Dumped and Discovered

The Rat Dresser Makeover

2012-10-14T19:14:00.000-04:00

This is where it all began... The story of Dumped and Discovered. This is the first piece of furniture that I purchased for our business.

Meet "The Rat Dresser." (Note: This piece was named before I started giving my treasures more glamorous names like Bertha, Bernadette, and Denny).

Two years ago, Lola and I went to an antique store in a small town near our house. While there, the sweet lady at the counter handed us a flier. It advertised a "yard sale" in an old warehouse. This was before our thrifting days "officially" started, but we decided to give it a try. Needless to say... WE WENT CRAZY! It took three car loads to bring all of our treasures home, and Mr. Dump threatened to call the producers of "Hoarders."

Most of the pieces have been re-vamped and sold. But this one.... This one almost didn't make it to the transformation stage. This one almost got re-dumped. I just couldn't bring myself to tackle it... Until now...

This is what it looked like when I bought it... I turned the top into a chalkboard long ago! Click here to check it out...

This piece became "The Rat Dresser" for the furry creature that once called the bottom drawer home. GROSS!!! Like I said, we didn't know what we were doing back then, so I didn't think to check the drawers first. All I saw was the $20 price tag!

Mr. Dump fixed this problem pretty quickly by cutting new bases for the drawers. He didn't mind the task because he got a new jigsaw out of the deal. While he was having fun, I tackled the sides with every cleaning product I could find. Then I added a little color by painting the inserts.

You know I love paintable wallpaper. Since there wasn't enough wood filler in the world to fix the drawer fronts, I decided to use this magical invention. (Again!)

This is what it looked like after a newly sanded top, painted drawer inserts, and my own special chalk paint recipe. Click here to read about it!

Mr. Dump stained the top and added a few coats of Polyurethane.

The difference between the before and after stages were so insane that we had to take an in-between picture.

And now for the dramatic after... Here she is sitting beautifully in our foyer. Mr. Dump and Lola found the cool metal containers during a thrifting excursion while I was teaching - Thanks, guys!

No more furry creatures living here...

A close-up for your viewing pleasure...

This is the beautiful distressing on the sides of the piece.

I am officially in love! This one is going to stay with me for a very long time.

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

Denny - The Man, The Hutch

2012-10-08T21:58:00.000-04:00

Cue the music from Sanford and Son.......

Dumped and Discovered is BACK! We spent a very lovely weekend cleaning items/painting treasures/throwing out our backs, and we loved every minute of it. Yes, Lola/Laura was in town, bossing us around. Can you tell? :)

Anyway, on to the featured item. We found this beautiful art deco piece at a barn sale in DC. When I say barn sale, I really mean BARN SALE. I mean, there was a dirt road involved. And we didn't find this piece in the front. No, siree. We climbed BEHIND the front row of ~~junk~~ treasures and carefully avoided the huge hole in the floor (yes, we were warned not to go back there, but we are nothing if not rule breakers). In fact, this piece is named for the man who explicitly asked us NOT to climb back there - Denny. Ah, Denny and his glorious muffintop. Said with love, of course. We adore Denny the man, especially when he gave us Denny the hutch for $50!!!

Are some of you questioning our sanity right now? Fair enough. We may have questioned it ourselves a few times along this journey, particularly when loading and unloading this beast! But she was worth the work, as you can see below. Mr. Dump went after her with his FANCY new sprayer and some great gray paint. For all you wood purists out there, please take my word that Denny needed a little paint on the barn, if you know what I mean. Shout out to my girl Honey Boo Boo!

For those of you actually reading the words and not just looking at the pretty pictures, we asked Mr. Dump very sweetly to cut a new back for Denny and we loved the original hardware so much that we kept it. Thankfully, the gorgeous mirror on top remained intact in the trip from DC to Charlotte, so all we had to do was clean that up. We think she's a beauty!

Here she is in the booth, which has some other finds from our recent junk hunts. We hope someone takes her home and lets her live in a place with solid flooring. And no mice. We will not speak of the mice again.

As an added bonus, here's a lovely cabinet found at an estate sale in DC. Lola had the turquoise sprayer going, and I didn't want to risk getting a blue camera out of the deal, so I didn't get a before picture. Sorry, but you've never seen how reckless she is with that thing (we only let her work on the small pieces. Sad, but true.)

We made some great progress this weekend, so more projects will be shared in the weeks ahead! I'm going to try to post at least one project a week, so thanks for hanging in there until Summer Sarah returns!

Happy junkin'!

Sarah

PS Anyone want to buy some well-loved but HUGE plants? We have to evict some from the house, and thought our lovely readers might want the first shot at them. Seriously, these things are huge, but really healthy and great listeners when there's no one else in the house. Here they are, all lined up and waiting for their new homes!

Chicken Wire Hutch

2012-09-30T19:16:00.000-04:00

Life is hectic. I mean H-E-C-T-I-C. As you all know, I am a teacher in my normal life and a DIY furniture upcycler in my fantasy life. I started school 5 weeks ago and it has been the hardest start in my teaching career. I decided to loop with my class this year which ended up being a really good decision. However, learning a new curriculum and adjusting to all the newness that this year has brought has been difficult. Now my weekends are spent lesson planning, grading papers, emailing parents, (the list goes on and on...) - and NOT restoring furniture. I hope all of that is about to change. Mr. Dump and I are off to buy a new sprayer and I am ready to make time for my second passion. Since it has been 2 months since my last post (please forgive me...), I'm bringing you a project that is large and in charge! Take a look at this beauty...

