Hello Hardscrabblers! We've been quiet here lately and here is one of the reasons why. We've been working on this project for awhile. The dresser formerly known as "Dumpster Dresser". The other reason is that we are busy with our other blog, Furniture Flippin'!
Remember when we previewed this piece over a month ago?
The story of this dresser/entertainment center began on any ordinary day in the Midwest. My daughter and I on a dumpster dive. This was a clean dumpster dive in a nice neighborhood. No hepatitis shot needed. Somebody had moved and their throwaway furniture didn't make the cut. This was one of those pieces left behind.
Mint green, missing a drawer (we dug around for it, too!), the top was coming up and there were some issues with the side of it, too. Plus, the oversize knobs didn't do much to enhance it's appearance either. Well, we took on the challenge to reinvent this soon to be awesome piece of furniture.
I'm going to let the rest of this play out in pictures.
^ That's not the top but a piece of wood sitting there. It would make a cute kitchen island though!
We wanted to give this piece the look that it has a history to it and
boy, does it ever now! The stain and distressing we put this piece through
makes it look like it would be just as comfortable at home as it would
be in a machine shop. It's a stained and paint finish but in some areas it just
looks oil soaked which is the look we wanted. The metal has age and
rusting to its appearance. The handles are machine shed pulls placed
over individually cut pieces of metal. We used many tools in fabricating
this piece, drill press, grinder, sander, saws, and even a chain. You
imagine it, well, we probably used it.
Here's one more look at the before and after.
Thanks to my handsome handy husband for helping me bring this idea to life! I did the designing, distressing, sanding & staining. He did all the heavy metal and wood work!
Let's hope this fun furniture flip has a nice happy and long life in his new home, wherever that may be. He's for sale! To make an offer you can contact us at furnitureflippin@yahoo.com.
See you next time Hardscrabblers! Don't forget to visit us at Furniture Flippin' too!
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Have you ever been dumpster diving? Admit it. You probably have dug thru trash in some form or other to claim it as your treasure. I have seen things laying alongside the curb before and snatched them up quickly. I've even put things on the curb and had them gone within five minutes of placing them. Sometimes you have to be at the right place at the right time to stumble across a great find, other times you get a tip. I prefer tips. It saves gas.
This time I got a tip. A dear friend of mine sent me a message alerting me to a dumpster full of treasures near her house. I grabbed my daughter and the two of us went to check it out.
My daughter is a young adult. I don't want to give anyone the impression that I am boosting a child into a dumpster to dig around for drawers to a dresser. I did boost her up there, but she's tiny and without fear. Me? I am a huge chicken. I've always had a fear of falling which is precisely the reason I don't know how to roller skate or ice skate or skateboard. I think it all goes back to the time. . .oh, sorry. I also get off track easy. Anyway, I really really didn't want my obit to read "died climbing out of a dumpster and falling onto her head." Can ya blame me?
Back to Dumpster Diving 101. This was a clean dumpster dive. Even cleaner since it had rained a lot the night before we searched it. The stuff they were throwing out made me wish I had a trailer attached to my SUV so I could haul it all away.
There were two dressers in there. We were only able to fit one into my vehicle. The other was larger and we needed a strong guy to help us lift that one. My strong guy was at work. Our plan was to go back later with him.
Here is the one we took home.
It is solid wood. It is missing a drawer. We dug around for that drawer, but, we couldn't find it. It may have been in there and we missed it. No worries because I don't need it.
We were all set to go back for the other dresser when another friend of mine, I call her my "Mini-Me" because she's just like me but 10 years younger, went to check the contents of the dumpster herself and sadly reported the dumpster was empty. Darn on-time dumpster dumping company and darn Mini Me for not going earlier when I told her to go. (She's forgiven though because she is super busy with school, kids, husband, volunteering, etc. Plus, we needed a truck and a strong man to help carry.) Hearing that it was emptied by the company broke my heart. The thought of all of it possibly ending up in a landfill made me extremely sad.
Back to the one we did rescue. I had thought of turning it into an entertainment center (like the one I showed you back in December) and selling it. Remember that one?
Click here to see the tutorial for that totally awesome entertainment console.
I still might do that. I have a line on a buyer, too. Part of me wants to do something totally different though. Well, not totally, because I'd still turn it into an entertainment center. I'm thinking of something industrial looking though. It's still a toss-up. What to do? What to do? That is the question. Any thoughts? Color suggestions? Opinions? I would honestly love your input.
In the meantime, I DO know what I am going to do with my piano roll cabinet I acquired a few weeks ago. Here she is in all her beauty.
Again, excuse my photos. Remember the Robin? A robin tried to kill me but got my camera instead. Remember that?
Since I don't have a player piano or know anybody who owns one and needs a place to store their music rolls, I don't feel bad at all about taking this old cabinet, dismantling it a tad, and re-purposing it.
The outside will pretty much look just like it does in the above photo. I feel good about that. The only difference is I plan on touching up the scratches on the finish, re-staining the top and adding a key pull knob. The original lock is still there but the key for it is gone. The inside is where it is going to change. Here's a look at that.
I fell in love with all of the shelves. I immediately thought, "Baking sheet storage!". I often think and speak in exclamation. No exaggeration. I do. However, I may have 5 baking sheets but not 13. Then my mind went to, "Microwave storage!" There it stayed.
