This past February, a girlfriend of mine and I went 'treasure hunting' in some thrift stores and antique shops (mainly in Norfolk). I had never had much luck finding any 'treasures' in my previous hunts, but hit the jackpot this day. I came home with 2 side tables (1950's-60's) and a gorgeous dresser/buffet (1920's-40's). I didn't even break the bank with my purchases. Great company, awesome deals and a new hobby filled my day.
I decided to tackle the side tables first. I thought they'd go in my bedroom, but they were a bit bigger than I thought so they found a new home in our tv room. I didn't want to go with a 'safe' color so I thought I'd have fun and paint them a turquoise blue. When I started the refinishing process, I discovered someone else started sanding one of the tables, but didn't get very far. After much sanding and many, many coats of turquoise the tables were finally finished. It took a few weeks to finish between nap times, school pickups and all the other endless everyday things. Once I moved them into the tv room, they looked like they belonged and it made my heart smile. Unfortunately, my favorite lamp didn't survive a battle with my little boy and made it's way into the trashcan instead of on top of one of the tables. Stella and I made a trip to our favorite home store (the name slips my mind right now) and got two spectacular lamps. Originally, I wanted a different lamp, but they didn't have any in stock. I think the ones we came home with look even better.
It was about 2 months after I finished the side tables when I decided to get to work on the dresser. I was really at a loss of where to start, I was afraid to mess it up. So, I logged onto DIY network and got some tips and also checked out "This Old House" and found everything I needed. I thought when I bought the piece I would paint it black, but the more I looked at it, the more I fell in love with the way the wood looked and knew that I couldn't paint over it. It was a pain staking process with all the removal of the shiny urethane finish and removal of some of the wood stain. After many pairs of gloves and steel wool, it was finally time to restain. I chose one of the darkest wood stains you can find, aside from black and I had such a hard time with the wood soaking up the stain. I had read that sometimes old wood just won't take stain as easily as new wood so I persisted with the continuous staining process. I realized that I wasn't going to get it as dark as I really wanted, but the work I did still looked really good. The end was near and all that was left was cleaning up the hardware on the dresser. I think that was the biggest pain of all, but the drawer pulls cleaned up nicely and within a few days, Al was able to help me move it into our room and move the old dresser out to the garage.
I'm really pleased with the way everything turned out, even if it wasn't the way I had originally envisioned it all. I have more plans of going 'treasure hunting' for more furniture pieces for my bedroom and eventually Stella's room as well. I think it's great if you can find something old that you really fall in love with and bring new life to it. I like that I can find stuff that's made well and re purpose it. It beats spending thousands of dollars on furniture that you can find in a show room and adds a little character to our home, not to mention a great story to tell.
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