Seriously... Can you say 1970s??? This piece was outdated, boring, and needed a makeover in the worst possible way.

We took all of the hardware off and removed the terrible glass.

It was a rainy day so we put blankets down in the kitchen (Sorry, Mom! That's what happens when you move out!) and painted away. It was a tight space, so Mr. Dump and I were constantly fighting over paint brushes, Cool-Whip containers of paint, and room!

This is what it looked like before I started playing with stain.

Take a look at the cabinet doors below... The one on the top has a layer of stain and the one on the bottom doesn't. Luckily, I liked the texture that the stain provided, so I decided to stain the entire piece. We used stain that had polycrylic mixed in, and it provided a really nice protective coat. Finally, I added cute red knobs, chicken wire, and put the piece back together!

Here is what the top looks like...

And this is the final transformation!

Random question... If I start a weekly linky party, would any of you link up your projects? Thoughts? Suggestions?

As always...

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

Good Grief!

2012-09-23T20:50:00.000-04:00

Let me tell you, you are some patient people. Sarah hasn't written since July 25th (!!!), and yet you continue to faithfully check her blog, hoping for more lovely transformations of furniture. In fact, there are now 500 of you following her!!! That's incredible!!!! Heck, I'm her SISTER and I've just about given up on her. You guys are incredible.

So where, you might ask, is Ms. Sarah? Contrary to popular belief, she did not get trapped under a large piece of furniture. And she did not get a big head when she appeared in Ladies' Home Journal and leave all of her fans in the dust. I do believe that she is, at this very moment, buried under a pile of 5th grade papers. Turns out, when you move from teaching the 4th grade to the 5th grade, you have to re-teach yourself all of the 5th grade stuff first! Remember that show, "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?" It was harder than you thought it would be, right?

Since School Sarah is back in action (as opposed to Summer Sarah, who we all know and love), I'm filling in this evening, just to reassure people that she hasn't suffered some kind of heinous death at the hands of her sander. Also, because I couldn't stand to read about "Blanche" any more. I'm "Lola," Sarah's big sister, and I serve as the furniture picker/sander/general nag of Dumped and Discovered. Believe me, I've been nagging her to write for WEEKS now. I promise you, she has been painting, and we have been shopping, and she WILL start to blog again soon!

In the meantime, can we ask for a favor? I know, I know. It's a lot to ask, especially when there are no pictures to this posting. But as you all know, Sarah and her fabulous husband are in the process of updating our parents' house, which involves a lot of, um, editing of stuff. We've worked through most of the house and really, really need to have a yard sale. The house, however, is pretty far off the beaten path, and it would be hurtful if no one showed up. Does anyone know of a great community yard sale coming up this fall where we can rent a space (or five?) Anywhere in the Charlotte area would be fantastic, and any chance to meet fellow Dumped and Discovered fans would be much appreciated! We are open on dates, but we would absolutely love to get rid of the ~~junk~~ treasures very soon! Let us know in the comments section if you know of a great place to peddle our wares! To be clear, it's not really Dumped and Discovered pieces that we're selling, but rather the ~~crap~~ stuff that is taking up room where Dumped and Discovered treasures should be. Let us know, and bug Sarah about blogging more, okay?

A Golden Makeover

2012-07-25T10:18:00.000-04:00

Meet Blanche. She is the tall, thin, more risque cousin to Bertha from my earlier post called The Many Shades of Gray. A little background on Blanche...

My sister (Lola) and I started an annual trip to the Chartreuse and Co. barn/yard sale in DC during the early weeks of summer. We enjoy looking at the finished pieces, but find more success in the unfinished barn. Unfortunately, this time we only found several accessories... no major furniture finds. There is a reason Lola is our number one buyer... Even though we struck out at the initial barn sale, she had her list with Plan B ready to go. We were on our way to another barn sale nearby!!! After several twists and turns (and a few "where in the world are we" moments), we drove down the gravel driveway of the sale. That's where we found this beauty sitting outside the barn with a neon pink tag that said.... Get ready for this.... $10!!! I snatched the tag off the drawer and basically threw her over my shoulder. This is what I was looking for! A great piece for a great price!

Blanche traveled down the road and back again (up top if you are now singing "Thank you for being a friend"). This Golden Girl had a little plastic surgery on her right drawer because someone took the time to rebuild it - and I'm pretty sure they hate me now for snagging her for $10. She had some wrinkles on top, but her bones were still very solid.

I mixed a bunch of grays together (I'm pretty sure the real Blanche would have preferred something a little more colorful) until I had the perfect combination...

Then I found new hardware to update her look and give her a little bling...

Now she is sitting back, kicking up her heels, and waiting for someone to bring her home - preferably a strapping young man that doesn't mind a lady with quite a past.

Come on people...Her heart is true, she's a pal and a confidant.

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

Caribbean Upcycle

2012-07-19T20:01:00.000-04:00

Mr. Dump and I were headed to the beach a few weeks ago and (like we do on every road trip) did a little junkin' on the way. It was a typical Saturday morning. Mr. Dump was at the wheel and I was sitting shotgun with my eyes peeled. With every neon pink, yellow, or green sign, my head would whip around as I grunted for Mr. Dump to stop. Depending on how much coffee I've had, we are typically by the signs before I see them. But not this time. We were sitting at a light, and there it was - the dark black arrow. "There, there!" I shouted. Side note: We were not having much luck on that particular day and I could tell that Mr. Dump was losing steam. Mr. Dump (who was also very anxious to get to the beach) screeched into the turning lane, hoping this would be our last stop. After we turned, we kept driving, and driving, and driving until finally THERE SHE WAS! This beauty was sitting in the front yard...

