Reclaimed Wood Dresser Makeover, Rescuing Furniture One Piece At a Time.

Wow, it's been such a crazy, busy summer I just realized that I neglected to share this next project with you.  My friend and co-worker Jeanet gave me an ugly dresser, she warned me before she brought it to me that it was ugly, and she wasn't kidding.  I find that I am ever the optimist, as soon as someone tells me about a piece of furniture I always think it is going to be better looking than it actually is.  I prepared myself for this one and it was still worse than I anticipated.  Oh well, sometimes ugly works, first of all you know it can't get worse, and secondly you can always just knock it to pieces and throw it in the fire if it doesn't work out.  This particular piece was slated for the dump when I rescued it.  To Jeanet's credit she did not buy this ugly mess, previous owners left it behind and she inherited it.

The outside is a lovely green melamine, oh, and it had wonderful plastic drawer pulls that I removed before remembering to take the glamour shot.

 I knew the only hope for this dresser was to cover the ugliness, originally I was going to cover it with Asian inspired fabric but decided to go with something not so gender specific.

I covered the top with reclaimed wood and love the result, next I covered the sides with thin tongue and groove pine which I painted gray with a distressed look.  I then covered the drawers with plaid fabric, which I love, but let me tell you plaid was not the easiest fabric to work with.  Lining up all the lines was a lot of work!  Finally I finished it off with some beautiful drawer pulls.

This shot does not really do this piece justice, but even in this photo I think you can see that this dresser went from ugly to fabulous!  What I like most about this piece is that it appealed to such a large audience, from seniors to young, men, and women alike.

I hope you all like it as much as I do!

The Tale of Two Chairs, Chairs Made Into A Bench.

I've been wanting to make a bench like this for a while, but was looking for just the right chairs.  I got these chairs with a small table from Storage Wars on Facebook.  They were very wobbly, and I would have had to knock them apart and glue them if I wanted to keep them the way they are.

They were kid of cute, but now I think they are beautiful!  I saw a bench on Pinterest that had the double layer look on the upholstery and decided to go for it.  I figured out how I was going to do it and am so happy with the outcome.  It is so muggy here right now that I am having a hard time getting paint to dry, but it was dry enough to put it together for a picture.  I may add some embellishment, but am not sure yet.

Now I wish the table had come with more chairs.  Isn't she pretty?

Another Bench Made Out of Windows,

Yesterday I showed you the bench I made out of old windows.  Well it was such a success that I decided to make her twin sister, as you can see they are fraternal twins, not identical twins.  On this one all the  window panes in the big window were intact, so I decided to leave the glass in it.  This one is a little taller,  a little darker (she was turquoise for a very short time, now there are just slight little hints showing through), and her fabric is a little bolder. 

Here is a pic of the first one just for comparison.

What Do You Do With Old Windows? You Make a Bench of Course; Bench Made Out of Old Windows

So what do you do with old windows?  Well you make a bench of course!  Oh, you don't? Oh, well, I do!  I have had several old windows for many years that came out of my Grandmother's house.  Recently I found out that my husband gave some of them away!  He had been warned not to do that!  Luckily, while he was handing them out so freely, I caught up with my cousin who was on his way to the dump with a truckload of the same windows, that he had held on to for many years and now decided they had to go.  I ended up with more than I had to begin with.  I think that means I was meant to have them, don't you?  With benches being such a popular item at the gallery, I decided to make one out of windows.  I scoured the internet looking for ideas, and guess what, you aren't the only one that doesn't make benches out of windows.  Other than a potting bench I couldn't find any.  Oh well, I had an idea swirling around in my head anyway, so I carried on.

I broke the glass out of the windows, it's a good thing they weren't mirrors, I would have a life time of bad luck!  Instead all I got was one tiny little cut, that bled and bled and bled.  I had a glove on, but I guess I should have had two.  And yes I should have had safety glasses on, and I normally would, but it's such a long walk across the driveway, and well, I am very lazy!  Instead I squinted really hard, that's the same thing right?  It's okay, my eyes are intact.

Here are the windows once the glass was broken out, ha ha, you can even see the box of broken glass in front of them.  Hmmm, I wonder what I could do with that broken glass, there has to be something!

Construction almost complete!  I still had a little work to do on the seat support.  My friend Zima keeping me company off to the right.

All done, nicely dressed up with beautiful fabric.

A Bevy of Benches! Benches Made From Reclaimed Furniture and Other Wood.

Who knew benches would be so popular!  This post will concentrate on the benches I have made recently.  Enjoy!

The next three are made out of beds.

This one was made out of the bottom half of a dresser.

 This was made from a coffee table and can be used as either a coffee table or a bench.

I made this one out of three antique chairs.

The next two I made from scratch from reclaimed wood.

This one was made from half a head board, and the rest was scrap and reclaimed wood.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation!

Wow!  It's been a long time since I've posted.  Aside from being the regular crazy summer I usually have, a friend and I have secured a venue for our furniture for a couple of months.  My friend Laura sells at the farmer's market here in our town, but I just build, paint, and hang on to what I make.  We are set up at the A-frame Gallery in Sioux Lookout at least until the long weekend in September, maybe longer, not sure yet.  Our furniture has been very well received by the community and we have been busy trying to keep up. Who knew that benches would be so popular!  Here are a few pics to show you our set up.  Then I will do a post just on the benches we have done this summer.