From a Hutch to a Bar...who would have thought?

Sometimes my clients come to me and offer to sell me things they no longer want in order to reduce the price on things they do want. 

I have no problem with this. It's a great way to get things I may not have gotten otherwise. 

That's what happened with this piece. 

I sold them something and I bought something.

I bought this Buffet and Hutch

 Obviously this is the bottom.

And this is the top. 

I never did picture them in my mind as something that would go together. So I separated them. 

Then another client of mine bought this. 

And had me paint it like this

I know I know..seems like a long story to get to that bar I'm talking about in the title of my post...but trust me we are getting there, and maybe in the process you will better understand the life of a furniture junkie. :) 

Once she bought this she showed me this. 

I of course fell in love!! And agreed to do an exchange with her...I would take hers and she would get the first picture plus have me redo another piece for her. 

So that bottom had a new home and now looks like this. 

Which left me the top part. 

Which was ok, since I had an idea forming in my mind on what to do with it. 

I found some awesome legs along with an iron grill...and I set to work. 

Then another client came to pick up another piece I had done for her and fell in love with the top piece...so we talked...and a deal was made. 

And a hutch was transformed. 

Just a pic to remind you of how it started. 

And now the reveal ! 

 This is the "back" of the hutch which became the "front" of the bar. The grill was found at a yard sale and transformed a bit (thanks to hubby) painted and attached to the new front of the bar.

 I used a flash to show the colours better, but it really doesn't stand out this much.

 Trim was added to give it more character.  Some paint and glazing.

 New (to me) legs were added.

 Built a new top and added it to the bar.

 The inside was painted. And holes cut into the side. For now she is using this as a combination liquor cabinet/entrainment unit.

Wine glasses can still be hung upside down. 

I know the story was a bit confusing and there were a few more twists and turns...but I tried to keep it simple here. 

Ohhh and I have to show you the bow front Sideboard. 

But maybe I should wait for another post. :) 

I just love when things go where they belong and with whom they belong. 

:) 

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Barn board table

Not sure about where you are but we have been having some amazing fall weather lately. 

Yesterday while outside I took a deep breath and smelled fall. You know, that smell that has falling leaves and fresh air mixed together.

Makes me want to go out and rake leaves.

I'm sure I'll be doing a lot of that in the next couple of weeks. 

But till then I will open my workshop doors and enjoy these last few weeks before the rain and snow hits us. 

And I will take as many outside pictures as I can. 

Like this one. 

 This was taken a few months ago. I had picked up this table in hopes of redoing the solid wood top and painting the bottom.

I absolutely loved the legs and thought a bit of light paint and some distressing would go great on this piece. 

But like several of my projects that are not already spoken for it was pushed to the side of my workshop and it sat there till mid Aug. 

One of our neighbours came over and was rooting around in all the unclaimed furniture when she spied this table. 

We talked about what she wanted (she needed a new table) We talked about options and came up with a plan. 

This is the end result.

 Barn Board!

This process is not for the faint of heart. 

I literally had to go to a guys field and pick out the barn board. Not fun when you are looking to find a few to make a table and they were not all in the best of shape. 

And to top it off, it was raining while I was doing it. (lol) So picture me with a farmer in the middle of a field full of barn boards in the rain separating a few hundred boards to find enough that were not warped, split or had to many holes in them.

I then had to stack them with blocks of wood between layers to let them dry. 

Then off to my father in laws to get them planed. He's been great! And I love that I can just call him up anytime to use some of his tools when I need them. How wonderful to have a highly trained cabinet maker in the family :)

 We cut the middle section out from the table base and painted it "French Vanilla" then distressed it.

 Just look at that top. 6 coats of highly durable varnish! Sanding between coats to make it come out as smooth as glass. 

I love it. 

The neighbour will pick it up next weekend. 

At which point we will discuss colours for this.

She doesn't want the mirror and I think she may go with a grey...ohhh what fun :) 

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Tale of Two card Catalogs

I'm telling you I am completely blessed.

You see a couple of weeks ago I was busy working at the cottage and my sister sent me a picture. I don't have the picture anymore but I'm telling you my heart was beating a bit faster.

This is my nephew as we were ready to load these in my truck

My sister found them at a Re store and asked me if I was interested. Well DAAA of course I was. :)

Thankfully she was able to take them home with her and I was there two mornings later to pick them up. Thanks Zach for hauling them home for me in your truck!

