the step stool.

Published on by Quandie9 Comments

I did a little lunchtime garage saling last week with my friend/co-worker/picker/garage sale mentor Sue.  We were in my VW bug, so saying I managed to fill it up isn’t really saying much.  But I did find a few fun things including this step stool (which just barely fit in the trunk).

The stool was a bit beat up and the rubber treads on the steps were pretty grungy, but what I most needed to fix (in my humble opinion) was the shiny paint job.  I’m just not a fan of shine.

Step 1 (pardon the pun) was to remove the rubber treads from the steps.  Luckily they were not glued down, but just had little tacks a each corner holding them in place.

Next I sanded the whole piece to take off some of that shine.

It was fun to note that this stool had been several other colors in the past.  Clearly at one point the top was red, and there were hints of green, pink and yellow in other spots.

A good rule of thumb is that shiny surfaces of any kind will not hold onto new paint as well as dull surfaces.  So always give them a good scuff sanding to remove some of that shine.  In this case I also sanded the edges back a bit more than usual to remove that red because ultimately I didn’t want to see it when I distressed this piece after painting it.

I’ve been on a bit of a black and white kick lately, so I opted to keep its most recent color scheme and just freshen it up.  I used Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth on the base, and Midnight Sky on the top.  The beauty of this plan is that it only took one coat of paint for each.

And as you can see, when I sanded the edges to distress I was careful to not sand back as far as the red paint so none of it shows.

Originally I’d thought I would add a transfer or stencil to the top of the stool.  But after contemplating that for a bit, I realized that this piece would be perfect to use as a plant stand or a small side table.  In which case, there is likely to be stuff on the top that would cover it up.  So instead I decided to add a transfer to the steps.

I used the bottom 7″ or so of the IOD Le Petit Rosier transfer (the smaller version, which is 11″ x 14″).

I had this bottom section left over after I used the top section on a watering can.

If you’re getting that weird déjà vu feeling, that’s because I’ve done something similar before.  I used the top half of the transfer on a watering can, and then the bottom half on the ceiling fan light fixture in my piano room.  Back then I sold the watering can.  Later I realized that I wanted one like it for myself.  So I ordered the transfer again specifically to use it on one of my watering cans, another non-collection of mine.  Not only do I have some unpainted versions displayed outside …

But I also have a few painted ones in the pantry.  See them there up at the top?

One of them is this pretty blue one that I painted using Homestead House milk paint in a color called Maritime Blue …

And you can barely see it, but the one furthest to the right is white with a red spout.  It has a fantastically chippy finish, and now it also has a transfer …

And this time I’m keeping it!

But I digress.  The real subject of this blog post was supposed to be the step stool.

Even though I didn’t make sweeping changes to the look of the stool, keeping the original black and white color scheme and swapping out the rubber treads for a transfer … I think the difference is night and day.

Don’t you?

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle for providing some of the products used for this project. If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

And if you are local and want an adorable step stool, be sure to check out my available for local sale page for more details.

a classic mid-mod blonde.

Published on by Quandie29 Comments

I bet you are all thinking I’ve completely given up on painting large pieces of furniture these days, and in some ways that is true.  I’ve mainly been working on small items, and when I do work on furniture it’s smaller pieces of furniture too.  Things like the folding chairs I shared a week ago, or the pair of library chairs.

Today’s piece is no exception.  My neighbor, nnK, gave me this nightstand.  She had purchased a larger dresser and the seller gave her this matching piece as a freebie, so she passed it on to me.

It’s just your classic mid-mod blonde.

It was pretty beat up, which made it a good candidate for painting.  I started out by re-gluing some veneer, patching some spots of damaged veneer using Dixie Belle’s Mud, cleaning it well and then painting it in Dixie Belle’s Bunker Hill Blue.

I finished it with Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat.  Then I cleaned up the drawer pulls with some soap and water and put them back on.

The hardest part of this project was trying to get some decent photos of this color!  I tried going for an industrial vibe inside the carriage house …

Then when I didn’t like any of those photos, I tried taking some outside …

Slightly better?  Maybe?  OK, not really.

What I really need is a fabulous mid-mod bedroom to use for staging this piece, but I don’t happen to have one of those.  So this will have to do.

In addition to staging problems, I was also having technical difficulties with PicMonkey last night while trying to edit these photos.  For some reason I simply could not get all of the fonts to load, including the one I usually use for my watermark.

