Pre Christmas rush, dresser and chairs.

Just a few more days till Christmas, and I have been one busy girl (like that's out of the norm ;) )
Later today I will share a few pictures of my home and the decorations I have. I seem to have acquired quite the "santa" collection over the years. 
Yesterday my wonderful daughter (who is home from college for a few weeks) and I went out to some thrift and second hand stores to look for an outfit for her (party). While she went in search of a top, I spent my time looking at all the wonderful santas that NEEDED a new home. Poor things were looking soooo lonely. What could I do but bring them with me. My daughter thinks I have some kind of mind illness, she calls me crazy. Can you believe that? A child calling her mom crazy? 
(you try to raise them right...right? lol )
So...
Getting back to being Christmas and everything going crazy here. I have managed to finish a few things up. I can't wait to show you my bow front dresser. It turned out even better than I could have hoped for. 
I picked this up on Kijiji. Fell in love with the bow front on the drawers and knew it was begging to be brought back from the oh so boring brown that it had been. 
So brought it home, sanded it down, filled in all the nicks and scrapes  Loving that it has seen through the years. 
I'm so excited to be offering this for sale  :) 

I love the curves, the design and the original hardware!
This piece was made just after the second world war and is SOLID wood. Just the most perfect piece to compliment that open airy bedroom. 
So what do you think? 

Found Treasure

Ever have treasure just drop in your lap? It seems to happen to me on a regular basis. My wonderful husband used to call it junk when I first started this. Till he realized that not only was I turning it all into something beautiful and useful, but was making a bit of cash on the side. :) 
Yesterday I had to go into Sarnia and find some material to recover chairs for a dining room suite that I'm redoing. (found some awesome funky material that will be PERFECT!) Also found some wonderful stuff for that table turned bench that I posted about a couple of days back...
ohhh but we are getting off the subject of found treasures aren't we? 
So anyway........... driving back to the cottage (yes, snuck away to the cottage for a couple of days for some R&R. By the way, R&R doesn't seem to happen, told husband I need a cruise to really make me stop working..lol
Oh, back to found treasure. So I was driving and what did I see on the side of the road? A couple of chairs. 
Of course I had to stop and see if anything could be done with them. 

Look at what I found!!

Arm chairs. I know there is a name for this style, but I'm just going to call them the 80's sisters. The style is wonderful, but the colour and the material is all wrong. 
So I brought them in, cleaned them up, took the seats off of them and started work right away. 
Have I ever mentioned how much I love Zinsser primer? That stuff is amazing! 
So two coats of primer and then two coats of a very soft dove grey paint later.

I'm still in the process of finishing them. I have the material to recover the chairs, but my stapler is at home. So when I head home I will finish them off and show you. I think I should have them done on Monday. So stay tuned. :) 
Have a great weekend everyone. I'm off to an auction sale today. 
Going to see what sorts of treasures I can find there :) :)

Vintage coffee table.

So my husband was being really nice to me (or he was really bored) and he started looking on kijiji the other night for a new project for me. Like I don't have enough to do (you should see my basement!) and he came across this old table. 

 This is just a picture since I'm sitting at work and can't take a pic of the one I now have sitting in my garage. 
This is solid, and I mean solid walnut. The wood is over an inch thick and HEAVY!
So now I have a table. First thought was, what a perfect bench. Actually my husband thought of that. I totally agreed with him. BUT then another thought came I know, dangerous to think. 
So now we are thinking of getting rid of those heinous  unique legs and getting other ones that are much taller, thus creating a hall way or couch table out of this fine piece of wood. 

Which way would you go with this? I'm open to all ideas. Ohhh by the way, that drawer does open and is a wonderful asset either way. 

Antique Desk, finished.

Well it's done. :)
It's not perfect, but that's one thing I like about antiques, they are like people, not perfect but beautiful and totally unique in their own way. 
I love scratches and character lines, they show how well loved a piece is. 
Thankfully this one didn't have any of those really deep stains that are impossible to get out (working on one of those right now). 
So here are the after pics, I hope you enjoy them. 

 Anyone that knows me, knows I love to research things, furniture is no different. So I found out this piece is made of walnut on the outside, and mahogany and gum wood on the inside. The stain I used was a dark walnut stain, then a few coats of minwax poly to protect it. I love minwax, I've tried a few other brands, but this just seems to work the best for me. 
Ohhh I so wish I could keep this one. 

Antique desk

I'm about half way through a desk refinishing project, but I need some help. I'm wondering who can give me a bit of advice. 
I found this old desk at a yard sale. The guy I bought it from didn't even have it IN the yard sale, he had it beside his garage and was going to BURN it! 
I quickly bought it up and brought it home with me. 
Then did a bit of research on it since it was still stamped. 
This is what I found out. 

 Very cute eh? And actually it was still in very good condition. 
I'm just about done stripping it down. I'm going to stain it and bring it back as close to original as I can. 
As much as I would like to keep this, I'm going to sell it. BUT this is where I need some help. What would you price a piece like this at?

 These are obviously the "before" pictures. 
Stay tuned for the after. :) 

Stereo love :)

I'm finally done...completely in love. 

I found this stereo on kijiji in the late spring/early summer. It's been "almost" done for quite some time. 

This is what I had to start with.
I started with removing the lids, then taping garbage bags over it to protect the inside and back. I wanted to keep that totally original. Then I stripped the top, stained it and put 3 coats of poly on it. 
The base was sanded down, primed and painted, then distressed, and sealed with poly. I also removed that hideous  outdated speaker covers. Replaced them with some I found at 
http://www.fabricland.ca/main.html
Fabricland. I love them. I often go in there just to see what is new and if I find material I "might" need in the future, well, it doesn't hurt to have extra on hand ;) 
Ready to see the finished product? 

