant to do it.

I tried to stage some good pictures, but my husband wasn't home to help me move the table to another location. Also, with the amount of furniture I have in the garage, and in front of my house right now, I am not sure where this other location would be (#furniturehoarder).

I have this for sale on Craigslist now. I am not sure this is the best venue for it. Again, I am struggling with what my next step is. With summer approaching I will have a lot more time on my hands for sales and building up stock. I know this table would be gone pretty fast in some parts of town or in a shop. I LOVE the size of it. It is big enough for eight people when it is out all the way, but when folded it fits into a space of only 26". This would be a perfect crafting table. It sounds like I am trying to convince myself to keep it. Mmmm.

Mid Century Night Stands & Trading Up

I am not a fan of mid century design. I can appreciate it, but it certainly isn't my style. I do know that mid century is hot right now in my neck of the woods.

A few years ago I picked up this chaise lounge for free in down and out neighborhood near my home.

It had a Burberry looking cover/pad that came with it. I admit the chair was comfortable. It swiveled, rocked and was a great way to relax by the pool BUT I wanted matching chaise lounges. After seven summers in our home (this will be our eighth) I am ready for some matching pool furniture. I began to search on Craigslist for loungers, but kept finding singles. Finally, I began to search Target, Sears and even Wal-Mart for new ones. HOLY COW. A cheap, decent looking one runs at least $130 without cushions. Add a cushion and you are at around $200. I asked for friends opinions on Facebook and the split was 50/50 on going with a cushionless one or trying to buy used.

In the end I found two wrought iron chaises with pristine cushions for $100 on Craigslist. After researching I found my chair had value. Ones like it went for $350 on Etsy. I sold mine for $150. The base was a little rough and the person who bought it told me they would be sandblasting it, repainting it and selling it for much more. I didn't feel like I had the time or the patience to deal with that so I was happy to pocket the $150 and buy my new chairs. I even had enough to put away for an outdoor shower (more on that later).

Speaking of mid century I picked up two night stands from a teacher friend who is moving to China with her husband (also a teacher) and three kids to teach. She is adventrous and I admire their families need for new experiences. I could never do it. Anyway, she was selling a bunch of their old furniture and I ended up buying five tables from her. These two pieces were from her Grandma's house. The varnish was bubbling and they had seen better days.

I sanded them down. This took a lot more work than I like. There is a reason I usually paint furniture.

They were solid wood and the drawers worked perfectly.

I had some issues with the stain. I beleive it is because I didn't get all of the varnish off completely. This is the top of one. It looks worse in this picture than it does in "real life". I am suprised they have't sold yet. If they don't sell soon I may go ahead and paint them black or another color. I have seen some on Etsy that go for at least $200 a pair.

 

I realized that I don't think I will be spending a lot of time sanding furniture down unless it is an amazing piece I can make a lot of money from or I plan on keeping for a long time. Stripping, sanding and restaing is a lot of work. I don't like to work very hard. Just kidding.

Geography Lesson

I have done several map pieces lately. I picked up this night stand at an auction. I painted it with my new fav Peacock and decoupaged maps to the drawers and top. I posted it and it sold quickly.

I accidentally left a strip of wood showing...I did paint it before the customer picked it up. Crazy what you don't notice!

I forgot to pull this from Craigslist and received a few calls in regards to it. I  happened to have another night stand on hand. I ended up painting it a navy blue and adding maps to it similar to this piece. I have learned that maps are hot. I need to stock up on maps as my supply is beginning to dwindle. 

Beachy Dresser

Around our house we have a need to breath the ocean air about every three months or we begin to get grumpy. As a result we have stayed in many different beach houses throughout the years. When Drexler was younger every time we were headed to the beach he would ask, "Which of our beach houses are we going to stay in this time?" It made us sound like we were super rich with several beach properties.
Alas, on teacher's salaries we don't own a beach house. We are fortunate to be able to go to the beach often. Most of the time the houses we stay in have kitchy tacky beach themes of mismatched stuff the owners don't want to use in their regular house.
I love beach decor and many of my pieces are inspired by shore. This piece is not exception.