My Triple H (Handsome Handy Husband) confirmed that he was on board for a little more DIY Re-hab. Whew! Because I am fearful of a saw in my hand, too. My husband, too, is afraid of a saw in MY hand. (That's why any sawing falls in his to-do category.) If there is anything worse than breaking a hand in a fall, it would be cutting one off in a saw accident. Can you believe I'm a glass half-full kind of gal? Well, I AM!! Just not when it comes to falling or cutting off a limb.
I am going to have him remove some of the upper shelves. Enough to accommodate a small microwave. The back needs replacing, too. It is just a thin piece of damaged veneer. We need to make sure there is plenty of ventilation for the microwave.
I am going to move baking sheets/pans onto the lower shelves. That should free up my baking sheet storage area that is in a kitchen cupboard and my electric griddle can go there. Which means less trips to the garage to retrieve it and more grilled cheese sandwiches. Did you know that tomorrow, April 12th, is National Grilled Cheese Day? I didn't either until I looked at my son's school calendar.
There you have it. You are all caught up with what we are currently working on. Go make yourself a grilled cheese sandwich but before you do, let me know what to do with that green dresser and if you have irrational fears, too.
Oh, one last thing. Remember the list I had made of projects a few weeks ago? This list? Well, scratch #2 off the list because I think that project would work better with chairs than counter height stools. Those stools were set out on our curb and snatched up by a new family practically the second Triple H set them out there.
#5 is still in the works but I'm waffling on the color choice I had started to use. I can't commit to applying it to the buffet yet. I'm rethinking the whole darn color scheme. I'm thinking of using yellow ochre with a walnut stain instead of the dried fern with espresso stain I have on the hutch. Which means I'll have to repaint the hutch. Or finish it depending on which color I do choose. Give me your input on that one, too, while you are at it.
And #6, well, I have everything to begin it but haven't quite configured the layout.
Now, how 'bout that grilled cheese?
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This little project I'm going to feature today is actually from a couple of years ago.
I was bored one day and needed a project to do. (Like Snoopy and his "It was a dark and stormy night" preface, you will see "I was bored one day" is a common refrain of yours truly.) My eye wandered over to a wall in my house where there hung a sorely outdated Circa 1992 wall clock. I remember when I bought that clock. I purchased it from Spiegel Catalogue. Are they even still in business? Hhmm, I'm not sure. I'll have to Google that later and find out.
So, here she is in all her outdated glory. Please excuse the poor picture. The lighting is bad in our house and quite frankly so is my camera taking skills. Plus, at the time I was just snapping the pic to show my Hardscrabble Home gang.
Don't you LOVE the hearts and vines? Oh, and the Hunter Green. Don't judge me too harshly. Who didn't decorate with Hunter Green back then, right? Hey, it could be worse. At least you aren't looking at a ceramic white goose wearing a blue scarf in this picture! You have to admit I had progressed a little bit in my decorating skills from the goose era.
Ok, so back to this project. I scraped off the hearts and vines with a razor blade. Then I removed the glass inserts and the clock face. I reached into my paint stash and painted her black. Then I sanded her edges and applied a gel stain over the whole shebang.
The clock face needed a makeover, too. That was no problem. I created a new one on my computer using Microsoft Picture It! Please don't laugh. I'm sure there are better and newer programs out there I could use, but I am all for going "old school" on things as my husband likes to say. I like Picture It! and why change what works.
I found a roman numeral clock face I liked and added the initial D, for our family name. I used the font Castellar for the D. It has an old look to it, which I love.
I printed the clock face onto heavy Kraft Brown card stock. I had that paper left over from my pillow business days when I would make my own tags, business cards and advertising stuff. My philosophy is why buy when you can make it yourself! That should be your philosophy, too! As this blog shows you, it's really not that hard to do.
After printing the new clock face, I cut it down to size and just put her right over the board the old clock face had been on.
I then put the clock back together, stood back and marveled at the beauty which was now this clock. The picture below was taken sans glass because I kept seeing my reflection in the glass each time I snapped away. I really, really, really need to replace my broken camera. My pictures won't win any awards, that's for certain.
I love this clock and it holds some very special momentos. My daddy's name plate from his desk and the Bible he would carry when he visited his parishioners either at home or in a hospital. Today marks one year since our Dad's been gone and not a day passes that we don't miss him terribly.
Here is our handsome Dad reading The Night Before Christmas to us girls. From left to right, Lee Ann, Rebecca, Dad, and me, Stephanie. This was before my little brother Michael was born or he'd be in the picture, too. This was an annual Christmas Eve tradition. We would attend Church services first with Dad at the pulpit. Sweet memories.
(Thank you for indulging me as I wandered down Memory Lane for a moment.)
One more time with the before and after shots.
There you have it! A simple and easy clock transformation.
Do you want to know what it cost? It cost NADA. Nothing. Zip.
Zero. Zilch. It just cost me a little bit of time and energy.
What's so great about most of these projects is that you can remake it again and again. I'm sure like the goose decor and the Hunter Green/Hearts era, that sometime the road I will be sick of this look and a change will be in order. My husband hopes it'll be at least a decade away and I am pretty sure it will be.
Now that you've seen my attempt at turning back the clock on time, go clean your own clock and make it over. Then come back here and let us know how you did.
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