I HAD to have her and was out of the car before Mr. Dump came to a complete stop. I have been looking for a piece like this since we started this crazy hobby. The man running the sale was clearly ready to get out of the heat, open a cold beverage, and get his ~~junk~~ (my treasures) off his yard. After some brief haggling, we carted this around all week at the beach and brought her home. I decided to tackle this piece while Mr. Dump was at work. This is how you manage a heavy piece of furniture by yourself... (and now we all know why muscle relaxers stay in the front of my medicine cabinet!)

Her top was in pretty good shape. I had hoped to stain it, but discovered that it was covered with a layer of veneer...

She was pretty grimy from her former life by the sea, so I scrubbed her down and let the sun continue to disinfect her drawers while I went to town on the rest.

Since I couldn't stain the top, I loaded on a layer of primer to give it a little extra protection (plus she was used to wearing sunscreen)...

Then came the hard part... What color would I use??? I have been trying to use up some of the paint in our garage, so I looked at and thought about every color. None of them were good enough for this piece. I had a color in mind, and that color was not in my garage. Even though I was sweating from head to toe, I made a trip to Lowe's to find the perfect color (and hoped that I wouldn't run into anyone). The first color that I picked up was the color that I had in mind... Caribbean Splash.... PERFECT for my sunbathing beauty!

Pretty soon I was back to work... I lifted her onto the sawhorses (don't ask me how - I think it was my super-strength determination)... and painted several coats with my sprayer...

After painting the drawers, I had to decide... to distress or not to distress??

Here she is now... Perfectly blue... Perfectly distressed... and Perfectly waiting for a good home...

Her side view...

It's not the beach.... but here she is waiting patiently in our booth...

She seems quite happy with her new life...

Time to go outside and sweat!

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

Half-Bath Makeover

2012-07-12T20:14:00.000-04:00

Today, we bring you another installment of your favorite series: Bringing Mom's House into the 21st Century. We had almost the whole gang here last week. Mom and Dad came down to organize the attic and move more boxes to Virginia - which was so much fun during a heat wave in Charlotte. When they left, Laura, Mr. Dump and I were free to tackle the real projects that we wanted to tackle. Which brings us to the transformation at hand...

This is the half bathroom in the downstairs of Mom and Dad's house. Twenty or so years ago, it was lovely. Today, however, NOT SO MUCH (sorry, Mom...)!

The room is located in the center of the house, so there are no windows to let natural light shine in. It has always been a little on the dark side, and the hunter green and maroon stripes didn't help. The photo below is the result of the fabulous flash on my camera... It is much darker than this in person....

My dad installed the wallpaper shortly after the house was built. My dad is somewhat of a perfectionist and this wallpaper was meant to NEVER come down! It was a little heartbreaking to transform this room because I can still hear Dad's choice words and frustrations while making sure all of the lines connected perfectly. (I love you, Dad!)

Here are a few more shots of the bathroom before the magic happened...

Although the paper was never intended to come down, it did start to peel in a couple of spots. Therefore, we tried to steam the wallpaper off with our handy steamer - we failed. See our other bathroom transformation (where it worked) here. The picture below shows our effort and failed attempt at taking down the "I'm never coming off this friggin' wall" paper.

Needless to say, we gave up. We decided to prime the walls (over the wallpaper) with two coats of extra strength latex Kilz. Between coats, we spackled a few spots where you could see the seams. While it dried, we painted the mirror below that I just happened to have in the garage.

We stuck with a neutral color to help the room feel bigger and brighter. We added a couple of cute frames, a homemade towel rack (thanks, Mr. Dump) and voila... Here she is.... Updated and beautiful!

We left a picture that Mom had in the bathroom originally because it reminds her of her three babies - Awww... However, we did update the frame with a little spray paint. We also decided not to put the wooden shelves back in to give it a larger feel. We still need to add a light fixture, change out the faucet, and put new electrical outlets in the walls. More staging and updates to come!

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

Estate Sale Find

2012-07-11T19:46:00.000-04:00

I've been a little hesitant to write this next post... Not only do I want to keep the Ladies' Home Journal post up FOREVER, but I'm also heavily doped up on muscle relaxers - which in reality could make this quite fun. My sister was in town this week... need I say more??? We worked non-stop on Mom and Dad's house which was the culprit for the pulled muscle in my back. With that being said, I'm happy to have full functionality in my fingers to bring you lots of new projects while I sit on the couch and catch up on my daytime tv. Is anyone else a little irritated that Sami and Carrie are still fighting over the same man???

That's a terrible segue into this sweet lady... There is no drama here... Only a much needed makeover!

I found her at an estate sale in Charlotte, and she needed quite a bit of work. The top had a layer of peeling veneer that had to be taken off.

I used a hammer and a putty knife to pry it off. This took quite a bit of work, but it was totally worth it in the end.

The top still had several blemishes so I had to cover most of the top with wood filler. I go a little crazy with this stuff. It reminds me of my pre-school days of finger painting. It was everywhere!

I planned to distress the piece, but I didn't want the light wood to shine through. So... I painted all of the places where I thought I would distress with white paint.

I even did this on the drawers...

I painted the whole piece black, but didn't like the way it looked when I started to distress it.

Sooo... I mixed up my own chalk paint with a tablespoon of unsanded grout and a Cool Whip container of latex paint. (Sorry for making fun of you, Mom, for saving them for all those years!) Then, I slapped two coats on the piece.

While the paint was drying, I spray painted the hardware to give it an updated look.

This is what she looked like before I distressed her...

