What Are Friends For?

I was on my way to work, minding my own business, when my phone rang. Ringggg Ringggg. It was a friend of mine who says she has a dilemma. She's on her way out of town when she spots 4 old screen doors curbside and she has no time to get them. Could I please go pick them up? She says if I do, she will keep 3 and I can have 1. Now, when I was in the first grade I remember my teacher asking "If you have 4 screen doors and your friend keeps 3 of them, how many do you have left"? I remember asking my teacher "Teacher, that doesn't sound right, does it"? So I asked my friend, how about if I keep 2 and you keep 2? After all, she found them and I picked them up. That arrangement was agreeable to both of us.

Here's what they looked like curbside. I decided to call Mr. Shabby to come get them. He hates it when I load dirty things in my car. I quickly took a few pictures while I was waiting for him. Also, I looked around for more treasures.

As you can see, they are pretty rough. But the thing I absolutely love is the inserts. Every one of the doors have one.

If I were laying in bed dreaming about things I would like to find for free, I never would have imagined anything this wonderful. I see these sorts of things in blogs all the time and wonder how in the world do you girls find all this wonderful stuff?

I'm loving these inserts. Now, what to do with them?

We dropped off two of the doors at my friends house. I think they all looked about the same but I didn't have a lot of time to examine them. I didn't see anymore treasures but we have an agreement. Anything else wonderful we find at this house we will split. Woot! Linking to:
   



The 4' Ladder

The other day I showed you pictures of things I bought at a parking lot flea market, including this little 4' ladder. It's just the size I was looking for but it needed an updated look. First, I painted it, then glazed it with watered down brown paint, then distressed it. I will study on it for awhile to see if this is the final look.

This is the way it looked when I bought it. I liked the size and it seemed to be nice and sturdy.

I didn't have to do much to it. I applied one coat of latex satin paint, then let it dry overnight. The color is Robin's Egg Blue.

After I painted it, it looked too new so I mixed up some brown paint diluted with water. I then wiped it on with a soft rag. After that dried, I sanded distressed it. To see the original post when I found this ladder click here:  My Morning Haul 

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My Morning Haul

Once in awhile, but not very often, I get up early on a Saturday morning and go looking for garage sales. One of my fellow bloggers, Distressed Donna Down Home, did a post about her and her nieces recent buying trip. You can see her post here    Crawling The Low Country For Treasures  Well, after reading her post, I was inspired to go on a shopping spree myself (I'm sometimes very impressionable). So Saturday morning I threw back the covers, jumped crawled out of bed, and off I went. Now, keep in mind, their trip lasted several days, and mine was only for a couple of hours. I sort of had a vision of what I was looking for and overall I think I did pretty well.

My first purchase of the morning was at the very first sale. This little dresser is really cute. It needs some work, of course. A couple of the drawers need fixed and it needs new casters. And probably some sanding and a new paint job.

As you can see, it took up most of the space in my car.

It has some nice details and I like the two little drawers on top.

It's funny I found this book case. I've been wanting one for awhile. This one is solid wood. I'll probably take the back off and paint it a different color than the shelves and sides. It stacked nicely on top of the dresser.

The 1970 Naval Training Center book was a nice find. And the tea tile is very pretty.

I'm always looking for unusual flower pots. These are both nice and the one on the right depicts various wines.

I thought the framed marriage blessing was real pretty. I will update the frame with a shabby chic look.

This is a Florentine plaque Made In Italy. The colors are real pretty and are more aqua than shown in these pictures.

I can always do something with old, wooden crates. I will white wash these after they get a good scrubbing.

These Mid Century Modern bar stools are in rough shape and might need more attention than I want to give them. I'm not sure which way to go with these. They're pretty rusty. Too rusty, I think. Even for a shabby chic décor. I'm going to see what it costs to have them sand blasted. I like them so I will at least make an effort to rescue them. I didn't realize it until I saw this picture that the chairs each have a different design on the back. One has straight lines, one has a Deco pattern.