This is the dresser from my friend Gayle. I had to do a bit of work on one drawer, but other than that it was easy piece to refinish. I painted the top with a random cream (you know those containers of leftover paint that you have hanging around) and the bottom with a Sherwin Williams color I can't remember the name of right now. I sanded the drawers and top a bit before I began to paint, but neglected to do the sides. When I was paining one side the paint wasn't adhering in a few areas. I added some of my secret ingredient and turned it into Dickey's Chalk Paint. This solved the problem.

Next I roughed up the paint and shabified it. Finally, I put a coat of Annie Sloan Clear Soft Wax. The first picture was taken with my phone, the other pictures don't show the coloring as well.

I am hoping this piece sells quickly because I have the following pieces to clear out of my garage/driveway right now:

Waterfall style dresser
French Provincial dresser
Buffet/bench (I am soooo excited to work on this one)
Kitchen table
Big desk
Little desk
3 Lyre chairs
2 Frenchy chairs
2 End tables
1 Coffee table
Clock
Radio Cabinet

I believe that is it. Whew.

*I posted a picture of this on Facebook last night and wouldn't you know it the same lovely person who bought the desk purchased this. I am going to paint another dresser for them to match.

She's Outta Here

A few weeks ago a friend sent me a message on Facebook and asked me if I would like a desk and dresser. They were mine if I could come pick them up pronto. Lickity split I galloped to her house and picked them up. They were better than I imagined. It is funny how some people's idea of beat up and mine are totally different.

The desk was petite and solid pine. Gayle's husband had started to refinish it and aborted the mission. This made the desk even better for me. All I had to do was sand the top down a bit more and it was good to go.

I stained the top with a dark cherry and painted the bottom with Dickey's Chalk Paint (I need to trademark it ) in Watery, one of my favorite Sherwin William's colors. I stained the knobs to match and top coated it with wipe on poly.

I snapped a quick picture (ugh...) with my cell phone and posted it to Facebook. Within twenty minutes I had three people offer to buy it. I was happy the first responder was a friend whose daughter has been a buddy of Drexler's since preschool. They went to elementary school together for several years, played soccer together and will attend the same middle school next year. I am happy this cutie went home to Olivia!

As you can see I have been absent from Blogland lately. With both kids playing baseball right now we have our evenings pretty full. Additionally, we have had two beautiful weeks of temperatures in the mid-70s-80s. This is unheard of here in Oregon; no rain and clear days. As a result we were forced to get the pool summer ready a few weeks early. A lot of my time and attention has gone to yard projects. I'm not complaining, but I am glad this weeks forecast calls for rain. My plants need water and I need to get back to painting!

Peacock Dresser

I had a dresser that sat in my garage stuffed with various nails, tools, electrical junk and more for the last seven years. I recently purchased a dresser and it was a buy one get one free deal. I had to take this one in order to get the other. I almost took it to Goodwill. It isn't really wood and was horribly painted and stripping such a cheap piece was out of the question in my book...painting it would be a waste of time even in my world. I decided to keep it and trade my old catch-all dresser with it.

This dresser is solid wood, but it is very thin pine. The drawers all worked, but they weren't all that big. It would make a perfect dresser for those baby through toddler years, but after that they are just to small to fit much in the way of clothes. It would also be a good dresser for an office or crafting space.

Anyway, I painted it with the evasive Peacock (a $1 quart I found at a salvage store).  I will be honest, I would never put this color in my house, but I like it a lot in other's homes. It just isn't my cup of tea.

I realize again that this is a horrible picture. I struggle with photography. I have a decent enough camera, BUT...

1. The lighting in my garage/workshop stinks
2. The item sells and I have forgotten to get decent pictures
3. I'm lazy

No excuse for it. I am going to make a goal for myself this summer to become a better photographer. Honestly. No excuses.