Ultimately I threw in the towel.  I used a different font and called it good, shut the computer down and went for a walk with Mr. Q.  It was a beautiful evening and I figured it was better to spend it enjoying a walk rather than fighting with my computer.

See?  Like I said, a beautiful evening.  I’m glad I enjoyed it with Mr. Q, even if it does mean a substandard blog post to share with you all today.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle for providing the products used on this mid-mod nightstand. If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

And if you are local and like the looks of this piece despite the less than stellar photos, be sure to check out my available for local sale page for more details.

the great river road, day 1.

Published on by Quandie24 Comments

As I’ve mentioned before, later this year Mr. Q and I were supposed to take an amazing vacation.  It was a cruise starting in London and stopping at eight fabulous ports of call in Europe.  Back in March, when I last wrote about it, we were still optimistic that we’d be able to go.  It wasn’t until early May that Princess officially canceled the cruise.  It didn’t take long after that to realize that we most likely weren’t going to be taking any sort of vacation that involved air travel this year.  So that just left us with either a stay-cation (staying at home and visiting local spots) or a road trip.

We were really itching to do some sort of getaway though.  My sister and my niece also wanted to get out of town for a bit of a break.  So we decided to plan a road trip.

After a little research, we settled on exploring some of The Great River Road.  The Great River Road is a series of state and local roads that follow the Mississippi River all the way from its headwaters in Minnesota, to where it flows into the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana.  So last week the four of us set off on our adventure.  We’d put together a loose itinerary for the first day, and we figured we’d just play it by ear from there.  We just had one rule, that we would stop anywhere that looked like it could be interesting.

So we loaded up the car and headed south on highway 61.  Our first stop was the town of Redwing, MN.  After refreshing ourselves with breakfast at Perkins, my sister wanted to visit the Pottery Museum of Redwing.  We arrived there only to find that it was closed because it was Monday.  Dang!  Little did we know that ‘sorry, we’re closed’ was going to be the theme of our little adventure.

So, we piled back in the car and considered our next move.  Since it was now around noon, and there was a heat advisory because it was in the upper 80’s with 1,000% humidity (or at least that’s what it felt like), we decided a hike up Barn Bluff was not in the cards for us.  So instead we drove up to Memorial Park which also offered a view of the city without as much sweating required (you can see the haze of humidity in the air in this next photo).

It also offered a porta-potty (a.k.a. portable toilet, jiffy john, what do they call them where you live?).  Another discovery we’d made at this point in our journey was that many of the state run rest stop facilities were closed.  We definitely had to use some very questionable toilets during our trip.

After checking out the rest of the park, we piled back into the car and headed to Old Frontenac.  Old Frontenac is a small village along the river that was established in the 1850’s and hasn’t seen a whole lot of change over the years.  There aren’t any tourist shops or places to get ice cream, but there are a bunch of houses that are over 100 years old.

Obviously, this stop was one of my picks.  I just love looking at old houses, and this was a whole village of them.

Winona Cottage (below) was built in 1889 as a wedding present for Israel Garrard’s son and his wife.

Gosh, getting a house as a wedding present, and not just any house but a gorgeous house overlooking the Mississippi River, wouldn’t that be nice!

  Most of the homes in town were well maintained and obviously lived in, but this one was appeared to be in need of some TLC …

It’s called Locust Lodge and was built in 1854.  I did a little google research and learned that it is owned by a woman who lives in Boston and has been unoccupied for years.  I think it goes without saying that the house is probably haunted!

Almost all of the houses in Old Frontenac were white with dark green shutters …

which led me to wonder if there were strict rules about using historic colors or something, but there was also one lone purple house …

Is this a house where rebels live?  Actually, according to the info I found online this is the Lowell House Bed & Breakfast, but I couldn’t find a website for them.  So I’m not sure that it still operates as a B & B.

Before we leave Old Frontenac I just have to share this little detail.  One house had a birdhouse that matched the town’s old church.  Here’s the life size church …

And here’s the birdhouse …

How cool is that?  If only they’d had a gift shop selling these birdhouses, I’d definitely have snatched one up as a unique souvenir.

If any of you that live in the Twin Cities haven’t been to Frontenac, I’d definitely recommend it for a day trip.  You can visit the old town (here’s a link to a self guided walking tour that you can download), and also visit Frontenac State Park to do some hiking.  You could also stop off in Redwing for some antiquing, or a nice lunch.

