Living WholeARTedly: One Person's Trash......Can Be A Decorating Treasure

I mentioned yesterday that I would be posting re-purposing projects. My sister was one of the first people to suggest I start a blog, and this project is the one that prompted her to make that suggestion. I am definitely not above dumpster diving and when I was walking back from the recycling center I saw this very bright yellow stool in an alleyway (I know it looks white in this picture, but you will see in later shots that it was canary yellow). It was missing its rush seat and a little wobbly, but it definitely had potential.

I briefly toyed with the idea of re-weaving the seat, but I had just finished working on the sun-porch and wanted a little table to use as a plant stand. I had a small collection of Asian inspired items and the lines of the stool definitely fit in with that theme. I also had a fair amount of scrapwood, mostly ends of boards that I had trimmed for other projects. I used scrap 1" x 3" to make a box that set inside the top of the stool:

I screwed the box in place from the inside (which also helped make the piece more sturdy). The cross piece (the darker board) not only provided bracing, but also gave me something to attach the table top to. For the top I used a scrap piece of 1" x 12".

If you're building something from disparate elements, primer is your best friend. Once everything is all one color, you can quickly tell if the piece is going to work. I knew that at least part of the table I wanted to do in a faux finish that simulates old varnish. That particular technique requires a red base coat so I use a red primer. Anyone who has tried to paint a room red knows that it takes numerous coats to get full coverage. This particular primer solves that problem. The good news is, I only paid $2 for the quart of primer, the bad news is I paid that little because the local paint store was no longer carrying the product. I checked the manufacturer's website and fortunately, if any of you are planning on painting something red, the product is still available. I am not sure of the price, but if you've ever had to paint 5 or 6 coats on a wall, a primer that cuts that number down is worth its weight in gold. Here is the link: http://www.muralo.net/products/primers_interior_2279.php

And here is the table all primed:

I used a fairly thin black paint as a glaze over the red primer, giving the illusion of a wood grain. I used a fairly coarse brush to get some nice grain lines. A disposable 'chip brush' (those inexpensive bristle brushes sold at most hardware stores) works great for this. I used latex paint, so I had to work fairly quickly, but on a small piece like this, it's fairly easy. I knew I wanted to highlight part of the piece with a gold finish, and at first I thought part of it should be green to coordinate with the room where the finished piece would live.

Though I liked the look, it was still pretty obvious the top was a piece of scrap pine, so I decided to give it some texture and patina by applying a porcelain crackle medium. You'll also noticed I changed the color scheme...

In the end, I changed the color scheme one more time, deciding that the green just wasn't working. Here are some pictures of the final product:

So before you discard something, take a good look at it. It may just need a new coat of paint, or perhaps you can make it into something completely new!

There are more re-purposing projects on my blog. Click here for one of my favorites!

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Thursday, March 21, 2013

One Person's Trash...
...Can Be A Decorating Treasure

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