Trash to Shabby Chic Treasure

Oooh how I love this turn out!!!

2011-05-06T10:05:00.002-07:00

I found this curio coffee table on CL. It was cheap and the money was going to a good cause. The family has adopted 3 Ethiopian boys that live in orphanages. They could not bring them to the US, because they were teens. So they provide them with books, food, clothes and donate to the whole town. Last time they flew 250 lbs of supplies with them on their visit.

Anyway they were selling stuff and getting donations of stuff to sell to afford another trip, and this adorable coffee table was one of them.

The Before...

It was a light to medium stain and had a hunter green velvet liner in the drawer and the whole inside of the drawer was painted hunter green, YUCK!

I seriously can not stand hunter green. It is about the only color in the world I truly despise. I have no idea why, I was on the Hunter Green & Cranberry bandwagon 15 yrs ago like everyone else.

One day I just hated it. I even would pass up a good deal on a car if it were hunter green.

Get Ready!!!

Here is the after...

Master Bedroom Nightstands

2011-05-02T21:08:00.001-07:00

Remember a while ago I said I had purchased these beautiful nightstands/end tables from Homemade Home

There are so beautiful, very detailed and were such a great deal!!!

I finally got around to staining them cherry to match my sleigh bed & armoire.

Here are the before pics...

You can see around all the detail was a greyish glaze, the stain was a medium brown w/ orange tones.

Here is the after...

Before... and After...

Check out the sneak peek tab for what's coming up next! I am so excited for this one!!!

End Table

2011-05-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

After taking a few weeks off, I finally got a lot of projects completed over the weekend.

First up is the end table for my guest room. I got it for $10 (from the dog lady). It had scratches all over it, lots of wood filler was used :)

Here are the before pics...

And here is the after...

The bottom shelf is a dust collector, it was windy here yesterday and no matter how much I cleaned it, 2 seconds later it was dirty again

Haha, the one disadvantage to living in the Valley of the Sun, you can't get a good pic of something black with it always being sunny ;)

Wow what a busy week!

2011-04-12T20:30:00.008-07:00

Figures I get my blog all set and then get too busy to put any new posts on it. LOL that is just what happened too...

So I wanted to at least get something on here quick.

We decided last Mother's Day to do a "really made from the heart" type present for my Mom-in-Law and my Grandmother (who is my biggest role model and just turned 90).

They are both the type that are so hard to buy for and I had millions of ideas wondering in my head, including sending them Edible Arrangements (which are in my opinion way too expensive). But the concept is a wonderful idea.

So I got brave and I said to Kayla (my 16 yr old daughter) we should make them edible arrangements ourselves!

Off to Walmart we went for some supplies. I found a box of 101 peice set of various plastic cookie cutters around 10 bucks, bought some wooden skewers ($1), assorted colored tissue paper ($1), 2 curly ribbons ($2), 2 small flower pots ($6), 2 flower foam blocks ($3), white & brown chocolate melts ($5) and the fruit was probably the most expensive part (probably about $25).

This one is my grandmother's

And this is my Mom-in-Laws

If you look close, you can see we spelled MOM out of fruit!

We had so much fun with these, and I got some great bonding time in with my daughters ;) especially with all the chocolate covered strawberries taste testing, that was very necessary!!!

The BIG Reveal...

2011-04-06T22:07:00.002-07:00

This is the project that took the most time.

Remember my oldest daughter's new dresser & mirror for $25 with all the dog scratches ? Well the same women who sold them is getting ready to move out of state and had shown me all she was selling. As soon as she said I have a French Provincial writing desk, I knew I wanted it, then I saw it and fell in love. I couldn't fit anything else in my SUV that night. So I promised her I would be back for the various things I wanted.

I actually dreamed about this desk that night. She wasn't sure if it was an antique, but thought it was possibly and it did have a little water damage with some of the blonde stain peeling.

I am so excited about it's reveal!!!!

And here is the before

Get ready.... Here is the after!!!

See below, that crooked detail on the scroll part of the pull. That was already like that, I didn't remove the them because I was going to paint them and they were nailed on and when it was all yellow I didn't notice it was made crooked...

I finally charged my camera's batteries but took these pics at night. I think I will retake them today, the flash takes away from the detail.

Ok here it is without flash...

Oh I forgot to mention, I believe this is an antique. It is made by American Drew and has a Barker Bros. quality inspection sticker. Barker Bros. was once the largest furniture dealer based out of LA and went out of business in 1992. They started in 1881 and American drew started in 1929. So I have a feeling by the construction this is very old.

