Locker Mania

Oh, Goodwill! Just when I'm ready to break up with you , you surprise me with something cool..

I have been a smidge irritated with Goodwill for months now. It seems "they" got wind of the whole "refinishing crappy furniture to look cool again" trend, and "they" have been hiking their prices up so much that I hardly went there anymore.

Lucky for me ( and "them"... I used to be a frequent customer, after all),  my daughter started going for Occupational Therapy at a therapist right behind a Goodwill. So what's a girl to do when she's checked her e-mail  and Facebook  and Pinterest and Offer Up  and Craigslist , and it's still more than half an hour before her child gets done at the OT?  Go browse in Goodwill, of course.

I have been drooling over the industrial style lockers on Pinterest, but whenever I saw any on Craigslist or OfferUp, they were way more than what I was willing to pay. So, great was my excitement when I saw this cabinet there!

I know, it doesn't come close to a real locker, but I was convinced I could work with it. Especially when I saw the price! $14.99 , plus I had my 20% off coupon! SOLD to me!!!

When I got home I soon realized that I would need a lot of paint stripper. The top layer boring white paint was just regular paint, but the original paint was almost like plastic..yuck!

Luckily I was not planning on stripping all of the paint off. The idea was to leave some on, for the layers of peeling paint look.

I recently discovered that Jo-Anne's and Michaels also stock chalk paint.
I got this one at Michaels for $9.99 less 50% with my coupon. Score!!

I painted it on unevenly, with some of the nice, rusted steel parts and some white paint still showing. Sanding with 150 grit sandpaper and applying this wax, gave it a smooth, silky feel.

               

                                                                                     .

                         

I love how it turned out!

Oh ya! And check out the numbers on the "locker " doors!

I also replaced the boring hardware with this . Just a very shiny lock thingy from Lowe's, spray painted black and then painted over with the same paint I used on the cabinet. I didn't worry about the two extra holes from the old hardware. I think it adds to the industrial look.

Had to enlist Hubby's help to add metal castors (ordered on Amazon) at the bottom.

 

I was at first planning on selling this , but now, of course, I can't get myself to part with it.
For the time being, it will serve as my liquor cabinet...

What do you think? Any other ideas for where to use it?

                                                                                     

                                                            Love,

                                                    

Pop Art Side Table

This is a time for celebrating...whether you are religious or not. Most of us associate the Holidays with seeing loved ones, families getting together, having fun, making memories, etc etc. Why then, is everybody so miserable and impatient and stressed out? Isn't this supposed to be a happy time?

I have a theory about that. What makes us miserable this time of year, is expectations. We are told by the media that this time should be and look a certain way. Happy families smiling in the warm glow of crackling fires, perfect little children with cute outfits playing sweetly together, the smell of good food wafting in from the kitchen, loads of presents under a perfectly decorated tree.....
The truth is that most of our realities are very different from that. And so we start to strive for that picture perfect Christmas .. And if we fail, we strive harder, and become unhappy and stressed out. And what was supposed to be a festive time, becomes the time of year with the highest suicide rate, stress and huge credit card bills.
Maybe we should just relax, and appreciate our own reality for what it is.See the blessings in the little things. Appreciate the people that are with us, instead of being resentful for the one's that are not.
 Maybe we can even reach out and be a blessing to someone else....
Maybe this is my advice to myself, since Christmas started to become such a burden  having to spend it without family since my husband and I moved to the US 10 years ago....
Maybe I will take my own advice and just be happy  this Christmas.

ALRIGHTY THEN!  Enough talking...


Check out this ultra cool little side table I painted a while back. I am sooo stoked about it.  I loved doing it so much, I just want to make more. Even though it's not selling. Go figure. Probably not everyone's cup of tea.

My friend bought me this at a garage sale for $3

I painted the body black, and did this Roy Lichtenstein pop art on the front.

I used my trusted projector to do the drawing.

I googled the image. Funny how I always think I have an original idea, but when I start to google it, I discover that some one else has done it already! I found a lot of cool pop art furniture online.

At first I was thinking of putting something humorous in the thought bubble.

Something like: " I wanted Chick-A_Fillet, but it's Sunday..." 

or any of those First World Problems, but I eventually just went with the original saying, which was:" that's the way it was supposed to happen, but now its hopeless!"

Unfortunately I did not take another pic after I wrote the quote in, before I took the table to the consignment store. 

So, there it is! Hope you love it as much as I do!

Happy Thrifting and (Truly) Happy Christmas !

Joining these parties:

http://diyshowoff.com

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBcWCmIa_bPEOtSNqlHzVSgihMsdZjbab5Zy8TVkD1dIkmNjm2oNmA07gHa913JkXRzui_SQHnxCRsEe9vaDz303Ht0ciNkBsfpJZ0uTGWFOLa_xTWmjjqbHLGJseCosrKo39wIvhQpDc3/s220/nestwegg2.jpg

Got Sewing Machine?

I have had this little sewing cabinet a few years now. I actually used it just like this, while planning on painting it for myself later.

 In the mean time I found another, bigger sewing desk, not as cute and antique-looking, but more suited for my needs, so I decided to paint this one to sell in our booth at The Brass Armadillo Antique Mall in Goodyear .

It was actually in a good condition, with some superficial scratches and marks.

Nothing that could not be fixed with some light sanding and paint.

Since my discovery of home-made chalk paint, I almost never do any heavy sanding anymore. Not when I want to paint over the surface anyway. 

