A Few of My Favorite Things

These are a few things that I have built/renewed lately.  I love to build handmade gifts for my children and my nieces and nephews...and for anyone.  Some of the plans have come from Ana White. She is an amazingly talented DIY'er, who is generous enough to post her plans for free. I'll tell more about these individual items later.

Beauty From A Beast

This dresser belonged to my husband's great grandmother.  It was one of those with the attached, very large mirror.  After she passed, we inherited many old, rusty, dirty pieces of furniture that were in her barn. This particular dresser had a family of mice that had taken up residence in one of the drawers.  We neglected this old girl for a couple of  years.  She sat on the front porch at my sister's house (after we evicted the mice) for awhile and was used as a catch all.  When we finally got around to fixing her up, we had moved to a new house.  Another diamond in the rough, but more on that later. We decided that she would be perfect as a vanity and planned our bathroom remodel around her. We removed the mirror and saved that project for another rainy day.  I stripped off the layers of old finish.  Sanded ...and sanded...and sanded.  I researched different finish options and opted for a dark espresso finish.   I chose to use a brand called "General Finishes" in espresso.  Much of the wood on top had been stained and had some water damage.  The darker finish was able to hide all of the imperfections.  I applied two coats and then three coats of a spar urethane.  We wanted to be able to use the drawer space for towels, extra TP, and what-nots.  My husband modified each of the drawers into a "U" shape, so that they would still be able to be opened and they would fit around the plumbing. We restored the beautiful, original glass pulls, cut a hole in the top and applied the vessel sink and faucet.  Voila! Beauty from a Beast.

P.S.  After this was finished, my sister asked where it had come from.  I told her, "Your front porch!"  She had no idea that it was the same dresser.

Old County Road

From as far back as I can remember, I have always had a love for diamonds in the rough.  I remember when I was about 7, asking my mom if I could have the small table that was in our bathroom when she was finished with it.  I dreamed of how I would make it into a shining masterpiece.  By the time she was "finished" with it, my taste had evolved into the country blue and peach realm (mid-80's).  I spray painted that sucker and finished the top with a piece of cast off wall-paper.  It was beautiful to me....for about 5 minutes.  Then I dreamed of how I would change it again.  This blog is a place for me catalog my second chances and to share with others my passion for re-using things that others cast off as trash as well as sharing a few "new construction pieces".  I love the thrill of a taking on a new project and seeing it through to completion.  I love to see the looks on others faces when they see what something started as and then it's transformation into something beautiful and useful. I hope you enjoy it with me.  If you share in my passion, please send me comments or links with your handiwork.