Retro Redo Part 1

I love a great deal as much as the next person, and free is always good, but I have to admit I've always been a little wary of "dumpster diving."  I know people that do it, I've heard people talk about it on HGTV, and I've seen the great stuff that people drag home and resurrect.  I've just always been a little to "scared" to do it myself.  That was until last year after picking up my son up at middle school. You see, every year my small town has what they call "City-wide Clean-up."  You can clear as much shit unused treasure out of your house as you want and set it at the curb, and the trash service comes and takes all of it.  What I discovered is that if you scope out the streets before the trash truck comes you can find some diamonds in the rough.

Sorry about the blurry Android photo! And it's not in the photo but the seat cushion was with the chair!

I must confess my middle-schooler wasn't too keen on the idea of me pulling over on the road near his school and dragging this beauty up out of the ditch.  But sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.  I promptly drove to our storage unit and unloaded it in hopes that my husband wouldn't discover it and throw it back in the trash!  And there it's been sitting since last May.  Fast forward to last week.  I've been wanting to learn to upholster for quite some time but just didn't ever take the initiative.  I was talking with my sister  again about wanting to learn and she just happened to go online and find a class at a local community college.  Unfortunately, the first class was the night before she found it and it said online that it was closed.  Not to be discouraged, I called up the admissions office and pleaded my case.  As luck would have it the instructor is a very agreeable fellow and gave me permission to start this week.  Yeah!  So last night I loaded up my project and headed to my first upholstery class.  As much as I hoped it could, the upholstery could not be saved, and  as you can see it is missing a front leg, but not to worry a new one has been ordered and is on its way!

This is the tag I removed from the bottom of the chair.  I haven't done any research on the Thayer Coggin Co., but I definitely will.

 After removing the base of the chair, I was on my way to removing all the old upholstery.

All the springs are in great shape.

This is its current state after my first official upholstery class.  I'll post more as I work my way through the class.

Dear Craig's List, I love you!

We are making some improvements to our lakehouse (more on that later) and I needed some nightstands for our new master bedroom.  Although I want it to look awesome, I don't want to spend a lot of money.  Enter Craig's List.  If you haven't started searching Craig's List, don't.  It is highly addictive and purely impossible not to click on all the listings for "very nice couch."  But I digress.  This is what I found:

A matching pair for $80.  I think I overpaid a bit for what they are, but I just love the "basket-weave" look of the fronts.  My first step was to remove the old hardware, doors and drawers.

I repaired some places with wood filler and then sanded it all down.  Next, I primed the inside and out with Zinsser Primer and gave it another light sanding.

Next came the fun part.  It wasn't such a windy day so I decided to try out my Christmas gift from my mother-in-law.

I chose Martha Stewart's Wrought Iron.  I requested it in semi-gloss oil based enamel, which now I understand most places aren't carrying, but instead of telling me that, they mixed it in semi-gloss latex.  I was already in the thick of things so I decided to give it a go anyway.  Let me just say that oil based enamel is the way to go for furniture.  You just can't beat the smooth hard finish it provides. 

I gave everything a couple of light coats and since it was latex paint it dried rather quickly outside.  After the first two coats, I did a light sanding with fine grit sandpaper and then sprayed a couple more coats.  I found these great ring pulls online and I love the aged brass look of them.  Now I wish I would have ordered more just to have in my stash!  After letting everything dry overnight, I replaced the hardware, doors, and drawers.  I must say I love the finished product.  The navy blue is just the perfect shade.  I'll share more when the bedroom is complete.