Great Crates!!…is That a TABLE?

So I know this family of cowboys…ya…I said COWBOYS…and NO I am not Joking…there are rodeo buckles, cowboy boots and Hats all over the darn place…These boys are country ALL the way. 
I have grown rather fond of two of the cowboys in the family…the oldest…who we shall refer to as “Unky”  and the youngest that you all already know as my “Cowboy”.   They are two of my favorite characters…and Characters they are!
Now…”Unky” was over for a visit a while back and he noticed that I had been out Junkin’.   He commented that he really liked my “tables”  that I had sitting around. 
Take a look:



Yep!  they are old crates!   I found them in an old house…and they were LOADED with bird poop and other unmentionable things.  It took me a LONG time and a LOT of cleaner to get these babies all ready to be in my house!!!   I got them all cleaned up and just set them down in the living room one day to figure out what I wanted to do with them…and it hit me…they make fun shabby little tables!
ANYWAYS…back to my story…
”Unky”  really liked them…especially the one with the shelves in it that I used for my magazines!   He also liked the wooden tray on the door that I turned into a dining room table…I suppose I should show you the tray too hey???   ugh…you have NO idea…ha ha

I actually thought that I had already shared all of the next few posts…and when I prepared a post about the newest projects I have been working on, I went to refer to some of these projects…and realized…I took photos…but NEVER posted them!!!   CAN YOU SAY BLONDE MOMENT????  UGH…I could smack myself!
Ok…back to my story…

I also pulled a few smaller more shallow wooden boxes from that old place…it wasn’t as filthy as the others, and I thought it would make a great plant holder on my table! 

I added a couple of used old horse shoes…and ta-da!

I love it! 
WELL…When Unky came by for a visit…he mentioned how neat that was…and this Tootsie was listening…

For Christmas I made him a set of his own!   I used old crates from the attic of his childhood home…(Cowboy owns the old home site and there are all kinds of fun things there for a Tootsie to play with)  They were no where near as dirty and abused as the ones in my house…so they cleaned up easy…Dust is far nicer to clean off than bird poop…just sayin’  :)
I added two old pieces of wood on tiny brackets for shelves, screwed castors onto the bottom and he had two end tables for his living room!  
He can put the table tray on his dining room table to hold his placemats and napkins, and keep everything all neat and tidy!
The decorating style in “Unky’s” house is beautiful.   It is rustic and country casual…these crate tables are perfect with his décor! 
Turns out…that “Unky” LOVES his Christmas crates…and has them in his home in just the right spot! 
Maybe one day I will stop over there and take photos of how grand they look in his house!
I plan to Junk up my “Unky’s”  house a lot over the next while…good thing he’s easy going…and has lots of space for me to fill!
I already have another piece to deliver to him…I just can’t wait to show you!
Until Next Time…Happy Junkin’!!!
*)*)*)…treasure yesterday celebrate today dream of tomorrow.
(¯`v´¯)
`*.¸.*´Glenda/Tootsie
¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.
www.tootsietime.com

Wash Stand Rescue!

A while back I went junkin’ and acquired this little piece of gold!   This old wash stand has been standing in the elements for years just rotting away forgotten and was actually slated to be buried in a garbage pit!  The owner of it had no use for it, and it was considered to be in such a bad state of disrepair that it was garbage! 

I will admit that it was in a bad state when I brought it home…I cleaned her up a lot for the photos…it was disgusting! Those three drawers…were full of mouse nest and other mouse by products….I am not even going to show the photos of that…it is not a pretty sight…trust me.


The door is broken…but I can work with that…there are a couple of handles missing…which isn’t a huge issue…and it smells really bad!

  That is also something I have no problem taking care of!  This little old wash stand has potential~!



Over all it is a solid little piece…so what’s not to love???



A little grime never stopped me before right???

RIGHT!

I got busy and cleaned this baby right up…it took me a long time to get all that ick out of the drawers…they were packed solid with mouse nest grossness…I scraped and scraped and vacuumed and scrubbed…Then I took it and washed it wish bleach and hot water…LOTS of bleach and hot  water…lol

While it dried…I set my mind to the task of deciding exactly what I was going to do to this little old wash stand and where I was going to put it when I was finished with it.

I decided that no matter what I ended up having to do to it to fix it up a bit…I was going to put it in the hallway just outside the bathroom on the main floor.



Right now there is a little table/cabinet type thing sitting in the position where I plan to put the new/old washstand…so I need to move a few things around to make room!
 
Once the little wash stand was dry, I was happy to see that I liked the way it looked just as she was!



All I really needed to do to it was add a little chicken wire to the door, and find a couple of knobs to replace the missing ones!

I thought I had knobs the same as the ones that are on there already, but I don’t, and in a small town there are not a lot of options for shopping for drawer pulls…so I am going to have to make due with a little creative mending today…



…I found two of the old wooden spools I pulled off another project and they fit in just nicely for now…a few staples later…and the door is now finished too!   I think I like it open rather than paned in solid with a piece of wood.



Voila!