After exploring the town and checking out a gorgeous field of wildflowers …

we hopped back in the car and continued to head south towards Lake City.  We had planned on exploring there a bit, but there was road construction that detoured us around a bit and we never did make it back to Lake City.

Instead, we followed some advice I’d found online to check out a collection of restored historic windmills nearby.  So we drove a bit out into the country on roads with views that mainly looked like this …

And here is what we found …

So … I have to admit … when I read that this guy had a collection of restored windmills on his property I was picturing this in my mind …

Which I now realize was totally ridiculous of me.  We were in Minnesota, not the Netherlands.  Talk about wishful thinking.

After that little detour we continued on to Kellogg, Minnesota where we stopped off at Lark Toys which apparently was named one of the top 10 best toy stores in the world by USA Today.

It’s not just a toy store though, there is also a toy museum.

You know you are getting older when the toys you played with are now in a museum.

I had that blue Easy Bake oven when I was a kid (upper shelf, left).

They also have an amazing carousel with the most fantastical creatures.

Each animal is handcarved out of Minnesota basswood.

Isn’t the otter totally adorable?

I think my favorite might have been the flamingo though.

After buying some fudge at the gift shop we headed back to the car and drove the rest of the way to Winona where we found a hotel for the night and some down home cookin’ for dinner.  Mr. Q had liver and onions (his favorite, gack!) and I had a hot turkey open faced sandwich with mashed pototoes.  You can’t get much more down home than that.

I hope you enjoyed checking out some of the sights along the Great River Road with me today.  Have any of you traveled any portion of the route?  Or maybe you have another road trip that you can recommend.  If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

thrifting finds.

Published on by Quandie28 Comments

It seemed to be the general consensus that once thrift stores opened up again after the COVID shut down that they would be packed to the gills with fabulous finds.  I believe the thinking behind that was that people had nothing better to do while sheltering at home, so they were cleaning out closets, attics, garages, etc.  Once the thrift stores opened back up, I also heard tales of cars lining up at Goodwill to donate items.

So I was optimistic when my sister picked me up to head to a few thrift shops last week.

Unfortunately, I did not find a bunch of fabulous stuff.  I really didn’t see piles of extra items on the shelves.  In fact, one of the Goodwill stores we visited had semi-bare shelves.  My sister speculates that they don’t have enough staff working to get the newly donated stuff out to the shelves very quickly, which is certainly a good possibility.

I did come home with a couple of fun things though, so I thought I’d share them with you today.

I always hope to find vintage items while thrifting, but more often than not I only find ‘new’ things, like this adorable jug.

How cute is that?

I also purchased this Hearth & Hand with Magnolia recipe box.  I dressed it up a bit with a Classic Vintage Label transfer.

Also under the heading of ‘new-ish’ is this galvanized container thingie with wooden handles.

I painted the wooden handles in Dixie Belle’s The Gulf, and then added a fragment from a transfer that seemed totally appropriate.  This container is going to work perfectly for a birthday present I’m putting together for someone, but I haven’t given it to her yet so I have to keep that under wraps for now.

This faux copper french flower bucket got a paint job too.  I painted it in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth and then added a transfer from IOD’s Classic Pots.

I may need some sort of intervention on this next item because I’m dangerously close to starting a new non-collection.

This is Oxford Stoneware.  It’s not terribly valuable or anything, but isn’t it the prettiest shade of blue?  As you can see I already had one just like it and I keep my pens and pencils in it on my desk.  It paired really nicely with my blue & white Staffordshire pitcher.  I really don’t need a second one though, so I’ll probably take it in to the shop to sell.

Last, but not least is this … um, what do you call these?  A mini-greenhouse?

In addition to being quite dirty, the off-white metal parts were weirdly discolored.  You can’t see that very well in the photo, but in person it was quite obvious.  I’m guessing this item sat in a sunny window too long.  Also, those silk flowers leaned a bit towards the tacky side.

So I started by removing the three flower pots.  Then I decided it would work best to spray paint the metal framework and that meant either taping off all of the glass, or removing it first as well.  Luckily all of the glass was held in place by little bendable metal tabs, so it was fairly simple to take it all out.

Once I’d done that, it was simply a matter of spray painting the metal frame, washing all of the glass, and then putting it back in without breaking any of it.  I always hold my breath a bit during that phase.  I’d hate to break a piece of the glass.

