Rebirth

I LOVE TO PAINT FURNITURE! I love adding life to a piece that was destined for the dump. Transforming someones' trash and giving it a place of prominence in a home is thrilling (to me anyway). When you have a piece of furniture that you feel is no longer of use or value to you, try looking at it with different eyes. Could it be transformed into something wonderful with a simple coat of paint? Or can it be changed into something entirely different, and serve another purpose?

About 15 years ago, I saw a chair sitting on the curb of a neighbors house, sadly waiting to be picked up with the rest of the garbage. It had seen better days. It was old. It was dirty.  It had a red vinyl seat (yuck). But, it had "good bones" as they say. It was sturdy. It had potential. I couldn't imagine why this chair would be sent off to the dump rather than given away or donated to charity! I quickly ran inside and called my neighbor to make sure that she really meant to discard the chair with her weekly rubbish or if it was a horrible mistake. When she told me that she meant to throw away "the piece of junk", I asked if I could have it. She couldn't understand why I'd want it, but agreed to let me retrieve it from the curb. I took it home, cleaned it up, removed the horrible red vinyl from the seat, and began to paint. I wish I had a picture but you'll just have to use your imagination...I gave the chair a fresh coat of white paint, I painted cute little flowers on it. On one of the slats, I painted my daughter's name, Carrie. On the next slat, I painted "princess of quite a lot". I covered the seat in a pink and white check. It was stinking cute! (Stinking cute means I like it a lot)!

Carrie eventually outgrew the cute pink and white theme so I transformed the chair yet again. I painted it blue and added a brown and blue floral fabric to the seat. Once again...stinking cute! It has sat on my screen porch for several years now, still sturdy, still not worthy of the dump, still no picture...sorry.

Now we have redone Carrie's room. She's like her mom...3 years is about enough of the same colors and theme. Her beautiful Paris themed, soft green and brown room has been changed to turquoise with accents of orange. Since we're on a roll of changing things, why not change the chair and reunite it with Carrie? I painted it orange and added a fun, turquoise and green paisley fabric. Even though there is no orange in the fabric, the paint works well with the fabric because they are both bright and those colors are present in the room. Yay!!! I remembered to take pictures...

Below is a picture of a bed and nightstands that I painted black. The bed was a veneer so I had to prime before I painted. If I do say so myself, it looks like something out of Pottery Barn! The painting on the wall I took from the pillows on the bed.

The bed came with a dresser, but I didn't need it in my guest room. I did however need a bar for my porch! So, I completely reinvented the dresser. I removed the drawers and cut away the wood that divided each drawer. I painted the dresser yellow and distressed it. I had a large mirror that was cut the wrong size for my bathroom so I had it cut at a glass shop to make the shelves inside the dresser/bar. I added a metal wine glass holder that I got at my local home improvement store. So, for around $20, I have a great bar for my porch...