And here she is patiently waiting in the Sleepy Poet for a new home...

On a more serious note... Thank you so much for your sweet comments and support during the LHJ feature! You have all been so incredible during this surreal time in my life!

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

Linking up to:

LHJ: The Amazing Dresser Do-Over

2012-07-07T23:31:00.004-04:00

What do Ann Curry, an ad for chafing cream, and Dumped and Discovered have in common??? THEY ARE ALL IN THE AUGUST ISSUE OF LADIES' HOME JOURNAL!!!

I cannot believe that a business that started as a hobby has landed our little venture in the pages of a national magazine! What an honor!

It all started about a year ago when I got an email from an editor of the magazine. She found my little 'ole blog among the millions of incredible blogs out there and liked the idea of using paintable wallpaper on dressers. How funny! What we did out of necessity and peeling veneer caught the eye of people who actually know what they are doing! Over the course of several months, we discussed logistics and pinched ourselves (many, many times!). In April, a fabulous photographer named Mali Azima from Atlanta, GA visited our home and made us look like real pros. I should say, I have to give credit to Mr. Dump for buying my dress that morning (I had a little wardrobe crisis the day of the shoot), and for holding/moving the screens/lights and generally being completely patient and letting the magazine pretend this business is all about me. We all know this is a team effort!

Anyway, Mali spent the whole day staging, shopping the house for accessories, and Skyping with a stylist to get the best shots. Those pictures are on page 28 (where I am pretty sure they Photoshopped a dimple on my cheek!). The pictures on page 30, however, that show the process were all taken by Mr. Dump.

We were pretty sure the magazine would come out today, but called Barnes and Noble to confirm. The 15-year-old who doesn't know Ann Curry from Jillian Michaels (July's cover girl) assured us that it wouldn't come out for another week. When we casually stopped by Harris Teeter this evening to double check the 15-year-old's knowledge, we may or may not have done some squealing! The policeman guarding the store looked more than a little alarmed! We bought every copy they had and did cartwheels in the parking lot.

It is a big day for Dumped and Discovered and we couldn't have done it without you! Thank you for your sweet comments, encouraging words, and patience with us when the school year takes over. If you would like an autographed copy... :-)

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

Linking up to:

Dump Day: Window Obsession

2012-06-27T19:40:00.002-04:00

Dump-Day with Mr. Dump

Hello, Friends. Welcome to another installment of Dump-Day with Mr. Dump!

Mrs. Dump has a slight obsession with windows. It doesn't matter where we're shopping, what we're bidding on, or how much the price is...Mrs. Dump is going to own something with glass and a frame. Case in point: See below...

This window was purchased at Metrolina Expo, during Antique Week last spring. Mrs. Dump decided to "man up" and pay a whopping $5.00 (no...we didn't haggle)!

Most "Dump-days" feature a project that I worked on. Unfortunately, due to some small time restraints, Mrs. Dump gets the credit for this one. After her recent Waterfall Vanity was finished, Sarah had some leftover paint. Finally, she decided to makeover this window!

All that was needed was ONE coat of paint, some Windex, and little sandpaper...

Now it's ready for a great home! Get ready Sleepy Poet shoppers, this will be in the booth for your purchasing pleasure Friday morning!

Happy Dump-day (and Junkin')!

Mr. Dump

Waterfall Vanity Makeover

2012-06-26T21:35:00.001-04:00

In honor of my favorite high school tune, "Waterfalls" by TLC, I'm bringing a little TLC to this waterfall vanity.

Typically when I find furniture for a great price, there is something that needs to be hammered, wood glued, or tightened. Not this time... The only thing that this piece needed was a fresh new look and an "in your face" attitude.

The quote on top of the mirror was a little soft for Left-Eye. In an attempt to add a little gangsta flair, that was the first thing I scraped off. Although, she probably would have been happy with...

"Dreams are hopeless aspirations

In hopes of comin' true
Believe in yourself
The rest is up to me and you"

Now you are going to be singing that song all day!!! Sorry....

Through further inspection, the similarities continue. If you look closely, you'll see two different knobs... I think I like the left one better... Imagine that! I wonder what Lisa would think....

In order to "stick to the rivers and the lakes that I'm used to" I started this makeover with a nice sand-job. Pretty easy and painless.

I painted the entire piece white. This seemed a little too boring so I went over the drawer fronts with a turquoise color.

The biggest pain was covering the round mirror with rectangular pieces of tape.

After the paint dried, I roughed up the edges and added a furniture wax.

"Three letters took her to her final resting place..." DIY!

I really like how the drawers turned out. I went a little crazy with the sander, but I think that it paid off!

Mr. Dump wanted to join the photo shoot. Even he couldn't keep his eyes off her!

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

YUUUP!!!

2012-06-25T20:01:00.000-04:00

(In your best Monster Truck Voice...) Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

Most of our Sundays are spent relaxing at home, shopping casually, or painting a little because we're behind. This Sunday, however, we decided to try something new...

An AUCTION!!!!!

Being that most auctions happen on Saturday, we were SUPER surprised to see that an auction was happening only an hour and a half away. We may have a slight auction addiction to drive an hour and a half away...but TRUST me...it was TOTALLY worth it!

The auction started at 1:00 p.m and was in a small ~~sauna~~ warehouse that was located in Salisbury, NC. The second we walked in, we were surprised to see that DON was there. If you're not sure about who Don is, check out our recent post: Don's Window Box. I'm a little obsessed with Don, and I desperately wanted to get his autograph. Mr. Dump told me to play it cool and stop drooling.

Here he is reading calmly before the auction begins...

