Magnum Opus - Upcycled Scraps

Okay - so this was fun. I really wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but I had a vision. My real goal was to save these two little trashed parts from a "waterfall" vanity.

I have the drawers and hardware as well. I used a bit of wood filler on the top and sides (as you can see), but I knew they would be painted - so no harm. When I started this project - my vision was some type of shelving unit. I knew Mrs. Smith and I would be selling CeCe Caldwell's paint at the booth, so I wanted something somewhat creative that would house our paint products. I had some large pieces of oak from the TV Console that I shortened, so I started to work those in as not to waste any good wood in TheSmithGarage. Here is a first take. You can laugh, that was Mrs. Smith's first reaction - mine too. I thought, what am I getting myself into?

If yo are a follower, you may have seen a semi-finished picture earlier this week. And if you look ahead before you read, then you have already seen that it can turn out okay, but if you are reading along, and haven't scrolled down yet - you are thinking the same thing I am - "Wow, that's ugly."

But remember - I am saving this trash from a certain dumpster demise. If I didn't mention it already, Mrs. Smith picked these up with Boy Wonder sometime last Summer for very little money - like maybe a couple of bucks. The hardware was worth it, but I really wanted to save them and upcycle them into something "Great". As you can see, after attaching the shelf, I used a bit more wood filler. In fact, I had to purchase a new tub of wood filler while working on this project. So far, we have a few bucks for the original two pieces, some oak scraps from my pile, some wood filler, and a few wood screws (oh, and a piece of plywood across the back to keep it plumb). It has now become a pretty heavy piece. The oak sheeting is 3/4 inch, which added a considerable amount of weight to the project, but it will make this a very stable piece to hold quart cans of paint.

I wanted it to be a pallet for the many colors of paint that CeCe Caldwell's offers. So my thought was to try to get different colors of paint all over it while still maintaining a fairly appropriate style for Mrs. Smith. I thought Vintage White would be good for the top since it might see a lot of ware. I also wanted to get Simply White on there so customers could see the difference, so I framed the drawers in that color. I thought the shelves might look good in Seattle Mist (which is somewhat gray), while the inside walls would look good in a light green color (which happens to be called Alaskan Tundra Gray). I did one side in Memphis Blue and the other in Cottonwood Sienna. Then I started painting the drawers on the front and sides to get all the other colors in (at least the colors I now have in stock). Here is what it looked like drying this weekend.

After a little drying time, and making sure all sides had some color - in the picture above from left to right - Maine Harbor Blue, Memphis Blue, Pittsburg Gray and Mesa Sunset. - I started in on the waxing. Normally I would sand and distress now, but I wanted to try something new that I saw on a great video regarding CeCe Caldwell's paint - (Here is the Video). So I waxed, let it cure overnight, then sanded and lightly distressed. I'll tell you one thing - no dust this way, but my sandpaper didn't last long either. I didn't want to distress it too much because I wanted some color integrity for my customers. So here are several shots to show you how well it turned out. I am really happy with it.

So on the front of the drawers, we have Carolina Sun Yellow, Georgia Clay, Destin Gulf Green, and Spring Hill Green.

On this side of the drawers, the colors are Seattle Mist (gray), Cottonwood Sienna, Santa Fe Turquoise, and Memphis Blue - also Memphis Blue on the left side of the drawers there.

Here is a closer look at the original hardware - I kept it original because I thought they were classic - and the plastic (bake-lite) was not broken at all.

This is Destin Gulf Green framed by Simply White - it also shows the lightly distressed finish. I was so excited to get this finished - and it really did turn out beautiful for how bad it all started.

Here it is loaded up with CeCe Caldwell's Paint

Please let me know what you think - I love to hear your comments and if you would like to follow along - go ahead. There are plenty more project pieces in the pipeline.

Linked to:

Primitive & Proper

The Vintage Farmhouse

Miss Mustard Seed Furniture Feature Friday

Decorating Insanity

Funky Junk Interiors

Mr. Smith

Junk To Treasure - Beach Style

Well it has been a week on the road for me in Minnesota - you can check out more about that at Gate 87A . So I had some time to work on a few items over the past few days. One of them I picked up at Junk N Treasures - a great place to shop for us, but we try to find really rough stuff so Wanda will give us a deal. This shelf was rough - I tried to take a few pictures to show the before.

Almost 7' tall. At one time it had cabinet doors on a couple of bottom shelves.

Can you see the dirt and grime? Probably some guy's garage shelf. Lots of dirt and one spot with gooey stuff like molasses.

And this one spot that needed repair. We paid $25 for it (bundled with some other junk).

So, I got out the belt sander, the sanding block, a putty knife and a wire brush and started cleaning. I put some wood filler in the gaping crack, and clamped it back together, then started painting. I used a roller to cut the time of painting, not really knowing what type of final finish I wanted. I had some darker oops paint that I thought would give the dirt and grime a good covering on the shelves. Here it is after that paint.

Then a few coates of white. I think Mrs. Smith wanted it white, but some of the grease and grime was still coming through the white, and I would have had to paint several coates to get a really pure white look.

After reading a post regarding "color" from Bungalow 47 , I decided I wanted something new and colorful - and bright. Another can of oops paint - and working with a brush that I cut to make it easy access to the smaller spaces - I was determined to finish this journey with something cool and "beachy".

I brushed the paint on lightly, so the white would come through. Wow I like this look.

So thank you Bungalow 47 for your inspiration. Not sure if this will go in our home or the store, either way, I enjoyed cleaning up this piece of junk and turning it into someone's treasure.

Mr. Smith

Linked to:
Funky Junk Interiors
The Shabby Creek Cottage
At The Picket Fence
Beyond the Picket Fence