Galvanized wash tubs always sell well for me. And, I love this little 4' ladder and plan to paint it. To see what the ladder looks like after I painted it click here: The 4' Ladder  I bought a similar ladder a couple of weeks ago that was 6' tall.  It was awkward and heavy to move around. I bought it one day for $5.00 and when a guy offered me $7.00 for it the next day I gladly took it.

I love the stools but like I said, it might cost too much money to refurbish them.

The wooden crates are a nice size and they're not very heavy.

I was happy with everything I bought today. But actually, I only went to one garage sale where I bought the dresser, crates, and one flower pot. The rest of the stuff I bought at a parking lot flea market. I had to quit and go home because I ran out of room in my car. Needless to say, I'll be busy this week cleaning, fixing, and painting.

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The Little White Stand

My intention was to take the drawers out of these stands, paint them, decorate them, then use them for display. But after the drawers were painted and I saw how pretty they were, I decided to go ahead and update the stands as well.  

Before I show you the "before" and "during" I will show you this picture of the "after".

I will say this was a really fun project because the start of this project was really bad and I knew it could be really good.

These stands were originally part of an Art Deco vanity, most likely with a low shelf and a large round mirror in between them.

These were right inside my storage shed. I can't hardly get in it any more, there is just too much "stuff". So instead of going out and spending money on more "stuff" I plan to work on some of the "stuff" I already have.

Here you can see where the stands were once connected to the vanity. Also, one caster is missing. I see wood putty. I think I started working on these a long time ago. I probably decided they needed too much work and gave up on them.

Before I painted the drawers, I removed the felt liner that was in them. Then I cleaned and sanded them. The veneer was bad on the fronts so I removed it. Then more sanding, then paint. I will have to fill a few holes in the drawer fronts with wood putty.

These are the original lion's head drawer pulls. I have always loved these but I've decided I might not even use them. I might go to Hobby Lobby and buy some real pretty ones.

At the bottom of this side the veneer was wrinkled. So I glued it and added weights to hold it down, then let it dry overnight. The plastic bag keeps the glue from sticking to the weights. When I removed the weights I noticed the veneer was still a little bit puckered so I laid a towel along the edge and ironed it. This melted the glue and made the veneer lay flat. Even though I am going for a shabby chic look, I still want it to be the best that I can make it.

The veneer on the top has to completely come off. It is really bad.

This is an easy process with our Wagner heat gun. After I heat up the gun, I just hold the nozzle close to the veneer and melt the glue underneath. Then, while it is still hot, I lift it off with a putty knife.

I borrowed Mr. Shabby for the photo shoot.

At this point we really had to make sure we were doing it right because our supervisor, Lucy, was checking our progress.

After the veneer was removed, I had to fill some places with wood putty. I let it dry overnight then sanded the entire top smooth.

Remember now, the finished piece will be pretty.

It turned out pretty good. I would be lost without my little Makita hand sander. Next, I will prime it.    

On the side we added a thin strip of wood then filled with wood putty. The thin strip of wood was actually a paint stirrer cut to fit. It was the perfect thickness that we needed. Then more wood putty, more dry time, then more sanding. Whew! I see why I gave up on this piece before.

       

Found one!! I got lucky and found an old caster. It is even scruffy and matches perfectly.

At this point, it is pretty much all repaired and primed. Now, I'm going to tell you something that I shouldn't admit. I have a large, sturdy work bench that rolls around, where ever I want it to go. So why am I working on this twittered up little table? Because my dream work bench is loaded down with "stuff". hehe    

I probably shouldn't have painted the inside of the drawers pink. It sort of narrows the buying field. Oh well. I found a shade of pink that I really love. It looks like raspberry.

Here it is after I painted it with DIY chalk paint. I just took some of the satin latex paint and added about 1/3 as much Plaster of Paris. I'm not sure what my next step will be. I might add a brown glaze and I might distress it. I haven't made up my mind yet. But I'm sure I will stick with the Heirloom white for the outside and the raspberry pink on the inside of the drawers.

I am only partly finished with the first stand. If I add glaze or distress it I will wait until the second one is done then finish both of them at the same time.

The nearest Hobby Lobby is about an hour away from where I live so I will wait on the knobs for now. The ones shown in the photos are borrowed.

At this point, I am happy with the progress.  

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