But I managed to get it all back in safely.  Once that was done, I pulled out some transfers to add some pizzazz.  I’d had such good results with the bee transfer on the bird cage that I shared recently, so I decided another bee was in order.  The bee transfer is part of the Classic Vintage Labels set from re.design with prima.

The “Curiosities Collector” wording is from a Tim Holtz transfer set that I found at Hobby Lobby last week.

I’m sure you’ll be seeing those metal tags on a few things soon too.

If I could find a magic lamp that would grant me three wishes, I think one of them would be that Tim Holtz would make larger versions of his rub-on’s.  They would be so fabulous on furniture, if only they were bigger.

I also used some of the vintage French ephemera paper that my friend Terri gave me to line the inside, along with some more October Afternoon scrapbook paper.

I didn’t put the three metal pots back inside.  This way you can use you imagination when it comes to deciding what to display inside.

I’ve added a pair of vintage books and an old black and white photo held up by a flower frog.  That’s my grandparents by the way, with their two older children in front of their house in south Minneapolis.  I’m guessing this would have been taken in the late 1920’s.  My mom didn’t come along until 1940, her brother and sister were in their teens when she was born.

I’m working on another pile of stuff to take into Reclaiming Beautiful and a few of these items will be added to the stack.

I’m afraid I am not going to manage another week of 5 posts this week, but I am going to throw in a post on Wednesday about the road trip we took last week with my niece and sister so be sure to stay tuned for that.  In the meantime, how about you?  Have you been thrifting lately?  Has there been an influx of goodies at your local thrift store?

the vintage medicine cabinet.

Published on by Quandie38 Comments

First things first, congrats to Jennefer!  I drew her name as the winner of the red, white and blue giveaway from last Friday.

Now, on with the final post for this week.  I have to admit, sometimes I make choices that aren’t financially savvy.  I can get away with it because I’m just doing this as a hobby.  But if I was really trying to make a profit, or run a business, I’d be in trouble.  I know lots of you out there are working hard to do that and you probably just shake your head when I share projects like the one I’m sharing today.

But sometimes I just have to save a piece, even though I know I’m going to invest more time and money than it might be worth.  Maybe I should think of it in terms of emotional value rather than financial value, because I found the end result of today’s project really satisfying.

OK, so let’s start at the beginning.  I saw an ad on Facebook Marketplace for a pair of really beat up old chairs that would make perfect planter chairs so I made arrangements to go see them.

I seriously should have just walked away after looking at the chairs.  They were in really awful shape, they were filthy dirty and they were totally overpriced at $10 each.  Seriously, even if they had been free at the curb I think most sensible people would have passed them by.  At a minimum I should have bargained on the price.

But the sellers were super nice, and we got to chatting, and we’d come all that way (OK, well, really just to the next town over), so I bought them.  At that point the sellers must have seen ‘sucker’ written on my forehead, because the gentleman said ‘hey, I have some more old stuff you might be interested in, like this old cabinet …’

And after a bit of searching, he pulled this out of the pole barn.

As if the outside wasn’t grungy enough, just check out the inside …

Ewwwww.  Good grief, why would I take this on?  But there was just something about it that appealed to me.

The initial asking price was $20, but this time I at least had enough sense to bargain a bit.  I paid $15 which was still a bit high considering the condition.

That being said, I’m sure most some of you will agree that it definitely had potential.

So I brought it home, and washed it up using my Dawn Powerwash and the hose.

Next, I painted the inside using Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road …

I used Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat over the Gravel Road.  The dark grey is the perfect backdrop for a few pieces of ironstone.

I would have liked to salvage the original chippy paint finish on the outside of the cabinet, but it was just too grungy looking.  So instead I chose to use milk paint to refresh it without completely covering the entire piece.  I used Sweet Pickins milk paint in a color called Window Pane, a white with a grey undertone.

When I’m working on a piece like this, and I want it to retain its chippy, worn look, I try to be selective with my application of paint.  I avoid painting areas where the paint is totally chipped away …

I do end up allowing some of the original color to show (the cream colored areas), but overall the piece looks less dirty and more simply chippy and worn.

So, let’s talk about that transfer.  This is another section of the IOD Label Ephemera transfer that I used on yesterday’s card box.  Well, technically it’s two sections that I pieced together to fit on this cabinet.

