My Projects: Refurbished Dresser

Refurbished Antique Dresser

This was another glorious back alley find. Andy and I were walking to brunch last July, when we happened to glance down an alley. Lo and behold what do we see...this dresser! It was in bad condition, almost not worth a second glance. When we looked around though, we were able to find all the drawers for it, so Andy ran home and grabbed his truck. Lets just say we never made it to brunch that morning. :)

We went back and forth about how to finish this bad boy. Should we sand it down to the natural wood and varnish the whole thing to make it shine, or should we give it a funky paint color. I won in the end with a funky paint color. And obviously I chose turquoise, as it is my favorite color. We started by sanding the whole thing, drawers included. Now that was a task! There was some damage to the sides and the bottom, so Andy sanded the sides down and added some boards to the bottom to stabilize the dresser and cover the damage...so smart that man. Then we got to painting. We painted a few coats which took about a week. Then we bought these cute silver handles, screwed them on, and voila!

Costs:
-solid wood dresser: Free
-sandpaper: $5
-wooden baseboards, found around the house: Free
-paint, left over in our basement: Free
-silver handles: $2 each, 20 total: $40
Total: $45
We sold it on craigslist for: $500!!

My Projects: Wall Collage

Andy and I recently moved apartments. This large white wall has been staring me in the face everyday so I finally did something about it. In our last place I had printed a bunch of large photographs (that I had taken) and framed them all with plain black frames. I hung them in a collage style too, but they had a much simpler feel. This time I wanted to do something a bit more three dimensional and fancy. So I spent the last few weeks/months looking for these vintage frames. It is always fun to have a specific item in mind when hunting vintage. Luckily DC has some great finds! Finally I had the frames that I wanted so I took some old family images, some art I had done a while ago, art that a friend had done, and some photographs, all combined with the vintage frames and voila! I am quite pleased with my little collage of pictures and frames.

Side business!

I have exciting news! I have started a side business. My Etsy shop has just opened and I am thrilled! The business is taking hand picked vintage clothes, purses, scarves, and frames, and selling them in an Etsy shop. A lot of the clothes I alter and modify myself to make them more modern and friendly for 2012. It has been so much fun to start, so we'll see how it goes.

The blazer that I am wearing and my purse in this picture are featured in my shop.
Check it out: Turquoise & Lime

My Projects: Pallet Table

Pallet Table

I have been obsessed with pallet furniture for a while now...even before it went mainstream. Pallets are such simple constructions that can be found almost anywhere because everyone uses them. Granted, most pallets are not very nice. They have been thrown together out of crappy scrap wood, treated with chemicals, and then thrown around. Because Andy works for a solar company I have been begging him to get me some free pallets. His answer is always that the pallets they use are no good. Boohoo! Finally, he came through in December and brought home some pallets. I was like a girl on Christmas morning, giddy with joy! These pallets were huge, sturdy, and in great condition.

The pallets started about twice the size as they are pictured on the left above. So Andy cut them in half for me. We then nailed them together as you can see in the picture. I spent a few hours one day sanding them so there weren't any rough edges or splinters. Then, I lacquered the whole thing to make the wood look nicer. We debated on letting it sit flat or putting wheels on it, but after realizing how heavy it was we decided on wheels. I love it! It came out so nicely. Now we can store books in it and move it around easily.

Costs:
-2 wooden pallets: Free
-sandpaper: $1
-lacquer: $5
-wheels: $4 each, $16 total
Total: $26

My Projects: Mosaic Plant Table

Mosaic Plant Table

Andy and I had quite the busy summer. We have an active alley behind our row-house with all sorts of trash. We love it! It's like they say, 'One man's trash is another man's treasure.' You won't believe all the valuable furniture people throw away. At one point our back porch was overloaded with bits and pieces of furniture that we had hopes and project plans for. Alas, we only had so much time, so unfortunately a lot of that was sent back into the alley by the end of the summer. This is one particular project that made it though. I call it my plant table.

The main part of this table was a counter-top that had been tossed in the alley. Andy sawed it in half for me with some curves...at my request. Then we nailed Home Depot legs on it and put up some barriers around the edges so that I could have a well inside to pour concrete. Then I mixed the concrete (with my hands, I will NEVER do that again!) poured it inside and laid out my mosaic work. The concrete was pretty fast drying, especially in the heat of the summer, so laying the mosaic tiles happened quickly. I wasn't able to be as much of a perfectionist about it because of that, but it still looks ok.

Costs:
-old countertop: Free
-wooden legs: $2 each, $4 total
-wooden edges: $4
-cement: $8
-tile, old plates found in thrift stores: $4
Total: $22