As the awe of seeing Don began to wear off, we noticed that many other dealers were walking around as well. Even though we've only just started in this business, we felt like we were rolling with the big dogs. Have we found the mother load????

They decided to auction the room of furniture first. We were lucky enough to stand behind Don, and watch him win EVERY piece of furniture that was auctioned off. Seriously!!!!! Have you seen the buildings and tractor trailers??? You have enough, Don! Leave some for the little people.

Here's Don bidding...on everything...

Here's Don's trailer after he finished with the furniture room...(this was empty when he started)

Here's our trailer after the furniture room...(okay, it's not really a trailer, it's a 4Runner)... PATHETIC!

So after the furniture room was auctioned off, Don decided to take his place back on the couch (that he bought of course). He let his posse handle the "chotchky" room (see the six pictures at the beginning of the post).

FOUR AND A HALF smelly, sweaty hours later, we added some of these items to our collection...(not pictured are five boxes of bottles, two boxes of Ball jars, three knock-off candy jars, an old lantern, and an antique wooden washboard).

All-in-all, it was another great day (even though it was a little intimidating to play with the Big Boys!).

Our title tells one of our other obsessions... Storage Wars!!! Has anyone ever bought a storage unit? We are fascinated by the idea but too scared to pull the trigger!

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

Black Beauty

2012-06-21T21:39:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I like to play a little game called "Grab it and Paint it." There's no planning, there's no fretting, there's just painting. My sister found this adorable table that desperately needed a makeover. My mom had a little black paint left over in the sprayer (yes - I've gotten my mother into this hobby too) so I sprinted to the basement and grabbed this beauty.

30 minutes later plus a knob change... And here she is... (30 minutes might be a little exaggeration... I distressed, brushed on some poly, and drooled on it a couple of times)...

Don't you LOOOOVE that beautiful window behind the table?!? More projects with that baby soon!

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

Dump Day: Don's Window Box

2012-06-20T17:27:00.002-04:00

Dump-Day with Mr. Dump

Hello, Friends. Welcome to another installment of Dump-Day with Mr. Dump! For our newest D and D followers, Dump-Day gives me, Mr. Dump, an opportunity to share a different perspective on this crazy hobby that my wife and I enjoy.

So let me tell you about a place that Sarah and I like to visit:

It's a place where hubcaps go to die...

A place where junk piles are never-ending...

A place with buildings upon buildings, full of J-U-N-K!!!!

Where radioactive trucks are something to laugh about...

We call this place Don's (revealing the real identity of this place would create competition and therefore is not allowed). Don's consists of about ten to twenty acres that are dedicated to one man's junking habits! There IS a method to his placement of product, but Sarah and I have yet to figure it out. All we know is that you have to wear long pants, boots, (next time we will wear gloves) and sometimes a hard hat. Be sure, too, that your tetanus shots are up-to-date.

~~Cline's Antiques~~... I mean.... Don's is so vast, that you can't carry around all the goodies you find. You have to put your merchandise in a pile (notice the gray coat and sunglasses claiming our turf!).

The more merchandise you have, the cheaper Don's prices tend to go. Fair warning: Don doesn't haggle. He gives you the rock-bottom price!!!! If you don't like it, he'll tell you to move on! Below is the start of our pile from our most recent trip...

We consider this a small load!!!!

We found this window box at Don's! It was already blue...which means NO PAINTING!!!! The top window was broken, so we decided to use some old materials to fill the void.

Chicken wire and Windex (what a great country song title) is all this needed!

Where else do you enjoy junkin'? We've shared our secret place, and we'd love it if you shared yours!

Now if we could only think of something cool to do with old hubcaps...

Happy Junkin'!!!!

Mr. Dump

Treasure Hunting

2012-06-19T19:11:00.000-04:00

After a weekend in DC, this is what the back of my car looks like...

And this is what comes out...

I felt a bit like Mary Poppins as I pulled and pulled more treasures out of the back. I tried to strap two trunks and two mirrors to the top of the 4Runner, but Laura said that she would junk-sit until I see her again... (Although I'm pretty sure they'll be conveniently hung and placed around her house by the weekend.)

In two days, we went to 3 barn sales, 9 thrift stores, 7 Goodwills, 1 Goodwill Outlet (yes, it does exist!), 2 yard sales, 7 estate sales, and 1 fancy store for inspiration. When the stores closed on Sunday evening, we even did a little sidewalk shopping - Monday is trash day in DC! An important lesson that I learned... If it is in the yard, it is off limits.... I'm still bummed about a door that Laura wouldn't let me take... It would have been so pretty...

I didn't have a lot of time to take pictures during our shopping experience (you wouldn't believe how feisty the DC shoppers are! - especially the feeble hoarders that we encountered). But I was able to capture this priceless moment....

Snowcones out of a food truck... YUMMY! Even dedicated thrifters have to take a break every once in a while... Be on the lookout for information on specific pieces that we found! Time to de-spider my car and clean up my treasures!

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

The Bachelorette

2012-06-17T22:57:00.000-04:00

In honor of our semi-addiction to terrible TV, this furniture transformation is brought to you by "The Bachelorette" (please don't sue us, ABC Television - we're fans!). It also has a little "Extreme Makeover" thrown in for good measure (See? We watch all of your shows!). This lovely bachelorette comes to us from Washington, DC, at an estate sale on my sister's street (talk about our picker not having to work very hard). Laura/Lola saw her in a home that was about to be gutted and renovated, and we'd like to think that our bachelorette took the same journey as the house. She's named Bernadette after the very nice man running the sale. Hey, it's hard to make "Bernard" sound feminine, okay?