Now, I think we all know that I don’t speak or read French.  So for all I know the wording on this makes absolutely no sense.  But it looks cool, and that works for me.

I also added a transfer to the inside of the door.

That is pieced together from the re.design with prima Ephemera Collector transfer.

This cabinet is meant to be hung on a wall.  If it’s just sitting on a table top it has a tendency to tip forward when the door is opened, so it has to be anchored in place somehow.

But I think it would be perfect for hanging on the wall in a bathroom.

Of course, you probably wouldn’t fill it with ironstone in that case.  Or maybe you would.  Who am I to judge?

For now I haven’t decided on the fate of this cabinet.  I kind of love it.  I’ll be carrying it around my house today trying to find a wall to hang it on.  I’m not sure if I can bear to part with this one.  You’ll just have to stay tuned to find out whether or not I found a spot for it.  In the meantime, have a great weekend!

a box full of memories.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

If you’ll remember, I’ve been on the hunt for a paint-able, vintage recipe box to hold my index card scrapbook for a while now.  I created the index cards back in March 2019 after seeing a post on the Miss Mustard Seed blog.

My picker Sue found a fun box back in March of this year that I thought would work to hold them, but it was too small.

But recently I came home from garage saling with a recipe box that was just the right size.  There it is under Bessie the cow.

It wasn’t particularly special, just a plain box with no extra features.  But we all know what a little paint and some transfers can do, right?

I ended up deciding to paint it with Sweet Pickens milk paint in a color called Patina.  I’d mixed the paint up for a mirror frame that I painted and I had plenty left for the box.

To be honest, it would have been much easier to just use Dixie Belle paint.  The qualities of milk paint didn’t really shine on this project.  Plus I mixed it up with a little too much water so it took 4 coats to get good coverage.

Although, I guess if you look closely, I did get a little chippy-ness around the edges.  It’s subtle, but it’s there.

The words on the front of the box are from an IOD transfer called Label Ephemera.  I had to cut some of them up and re-arrange them a bit to both fit my box, and to make better sense.  But in the end, isn’t it just perfect for a box full of travel photos?

I also added a transfer to the top of the box.

This one is from a transfer called Ephemera Collector from re.design with prima.  So I guess it’s fair to say that there is an ‘ephemera’ sort of theme here.  Also, fair warning, this is another transfer that is being retired so if you want one you should act now.

I also painted the inside of the box, and then lined the lid with the same October Afternoon scrapbook paper that I used on Monday’s box.

And as you can see, my cards fit inside perfectly!

I’d like to say that I’ll be inspired to finish up the cards now, but I know that won’t happen during the summer.  Scrapbooking has always been more of a winter activity for me.

No worries, time has been flying by so fast for me these days that winter will be here before we know it!  Right?!

Last night at midnight was the deadline to get a comment in to be eligible for the giveaway from last Friday.  I go to bed way before midnight though (early to bed, early to rise hasn’t always been my motto, but it is these days) so I haven’t actually drawn a name yet.  I’ll get that taken care of today though and announce the winner’s name on tomorrow’s post, so stay tuned!

a pair of folding chairs.

Published on by Quandie33 Comments

A week or so ago my neighbor, nnK, came over with a present for me.  She’d found a pair of vintage folding chairs that she thought I’d like being given away free on Marketplace .

Yep, they look right up my alley don’t they?

They were pretty grungy though, but what can you expect for ‘free’?

So I gave them a good scrub using the Dawn Powerwash that I shared on Monday.  Then I gave them a quick coat of Dixie Belle paint in Drop Cloth.  Once dry, I sanded them vigorously because at this point I had decided that I was going to keep these for the summer house and I like my stuff distressed.

Next I dug through my stash of transfers looking for just the right thing for these chairs.  Ultimately I pulled out two of the old Prima Marketing transfers that were originally designed by IOD (before they went their separate ways).  These were both favorites of mine, so I decided this was the perfect time to use them.

The Seeds transfer on the left is the small version.  It also came in a large size (and I’m still hoarding two of those).  I did a little search while working on this post and I couldn’t find a single source for the small version of the transfer.  Bummer, this was my last one.

The French Pots II transfer on the right can still be found here and there online.

The two chairs were the perfect addition to the summer house.

As was the little vintage green lamp that I purchased at a garage sale recently.

Once again, I snazzed it up with a little section from a transfer.