Both of them were spoken for by the end of the day and work got under way by the end of that week.

Both of them are going to very crafty ladies who will use them in their home based business's.

The first person wanted a cream colour, the base removed and industrial type casters added.

 Going to take you through the process just a bit. First I had to removed all 80 drawers...yes you heard that right. Each unit has 40 drawers.

 Everything had to come off. Some to be saved and re used, some to be tossed.

 The bottoms all came off. The steel parts anyway.

It was all taken to the recyclers. 

 All the fronts were cleaned then sanded to remove the final bits of paper and glue that didn't come off with simple cleaning.

 Then new bottoms were cut and glued into each drawer

 That bottom base was removed from one of the units (according to what the new owner wanted)

Then it was all stacked to dry. 

 Then the rods that went through the front of each drawer had to be altered by my wonderful hubby :)

 A new base was built and casters added.

 Each drawer was painted and set to dry.

 Everything distressed to make it look old and worn once again.

 And all that lovely solid brass hardware was cleaned and put back in place.

 And here she is complete. I am waiting for a picture in her new home though.

 I think she turned out perfectly.

The second one had very much the same kind of makeover. 

By the time I started on that one, the drawers were already ready for paint. 

The second owner however didn't want cream...she wanted a combination of blue and green. 

She also didn't want to lose the base. 

I did cut a bit off the base. If you look back at the first picture you can see a black bottom on it. It actually went in a bit and had that nasty black plastic wrapped around it. So that was lost and a new base added along with some lovely new legs. The veneer on the top was removed because it was in bad shape. I should mention the veneer was removed from the first one as well. 

I should have taken pics between coats of paint but I didn't :( 

This is how the second one turned out. 

 I'm sorry the pics were taken inside my garage late at night. I wanted to get pics to the new owner before I left in the morning and this was my only chance :(

 See the two tones? Don't you just love it?

All that lovely brass just sets the whole thing off :) I can't wait for her to see it all in person. 

Phew I'm tired. 

My husband asked me tonight as I was sliding the last drawer in place. "I bet you don't want to see another card catalog in a long time eh?" 

What? seriously? I would do another 100 of these if I had the chance. Ok, maybe not tomorrow, but I'll be game next week again...lol 

anyone know where I can get more? 

Ohhh dear sister......... :) 

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Mustard Yellow dresser

It's getting towards the end of September and I haven't blogged in a LONG time. 

Initially I thought I would take the month of Aug off in order to focus more of my time on actually putting a few really special projects together and getting out the door some of the things that were piling up in my workshop. 

But as so many things go..the more focused I became on doing that, the less I thought about blogging, till it was late at night. 

BUT I"M BACK! 

And I promise to share more here and I will try to have more of a balanced life between work and blog. 

So lets get started shall we? 

 A while back I picked up this wonderful antique dresser..or is it vintage? Actually I don't care. I just loved it. And so I brought it home with me. But as with so many things..I don't have a "before" picture. I know I"m bad..sigh, trust me I'm more mad at me right now than you are. BUT I do have after pics. My mustard yellow dresser! 

This one flew out the door so quickly I don't even remember why I painted the top. 

Hope you enjoy the pictures and stay tuned, I have so much to share I may be posting once a day till I get caught up :) 

Card catalog turned coffee table

I've been on the hunt for a card catalog for years! 

Seriously it's been years of looking. 

But I knew that some day one would fall on my lap and I knew I would be thrilled when that "someday" came along 

Well that someday finally came a few weeks ago! 

I rushed out to buy it. 

It was in decent shape. I mean it had to be redone but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. 

However I was slightly grossed out by the mouse nest I found.....can we say ewwwwwwwwwww

I carefully removed the card holder/pulls and left them in vinegar to clean up. 

Then got to work on converting the first two levels into a coffee table. 

Ordered wood for the top and created a new one. 

I finally finished this morning.

 I left the side straps pretty much alone. I did clean them up but didn't paint them. I love the original patina on them :)

 The back is as pretty as the front :) 

 I did paint the label/pulls after cleaning them. They are done in a flat black. 

Over all I'm THRILLED with how this turned out. 
I have a second one I'm going to be working on, but I'm waiting for new label/pulls to come in. They have been ordered. Ohh how I hate waiting.
Have a great Wed.

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