My son's new headboard

2011-04-06T13:40:00.001-07:00

Every time I leave my house, I pass a beautiful house that has its poor driveway full of junk. The owners would have yard sales on some weekends (that's what all the junk was collected for), but I was always too busy to stop. Well lucky me, they decided to clear out their junk and not sell anymore and were having their yard sale everyday. I found this fairly new full size headboard, it was filthy with dust but in overall good condition (only a few scratches) and the best part... ONLY 2 BUCKS!!! That right $2.00...

The before... It was really dusty and had some scratches and was a dark cherry color...

My youngest daughter's TV stand

2011-04-06T11:07:00.005-07:00

This cute little table? buffet? or whatever it is also from the same woman as the dresser and writing desk...

It was pretty scratched up from the dogs, but I loved the character and it said take me home! This will be my lil 4 yr old daughters TV stand...

This was in pretty bad shape and took lots of wood filler and sanding but she turned out great :)

Here is the before...

And the after...

My oldest daughter's new bedroom - Part 2...

2011-03-28T20:45:00.006-07:00

Next up is the dresser and mirror. It was pretty scratched up from dogs, even the wood on the top of the mirror, they are some really talented dogs ;-). The mirror was fine though, so still puzzled on that.

The good news is it cost $25 for both and it was pretty old (I am thinking 70's - 80's) & super sturdy, solid wood, dovetail drawers and has a weaved type design that inspired the beauty it would become.

Here is the before...

You can see the scratches on the top of the dresser...

Those pulls had to go and of coarse they were some odd size that required wood putty/sanding and drilling new holes for the new pulls...

Did I mention this was our first furniture re-finishing adventure??? haha it actually turned out great, beginners luck!

You can barely see the scratches on the mirror due to pic quality, they are mostly on the left...

And here is the after...

The pulls match the pull on the nightstand... They have what looks almost like angel wings, and that same look is on the mirror's applique plus my daughter has a thing for wings so they were perfect and CHEAP! at Home Depot...

This is the mirror before I aged the applique...

After aging...

Eventually I will get brave enough to glaze it maybe, but it looks great for now...

My oldest daughter's new bedroom...

2011-03-26T23:54:00.005-07:00

Well good ol' Craigslist is my go to place to find great deals, since I never can seem to get myself out of the house before noon on the weekends to get to all the yard sales around here. And they all seem to shut down at noon, I am lucky to ever find one that stays open until 4pm, which is more realistic for me to actual get to it.

2 weeks ago my search began...

First thing I found was 2 Antique matching twin beds. They included headboards/footboard w/rails all made of solid wood and they came with a matching nightstand. I only needed one bed but it was a package deal and they had great detail (I envisioned a great outcome). It was only $50 bucks for it all....

They actually look pretty good in this pic, but in reality they were a bit banged up and scratched

I bought white satin paint that is Acrylic Latex Enamel (I have no idea what was best but I figured if it has all three that should hold up pretty good, lol...). I bought some wood filler, and white primer/stainblocker.

And off to work we (my hubby and I) went... We did everything by hand, painting, sanding. I did all the sanding since I am the one with the magic touch ;)

We love how cute this nightstand is...

My daughter loves her new heart shaped crystal knob, it's so cute!

And here is the bed... The before again...

And the after...

I bought wooden appliques at home depot... While I had some stain out from another project I rubbed some on from a lightly stained rag to give an aged effect to the applique.

I just took the pics with my phone camera and they don't do justice... not so great quality, I will someday (not be so lazy) and charge my camera's batteries...

My newest adventure...

2011-03-26T23:10:00.002-07:00

Welcome to my blog.

I have known blogging is a big thing for a while now, but never seem to find the time to do it. I figure I can't be the only busy person out there and if everyone else finds the time so can I. And here I am :)

I decided after going through a ton of "a LOT to deal with stuff" over the last month, to do something to keep my mind busy and have some enjoyment.

That something is replace all my particle board/pressed wood furniture with good quality (mostly old) furniture that was made with pride and REAL WOOD!

Of coarse my budget doesn't allow me to spend a ton on furniture (and my nature is I have to get something as cheap as can be and will search to the ends of the earth to find it the cheapest but with great quality as well).

So, I went to Craigslist to start my new adventure and will be sharing with you all the great deal's I have found and the before and after pics of me Shabby Chic'ing them.

Hope you enjoy, Jenn