Deals, Steals, & Thrifting

Mini Dresser Pretties

Published on February 27, 2013March 12, 2013 by Our Humble Abode21 Comments

I admit, I totally teased you yesterday about the mini dresser. But, I hadn’t gotten pictures of it until later yesterday afternoon. So, here it is, finished and ready to use. Boom, in yo’ face.

Maybe finished. See those pale legs? Even after two coats of stain like everything else. The different woods took the stain their own way. Thin veneer sides are slightly less red toned than the fronts. Luckily it’s not noticeable in the small guest room. But I might get a different, darker stain to try on the legs, just to see how it goes. I haven’t coated those in poly for that reason.

Notice the blue between the drawers? I did that to match the laminate top I painted. And the top of the drawers to cover the plywood edges. We’ve had a Carrara marble remnant in the garage that I considered using as the top. Not sure the skinny legs could handle that much weight. And I didn’t want to ask Ben to cut it. I’m still hoping we can use it for a coffee table someday.

Taping the wood edges gave me a crisp straight line so only the top got paint.

For a little more fun, I painted the outer sides of the drawers blue, too. (Mysterious from Benjamin Moore, color matched to a sample can of Glidden Duo)

I’m calling this make over a success. What is better than simple lines, dark wood, and navy blue?

That ends the mini dresser love fest. What do you think of the changes?

Mini Dresser Make Over

Published on February 26, 2013February 26, 2013 by Our Humble Abode4 Comments

I’ve been searching for a simple, affordable, MCM style wooden dresser for several months. Various thrift stores and very few options. Until last week, when I spotted a five foot dresser for $50 and a matching mini dresser for 25 bucks. This dresser is for the tiny library/guest room which makes the nightstand size perfect.

Clean lines, MCM style, in good condition (a few scratches and a laminate top). Perfection. I could have left it as is, but I knew it could be better. Refinishing to the rescue. The dresser is plywood with a thin wood veneer. For solid wood I prefer to sand the surface to prepare for stain. But, I worried I’d sand through the veneer. Despite my last paint stripper experience, I decided to use Citristrip on the drawer fronts, sides, and legs.

While it did its magic, we hit up the hardware store for a plastic scraper, a sample of Ben Moore paint, and came back to get started. It seemed ready.

Scraping most of it off was quick, leaving me with a pile of spaghetti like stuff. The round legs took a little more time, but the finish came off cleanly.

With the scraping done, I used an old rag and odorless mineral spirits to clean off the residue. Which didn’t work. Instead it just made a gummy, tacky mess. I let it dry, then used 220 grit sand paper on the laminate top and flat sides.

The darker patches are from the stripper.

Lesson learned, skip the paint stripper, Amanda. It might work, but the clean up is more than I’m willing to deal with. But, I was able to start staining. Dark wood floats my boat. Wait, that didn’t come out right. I had a can of Dark Walnut stain (left over from a bookshelf I refinished a few years ago). Two coats on the fronts, sides, and legs. But I had to paint the drawer edges and sides to hide the layered plywood that before were painted dark brown.

To protect my freshly stained sides, I taped off everything so I could prime and paint the laminate top and drawer dividers.

A few coats of paint on the primed spots followed by two coats of satin polyurethane gave a nice shine, protecting and enhancing. Come back tomorrow to see how it turned out. Yes, I’m a total tease, but I’ve got to take pictures still.

Another Love{ly} Sale

Published on January 31, 2013January 31, 2013 by Our Humble Abode2 Comments

Valentine’s day is coming up quickly. (Can you believe we’re one day away from February?!) For the most lovey day of the year, we’re deeply discounting all prints in our shop. Today, all 8 by 10 inch prints are only five bucks. Perfect for Valentine’s day and beyond.

Without You:

Love Heart:

Love (or Family) Stump:

Carved Initials:

But, like last year’s sale, the price will go up one dollar per day until back at $15. Think of it as a reverse clearance. You already know the rock bottom price, so the longer you wait, the less time you’ll have to enjoy the print. What are you waiting for? Go stock up at rock bottom price.

And here’s a lovely (limited time) freebie for you.

Blue and yellow Venn Diagram:

Blue and pink Venn Diagram:

Blue and purple Venn Diagram:

Green and orange Venn Diagram:

Thrifty Finds

Published on January 18, 2013January 18, 2013 by Our Humble Abode6 Comments

Happy Friday, friends! Hope you all have had a great week. Ben’s brother, sister-in-law, and niece visited this week. We hadn’t seen them in over a year. Long overdue. When us girls get together, we like to do some shopping. Mostly at thrift stores, and there’s a great consignment shop in town that her family owns. Of course we had to go. Twice. So many great things, so little time to see everything. So here are my favorites and a few items that I brought home.

