Furniture Makeovers – Before & After

Who doesn’t love a good furniture before & after picture?  I do, but, unfortunately, I stink at remembering to take a before picture.

These are 2 of my favorite furniture transformations, and I didn’t really take the before pictures intentionally.  So, they are not the best photos, but I think you will get the idea.

Corner Shelf Redesign

I bought this corner cabinet at a garage sale and loved it because of its size.  I didn’t love the finish on it, but it was ok for a display piece in the shop.

Here’s the only other before photo I could dig up

Ta-duh!  Here it is after some paint and paper. It is out on the floor again ready for its new home

I love the modern paper with the vintage lines of the cabinet.  I kind of did the same thing with the accessories.  What do you think of the shiny gold cocktail shakers with the vintage ironstone?  See what I did there? We changed out the hardware too.

Beyond Repair Bench?

What do you think of THIS before photo?

I’m not exactly sure why we took this photo of our garbage??  It’s actually not garbage – it’s a piece with a back story: (it’s kind of a long one, but funny, so bear with me)

Bench With a Back Story

Kara bought a vintage bench that she loved.  She brought it home, and being pregnant, she had her husband Kyle haul it out of the car and down to their newly finished basement where she discovered that the bench did not fit where she thought that it would. So, husband Kyle brought it back upstairs, knicked up the newly painted walls, and angrily put it back into the car.  Kara then drove it to the mill so she could sell it.  Upon her arrival at the mill, Kara, still pregnant, had her brother Kyle take it out of her vehicle where he promptly dropped it in the parking lot.  That’s when it broke in half and worse.  After much discussion about whether or not the bench could be fixed, Kyle leaned the pieces up against the porch with some stuff we needed to throw away, and, apparently, someone took a picture of it.  When I went back to the mill the next day, the bench had disappeared.  I told Kara that someone stole her bench and she no longer had to decide if the bench was repairable. 

That was in February.  None of this crossed my mind again.  Fast forward to last week. Deb and I went shopping with our matching purses and wallets. (We both loved the same one at Chic Antiques)  I made a purchase and then Deb followed.  As we were driving by McDonald’s on the way home, I had a hankering for a coke and offered to buy one for each of us.  As I peered into my purse, I realized that I did not have my wallet.  When I told Deb, she then also peered into her purse and announced that she had 2 wallets.  I guess I left MY wallet on the counter at the store we had just visited and Deb put it in HER purse.  Thank goodness.

Long Story Longer…

The next day, I realized that I had Deb’s debit card in my wallet. What does any of this have to do with the bench catastrophe?  I’m getting there….Kara went with me to Deb’s house to return her card.  Kara was a little dumbfounded that Deb and I have the same purse and wallet, too, by the way, when I told her the whole story.  When we were leaving, Kara noticed a bench sitting outside in a tent in Deb’s yard.   She examined it closely and was sure it was THE bench.  I couldn’t believe it and told her she was crazy.  Turns out, it WAS Kara’s bench.  Deb had helped us out and got rid of the garbage and took the bench home for her husband to fix and surprise us with. Then Deb forgot about it.  Her husband fixed it and put it in the tent.

Here the bench now, in the mill, ready to go to its new home.  Better and sturdier than ever!!  

This is just one small story that makes up my full and beautiful life.  It’s pretty crazy how things work out.  You just can’t make this stuff up.