A Great "Get It Done" Weekend

What a weekend!

While I was out shopping on Saturday, my husband worked on our taxes. When we returned home from the shopping trip, we sat down and finished up the taxes that night. You've got to love TurboTax!

Now let me tell you, I have NEVER done my taxes this early, NEVER. Believe me, I've been filing taxes for a very long time.

Best part? After getting bad news for the last several years, we finally got GOOD news. What a great feeling.

We also put some finishing touches on this great project.

I found this really OLD cabinet many months ago. It looks like it was some kind of an upper cabinet with lots of great cubbies and drawers.

We reinforced the bottom of the cabinet and added some old furniture legs to lift it up just a bit.

It was scrubbed and scrubbed. Then we added some Feed n Wax.

We decided to leave it with it's original chippy blue paint. It has so much character.

We think it will make a great statement piece for someone.

Maybe an entry way table or a storage piece in a family room?

Now for some of the finds..

There was a battery operated clock inside the case. We took it out and plan to use it for a great shadow box...What kind of treasure would look great displayed in this beautiful case?

We visited a new thrift store and found these chairs.
How is this for a great "before" shot?

They look at little sad now, but just wait until you see what we are going to do with them.
They are solid and very heavy.

Then there is this funny square table with two drawers.

We plan to add legs to this and make it a very chic square coffee table..

Stay tuned for some "after" shots of this very soon.

We found this with the help of Craig (craigslist, that is).

A Duncan Phyfe table and four chairs.

YEP, it's in need of some major love and quite a project.

We love a challenge.

This sweet dresser show as a whole lot of potential...don't you think?

and last, but not least, this funky little file cabinet with some great lines and attitude.

Lots of great finds this weekend.

A great way to end the moth of January.

Can't wait to share some of these projects when they are done.

Here's to a great week and a good start to February.

Mirror Makeover

Linking up to Miss Mustard Seed's Copy Me Contest.

I'm sorry I don't have any before shots of this mirror.

I think you can picture it.

A large "over a dresser" mirror. Probably at least 50 years old. Done in maple.

Heavy, I mean really heavy.

We picked it up at a sale.

We transformed it with a new paint technique.

Inspired by the always amazing Marian at Miss Mustard Seed,
we started with a coat of creamy white paint.

Then we added some French Grey (Behr) to the piece. We also added a great light blue (I believe it is Beach House by Benjamin Moore).

After that we used Marian's special "recipe" for glaze.

Start with the Ralph Lauren f aux glaze and have it tinted with Behr's Espresso Bean.

We used a toothbrush dipped in glaze to get into the details of the carved portion of the mirror.

The results were truly amazing.

We can't wait to use the very same treatment on a china hutch that is sitting in our work area now.

Note to self: TAKE BEFORE SHOTS as soon as we bring new pieces home.

Don't you just love the results of this technique?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend blog friends.

I'm linking up to Kelli's Restore It Wednesday with this one.

Hop on over to see some great projects.

A Fashion Find

This is definitely NOT a fashion blog.

Don't get me wrong--I like fashion as much as the next girl.

But, these days I spend about 90% of my time in "work clothes". Working in the garage on furniture, or in the garden and just plain getting dirty.

I do clean up once in awhile and enjoy it when I do.

On Saturday we were at an estate sale.

I found this camel wool coat. It is really nice and turns out it fit me perfectly.

So...I found a fashion find among all the furniture finds.

I've never owned a camel coat...So this is my first and I love the black lapel detail.

Very chic and a bit vintage.

Love that.

Had to put her on the dress form we found the other day while treasure hunting....

Then I had to put a few pieces of my favorite jewelry on her.

One more quick project...

My daughter got a phone for Christmas.

She was very happy.

Now she has several electronics that need to be charged.

She wanted a small table in her room. I found this little one. Painted the hardware cream and lined the drawers with some leftover fabric.

Painted a wood charging station cream and put some fabric where the felt was.

Now she's happy and I'm happy.

She can stash her extra batteries and cord inside the drawers rather than all over her room (I hope).

Hope your week is going well and I'll check in with you all in a few days...

Little Lamp Makeover

Welcome to a new week...

This morning was a nice one. Kids off to school, some time with my laptop without interruptions, no working in the cold garage, and this little lamp makeover.

We found this cute little lamp. What's so nice about it is that the base is wood. Sorry I didn't take any before shots.

