"Free" Dandelion Storage Table

(or Dandy-Lion)

I purchased this fixer upper on a local sales site for $2.50! Yes! That's right! $2.50!! Beat up, missing hardware and some loose joints, it was ready for a facelift! 

I was so excited to get started that I forgot to take a before picture. Here it is glued up, wrapped and ready for its re-appearance! 

After prepping and priming, the lid got a fresh coat of white paint, while the drawer front, top and sides were dressed in a medium gray. The inside of the storage area and the inside of the drawer got a coat of  sea glass light green.

Wanting to customize the "new" little guy, I downloaded a piece of clipart of a dandelion with the seeds blowing off into the air.  I transferred this design by tracing the design on the reverse with a pastel and then taping and transferring the design onto the lid.  I also traced some of the seeds onto the top of the stand.

The lid still needed a little something. The word "free" came to mind to convey the seeds drifting off into the air.  The font I chose is called Freestyle (I just now noticed the name...FREE).  I transferred this to the lower right side of the lid, using the same method as the dandelion.

All of the designs were handpainted in the same medium gray as the base. The seeds that flowed onto the top were painted in white.

Since the stand was missing some hardware, I picked some up off of ebay. (That search took hours, because I didn't want to have to fill and drill new holes.)  

Ready for the "after"?  

Here it is!

The top and lid got a couple of coats of poly and it was off to its new home!

I LOVE seeing pieces in their new homes!!

New Life for a Curb Dweller

Here's a sweet little find. A friend of mine keeps here eyes open for any "freebies" sitting alongside the edge of the road that are crying out for a new purpose. Here is one of her finds.

This little guy had definitely seen better days. No glass on top, kind of wobbly, beat up, and kicked to the curb, literally.  After brainstorming for a couple of days, I came up with a plan: it was about the right size for a little bench or footstool for an entryway or living room.  Hmmmm.... coming up with the plan is always the easy part; carrying it out always proves a little more challenging.

Plan: a new painted surface, a piece of thin plywood that would sit inside the "frame" where the glass used to be, something for over the plywood for a cushion. Finally, a cool, trendy cover of some kind.

The piece was sanded and given a fresh coat of satin black paint. After cutting the plywood to size, I stapled a pillow (ripped open and about 1/2 the stuffing removed) to the top of the plywood. The plywood was then covered with a burlap coffee bag that I had left over from some other crafts. Thin trim was then stained a honey gold and glued to the edges of the plywood to cover the edges and clean up any gaps between the frame and the plywood.  The last step was to distress the edges of the bench.

This is the result of a little ingenuity, some sawdust and elbow grease:

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 His new home?  A new friend's entry way; a place to sit while removing boots, etc.  A new life for a discarded piece. Ahh....

You can see a slew of transformations, great ideas and crafty things at The Shabby Creek Cottage at this link:
http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/2013/01/transformation-thursday-no-186.html#more