Wicker Dresser with Mirror, painted RED

This came to me with the original stain the color of the wicker. The iron work was gold. I wanted to paint the wood and the metal work black, but Allison, who runs the consignment store, convinced me to go with something different, so I went with red on the wood and oil-rubbed bronze on the metal. I think the red contrasts well with the wicker, but this piece has yet to sell, so I am thinking about redoing it in black.

Painted, Distressed, & Glazed Chest

Another find I wish I had taken "before" shots of. I fell in love with this piece at an estate sale. After paying for it, I realized the sides were completely warped from some sort of water damage. When I pointed it out to the seller, she said she hung a long doily over the top so that the sides were covered and you did not notice the damage. Not the look I was going for, I went home and brainstormed. What gave the dresser a neat shape were the way that the sides were partially recessed - basically each side was made of a thick frame, with a panel placed into groves of this frame. The "panels" were very thin pieces of wood, which is why they warped so easily when exposed to water. The panels had to be replaced.

Not being a woodworker, I used my creativity and took the back off the chest to gain easy access to the damaged wood. I then knocked out the damaged part with a hammer. I had some high-quality bead board sitting in my basement (don't ask). There was no way I could ever get replacement panels to fit exactly into those grooves, so I did not need to be exact in cutting the bead board for the replacement sides, which was a good thing since this was before I invested in a jigsaw. After managing to not cut off my fingers with the chainsaw (yes, really), I had two similar pieces of board that I mounted on the interior of the dresser. These new panels were an excellent fit, and to make them look like they were original, I filled in all crevices with high-quality caulk and putty. Really, you would have never known they were not part of the original design unless you took the whole thing apart.

This piece was small enough that I assumed it would go in a little girl's room or cutesy guest room, so I painted it off-white. But I cannot resist glazing bead board, so I ended up going with a dark brown glaze on top of the paint. I was dismayed that this piece sat for months on consignment. I get sentimentally attached to pieces, especially the ones I have to get creative with, and when they don't sell immediately, I get really sad. Silly, I know. I had a few pieces that had been sitting in consignment for months that I was going to repaint black, this being one of them. A salesperson at the consignment shop stopped me on this one saying it was too neat to be painted any other way and to be patient, it would sell. And it finally did last week.

Mirror & Dresser, Black distressed

I found a 4-piece set of furniture that consisted of a headboard, large dresser, side table, and mirror. This is the job where I learned not all furniture and paints are alike. For some reason I could not get the paint to adhere to this furniture. Even when I primed it with the 1-2-3 "it will stick to anything" primer, I still had problems with the paint peeling off. I literally painted these pieces 3 times. It was a good, but frustrating lesson. Expensive, quality paint is always worth it in the end.

UGA Themed Headboards

At one point the boys had matching headboards that got a little beat up. I remember someone telling me college-themed furniture sold well, so I painted these in red and black in honor of UGA (not my alma mater, but light blue and white would look silly).

Very Cool Find, Antique Cabinet

This is one of my great success stories, finding something for less than $10, and then selling it for over $150. Keep in mind this required a TON of work on my part as this there was a reason this vintage piece was priced so low. A whole chunk was missing from the top of one of the drawers and one of the interior shelves had been busted out.

Fixing the interior shelf was easy, I just needed a piece of wood similar in thickness to the shelf on the opposite side (thanks to a neighbor who let me dumpster dive multiple times while putting an addition onto her house), a tape measure, a jigsaw, and a sander. Once the proper piece was cut, nailing it in an covering the holes was easy.

The busted drawer was a whole other issue. I took the whole thing apart, and flipped the drawer face over, drilled new holes for the pulls, and put the drawer back together so that the busted part was now on the bottom. I thought if I distressed the whole piece, it would not matter that there was a little damage on the bottom of the bottom drawer; it would give it character. Turns out the damage was worse than I thought and was very obvious, even on the bottom side of the bottom drawer. After much brainstorming and a few trips to the hardware store, I finally figured out how to repair the drawer with a thin piece of wood that matched the size of the drawer front, attaching it with brackets on the back, and filling in all cracks. Once painted, you could not tell the drawer had ever been damaged. I had to reassemble the drawer again to make close properly, but the end result was a really cool piece.

I kept the original pulls in the original color since I thought they gave it a unique, vintage feel.

Another Antique Headboard/Footboard

Another antique headboard/footboard combo. Again I wanted to glaze it, but I have found people are not as into the glaze as I am. So I just painted it and distressed it. I think it is gorgeous and I have convinced myself it has not sold simply because it is a full, and most people don't want full sized beds. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

Antique Headboard and Footboard

I found this at a yard sale. What could have been a beautiful piece of furniture was ruined by a horrible lacquer job. It was lumpy and streaked. I sanded out the major imperfections and painted then distressed it. I planned on putting a dark brown glaze on top of the paint to catch the "imperfections" under the paint, but I was so pleased with the paint/distress job, that I decided to leave it as is.