Before & After: FREE Record Cabinet Saved from Dumpster

Out for a run one day, I saw this little gal sitting forlornly in front of a dumpster. I thought "How sad." Then I kept going.

I thought about her over the next two days. While it rained. I considered driving the truck over to see if she was still there, but I didn't know how badly she was wounded or what I would do with her when I got her home. But I finally decided to see if she had been picked up yet. I drove over, still in the rain, & there she was. A little worse for the wear. You see, this little record cabinet has a wood veneer. It does not play well with lots of water. I looked her over, looked around to see who else was looking, and when I saw that I was in the clear, I hefted her into the back of my truck. Sometimes I wonder if Vino sees me as the little kid who brings home injured birds & frogs in my pocket because they need "rescued". But he never complains. :) Here's what I did to this gal:

The veneer on the top was bubbled & peeling off. I peeled off the rest of it, and was glad for the rain that softened the glue. Underneath was the wood planks of the top.

All it needed was a good sanding, then some stain & poly. The rest of the body needed a little more work.

The veneer on one side couldn't be saved, so I stripped that off, too. It was stuck on good on the rest of the body, so I just patched the chips with wood filler. A coat of primer & a couple coats of creamy white paint, and she's as good as new! She is missing her drawer, but for a temporary fix, I'm just using a tray that fits the spot.

She is now living as a night stand in our guest room. Happy in her new home!

She & I are participating in some parties today. You should head over & check out the creative things that other bloggers are doing around their homes!


 

The Extent of My Fall Decor

This is it. Two fall-ish colored old books and a fake pumkin.

 

The dish filled with candy corn was my first variation. It was a bad idea. I had to eat some of the candy corn to get the lid to shut, but even with the lid on, I still knew they were there.

(By the way, if you get just the right ratio of candy corn to peanuts, it tastes just like a Salted Nut Roll. That tidbit was free. You're welcome.)

They didn't last long. Thus, the fake pumpkin, which was not tasty in the least.

Have I told you that vintage books are only $1 a piece at our local thrift? Thank you, church ladies. I could probably fill the built-ins with old books from there. I have to restrain myself from buying some every time I go in. I look for cover colors I like, catchy titles, illustrations and things stuck in the pages (personal notes, newspaper articles, leaves, etc.)

Back to the fall decor: I also threw in some bittersweet and a berry branch snagged from the neighbor's bush that grows over our fence.

I don't get into fall decorating so much. Now, I will decorate for Christmas. I'm looking forward to dragging out our Christmas stuff that's been in storage for...what? 4 years? Wow. I'm excited to use my mercury glass ornaments and put evergreen boughs on our built-ins and the piano. Still haven't figured out where a whole tree will fit in our little house.

But for now, this is it. And it's enough. :)

What the...Pottery Barn???

I know I already posted this morning. This is unheard of. Two posts in one day. But this will be short.

So I was tooling around Pottery Barn yesterday. Not to buy anything, mind you, because I'm cheap like that (as you all know by now), but to get ideas. Usually PB has great stuff to copy, even in their displays that have stuff they don't actually sell at the store.

But these pillows really got me worked up. Seriously.

I touched them. They are BURLAP and UPHOLSTERY WEBBING. Why would you pay $29 for something that you could whip up in 10 minutes for less than $2?? Ok, I will admit that there was a zipper, which I haven't figured out how to do yet, but really. I mean, REALLY? (SNL Weekend Update reference!)

Project: Pillows from Discontinued Fabric Samples

Good morning! I'm sitting at a really fantastic little restaurant in Lincoln, NE called Bread & Cup, and the atmosphere seems like something you'd get in a big city. In honor of my sister Shelley's birthday today, here are some snaps I just took with my webcam. I wish you could be here to have breakfast with me! But happy birthday anyways, and I hope you get my package today. :)

The oatmeal is delicious.

But I'm getting distracted...This is about pillows! Particularly, those pillows on my porch sofa:

So easy to do. The actual pillows came with the sofa (vintage mahogany cane-back sofa found at a garage sale on someone's porch covered in leaves, dirt & Big Wheels, not even for sale, but I bought it for a mere $25 - one of my favorite purchases!). The easy part was covering the pillows.

You'll notice that each one is different - on the front & back, so they are reversible, even! Each piece of fabric was a $2 discontinued decorator fabric sample from Joann Fabrics. Have you, also, discovered Joann's discontinued fabric swatch rack? Love!

I looked for fabrics that fit my vision for the porch - beachy, stripes, cotton, canvas, texture, not a whole lot of shimmer. There are a couple of pieces that are more "fancy" silk-looking, but they fit in. I especially like the pale blue velvet one and the paler grey-ish striped one next to it.

So I'm not going to do a super detailed tutorial - how hard is it, really, to sew up 3 sides of 2 squares of fabric, stuff your pillow in, then hand sew the 4th side? And there you have it, the tutorial. If your pillows are less dense and fit better in your fabric squares than mine, you can get away with sewing up a little bit of each edge of the 4th side, but mine are SUPER dense. Not sure what's in them, but they could probably take out an intruder if used to whack him upside the head.

Oh, the gold tufted pillow in the middle isn't part of my home-made collection - it was thrifted years ago. I lurv it. One more thing, the ticking fabric on the seat cushions is really just a large remnant I got at the local thrift for $1, then I wrapped it around the 3 cushions. Done.

I'm quite happy with this porch room. It's almost exactly how I pictured it would be when we first toured the house. It's great for having coffee & doing my Bible Study in the mornings. I'll post on how I put it all together on another day, 'cause I gotta tell you about he turquoise table...and the pendant lamp...and the chairs...



Today I'm participating in the Air Your Laundry Friday party over at the Freckled Laundry. I hope you crash the party to see what other textile projects people are doing in blogland!

Have a great weekend!

House Tour, The AFTER (for now)

Our old house will never be finished. But really, if it ever was, I would probably want to move on to another house that needed help. I have that sort of sickness. :)

But for now, we are at a point in our fixin' up that I'm not embarrassed to have people over anymore. I still see the things that need done, but I can see so much more that has been finished. My mom's Bible study ladies came for a tour a week and a half ago, which prompted a flurry of projects & stuff to get the place ready. Thanks for coming, ladies! I had a great time showing off our second-hand home!

I gave y'all the BEFORE tour here. Take a look for a reminder of how bad it really was. You can also read about stuff we've done to the house if you click on the "house" link under "Labels" on the right hand sidebar of the blog. Oh, and just a reminder, probably 95-98% of the stuff in our house is second hand or gifted to us. I'm cheap like that, too. :)

So, after over a year of "fixin'" here's our AFTER (for now):

The front porch:

 

 

(corner of shame on the front porch)

Living Room

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dining Room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kitchen:

 

 

Bathroom:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guest Room:

 

 

 

 

 

(corner of shame in the guest room)

Our Bedroom: 

 

 

 

(and me...oops!)

 

 

So there you have it. I've posted a lot of photos of projects that I will be blogging about in the near future. So much to talk about! And my "corners of shame" are becoming fewer & smaller. That always makes me happy. Less shame, more show!!