Let's not pay any attention to the fact that Bernadette sat in Laura/Lola's house for a YEAR with GREEN SHRINK WRAP holding her together (a lovely look, I must say), and the house that she came from? Renovated entirely before we even cut the shrink wrap off of her! In fact, the new family in the house is probably already thinking of moving.....but we finally got to her. She was a little rough around the edges, but had distinguishing features that we knew could be brought back to life. As we often hear from our FAVORITE Monday night television drama that is in no way overexaggerated, she had a lot of love to give. And some hot tubs to try. (At least a wipedown with some warm water.)

It took a little trial and error, though, as any good dating show, er, furniture project, does. First, we tried painting her yellow, but Bernadette put up a fight (I told you she was a little rough around the edges). She went a little "West Virginia hood rat" on the yellow and bled through, almost as if her spray tan was too dark for a light color. (And if you get that reference, you might be eligible to join our club, Terrible TV Addicts Anonymous.)

So we settled on a classy gray!

Now she's gorgeous enough to jaunt around the world with multiple suitors, but she prefers life in North Carolina (so why didn't they choose any bachelors from NC?). Anyway, we'd like to think she finally handed out her final rose and settled down for good. Here she is, enjoying life in Dumped and Discovered reader April 's house. (There are even wedding pictures in her now! That's got to be a good omen for Emily, right?)

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

Chalk Paint Adventure

2012-06-15T09:53:00.002-04:00

Cooking is not my forte. Mr. Dump and I spend most of our evenings trying to decide whose turn it is to pick something up on the way home from work. We had a slight incident with a hot pan and olive oil last winter that led to this priceless photo... (Thanks, Drew! You are better than the average PhotoShop expert!)

I'll spare you the details. Anyway, someone that doesn't cook has no real need for recipes. That is... until you want to tackle a DIY chalk paint extravaganza.

I've seen information on several blogs about making your own chalk paint. I'm too cheap to pay for the real deal, so I thought that I would give it a try. Most of the recipes recommended using unsanded grout, Plaster of Paris, or Calcium Carbonate (whatever that is!) mixed with a latex paint. I decided to use the unsanded grout because I knew that it would be easy to find at my local home improvement store. I mixed a tablespoon with latex paint and went to town. Again, no real measuring going on here.

I wanted to try it on a table that I found at an estate sale. Nothing too fancy here... Just classic and simple.

Before I started painting, I sanded the table to fix some of the imperfections. I was tempted to stain the top, but I couldn't get the wood to cooperate.

I was a little lazy with the painting step (come on people, it's my second day of summer vacation! I deserve to be a little lazy) and loaded the paint into my sprayer instead of brushing it on. This caused it to be really gritty.

I used a piece of sandpaper to sand the entire piece which helped get rid of the bumps and added some beautiful distressing. I wish that I had taken a better "after" picture, but you'll have to use your imaginations. Does anyone have any suggestions for my next DIY chalk paint experience? I love the feel of the final product, but I'm not sure that it was worth it...

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

School's Out for Summer!

2012-06-14T09:44:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was officially my LAST day of school. The kids were gone on Friday, but I was there packing, cleaning, and preparing for another summer break. Last night, Mr. Dump and I went to dinner where he sweetly remarked, "I love Summer Sarah." "Fall, Winter and Spring Sarahs" were a little offended, but they totally understood what he meant. "Summer Sarah" gets to step away from lesson plans, grading papers, after school commitments, (the list could go on and on) and live stress-free for two months. I woke up this morning humming the ever popular song "School's Out" by Alice Cooper. I was tempted to load on the eyeliner and play my air guitar around the house, but decided that I had projects to share with the world! Which brings us to our first post of the summer...

We found this beauty not too long ago and LOVED the concept of this piece. She needed quite a bit of Summer Lovin' so let's begin...

Mr. Dump wanted to get in on the action so he removed the nails that were haphazardly lining the top while I got ready with the sander.

We taped off the natural wooden seat to help it look older and leave some of the original beauty in tact. After painting it a blue/green color I went to town with the sander. I love how the original black and white of the doors peeks through the distressing.

And now for her big debut...

I think that she would be lovely in an outdoor garden or in a mud room. The concept of this piece is so simple and unique. Mr. Dump has me on a door hunting mission because he wants to tackle this project from start to finish. Be on the lookout for that project to happen soon! For now, the garage is full, and it is time for me to paint!

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

A Tinkle in Time

2012-05-24T21:35:00.000-04:00

Today, we bring you another installment in your favorite series: Bringing Mom's House into the 21st Century. (Note: we are not sure this is Mom's favorite series of the blog.) Let the ridiculing begin...

This is my baby brother's bathroom. This room was decorated when Baby Brother was approximately 8 years old. It was lovely then. Well, Baby Brother is now 29 and married with a PhD and his bathroom, sadly, had not grown up with him. In fact, it was just an homage to the life of a teenage boy when my sister and I got our hands on it - old tubes of Clearasil, lots of hair gel, and disposable razors that would give you tetanus just to look at them. After a thorough cleaning out of the expired products, we were ready to start. First on the list - that hideous (it was great at the time, Mom!) wallpaper. The burgundy and hunter green stripes HAD to go.

Well, we had way too much fun taking down the wallpaper. I'm not kidding! We borrowed a steamer from some friends and went to town. We eventually learned better ways of taking down wallpaper (adding fabric softener to the water, working on one section at a time, not taking so many Days of Our Lives breaks...), but with some music and a couple of scrapers, we had it down in a few hours. Maybe it was the fumes from the 20-year-old glue (or the occasional adult beverage), but it was pretty painless!

