And the Flips Continue

As we were on our weekly yard sale adventures a few Saturdays ago, we drove by a house that had some furniture in their front yard.  We couldn't tell if it was a yard sale or people just had a weird taste for front lawn furniture.  We continued on to our planned sales with no luck.  We were going to be driving by that house again so this time we went real slow to check ti out.  A couple was definitely setting up for a yard sale but were clearly not done.  There was enough for us to look at though so we pulled over and got out to take a look.  The woman apologized because they weren't quite ready and still bringing things out.  They were good though because everything was pre-priced.  We walked around and saw this great old desk marked $3.  How can you go wrong for $3? We checked the drawers and they worked, just needed some cleaning up and a new paint job.  I had just the project in mind.  

 I washed this down because it was terribly dirty and removed the hardware.  I wanted to go with a distressed look and did a little research on how to do that.  There are so many ways to accomplish this style but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.  I got some brown paint from Dad's old paint stash and painted the entire thing brown, except for the top, which I was going to leave as is.  Mom helped me out a bit and gave the brown a second, and in some areas, a third coat.  I then used the blue color I used for my cubbies, but went out first and bought more just in case (but never needed it).  I painted everything with a thin blue coat except the trim which I was keeping brown.  With the thin coat of blue, you could see the brown through it in the brush strokes.  I had considered sanding it down to the brown lightly in spots if I needed a distressed look but this turned out great without even sanding it.  

The finishing touch to this desk was the chair.  When we went to Trevor's last week we came home with a set of three chairs.  They fit perfectly under the desk.  We decided to use one for the desk and then leave the other two as a pair. 

With one coat of brown paint, this chair matched the distressed desk perfectly.  

Our next flip came from another old wooden crate.  This one had metal lining the edges which made extra sturdy.  We decided to keep this rustic looking.  

We added very small feet to the bottom as you can see in the photo above since we forgot the before picture.  This just made if so it is not sitting completely on the floor.  The last crate we made into an ottoman and made the feet much larger and the cushion very large.  This one we decided to go a little smaller and make a foot stool, but with the same concept, storage.  We had some cushioning left over from the ottoman that we picked up curbside.  We didnt really have any great fabric for it though.  However, Mom and I were very impressed with this fabric Trevor had.  It was super thick and 3 yards long.  He said he picked it up at Michaels or AC Moore for like $3.  So yesterday when I was out in Middletown, I stopped at AC Moore and Michaels since they are right next to each other.  AC Moore had these wonderful, super thick, huge pieces of fabric piled up in a huge bin.  Unfortunately they weren't exactly $3, they were more like $6, but of course you never go to AC Moore without a coupon for I had my 40% coupon and my 15% teacher discount so I guess it was like $3 after all.  This fabric was huge though and more than worth it.  Dad said it would make a good blanket because it was so big and thick enough.  Mom upholstered the top and Dad attached the bottom piece to complete our wood crate foot stool. 

On the same yard sale trip Mom and Dad picked up another wood crate.  Like the other crate, this one is very sturdy but much shorter.  It is an old Pepsi Cola crate, very cool.  This one Mom decided to just line the bottom and keep it like a tray.  She had this craft kit thing that laminated fabric.  She laminated a piece of fabric we already had and this way the tray is easily wiped clean.  

And finally a curbside broken door thing was fixed up and re-purposed.  Mom and Dad found this at our favorite nearby neighbor where we found the seat cushion.  Dad added a little shelving unit behind the hinged door almost like a medicine cabinet.  To fill a whole in the door Mom put some burlap behind it for decoration.  I'm not quite sure what this can be used for but it makes a great little shelving unit, however, it is not so little.  It is over 2 feet wide and almost 3 feet tall but it looks awesome!