This is it after some light sanding and a off-white base coat of chalk paint.

(yes, I'm painting in my family room...too hot in Phoenix this time of the year. But it is an old carpet remnant on top of my regular carpet, so I am being careful...)

For the top coat , I mixed in a small amount of blue. I kept the original hardware, just spray painted it black. The rest of the hinges I just painted over...I liked the look.

 Isn't she gorgeous? 

 So many extra little drawers and cool storage ..

 I almost regret selling her now..

Have a lovely week, and happy thrifting!

Love,

Suzanne

Joining these:

  </ a>

Summer Projects part 2

Here's some more items I transformed while on vacation in South Africa...

This is a beautiful drawer chest that my sis bought years ago from an old clothing store in town that closed down.

I encouraged her back then to get it, because it is so cool...even as is.

That's the way she kept it for years, until my visit recently , and "we" decided it needed a make-over.

She wanted the multi-layered green and red painted look, so , this is what I did.

It was so quick and easy...light sanding, no primer, and just patches of green and red paint applied with a brush. Some sanding afterwards, rubbing with a little bit of my secret ingredient (brown shoe polish...shhhhh) , and there she was...

exciting and new, and once again the focus of the room.

I love it!

Happy painting!

Love,

                                                    Joining these parties:




            

Summer Projects:

Hi Everyone!

I know I have been MIA for a while now, but I have a good reason. I visited my home country and family in South Africa. For ten whole weeks! That's right, 10! But just in case you thought I just sat on my behind and sipped wine, you are wrong...
Some days I sat on my behind and sipped wine, and other days I transformed furniture and sipped wine.... so there!
Yep! My sisters made me earn my keep... (but you know I did not complain about saving old, neglected furniture from the dump!)

Look at this piece for instance: was once a built in kitchen cabinet, then stuck in the laundry, and eventually in the garage, where, as you can see, it had been used as a handyman table.

Old Built in Transformed to house a Stereo

My sister needed a place for one of her twin 16 year old sons' stereo, so we went to work on it. I liked the look of the sanded wood on top, so we just sanded it thoroughly (with NO palm sander available, I might add), and waxed it. We painted the body with homemade black chalk paint, and wiped a little brown stain over it, to give some depth to the mat black color.  After distressing the edges, and  adding wheels and funky hardware, this piece was transformed into a very cool, industrial look entertainment center any teenage boy can be proud of.

Don't you agree? And yes, I know the handles are different sizes. And no, it was not on purpose, OK? After we had drilled the holes and attached them, we stood back proudly to view our handy work, and  broke out in hysterical giggles when we realized our  mistake....
Then we decided to just pretend it was meant to be that way.

Old Bathroom Cabinet transformed

This little cabinet was brought home from the farm, and was stuck in storage for forever.

We had specific  plans for it, but it knew better....

When we started to sand it down, all these lovely layers, added through the years, were uncovered.

Then we realized that the door was not real wood, but supa wood...and, soon after, while I was sanding my heart out, the door fell open, slammed on the ground, and the mirror broke. This is when we decided to just go ahead and take the door off.

The lovely blue color on the inside, was left just as is...

..and just check out all the wonderful old layers...blue, green, yellow and white.

We did not bring a paintbrush near it..this look was achieved just by sanding!

It is going up as a shelf in her powder room.

Love it!

See ya soon with more Summer projects!

I am joining these parties


Metamorphasis Monday

Ugly Credenza gets a Make-over

Hi There!

And so my oldest baby got married last Saturday... he looked so handsome and grown-up! This is a picture of me and him,

 and this one of him and his beautiful bride. It was a really private and sweet ceremony.
I know they will be happy and successful.

Today I am sharing with you my most favorite of projects so far... or do I say that every time? I guess that means I love what I do, right?
I bought this credenza, or buffet, on craigslist, looking very sad with a "most unfortunate" paint job...
But, I loved its lines, and only learned after that this is typical a mid-century piece.

It stayed at my front door for quite some time, waiting its turn to get an "extreme make-over".
Of course I forgot to take a before picture.....( have decided to take pics of the pieces as I purchase them, so as not to have this "particular" problem again...We'll see how that goes...)

At least I can show you what the two discarded drawers looked like...and that is a pretty good indication of the state of the rest of the piece. Bad, gloss black paint finish, with drip marks and peeling paint (not the nice kind, either) everywhere. These two drawers did not fit snugly, as a result of some swelling, or slight warping? I don't know, but they seemed too big for the space.
So, thanks to many other bloggers before me who have paved the way, I knew that I could just leave them out, and turn the empty spaces into shelves.

I had a completely different plan for this piece, but when I started sanding and saw the beautiful wood tone underneath , I changed my mind. (I think its actually just really thick veneer, but it still had a lovely warm tone.)

The doors had a sweet little black line in the wood, which I thought deserved a second chance to shine. So I sanded them down, and stained them a beautiful warm tone. Along with new hardware, they look awesome, don't you think?
I did the same with the top, but then painted a checkered black and wood pattern on it.

The drawers got a reverse stencil of 1,2,3, with numbers I printed off the computer, cut out, and sprayed with spray on glue.

The shelves on the bottom are now ideal for a DVR, or displaying of your favorite crockery.

I took this one to our booth at Armadillo Antique mall, Goodyear, and it sold within 24 hours!
I would have liked to keep it myself, too!
Now I have to get painting to get stuff in the booth before I leave for South Africa for two whole months.....    


                  Love,