IMPORTANT NOTE - I should have started out with this, but I'm too lazy to go back and edit now. As you may guess, these posts are not professionally edited. Anyway, we wanted to do this room on an EXTREME budget, as with the other rooms in my mom's house. We were on our own little HGTV show, trying to making HUGE improvements with mere pennies, so you won't find extravagant splurges in this room. We're staging this home for an eventual sale, so we're keeping things pretty neutral and basic. Anyone that doesn't like the outcome is MORE than welcome to buy the house and put their own touch on it! To the lady who said, "YOUR POOR MOTHER!" in response to our dining room makeover - you're not going to like this one either. Sorry.

Back to our regularly scheduled program. After the wallpaper was down, we painted the room a lovely tan color that we think was named Almond Toast or Toasted Almond or Almond Joy. Something like that. We knew we didn't want to do Jazzercise in front of the giant, builder-grade mirror, so we wrestled it to the ground and donated it to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore (note: most H4H Restores don't want these mirrors, but we asked ahead of time, and they had a customer looking for them so that he could set up a gym. Score! Someone WILL be Jazzercising in front of it!) My mom got into the act (she gets on board when there is shopping to be done), and found a lovely bronze-framed mirror at HomeGoods to replace it. We also found a bronze-y light fixture, a new faucet, towel bars, and a shower rod, mostly at our local home improvement store. New knobs to replace the old brass ones, some Old English on the oak cabinets, and some accessorizing (read: stealing things from other parts of the house), and we were done!

We all love the results! You would never know a sarcastic, mischievous little boy once spiked his hair in this room. It's finally fit for the PhD that he is...even if none of the rest of us understand what he does, exactly.

Happy Junkin'!
Sarah

T-H-I-R-T-Y

2012-04-08T22:00:00.001-04:00

Spring ~~Break~~ Work is over. Turns out you can work just as hard during Spring Break as you do during the days school is in session! My sister and I employed the newly-minted "Grab It and Paint It" method of furniture renovation this week, and, boy, was there ever some paint slingin' goin' on! We each had a sprayer and we did not waste any time. Instead of deliberating on each piece of furniture and having endless discussions about what color/finish/detailing would be optimal for each one, we just went for it. And it was successful! We painted 30, yes 30, pieces of furniture, and countless accessories between Sunday and Thursday. Most days, we were painting by 8:30 a.m. (much earlier than my sister wanted to start) and Mr. Dump had to drag us inside for dinner every night at 7 p.m.) We barely took lunch breaks and didn't watch one minute of trashy daytime television - if you had told me a couple of years ago that I would work this hard on my breaks, I would have said you were crazy! On Friday, we spent most of the day pricing and moving the newly finished pieces to The Sleepy Poet, and we shopped to fill the almost-empty garage on Saturday and Sunday. We're exhausted!

Cheering us on through these marathon days was our unofficial mascot - a giant painting of Hank Williams, Jr. that we found in the garage. Turns out, when you shove a garage full of stuff and forget completely what is in there for six months or so, Hank shows up! (This is not an endorsement of Hank or his music - he was a freebie during a furniture swap.) Don't judge us!

The word of the week was "funky" (as in, "Should we paint this gray or be funky?" "Definitely funky!!") and we chose some wild colors! It's Spring at last for Dumped and Discovered! Take a look at all the turquoise, green, and "raspberry" going on in my "Warehouse" below!

Yes, that is the dining room that we slaved over a few weeks ago, now remodeled again into a storage facility for the prettiest furniture you've ever seen, if I do say so myself. We took THREE carloads of stuff to the Poet (one of the "cars" is a truck, another is an SUV and the third is my sister's magical Honda that holds more than the other two combined, she swears). All of the furniture in the Warehouse is awaiting its trip to the Poet, and this is the first time I've been this far ahead since we started this endeavor. I'm loving it!

Here's a picture of the goodies that made the trip to the Poet this week - you'll be hearing more about individual pieces as soon as I get some energy to tell you about them! For now, we're heading to bed at 9:30 p.m. for the seventh night in a row. We were party animals this Spring Break!

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

Happy Spring Break!

2012-04-02T09:08:00.000-04:00

Here we go! Laura is in town and we are on a painting frenzy! We spent our first day together yard sale shopping (in the rain) and ended up with these treasures:

Total Spent: $146.50

Side Note: If you call it a "Multi-Family Yard Sale" this implies that there are multiple families involved in selling their treasures - NOT that there are multiple family members living in the same household. MEGA DISAPPOINTMENT! (although they did have some pretty nice rims that we considered for Laura's car...)

Yesterday we painted two end tables, a coffee table, two mirrors and a few odds 'n ends!

Now I'm watching Laura pop Advil like it's candy and then we're ready for Round Two! Lots of "Before and Afters" coming soon!

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

Hey, Mr. Deejay...

2012-03-18T17:15:00.000-04:00

We all have this problem, right? Old technology taking up room in your house? Well, I can't say my old Walkman is taking up THAT much room, but apparently, the lovely radio cabinet was just gathering dust in someone's house, so my sister made its acquaintance at a yard sale in Maryland. Note to the reader - it was a yard sale hosted by three dudes, which are our favorite kind. Speaking stereotypically, of course, dudes have yard sales to GET. RID. OF. STUFF. They'll practically give the stuff away, if only to avoid taking it back to the basement! Consequently, this beauty was $5!!!!!!!

Now, she did have to suffer a little indignity to get back to my sister's house. Dumped and Discovered really needs to buy her a truck......

