My Stuff, Mine!

This is my hope chest that I received for my HS graduation. It was a lighter walnut with brass fixtures. Now it looks like this and I love it! It sits nicely in my entry way. It's a great place to sit as you take your shoes off...hence the shoe basket on the right.

I inherited a whole set of this furniture from my in-laws when I got married. The wood is beautiful and the pieces are high quality. However, it is dated. I have slowly been refinishing the entire set. I have this wardrobe and a desk left to do. I am showing you this picture as a before.

This is the after. Two nightstands and a large dresser with a monster mirror attached are finished.

I am showing you my banister for a reason. This was a pine banister but I wanted a classier look. I waited till my hubby was at scout camp and went to work. Love the finished product! My kids have scuffed it up so much that I love it even more because it has a natural wear to it. Even the zipper scratches from their jeans as they sllllliiiiiiiide down it.

My Kitchen Table

As you can see from the chairs that have yet to finished in the background...this was just your run of the mill pine table. I love color! Especially in my kitchen. I wanted a super fun, energetic table. My legs are purple, top is green. The bench is red and the mis-matched chairs will all be the corrisponding colors. My kitchen stools are finished the same way.

The Scoop!

I have been refinishing furniture since my early married years. You know the story, right. Okay, short version...newlyweds, law school, baby, no money. In student housing people would move out and leave any unwanted furniture next to the dumpster. Free for all! We needed furniture so I took it. I learned how to refinish so that at least my cinder-block walled apartment had some sort of charm. We graduated. We moved out. I took some of my treasures with me, I gave some away. This began a fun past time for me. I have not stopped refinishing. I ended up refinishing older furniture that was just out dated. Searching for discarded furniture that needed some love. Friends started asking me to help them refinish things. It's a stress release and a right brain thing for me. I realized I really don't have much more that I need to redo for myself and no room for new stuff. So I came up with this Win-Win strategy. I get to refinish and you get to buy! Hooray for both of us!