I don’t actually have electricity out in the summer house, so this lamp is really just for looks.  But its green base made it the perfect addition to the space.

I also purchased that vintage fly swatter at a garage sale.  There was just something about the old-fashioned simplicity of it that appealed to me.

And since there aren’t any screens on some of the windows out there, it makes sense to have a fly swatter handy.

I’ll continue to keep an eye out for more garage sale finds to add to the summer house.

But in the meantime, it’s coming along nicely I think.

cheap, temporary art.

Published on by Quandie31 Comments

I shared my summer house makeover with you guys a few weeks back …

It looked a tad under-dressed at the time.  It was a spur of the moment decision to re-do it and I only used things that I had on hand.

Since then I’ve added a few more pieces to the mix that I’m going to share with you over the next couple of days.

I still need to find some awesome things to hang on the walls, but for now I decided to whip up a cheap and easy temporary solution until I find things I like better.

I found a couple of clip boards at a garage sale for 75 cents each.

I cleaned them up, gave them a quick light sanding and then painted them with Dixie Belle’s Kudzu.  I’d already used Kudzu on the table base, and also inside the cabinet, out there so it was the obvious choice for the clip boards.

Next I pulled out some transfer scraps and pieced them together on the clips.

I have to confess that I did not let my paint dry long enough before adding the transfer.  That combined with the fact that I was painting over a glossy metal, meant I had a little bit of trouble with my transfer pulling up paint instead of putting down a transfer.

So, do as I say, not as I do.  In this case, make sure your paint is fully dry and adhered before adding a transfer to a questionable surface like this one.

That being said, I’m always less perfection-y when I’m making something for myself.  I don’t mind a few flaws.  Especially since these were just going out in the summer house which is really just a glorified shed.

Next I had to search high and low for a book called Medicinal Plants that my picker Sue had found for me a year or so ago.  I knew I had it somewhere … but it wasn’t in the stack of books on the front porch, it wasn’t in the cupboard in the q branch, it wasn’t in the workshop … dang, where did I put that thing?

Oh yeah, ha, I put it out in the summer house.  Duh.

Sue knew I would want to scavenge the botanical prints inside the book for future projects like this one.

There are plenty to choose from, so I’m sure I’ll be using them for years to come.

Although that rose print would have been perfect with the rose themed transfers on the clips, instead I chose two prints with more subdued colors for the summer house.

Initially I planned to hang them on the wall, but once I got them out there I decided I liked the look them sitting on the ledge instead.

So for now, that’s where they will stay.  I’ve got a couple more items that I worked on for the summer house coming your way this week, so be sure to stay tuned.

ok, let’s do it again!

Published on by Quandie47 Comments

First off, thanks so much for all of your comments on Friday.  If you haven’t already commented, you have until Wednesday to leave a comment on that post (not this one) to be eligible for the giveaway.

I was really surprised that Bessie the cow was such a fan favorite.  I never thought that one would get so many votes!  And I was especially happy to hear that so many of you enjoy seeing these smaller projects, and also that so many of you really appreciated seeing 5 days of posts.  So guess what?  I decided to do it again!

I thought about it and realized I have five more things completed that I could post about.  Much like last week, none of them are earth shattering revelations, but I hope you guys will enjoy them nonetheless.

I’m starting out today with the simple wooden crate that is front and center in this photo that I shared last week …

I have to tell you guys, it was from the ‘free pile’ at a garage sale.  I’m sure the person getting rid of it thought no one in their right mind would want some dirty, paint splattered old wooden crate.

But I knew I could paint it up and turn it into something special.

I started by cleaning it well.  Maybe I should elaborate on that process today.  In the summer I like to pile all of my dirty finds (hmmm, that sounds a little off, doesn’t it?) in the yard.  Then I bring out a small table that I often use to paint on because it’s just the right height for working standing up.  Next I bring out the Dawn Powerwash Dish Spray (and by the way, this post is in no way sponsored by Dawn, I just love this stuff).

Have any of you guys tried it?  I especially like the Apple scent.  This product is the perfect solution for us.  We don’t have a dishwasher, so we like to keep up on the dishes by washing them as we go.  We rarely have enough dirty dishes at one time to require a sink full of soapy water.  Instead we just spray, wipe and rinse and we’re done.  Easy peasy.