  This sweet piece now sits under the TV in the cottage. I'm sooo so happy with it, and hubby is just as happy. He would love to have more of these sitting around, but seriously, just how many stereo's can you have in one house without looking a bit strange? :)

Tea cart revamped!

So last summer I was cruzin the yard sales in a town close to me and I came across this cute little tea cart. It was solid maple and I just fell in love with it. What a handy little piece of furniture to have around the house for all sorts of things. Could be used as a tea cart, or for holding your books or as a bar when company comes by (ie: party) What about using it to hold all your fine plates in your dining room? or maybe towels in the guest bath? Sooooooo many ways you could use this. I just love it. 
Well it sat and sat and sat till I took it out and decided it was time to DO it. Ever have those projects that you have wonderful intentions for, but just never get around to doing? This was one of mine. 
I'm working really hard lately to get all those projects done and out the door :) 
I thought I had before pics..but I can't seem to locate them on the computer. :( 
ohhh well, enjoy the after pics. 

 Don't you just love all those spindles? I was thinking about adding some lettering, but decided that it was perfect just the way it is. What do you think?

Quality?

I'm up early I know. I went to check on a few projects I'm just finishing up. And I got to thinking...I know, dangerous to start thinking before 7 am, but that's how I am :) 
How important is it to you to have quality? 
When I buy a piece of furniture I always think about the quality of the piece. I try (and I mean I really try) to buy things that aren't just pretty in my minds eye, but pieces that are built to last. I don't mind if they are damaged, damaged can be fixed or recreated to be something else. 
When a piece begs to be painted, I always sand, used high quality primer and finish it with a high quality varnish. I want my customers to be happy with it for years to come. 
So tell me. Just how important is it to you to have that in the furniture you buy?

Baby blue shelves

Saturday night and I'm just sitting down now. Yes I realize it's almost 10:30 pm. 
I just wanted to share with you my latest project. I posted it online for sale and it sold almost immediately! 
 When I started redoing furniture I was so scared of painting it. I'm getting braver though. I still love refinishing fine furniture that beg me to refinish it, but I'm really loving using colour on smaller pieces. Bare with me as I continue to grow into all of this and thank you to all those who have been braver before me and sharing their expertise online :) 
Here are the shelves. 
Tired, so not saying much tonight, I'll be lucky to get all the pics posted before falling asleep ;)

  I'm so happy with the way this turned out. Yes I did do a happy dance and made my daughter roll her eyes. What's a mom to do? :)

Red Bedside tables

So it's been a while and I've had a lot of things done and out the door. This makes for very little blogging time :( Yes I know I'm being lazy here. But wait till you see some of my finished projects. 
For tonight I'm just going to show this sweet little set of bedside tables. Simple but fantastic. The woman who bought them is so super happy with them. I'm sorry but I totally forgot to take "before" pictures. So much for hubby buying me that new camera for my birthday (bad me)! 

September is upon us

Wow, what a busy summer it's been and what a joyful one in our household. 
I know I haven't posted in a long time, but wait till you hear all that I've been up to and what has been going on in our family. 

Our second oldest son has found the love of his life and has proposed! 
Yup..for the first time I'm going to be a mother in law! 
Caitlin is a wonderful woman who is absolutely perfect for our son, we couldn't be happier for them both. The wedding is planned for August 25/2012. Less than a year away. I've been doing the happy dance all summer long. 
I have so many pictures to share, I won't be able to do it all overnight, so please be patient with me as I find time to upload and comment and post stories of our summer. 

Along with the good, the sad and the interesting has happened as well. Our baby girl left this past week for her first year of college in a city about 2 hours away. She did send me a BBM (blackberry messenger) saying she got there safely (she was home for the weekend) and to thank us for everything. I'm excited and terrified for her on her own for the first time in her life. 
We thought we would be empty nesters, but just days before our daughter moved out our oldest moved back in and has taken over our basement. 
So the cycle continues. 
As far as my recreating/refinishing goes. That's the best part of summer. I've rented a booth at the local Antique market and it's going wonderfully! Not only that, I'm getting orders from friends, and friends of friends and people that have seen my work. I'm also doing over furniture that people have brought me. I swear some days I just can't keep up. 
Then on top of it all, I'm now working at least a day a week at an office. I was looking for a second part time job, but decided if I wanted to stay sane I should stick with what I'm doing now. 
I'll spend some time over the next week showing you some of the things I've done this summer and some of my projects for the fall. 
Ahhhh I think things will start getting organized now that September is here.....here's hoping!!
Hope you all had a wonderful summer as well. 
:)

I've been trying to keep up

I've been trying to keep up with everyone here, but sometimes life just gets in the way. I've gotten a new job (outside of saving furniture that is) 
BUT I have still found time to add a few things to my home and sell a few more. 
I just finished this tonight and couldn't wait to share it with you. 

It's this cute little table I found at a yard sale. (I swear its the only place I shop during yard sale season) 

Poor thing looked so neglected, but when I checked it out a bit closer I saw how sturdy it was.

I really do need to learn how to take pics before I start sanding away to my hearts content :)
But having said that...I continued on and did remember to take a few pics after the paint was put on. 

Although I loved the design on the side of this table, it just didn't make sense for it to stay a table. I mean really? Look at the lips or hump or whatever you want to call it on the top. That would just be calling for a child to accidentally spill something by knocking it or trying to set a cup on it. So I had my own kind of solution. 

Tadaaaaaaa!!

So what do you think? Doesn't it make more sense to you as well?