Hannah's "new" dresser

I recently posted about my daughter Hannah's bedroom redo and how I was selling her lovely "shabby sweet" furniture. Read the original post HERE.  I have since sold the furniture off to new homes and her room has been redone. She originally wanted IKEA furniture to replace the pieces I sold. We were planning on buying her something from there but as luck would have it hubby stumbled upon an old dresser in someone's trash and put it in the back of his truck.  Old habits die hard around here. Once a trash picker, always a trash picker. I wish I would have gotten a "before" picture of it. (I am terrible at remembering to do that). The dresser was pretty darn ugly. Visualize a little boy's room circa 1960. There was even a Conestoga Wagon made of wood glued to the front of one of the drawers! Ugly aside -the dresser is SOLID WOOD - which you can't say about IKEA stuff - so we decided to take a chance and paint it. This picture shows how it looked right before painting (without the drawers). I took a pic of the Conestoga Wagon (shown below) just to prove that it actually exsisted!

Hubby uses a paint sprayer now to paint all of our projects. The end result looks very professional - and it is much quicker and easier to do. I would recommend painting this way to anyone who paints furniture. Here are some pictures in process. Paint - Clark & Kensington from Ace Hardware

Finished Dresser - We added an old mirror that was also found in the trash previously. I love the bright aqua she chose. I think it looks great against the green bedroom walls. This is a small-sized dresser, which is perfect for an 8 year old. The best part is the final price tag - $15 for paint and $30 for knobs. Much cheaper than buying brand new furniture. Plus, if she beats it up, spills on it or writes on it (which she has been known to do) I won't be as upset as I would normally be if I had spent $250 +.

 

(dresser knobs from Target)

Here are some pictures of the rest of the bedroom.

Chalkboard Wall. I painted one wall in each of my daughter's bedrooms in chalkboard paint. It took 2 coats to cover the wall. The girls enjoy writing notes to each other on their walls and Hannah enjoys playing school. The only down side is it does create a lot of chalk dust on the floor. We have hardwood floors in the bedrooms so I'm not too worried about it because it is an easy clean up. Not sure how I would feel with carpeting.

 

I snuck a little vintage in by using an old bedspread as a dust ruffle.

The final result is a very bright & cheery room. I love how it turned out. All furniture is second-hand, thrifted or found.

KayteeJane

Monster High Doll House

My daughter's love playing with Monster High dolls. It is their new favorite toy and has surpassed their love for Barbie and Bratz. Recently my husband found this doll house in the trash. We decided to recycle it and transform it into a Monster High house for the girls to play with.

All it takes is some black spray paint and tape.

Start by taping off parts of the house that you don't want painted black.

After taping, spray with paint.

It doesn't have to be neat or perfect - it is a monster house after all.

After covering with paint, we pulled the tape off and here are the results.
As you can see the tape didn't come off neatly and there is some overspray, which I think adds to the haunted house look.

The inside.

We stopped there but you could go all out with this project by adding other colors in paint from the Monster High palette like neon pink, grey and purple.

KayteeJane

One Person's Trash...

You have all heard the saying "one person's trash is another's treasure". I wanted to share with you today some of the great things that I have found in people's trash. No, I am not too proud to pick out of the trash. My husband and I used to make a fun game of it. We would buckle up our young daughter Gaby in the seat between us in our 2 door pick up truck and head out on garbage day looking for "rusty gold". When we would see something good we would hum the song to "Sanford and Son" as our congratulations anthem. There were so many times when we would be low on cash in our bank account and then stumble upon something neat that we could sell online for cash or scrap the metal for cash. God really provided for us during those times in a way that some may find weird but we found fun. I wish I could show you pictures of the cool things that I didn't keep but sold. So many awesome things which included...a vintage Howdy Doody marionette, an antique child's doll-sized steamer trunk, train things, antique furniture, collectible hotel keys, and the list goes on.

What you see here are some of the things that I kept. All of this was found over several years - not all at once. I haven't found anything in the trash this year at all. Some years you find so many things you can't believe what people are throwing away and other years you find nothing. It is all part of the hunt.

I begin with my MOST FAVORITE FIND of all time - probably my most favorite item that I own, this old glider. If you know me then you know that I love this thing. I once worried that someone would steal it off our porch and my husband burst out laughing. He said "No one is going to steal that!". To me it is as precious as fine jewels....what can I say I have a junk collector's heart!

These came with it!!!

A great vintage World War II era print called "Serving the Nation" by Dean Cornwell which shows Uncle Sam alongside a train carrying military amunition and a steel mill in the background.

I saw this piece of furniture in the trash one afternoon while out walking in my neighborhood. I called my hubby on his cell phone and asked him if he would ride over ASAP and load it into his truck. He was able to leave work and come over and get it for me....how is that for devotion??

You've seen these before. They are sitting on my front porch. The croquet set and the primitive bench were both out in the trash.

This last one I hesitated to include because to show it will reveal to the world my mess of a basement. Oh well - this is life. This piece is super-cool. It is a metal frame of shelves that hold vintage metal wire baskets. Maybe it was once used in an old store? Not sure, but I am keeping it because I know I will always find a use for it somewhere. Right now it hold toys that my kids aren't playing with.

Have you ever found anything cool in the trash? I would love to hear about it. Please leave me a comment and let me know about your treasures.

KayteeJane