  My antique wash stand is now sitting in her new spot in the hallway!   I love it!  I am not sure that I am loving  that mirror with it, and might have to change it out for something else… but for now it will fill the bill until I come up with a better idea.




As for the other cabinet/table thing….I have a plan for that…and even a new home…but that….is another post for another day!   Stay tuned…that make over is almost finished…and the reveal is going to be fun!

Until next time…happy junkin’/decoratin’!

*)*)*) if you live a life of integrity, many things may keep you up at night but your conscience won't be one of them.

(¯`v´¯)
`*.¸.*´Glenda/Tootsie
¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.
www.tootsietime.com

Takin’ 1/2 a Bite Out of Some Junk! The Rescue/Re-do of a Family Heirloom.

I have been sharing a few junkin’ projects here and there that I have been working on for a 'friend.'  Today I am sharing a piece that I made out of two separate pieces.
My 'friend' and I had been out at her grandmother’s place one day, and ended up with a whole bunch of wonderful junk to play with.  Now, to many people, the stuff we brought out of those sheds would be just considered trash…but to us…they were pure gold…just a little rough around the edges!

This is the base of an old set of kitchen cupboards…It is absolutely adorable.   We have all the missing parts, it just needs to be repaired and brought up to a better standard of stability.   Right now it is in very rough shape.
I love that it is on castors!!!  Can you imagine being able to re-arrange your kitchen????   

This is the top of that cupboard!   How cute is this???   Can you imagine how much character they have when they are put together????   I love it!

There is even a little spice rack inside the cupboard!   Ya-ya…there’s also well …er… some filth and a little mouse poop…ha ha!  
My friend doesn’t really like the idea of putting the top on the original base, so we also pulled another piece out of that shed.

Check this baby out!

It is big and beautiful…and yes….a little dirty, but there are lots of details built right in!  I can’t wait to get the drawers open ( they are stuck in position) and get to work!  
It does not have cabinet piece for the top anymore…but it does have great bones.  This is going to become the base for the little cupboard top I showed above. 
I had fun and a few surprises while making this project take life…
We got busy cleaning up the pieces we wanted to use…my friend was working on cleaning up the top part, and I took the base.  Somehow I always end up taking the piece with the most surprises in store for me. 
The first order of business was to get the doors and drawers to open.  It took a little muscle, but I eventually got those drawers to open…now…I have seen a lot of things in my junkin’ adventures…but these drawers...well…they were unique…to say the very least.

I pulled the drawers right out of the cabinet to clean them….and got myself a little bit of a surprise in one of them!   Do you see it???   I was startled…and grossed out enough that I was actually gagging!!!  

I could handle the mouse mess that was left in the drawers….

I could handle the dead bugs, cob webs and the broken glasses….but I could not handle…

The filthy set of upper dentures!!!   I should have kept them and scared Grammie with them…set them inside her desk drawer…hahaha!

Good Greif!   I am gagging right now!   How disgusting is this???   My kids were laughing so hard at my reaction.  I opened that drawer and let out a little scream…and then started to gag.   They thought it was hilarious!
The other drawer wasn’t nearly as disgusting…but it was a little disturbing…

There was several bottles of this in that other drawer.  Two of them were still full!!!   just a little disturbing…ha-ha
I wonder what the other “valuable ingredients” are…or maybe I don’t….hahahaha!
After we had a good giggle over the contents of our junk, I got to work…

...cleaning and disinfecting everything...

...sanding and scraping a little here and there…

…and taking a million before photos!  
Bring on the paint!

This piece was given two coats of semi-gloss black oil based paint.

It sure does look better than it did…

…but it still feels like it’s not finished yet…  I need to give it some depth. 
First we needed to finish the top.

Inside …outside and all over this piece I cleaned and scraped and disinfected….then I painted.

EVERY little spot on this piece was also painted with two coats of black semi gloss paint.

When both pieces were dry….and ready to be moved, I grabbed a rag and a can of cabernet colored gel stain and rubbed all over the black.

…the red stain gave the black a little dimension…and the pieces were left to dry.

While the outside of the base dried, we added some spray glue and some pages from an old book as shelf liners on the inside of the cupboards.   My "friend" loves that look…and this was a great idea for covering the inside  shelves.
Once the whole thing was dry and ready to move, there were castors added to the base piece…so that it would be easy to move if the need should arise, and the whole project was taken into the house, and set into position!

I added little wooden knobs to the drawers, that were painted and stained to match the finish…my 'friend' did not want to add backing to the top…she wanted to see her wall color through it.
and that is all that needed to be done to finish the project!  

I adore the original hardware on the top cabinet piece.   All we did to them is add a tiny bit of copper color paint to them…they didn’t need much more!
I can’t wait to share this cabinet all decked out with dishes and pretty things!

The BEST part of this project is that these pieces once belonged to a family member of my "friend".   They were her great great great grandmothers!   How wonderful is that for her to have????   

