The Perfect Furniture Piece to Rehab or Upcycle

My name is Lori and I have a furniture project problem!  If you follow us on Instagram, you know that we just opened our grainery garage for a huge sale!  I finally realized that my days weren’t long enough to complete all the rehab and upcycling projects I had collected over the years.  

My loss was your gain!  The Grainery was filled with everything from wooden furniture, lamps, rustic salvage pieces, and tons of past-season Chic Antiques items. 

Picking the Perfect Piece

What do you look for when you go to an estate or garage sale?  

Here are some things I look for when I pick out a project piece:

1.  Good bones – old furniture is solid!  They don’t make it like they used to. Sometimes the piece just needs a little shoring up, some paint, or maybe a good sanding and stain.
2. Dual purpose – you know the saying 2 for the price of 1?  I love a two-for-one!  What can the furniture do for you?  A dresser as an entry table offers a surface for displaying or collecting keys and mail.  AND you get storage with all those dresser drawers!
3. Price – most of my project pieces are free or very minimal in cost.  With the addition of paint and time – you don’t want to start off with an overpriced item.
4. LOVE! – sometimes the piece chooses you.  I’ve brought home many project pieces that make my family say, “WHY!”  My answer is always – “because I just love it!”

Recent Furniture Upcycle Projects

My love of project pieces isn’t going to go away.  I will always be on the lookout for the next great furniture rehab piece.  

Here are some of my recent finds:

I love the shape of this coffee table. Often living spaces have a lot of right angles and adding an oval or round coffee table offsets that square look!   I even like the rustic look of the before image. 

I went ahead and gave this table a white-washed look.  Can’t you just imagine this in a shabby-chic living room or in your beach or lakeside cottage? 

This dresser may not look like it’s not a winner – but with a little love and some paint, it has a new life.  I was drawn to this piece because of its size.  This dresser’s smaller size makes it great for a bedroom or in a living space as an end table or console piece. 

With charcoal paint on the sides and top, I decided to leave the drawer fronts natural.  Of course, I sealed them and used the Wide Owl furniture salve inside the drawers.  I cleaned up the drawer pulls and viola!

What’s Next for The Mill & Grainery

Now that the Grainery garage sale is over, here’s what’s coming up next…

All Natural Wreath Making Class with Cayla will be on November 13.  Have you signed up yet?

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Starting in December, we’re going to be open monthly instead of weekly.

If you’re new here, our Chic Antiques Store used to be open once a month prior to this year. The Chic Team and I are so excited about this change so that we CAN give you our best, plus some!  In addition to the monthly markets, there will be special events, classes/workshops, and VIP shopping experiences.  If there’s anything you would like to see us host, let us know! We would love to hear.

Finally, don’t miss out on anything! 

Join The Chic Elite group on Facebook!  This will be the exclusive Chic Antiques Market VIP group for exclusive sales, giveaways, and more! Request to join today!

That’s all for now!