Turning a FAIL into a FINE!

I'm a believer into turning mistakes into learning experiences. You'd think by now I'd have LOTS of learning experiences...

So what happens when you try something that's a failure?  Why, you try something else, of course!

I had this secretary hutch that I'd bought off of Craigslist for $40.  (I love Craigslist!)

I liked the lines of if, but the woodsy pine wood thing going on, not so much.

I got it into my head that I wanted it dark brown, so I first proceeded to use chalk paint that I'd whipped up and paint it dark brown. 

The brown was better than the woodsy pine thing going on, so I painted the entire piece of furniture.

And ended up with a HUGE BROWN PIECE OF FURNITURE!

Even if I decided to distress this, it wasn't going to make it less of a HUGE BROWN PIECE OF FURNITURE.  You can tell that I was hating this so much, I didn't even bother to put the rest of the drawers in for the pic. 

So, onto Plan B.  (I'm a firm believer in having a Plan B.)  I had some sage colored acrylic paint that I decided to make into chalk paint, so I thought a sage secretary hutch would be better than a brown secretary hutch. 

What I got was a BUTT UGLY SAGE PIECE OF FURNITURE.

The lighting in this pic is less than optimal, but trust me, it was absolutely, 100% a BUTT UGLY SAGE PIECE OF FURNITURE.

Onto Plan C.  (Did I mention that I also think it's a good idea to have a Plan C?)

This time, I was finished playing around.  I mean, how many freaking coats of paint can one piece of furniture actually have?  How many ugly paint colors did I have in my supply?  How many times can I shut the cats out of the guest room to repaint a piece of furniture? 

Plan C depended on white paint.  Yes, plain, ole vanilla white paint.  See what a difference it makes?

I even added cute little knobs.  (Found at the local Habitat ReSale store and Lowes.)

For the back of the shelves, I took foamcore board, cut it to size, then covered it with fabric.  A bit of tape held the fabric in place, and because the foamcore is cut to size, it stays in place.

To refresh your memory, here is before:

And after:

Perfect Price: Dresser Make Over

Sometimes we come across the perfect piece for the perfect price. 

Or the "could be perfect, but isn't yet" that's still the perfect price (free). 

Such is the case with this dresser that my daughter and I found at the side of the road, waiting to be carried off by the trash collector.  Luckily we got to it first.

You may not think we were lucky when you see the before pic, but we were.

Yes, it's a bit rough and tumble around the edges, but it's a solid (ie. heavy) piece, and hey, who could beat the price.

I'll remind you, it was a bargin for FREE! 

So let's take a look, shall we, to see what can happen with a coat of white paint, new handles and a bit of love.

It's like a completely new piece! 

Sorry, I don't have pictures and instructions--my daughter did this with her own creativity, but she tells me it was a result of a couple coats of white paint and simple change of drawer pulls from the hardware store.

The pefect price, indeed!

Good Bones: A Vanity Make-Over

Have you ever come across a piece of furniture that called out to you?

A piece of furniture that said, "Take me home. You know you love me. I am yours."

Even though you may be thinking, "I have no room for you. I don't need you. You are ugly and it will take time to redo you just to get you presentable enough not to wince every time I look at you and I really don't have the energy to haul home another piece of furniture that I do not need right now."

But then you somehow listen to the siren call of the scraggly piece of furniture and haul it home, hoping the neighbors aren't looking out their windows and thinking, "Another piece of furniture?"

Yeah, me, too.

That was the case with this vanity I scored off of Craigslist. She was calling my name.

Just a side note here--I am a Craigslist junkie. Seriously, if there was a 12 step program for people addicted to Craigslist, I'd...well, I'd join the Craigslist Fan Club (it doesn't exist, does it?) sooner than I'd join the 12 step program because I love Craigslist. And I can't imagine giving it up, especially when there is so much furniture out there! But I digress.

She's not pretty, is she? She struggles with her appearance, but she had something I like to call good bones.

She was sturdy. Her drawers worked. And she had these tiny little wheels on the end of her legs that made me smile.

So, when she called my name, I listened and brought her home, where my cats promptly set out to investigate this new item.

She sat in my bedroom for several weeks. I tried to ignore her and her good bones and her tiny little wheels on the end of her legs.

I tried to decide what color to paint her. Green, no black, no red, no blue. And finally, I decided.

And here she is.

A lovely chocolate brown chalk paint (which I made myself--more on that later) with a gold glaze to accentuate her beautiful legs and a gold fabric to recover her seat.

I think it fits her, don't you?