Not only did she get a china cabinet that is a one of a kind…but she created a family heirloom at the same time!
So…what do you think?   I like the result…and still want to try to fix the original base.  I have more junkin’ projects to share…so stay tuned!

~~~Update~~~
Sadly, after my "friend" got the pieces that she wanted me to fix, all finished...she sort of disappeared from our lives.  Funny how that works hey?

Until Next Time…Happy Junkin’!
*)*)*) to my special three….When you choose the action, you have to accept the consequences. And if you can't stand the heat, then you shouldn't have lit the fire.
(¯`v´¯)
`*.¸.*´Glenda/Tootsie
¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.
www.tootsietime.com

Seating For 6 Or More…At The Door

Welcome!   I am so glad you popped by today!   I am excited to share one of the projects that I have been working hard to finish around my house the last little bit.
I have been junkin’ just a little bit…ok…I have been junkin’ a lot lately.  A friend and I have had a little luck finding some fabulous things…and we have been playing a little with it all.   I have taken a few pieces to add to my house, and I am going to start the sharing today!

I shared the doors that I picked up a few weeks ago, and today I am going to show you all what I did with one of them!  I began with cleaning it up…a lot.

Once it was cleaned up I brought it into the house and set up a space to do some work on it.  I had to bring it inside as I needed to be able to use my china cabinet as a color reference.  This door is about to become my new dining room table!  
I have a beautiful dining room table…but it is far too large for the space allotted in this house as a dining room.  It fit in…but then there was no room for people!  So…I put the table in storage…and got busy working on a new solution to the dining room problem!

I began by laying down a tarp and protecting the floor below my work area…then I set my sights on paint.

One nice thick coat of a good primer to both sides of the door was in order.  I needed this to be sealed up…It was very dirty when it came to me.  I also didn’t want any of the original blue to leech through and show up.  There is no blue in my dining room!  
If you look closely at the photo above, you can see the original dining room table in the background.  I love it so, but it is just way too large for this space.

With my primer dry…I started to rub the door with a gel stain in Dark Mahogany color. 

I LOVE playing with paint.   I think I might be addicted to the smell of paint too…ha ha!   I am not so crazy about the paint fume hangover I get the next day, but hey…It is worth it!

Dark Mahogany on, I start adding some color!   I don’t wait for the different colors to dry…(who has the patience to wait…right?)  I just start rubbing them on.  The second color after the primer is called Cabernet.  I put it on in small patches all over the door…

Just like this!

The next thing I added was a few little touches of black high gloss paint the same way as I added the cabernet.  please ignore the disaster mess in the background!  ugh.

I then went back over the entire door…colors and all with Dark Mahogany again…it blends the colors together a little…so there are no definite lines of color addition…it just kind of softens the lines out.
After all the colors are added to my preference…I needed to wait for the door to cure.   It was left overnight to do this.

In the morning, I got up bright and early…and started to focus on things such as legs….I was gifted these fantastic legs…but there is just one problem…one was broken a bit…

Have no fear!  It's an easy fix...a pair of wooden blocks glued together for me to put on the top of the short leg.   Yay!!   I love these legs…and I think they will be perfect for this project!

I got a cowboy to help me with putting the legs on…and decided that I didn’t want this table project to look like a door sitting on some legs…I needed to dress it up just a little bit.  So, I went to the storage room downstairs and pulled up three pieces of crown moulding to add as a skirt to the table.

I treated it in pretty much the same way that I did the table top.  There is a little more black involved with the skirt…I needed to make it match the china cabinet after all!

The legs are going to be just perfect…

That cowboy did a fabulous job attaching them to the door…and making a little support for the crown moulding to attach to.  (My next project is going to be that ugly fireplace in the background!  I hate that thing!)

TA-DA!!!

I don’t think i want to paint the legs!  I like them just the way they are!

The skirt looks amazing on there!

I plan to find old wooden chairs to sit around the table on…and I think I will try to distress them to look like the legs ….

It looks wonderful!…but now… need to address that horrible little curtain situation that was on the window in this room…That was a no brainer…

I hung a layer of sheer curtains, and then on another rod over top, I added lace sheers…and tied them back with burlap!   Not bad I think…

I like the mix of the casual and the formal…it suits this space.
Man is it hard to take a good photo of the window when the sun is shining!  ha ha !

My dining room feels good now…lots of room for family and friends to sit around the table…and there are some pretty things in here for us all to enjoy.

I am in love with the black chandelier that we put in.  (except for it shows the dust really bad)  ha ha !

The very first chance I had, I hosted a dinner party for all those who were involved in the making of this room…from my junkin’ partner and her hubby, to the cowboy…in total there were 8 of us all sitting around this table enjoying each other’s company and having a nice meal.
I am so happy that I tried this idea.  I really like this table, and I love the way my dining room is coming together.  Right now, I am just using iron chairs that I have from another set that I have, but eventually you will see this room again, when I have enough old wooden chairs distressed to perfection to match the legs of the door turned dining table in my house!
I hope you have enjoyed your visit today!!!  
Until Next Time…Happy Decorating/ Junkin’!
(¯`v´¯)
`*.¸.*´Glenda/Tootsie
¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.
www.tootsietime.com

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