Look at this cool vintage chess set. 79 bucks, but so pretty and detailed.

And a beautiful giant jug. Seriously giant, about 18 inches in diameter at the largest point.

Or these cool horse heads. The kids obsessed over them almost as much as I did.

I’ve never seen this style champagne flute. Brass bottom and stainless top.

Speaking of brass, how about a brass cowboy boot and horse?

Ben even found something. A denim cowboy hat. Luckily he didn’t go home with it.

But a few pretties came home with me. A set of marble horse head bookends for 8 bucks and a brass squirrel nutcracker for $6.

I’ve seen similar sets of bookends for $20 or more. They’re not an exact match, but I like that.

We don’t have a nutcracker, so I had to pop, American Picker style, on this one.

Brass, vintage, squirrel, and useful.

We had a great time visiting, laughing (a lot), eating (a lot!), shopping, and hanging out. Too bad it couldn’t last longer. Now we’re back to our same old routine and ready for the weekend. And maybe get some projects done. What are your weekend plans? Found anything great at a thrift store recently?

P.S. We saw a familiar face on American Idol last night. Ben’s adorable, sweet, and talented (!) cousin Isabelle. She and Keith Urban sang Baby, It’s Cold Outside. We’re so happy for her!

Brass Be Gone

Published on September 25, 2012October 8, 2012 by Our Humble Abode16 Comments

Let me preface this by saying I don’t hate brass. At least not aged brass. I can’t stand the bright/shiny/fake/80’s brass. Don’t hate me for doing what I’m about to show you. Last week I had to run to UPS to send my felt leaf bowls to Germany for a photo shoot. While waiting for the main UPS to open at noon, the boys and I stopped at a park to play, bought groceries, and popped in a Goodwill. Not needing anything in particular, I puttered around the store and saw a brass bar cart.

I shoved a little lady to get to it…in my head. In real life I patiently waited for her to pass and then snatched it for, wait for it… 13 bucks.

Because it was a decent size, I rationalized we could use it just about anywhere, and not only as a bar cart. Yeah, Ben’s jug-o-wine wouldn’t look too fancy on this bad boy. The details were so nice. Double tiered, wooden legs, and on castors.

I’m guessing there was another glass shelf at the bottom, but we can replace that. Either with another piece of glass or painted MDF.

Everything was great, except the finish. While I liked the brass color, it was certainly worn, and not in a good way.

Hoping to keep the brass, I tried using Rub N Buff on it. No such luck, it just wiped right off the slick surface. Well, it was worth a shot. Sure, I could have used spray paint, but I’m not sure how it would hold up over time. When in doubt, I turn to my trusty friend Blue Magic.

Pair Blue Magic and fine steel wool and you’ll get a shiny, chrome finish on brass plated items. Because this stuff is stinky, I rolled my cart outside. I strongly recommend wearing rubber gloves, too. The thicker, the better. Then, dip the steel wool in the cream, and polish away. Ten or twenty seconds later, depending on the thickness of the brass and how hard you’re scrubbing, you’ll see chrome.

Keep on going. Now, I’m not sure exactly how/why this works, but here’s my best guess. The steel wool acts as a fine sandpaper, removing the brass plate. If used alone, it would scratch the metal, so the Blue Magic polishes it. Thanks to all the crazy joints and details, it took me about five hours to get this done.

I decided to keep the brass on the wheels, both because I like the look and I didn’t know if the metals were the same. I quickly sanded down the legs to re-stain them a rich walnut color. Boy was that quicker! A coat of silver spray paint on the black rubber pieces and here she is.

Obviously I’m using it as a side table in our living room. The size is great, but I’ve got some styling I want to do. Oh, and the bottom shelf.

I’m loving the shiny finish.

Those dark wooden legs, me-ow.

I’m excited for the bottom shelf and pretty details.

Castors are awesome, too. If we don’t need it as a side table down the line, we can always roll this to another room, inside or out.

Basically, it’s exactly what I didn’t know I wanted.

How about a budget breakdown?

Cart: $12.99 at Goodwill

Blue Magic and steel wool: Already had on hand (costs about 12 bucks at car stores)

Sand paper and stain: Left over from the bookshelf and bench

Silver spray paint: From my stash

Time: roughly 6 1/2 hours

Total: $12.99 plus 6 1/2 hours of my time. Not bad at all.

Do you like the changes? Or did you prefer the brassy finish? What’s your favorite recent thrifty find? Ever tried Blue Magic on brass? I’m contemplating using it on another project, but I’ve got some testing (and probably convincing of Ben) to do first.