We painted it cream, distressed it a bit, added a little mocha glaze...

The shade that came with it was in good shape and a nice style. I used some leftover blue and white floral from a chair reupholster.

We also found this great bead trim at Wal-Mart. It has sticky side and is super easy to apply to the edge.

It comes in several colors and I think it's pretty new (I haven't seen it before and I'm always in the trim department there).

I just added a little seam binding in a coordinating color to the top edge to finish it off.
Cute!

We will definitely be on the lookout for some more of these wood base lamps...very versatile!

Hope your week is off to a great start and you can finish a little project or two.

Treasure Hunting Picker Style

Is there anything more fun that the hunt...the pick...the find?

Isn't that really what makes people like us want to do what we do?

We love to "rescue" pieces and give them a new life..a new look...a new place to be happy.

I have to share these fun little architectural elements that Diane has been working on .

We "picked" these old furniture legs at a really great yard sale several months ago. They've been in the garage collecting dust from all the sanding that goes on there.

Now look at them!

Painted...embellished...given a foundation...prettied up and a one-of-a-kind accent is born!

Fabulous!

Don't discount this kind of thing while you are out treasure hunting. Although you may not know at the time what they will be--it WILL come to you eventually.

Yesterday we took a road trip.

Drove about two hours to pick up these two beauties..

We had a response from one of our craigslist ads.

Yep, we are looking for old doors. Remember.."ask and you shall receive".

Got a call a few days ago. Put the address in the GPS. Drove up to the house. Followed the lady into the shed. Dug out these two doors from the dirt and dust. Lifted them out and put them in the van.

They had been removed from their almost 100 year old house quite awhile ago.

There no so great for energy efficiency now,

But, man, they make great accent pieces in our shelters.

Full of character and reminiscent of a time gone by.

and check out this stash of treasures we found in our very own consignment center....

Yep, we love to shop our fellow vendor's spaces for things we love.

These will be traveling to Spokane with us in June for Farm Chicks....

and here's the green door....already cleaned up a bit and setting the stage in our space...

Notice how the green really works with the really old books we discovered at our local thrift store earlier in the week???

Amazing how it just works out that way sometimes..

See this great rug under the table?

Picked this up this morning at a great estate sale...

along with this absolutely adorable dresser....

If you get there early, you really do get the "worms"...or, in this case, the good stuff...

So many ways to look for treasures....exploring them all....it's a lot of fun.

You never know what you might find.

The same lady that had the doors had this little gem for us as well...

A Cape Cod Cooler thermos. Probably from the 30's.

Here it is in all it's green and yellow glory.

In fabulous condition....glass liner still intact..

Gotta love it.

Happy Weekend to all our fellow treasure hunters.

An Elegant Antique Set

We were fortunate enough to come across this beautiful set last week.

The table and six chairs--including an arm chair.

We cleaned it up, refinished the tabletop, and reupholstered the chairs in this gorgeous fabric we found at JoAnn's (50% off...yipee!)

She's already in place in the store. This was one of the best turnaround projects we've done to date. We picked it up on Sunday, worked hard on it for two days, and had it looking like this and into the store yesterday before lunchtime.

I've learned so many things since taking on this little space almost nine months ago. But, truly, one of the secrets to "making it" is trying to turn your finds around quickly.

Buy 'em, fix 'em up and make them look pretty, and then put them on the floor where someone can purchase them.

The faster the better.

We are proud of the end product and the great time frame we worked with.

We did a bit of research on the furniture manufacture for this set.

It was the Gregory Furniture Company. They did business in Tacoma, WA from 1916-1941. So....the youngest this table could be is 70 years old and possibly as old as 90 plus years.

It was in pretty amazing condition considering the age.

We found these books earlier in the week while digging at the thrift store.

Somehow they just belonged here displayed on the table. They are from the 30's-40's.

Don't you just love the covers?

Here's a few "before" shots in the garage....

As you can see, they chairs were structurally very sound and only needed a deep0 cleaning and a little work with some steel wool and
Restor-A-Finish in the Golden Oak shade.

The table top was pretty rough....lots of deep scratches, burn marks and water stains.

Can you believe how great it looks now?

Although I love to paint furniture, and in some instances, that is the best way to give it a new life.....

Finding grand antiques like this one and bringing them back to as close to their original grandeur as possible is so gratifying.

Who knew work could be so much fun?

Happy Thursday to everyone.....here's to rescuing more treasures like this one!