Sunday 19 August 2012

The things people throw away!

Last week I was shopping for a day with friends in Michigan. We had a fantastic time. Sadly on the way home my truck was hit by a random stone and a chip was placed firmly in my windshield. 
It was small enough that it could be filled (yes I have experience with stone chips) 
So finally on Friday of this week I was able to get in and have it repaired..when I say finally I mean I finally remembered to call and set up and appointment. :) 

So being me, I don't go out and get one thing done. I make a list of all the stuff I have to run around and do while I'm out. Thus hopefully making more time for me to work on my stash/stuff of things in the garage...aka my workshop :) After getting the chip repaired, I wanted to head to this great shop in town that sells all sorts of handles/knobs and quite a few other things I don't really need but sometimes want :) I'll post about that store another time. 

On the way there I was detoured to the junk store I often go to if for no other reason than to get ideas. This place is wayyyyyyy better than any other local thrift store. As I headed down on of the side streets to the junk store (I can't call the store by name because it simply has a sign on the side of the road that says "garage sale" No other name in sight) 
Where were we?...right, side street. I almost had a heart attack when I noticed a pile of furniture on the side of the street. YAY! Ok, maybe not yay..this stuff looked heavy and it was just me. I had to stop anyway to get a better look at the stuff these people were clearing out. 
As I was getting a better look a guy across the street offered to help me load it up. Great, now I had to decide in a hurry which pieces I wanted and would they fit in the back of my SUV..aka..truck. I quickly picked out two dressers and crossed my fingers they would both fit. 
With a bit of maneuvering they did..YEAH!!
Then off to the knobs place, and home...oh and a quick stop in at the junk store...more about that in another post. 
Want to see what I picked up? 

I just knew there was something special under all that ugly ewwwy paint. It was solid and really other than the paint it seemed like it was in pretty good shape. 
So after getting everything done that I needed to do, I set to work on this baby. 
As I started to strip it down I noticed the grain in the wood was getting to me. I just couldn't paint it. I had to restore it. There were NO major flaws. No veneer so no veneer missing. 
I tossed those horrid knobs and because I picked this up BEFORE hitting my knob store I had already purchased replacements for it. 
It took a bit of time...ok, a day and a bit, but I got it done. 
I used my trusty Walnut stain (turns out this wood is actually walnut)  :) 
And here she is! 
 See why I didn't want to paint it?

 Even the casters were on this little lady. :)
 Just look at that sweet wood :)
 Can you believe someone covered this up?



32 comments:

  1. Great find and I love the wood as well and the cute little legs and casters. you did a great job

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  2. Boy , You are one lucky gal! I never see anything good in the trash. I never would have thought there was that nice of wood under all of that ugly paint. Way to stick with it!

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  3. You did a wonderful job restoring this piece! It's gorgeous! I'm with ya...I can't believe some of the things people throw away! Visiting from MMS.

    Allison

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  4. I can't believe anyone would throw this out. It is simply gorgeous. You did a fantastic job to restoring it.
    Thanks for sharing
    Traci

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  5. That's such a beautiful transformation. Who'da thought that lovely wood was sitting under there.
    Probably what some people are going to say about some of my chalk paint transformations in about 20 years time! I have done a couple of wood transformations too, and you have done a lovely job on the wood cleaning it up and making it shine so naturally. Did you just wax it? Doesn't appear to be varnish unless its a matte? Lovely job.

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    1. it is just a matte varnish. I tend to stay away from the gloss stuff, I've stripped enough of gloss I don't want to do that to anyone else..besides, matte hides more dust than gloss does...lol

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  6. This is great! I love hidden/local junk stores! I also love that you kept it all natural wood.. painting is so common now that its refreshing to see a solid wood piece. So pretty! I am your newest follower! If you ever have time come checkout my blog!

    -Peggy

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  7. Not only covered it up, but covered it up in BROWN paint! What were they thinking?

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  8. You did a great job - it looks beautiful!! Wish I could find free stuff like that. :)

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  9. What a beautiful piece - your work is lovely. I am green with envy that you found that for FREE! It takes the vision to see beneath all those layers of paint.

    Great job!

    Small House / Big Sky Donna
    http://smallhouseunderabigsky.wordpress.com

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  10. So lucky! Your hard work paid off.

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  11. I love real wood grain! Glad you didn't paint it.

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  12. Wow! You are right, I cant believe anyone would paint this, and anyone would throw it away!!! I hope you went out and bought a lottery ticket that day! That was truly your lucky day!! Congrats!

    PS. really nice refinishing job

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  13. That turned out amazing. You should submit it to Roadkill Rescue, I bet you would get featured. Nice job, can't wait to see what you did with the other one. Dee from My Painted Stuff.

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  14. I like furniture so much better when it is stripped down to the original, esp. walnut. I have a GORGEOUS office desk that was also a freebie - the owner even delivered it to my house for nothing! Gotta love it.

    Visiting you from MIUM blog hop.

    thriftshopcommando.blogspot.com

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  15. WOW! it is SO beautiful- fabulous job! who throws that away?!??!

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  16. Lucky you! I'm sure it was a LOT of work, but wood is SO beautiful. I like the painted furniture but I'm with you on this, when the wood is awesome you shouldn't paint it.

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  17. Wow! This turned out gorgeous!!! The wood is absolutely beautiful!

    ~Anneke at www.thisthatandlife.com

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  18. I think you are a plastic surgeon for furniture! :D

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  19. I have a piece very similar to this. Boy that wood is sweet and I am so glad you bought her back to her natural state and not painted. You did a great job and she look quite lovely now. Love her legs. Thanks for sharing your creative inspiration with Sunday’s Best – you helped make the party a success!

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  20. hi dear
    i saw ur craft in http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/categories/before_after

    and from there i recieve here
    im happy see ur nice ideas
    i link it in my own weblog http://rahiefiltershode.blogfa.com/

    i have some of this ideas too. i hope the best for u

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  21. Very pretty, I love how warm the color of the wood is! Great job!

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  22. Absolutely beautiful. Much better stripped down and stained.

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  23. What a gorgeous dresser! And you had great instincts by stripping it and leaving it natural. I like to paint stuff over, but sometimes, as in this case, the wood is simply the right thing to do.

    Lucky find! I am now following you. I came over from Roadkill Rescue.

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  24. Wow! We're wood lovers at our house, so we LOVE it when someone refinishes a piece and let's its original beauty shine! Great job!

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  25. WOW!!! This is my kind of shopping. I cannot believe you got this off the side of road! What a super good find. You did a beautiful job restoring it. So sad someone covered it with all that yukky paint to begin with! Visiting from Roadkill rescue. -K

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  26. Ooweee! That's sweet. You did well restoring it. It's absolutely fantastic! What was the other piece? Will we see that soon as well?
    Liz

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    1. Thanks Liz.
      I did post about the other piece, you can find it at
      http://craftyincanada.blogspot.ca/2012/08/a-real-fixer-upper.html
      Or just look through my past posts, it's called "A real Fixer upper"

      :)

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  27. Just found you from Miss Mustard Seed. I love how this dresser turned out. I can't paint over walnut either. I love it too much.

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