TIME AND TIME AGAIN

There are times when I go to goodwill and I get tremendous deals.  It usually happens when I am not looking for anything in particular.  I found a beautiful waterfall vanity for $40 about a month ago.  I am way too cheap to spend that amount, so I crossed my fingers and hoped it would be there on 1/2 price Saturday.  I know that people in my town are pretty cheap too, so I had high expectations that it would be waiting for me.

Yup, there is was - in all it's mac tac glory!

I always look at things like this and wonder why the heck people choose to ruin things with mac tac.

Then I realized why.  Underneath the sticky stuff, the wood was rain damaged.  The centre part was broken in the middle and the previous owner tried to keep it from falling apart by covering it with the hideous, marble looking paper.  Makes me shiver just thinking about it.

I had seen some fabulous restorations on Pinterest, like this

 or this

or my favorite

I had some of the antique linen paint left over from my cabinet project, so I started painting the edges, just like the beautiful pink one above.

However, once I saw what was under the mac tac, I realized that a smooth paint wasn't going to fix any of the problems.  So I got out my black paint and just started painting until the brush was empty.

I wanted to paint the drawers something like this,

but after my epic fail on the cabinet, I decided to go with a safer choice. Yes, you got it, I used the rest of my clock scrapbooking paper.  It is going to go into a totally different room than where the cabinet is, so I am ok with using the theme again.

I wanted to put red knobs on it, just to give it some colour, but I could not for the life of me find anything that I liked.  So, to keep costs down (as we all know how cheap I totally am), I used some of my daughter's acrylic paint and painted the original handles.

I like how antique they look, and they took about 5 minutes to do.

I think I am going to use it for a desk in my upstairs guest room.  Gotta hurry up and sell the desk that I already have, lol, or put it in the playroom.  Either way, I really, really love the end product.  And FYI, the dresser is not lopsided, my picture taking skills kind of suck.

I am not sure what I am going to do with the mirror portion yet.  I might recyle it into a wall mirror.  You just never now!

Up next, some cool pallet ideas.  Woot! Pin It

TIME FOR A CHANGE

Spring is slowly starting to come to town, and with it, my desire to craft again!  Thank goodness, because my spare room is looking like a junkhouse and hubby is getting CRANKY at me for it  - lol, like I care.

Last summer I bought this cabinet from the facebook auction.  I think I paid $5-$10 for it.

As you can see from looking at it, it was just a place to throw crap.  It didn't match my style, was beyond blah and was basically an eyesore.  I don't know what made me decide to finally do something about it.  Maybe I was bored, maybe I was stuck inside because of a snowstorm, maybe (and probably) I finally looked it and felt a deep embarrassment that I had actually let it sit this way for almost a year.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it and then a friend of mine emailed me about painting fake wood, and how she wanted to do a dresser of hers a nice bright white colour.  I replied that maybe it would look great white with a dark, stained top.  LIGHTBULB!  That is what I decided this baby needed.

I sanded it down quickly, as it had a shiny finish on it, then I got to work.  I didn't choose a bright white, instead going with a colour called antique linen, which is basically white.

I had forgotten how hard it actually is to paint something plain white.  It took about 4 coats to get this to a nice, even colour.  Then I used my go to stain, Dark Walnut, for the top.

I was feeling pretty adventurous and attempted, key word being attempted, to paint zebra stripes on the front.

Talk about an absolute fail.  It looked like a dead flower or something Abby Sue would have done in finger painting class.  I didn't want to paint the white over it, because I knew it would take a bazillion coats to cover that brown colour.  So I went to my trusty modge podge drawer and pulled out my staple.  You got it, I used my clocks.

I am getting to be such a pro at modge podging, and, in my opinion, the finished product is always so awesome looking, that I didn't consider this project that big of a fail.  In fact, I absolutely love it now.

I still have to add a shelf to the top and maybe some bright coloured baskets, but it is totally functional and looks perfect in the space.

How's that for a cheap makeover?  I didn't have to buy anything, as I had all of the supplies at home already. Unique, fun, and one of a kind - just the way I like my house to be. Pin It