I’ve also found that it works really well for washing up my garage sale finds.  I put an item up on the table, spray it with the Powerwash, scrub it down with a scrub brush and then hose it off.  I do this on sunny days so that I can then set each item out in the sunshine to dry off.

Washing years of someone else’s dirt and grime off of things has never been one of my favorite parts of what I do, but this makes it much easier.  Plus the grease fighting properties of dish soap are beneficial for items that are going to be painted as well.

OK, so I washed the box and let it dry thoroughly (it was a few days before I got around to painting it).  Then I painted just one quick coat of Dixie Belle’s Sea Glass.  I didn’t even try to get full coverage because my plan was to sand it back quite a bit anyway.

I wanted it to look clean, but not freshly painted.  As though that could be an original, old paint job.

Next I pulled out some left over bits of the Cosmic Rose transfer from re.design with prima (if you’re keeping track, I used part of it on a bed and then another section on a re-sized drawer, and I’ll probably get one more small project out of it after this as well).  I cut and rearranged various sections of the transfer to fit my box.  For example, I cut the “Spring Flowers” bit out separately and applied that to the bottom.

Then I centered the floral section on the front of the box and wrapped the excess around the sides.

Once the transfer was applied, I sanded over it lightly with 220-grit sand paper to give it some age as well.  Then I added a topcoat of clear wax.

The inside of the box was a little stained, so I lined it with some more of my favorite October Afternoon scrapbook paper.

It was the perfect color to match the Sea Glass.

So, there you have it.  Another super simple makeover using paint and a transfer.

Eventually this will be going to Reclaiming Beautiful to sell.  I won’t be making it in there this week, but maybe the following week.

In the meantime, if you’re local, I’m always willing to sell items to people who can pick them up.  I apologize to all of you who live further afield, but I just hate shipping things!

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint and to re.design with prima for providing the transfer for this project.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

If you’re looking for re.design with prima products you can find local retailers here, or online sources here.

I don’t typically add the small items to my ‘available for local sale’ page, but I will start doing that just in case anyone is interested.  So if you are local and in need of a fabulous wooden box, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page.

a pair of library chairs.

Published on by Quandie188 Comments

To all of my American readers, Happy almost 4th of July!  I can always tell when this holiday is coming because I don’t get any sleep.  The 11 p.m. fireworks keep me up at night, plus I’m getting up at 6 a.m. to get some painting in before the day heats up too much.  So I think it’s fair to say that this is not really one of my favorite holidays.  Regardless, I’m going to celebrate with a giveaway at the end of this post, so be sure to read all the way to the bottom!

When I said I was going to post every day this week, I hope you guys realized that I meant just the weekdays.  Which brings me to the final post of the week.

I brought home a pair of library chairs from a garage sale a couple of weeks ago.

When you get up close and personal, you can see that the finish on the chairs was pretty tired.

But that was a pretty quick fix using some paint.

I cleaned the chairs using some TSP substitute, then I brushed on two coats of Dixie Belle’s Caviar.  Once dry, I sanded to distress the edges and then added a small section from a stencil to the chair back.

I’m always amazed by how much character such a simple detail can add.

I added a topcoat of clear wax to protect the finish and to give them that perfect subtle glow that comes from waxing.

This pair of chairs is no longer tired looking, and they are ready to head to a new home.  So if any of you locals are in need of a pair of library chairs, be sure to check out my available for local sale page.

So tell me, which garage sale makeover from this week was your favorite?

The button box …

The bird cage …

One of the buckets …

Bessie the cow …

The shoe forms …

Or the library chairs …

Let me know which one you liked the best!

And just to make it more fun, and because I haven’t done a giveaway in a while, today I’ll draw a name from all of those who leave a comment here on today’s blog post and the winner will receive a red, white & blue themed prize.

Included is 16 oz of Honky Tonk Red, Antebellum Blue and Fluff (white), plus one of my favorite decorating books, American Style by Country Living.

Thank you to Dixie Belle for providing the paint I’m giving away today!

The rules:  to be eligible to win today’s prize leave a comment on this blog post.  If you can’t think of anything to say, just let me know which of my garage sale makeovers was your favorite.  Your comment must be left on the blog, not on Facebook or Instagram.

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Wednesday, July 8, 2020 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $90 if the prize is not claimed by Friday, July 10, another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

P.S.  You do not have to be an American to win my Independence Day themed prize!  I have no idea if they are letting packages across the borders these days, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

Good luck!