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

A Summary of Upcoming Projects

My day job has been keeping me quite busy, and I have nothing on the slate at TheSmithGarage to be finished anytime soon, but I thought I would peak your interest to come back and see some of these fabulous pieces that will progress over time. We always have new furniture - haha - furniture in need of work - coming in. Mostly from weekend garage sales or maybe a piece or two from thrift stores, and we love getting free stuff. Here are a few projects that will have to come under a title of their own at some point in the near future.

This is an Oak Finished TV Console Mrs. Smith and I have had for many years. Boy Wonder had it in his room until he decided a few months ago he didn't want the "giant" tv anymore - remember he wanted the Union Jack Dresser . So the tv was sold and he put the money in savings for a flat screen at some point in the future. This TV Console on the other hand - went to TheSmithGarage for me to work on and make it into something "sellable" for more than $20. That's the going rate for these on Craigslist .



So my neighbor stopped by the other day while taking his evening walk with his two Cocker Spaniels and mentioned how he restructured theirs to make it work with a newer flatscreen tv. My idea was to cut it in half - make the bottom a console and the top a desk. My neighbor said he took the top of and placed it right over the bottom part, then used the oak sides for other projects. Sounded like a really good plan, plus it would cover any hack-job my saw would do to the oak bottom. So here it is primed and ready for a nice coat of fresh paint.

Amazing, huh? You may ask why I use a primer if I plan on using any type of clay or chalk paint. Well, Some pieces of furniture just need a good base to start. I'm not sure what color this piece will get, but I thought it would be nice to have a lighter base before applying a final coat. I want this piece to have a very smooth/polished finish. Enough on this for now - so what happened to those oak sides?

Enter - two really rough "waterfall" vanity sides. Yep, that's all Mrs. Smith found sometime last Summer while garage sale hunting. The structure was sound, but much of the veneer is falling off. Here they are before I started working on them a few weeks back.



A few weekends, some wood putty, some pieces of oak from an old tv console, and some other scrap wood from a train table that boy wonder had as a child - and -

Now I know some of you are shouting - COOL! Yeah - that's what I thought too. Wood and furniture that some would have discarded for a landfill or co-gen power plant - Mr. Smith has made a masterpiece! See - I have some skill - and some might call me an artist. We really do like upcycling whatever we can. So you can see there is quite a bit of putty on this, I want to get a fairly smooth finish - and I still have a lot of sanding to do on this yet. I will not be using primer on this piece - mainly because this will be our display piece at Oregon Street Antique Mall for our CeCe Caldwell's Paints . With clay and chalk paints - you don't always need a primer on bare wood. I like to do it when I have a lot of wood putty or if the piece has been resurrected from total destruction, but I won't primer this piece to make a point to how good CeCe Caldwell's paint is. I will most likely paint several colors on this piece, then have someone script the color name over the color, so folks get to see the colors right on the display shelf. Great idea - eh?

Here is another project awaiting paint. This is a "dumpster dive" dropleaf table. Now I may have mentioned this in passing a few weeks back. I didn't actually dive in myself - although I would have if I saw this in there. A friend of mine from church called Mrs. Smith about it when she was getting her nails done at the shop where I also get my hair cuts. Mrs. Smith in turn called me and said I needed to go pick up a table. So as the story goes, they get a lot of folks dumping stuff in their dumpster since it is not locked up. The nail person saw table legs sticking out of the dumpster and pulled the table out. Noby wanted it at the shop, but Mrs. Smith's friend knew she would want it. So here it is -

 It is actually a pretty old farm table. It has flat steel screws and square nuts holding the legs on.






I had to replace one of the leaf holders underneath, but other then that - it was in pretty good shape. It even has an original glass knob on the little drawer. This table is really cool, can you believe someone threw this out?

And the last piece I will cover today is that buffet you see off to the left above. We paid a little more for this one, but it is a large buffet that will surely sell for top dollar when completed. It also had a lot of damage on the drawer, and sides - plus it had some really chippy latex paint that comes off in chunks

So - please sign up to follow along on TheSmithGarage blog so you can see how these and other  upcycled pieces of furniture turn out in the near future. We are sure to see more exciting pieces come through. And if you want to purchase any of them - let me know and you can buy them next door at TheSmithHotel .

I really do want to hear from you - so let me know what color you think would go well on these pieces. Pick from the CeCe Caldwell's color chart . And sign up to come back and see them. You won't want to miss the finished products.

Mr. Smith