It’s not often that I need to have a do-over.  At least when it comes to pieces that I am selling.  But sometimes things just don’t sell.  And unfortunately I am one of those people (maybe we all are) who like to second guess myself.  When something doesn’t sell quickly I immediately question my own choices.  Is the color wrong?  Are the details not quite right?  Is it too chippy?  Is it not chippy enough? Should I re-paint it?

Mr. Q is always quick to jump in and remind me that I just need to wait for the right buyer.  There isn’t anything wrong with my piece of furniture, it’s just waiting for the right home.  And he is usually right (yes, I put that in writing Mr. Q)!

But sometimes I want to just tweak my design a little bit to hopefully make it more marketable.

Such is the case with my big blue hutch.  I’ve been trying to sell this guy for about 8 months now.  When I finished it last summer, it looked like this.

I’d tacked vintage wallpaper behind the glass doors.  It was gorgeous paper, but somewhat fragile as vintage wallpaper tends to be.  When I took this piece into Eye Candy ReFind to sell, the wallpaper got damaged and eventually was removed.

It stayed at Eye Candy until January, and then I moved it to Reclaiming Beautiful.  At which point it looked like this.

 Nothing behind the glass.  Which is great if someone wants to display things inside.

But it still didn’t sell.  So finally I brought it home from Reclaiming Beautiful and decided to tweak it just a bit.

Since I’m so fond of my own blue hutch with the rooster feed sack behind the doors, I decided to create some faux grain sacks for this cabinet.

I started with some grain sack striped fabric that I purchased from Decor Steals.  I cut panels so that I had one stripe down the middle of each piece.  Then I stenciled each one to mimic the look of German grain sacks.

And now the cupboard looks like this.

It has such an awesome chippy vintage farmhouse look now.

Just yesterday morning Mr. Q and I moved this piece from the photo cottage into my dining room, which is where I store finished pieces until they are either sold or taken to a shop.  After we got it in place, I just stood there and admired it for a few minutes.  It really is gorgeous.  And it looks pretty amazing next to my barnwood walls.  If I didn’t already have the rooster cupboard, I would so want to keep this one.  Mr. Q calls it a ‘statement piece’ and he says that’s why it’s taking so long to sell.  You can’t just work this into your existing decor, you have to design a whole room around it.  Maybe so.  But I’m hoping this little tweak will be the magic change that helps this one sell.

If you are local and in need of a farmhouse style hutch, check my ‘available for local sale’ tab for details.

While I was on a roll with the do-overs, I also decided to revamp this little stool.

I painted this two years ago.  It has made an appearance at a couple of my own occasional sales, but no takers.  While Mr. Q is usually right about waiting for the right buyer, in this case I knew it needed to be re-painted.  The red just wasn’t working, nor was the fabric.  I had already been thinking I’d reupholster it using the same grain sack fabric I used on the blue hutch, but was debating a paint color for the base.  Then I saw {this post} by Kristin at Hazel Mae Home.  That was all the inspiration I needed to get going on my own little stool.

I loved the dark blue paint she chose for her stool, so I used my Little Billy Goat paint in Prizewinner because I knew it would be similar.

I finished the paint with a coat of Miss Mustard Seed’s Antiquing Wax because I wanted to keep the color nice and dark.

Then I reupholstered the seat with my fabric, but first I added a stencil to it using a dark blue acrylic craft paint.

And just to give you an idea of the size of this little stool …

It’s the perfect size for tucking just under a chair and using as a foot rest.

What do you think of my do-overs?  Definitely an improvement in both cases?