Originally, apparently, this fine piece of furniture was a radio cabinet. When iPods kicked vinyl to the curb, a lot of these fabulous pieces lost their purpose in life. Enter Dumped and Discovered to the rescue! We live to give new purpose in life to furniture that has absolutely given up. First, a name. In honor of her extensive musical history (she's no spring chicken, but she has GREAT style), we'll call her Madonna. Now, Madonna showed up backless (not shocking), but we can fix that easily. After getting a piece of plywood cut at the hardware store to cover up her back (backless doesn't always work in the daytime), we were ready to go.

First, we gave Madonna a nice, clean coat of white. Sadly, all those years of tanning showed through the white paint - you simply cannot cover that many years of sun abuse. She didn't really look "Like a Virgin" with all those brown stains showing through. Time for Plan B. As you astute readers may have noticed, Plan B is almost ALWAYS covering with a coat of gray. Shocking. Since Madonna's beauty comes from her life experiences (and lots of hours in the gym), it just didn't look right to leave her all pristine and perfect. Out came the sandpaper - we distressed all of the lovely details to give the piece some dimension and a sense of her history. I'm sure those guns on the real Material Girl's arms are helped by a little shading and shadowing, right? Please tell me that's the case? Like when morning television taught me how to create a six-pack with just a little bronzer? Anyway, I digress. The original coat of white paint shows through beautifully, and she's ready to take on her new life as.......a bar, of course! Because Madonna may not be spinning vinyl anymore, but she still likes to party.......

Happy Junkin'!
Sarah

The Many Shades of Gray

2012-02-18T18:11:00.000-05:00

It is incredible to see what people get rid of. I have the total opposite problem. I wouldn't say that I'm a hoarder, but please don't EVER look in my garage. Someone gave this beauty up to the Salvation Army in Washington, D.C. I snatched her up as quickly as I could.

Let's call her Bertha. She's a little wide in the hips, but her overall character is to die for.

Some people get writer's block. I get painter's block. I couldn't figure out what color to use today. Bertha deserved something spectacular and I couldn't decide on a color that would suit her perfectly. Yellow seemed too bright. Blue felt a little depressing. White was too boring. I kept grabbing paint cans. (Again, no hoarding here, but I looked through all 37 cans in my garage.) FINALLY, I decided on gray.

However, there was one slight problem... I didn't have enough of ONE gray, so I had to get creative with my mixing skills. Did you know that gray + gray + gray = GRAY??? Might have to teach that one to my fourth graders. I mixed the two lighter grays together and then poured a darker gray into the combo until I had the perfect shade. While I was pouring, I had another idea - this one will be shared in a minute - I don't want to ruin the surprise!

Bertha is already feeling sexier with her new and improved look.

Ready for the surprise? Wait for it... Okay... It's not that big of a surprise, but while we were pouring the darker gray into the lighter grays, I had a vision. I wondered what Bertha would look like with her drawers painted the darker gray. Her larger drawers were very plain, so I thought that this would give Bertha a little POP!

I couldn't get one of the drawer pulls off because the screw was stripped, so I decided to just paint over them. Nifty little trick on knobs... Screw them into the bottom of a box to help you paint them all the way around. This gives them a chance to dry without messing up the edges.

Here is the new and improved Bertha -

And now she's officially ready for her close-up.

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

Dump Day: Paintable Wallpaper

2012-02-15T07:30:00.004-05:00

Like chicken wire, paintable wallpaper is extremely versatile! Before, we've used it mainly on furniture. In fact, a little birdie told me that a certain famous magazine may be featuring one of our wallpaper pieces (more details SOON)!!!! What! What! (and BOOM goes the dynamite).

Here are the two pieces that we've done previously with paintable wallpaper.

Now that you've caught your breath and changed pants, I'd like to expose you to our latest project...the wallpaper window

Here is what the window looked like before - plain, old and BORING!

I simply laid the wallpaper behind the window. Notice that it took two strips to cover the entire window. Therefore, I had to make sure the two pieces met along the middle of the window.

While Sarah had the yellow paint out for her trunk, I grabbed the sprayer, and doused the wallpaper (2 coats please). After it dried, I went a little staple gun Crae Crae (isn't that how kids say crazy these days...whatever happened to Fo Shizzle?). Once I was done with the staples, my job was done!!! Remember - I'm a laborer not a decorator! Here is Sarah's "touch"...

Don't you just love the way the texture of the wallpaper shows through the glass?!?!

Happy Junkin'!

Mr. Dump

All You Need Is Love (and White Paint)

2012-02-11T18:07:00.000-05:00

Hello, Junkers!

In an effort to keep up with the rest of the blogging world, I too am here to bring you a little Valentine's Day inspiration. I would like to show you how we celebrate...Dumped and Discovered style!!!

The theme for our celebration is...

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

(and white paint)

We inherited these end tables from Mr. Dump's parents. They inherited them from a friend, who inherited them from a friend, who inherited them from another friend....and so on! The main point being that they were FREE!!!!!!! (insert happy music here) What screams LOVE more than FREE?!?!?

They had character and were in GREAT shape!!! Unfortunately, we don't get along well with "great shape" and had to rough them up a bit. We took some sandpaper (120 grit) and lightly sanded these babies. Next we added some white paint (2 coats)...and VIOLA!!!! LOVE!!!!!

Don't worry...we aren't using them like this...

After the paint dried, we took the same 120 grit sandpaper and kissed (another Valentine's word) the edges with them! This project was EASY-PEAZY!!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day...and Junkin'!!!

Sarah