Found & Finished Items

Recently I started re-purposing / re-finishing items.   As I have been working on them I have thought a lot about the history of each one and decided to give them a little more life.  Here you can see what I've finished and read a little "story" about how I imagine the history to be, how I came to have it and the clever unique process!  I will update as I finish the pieces with photos and stories... check back often! 

I decided when the garage was packed with several pieces of furniture and they were all in a different state of repair that to keep things simple we should name them! 

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This was an old wash tub.  It sat for years in Illinois as a planter.  I rarely had living things in it, even though I tried!  I had two of them.  I recently sold one because it was not being used and was rusting out.

I was tired of looking at the thing and tired of the bag of charcoal sitting in the kitchen.  So Doug built a lid and repainted the tub. It serves as a charcoal tub and additional space for grilling! 

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Otis was my super buy at Junkstock.  I found him in a corner vendor location after purchasing an expensive whistle for Espen!  Otis was weather worn from being outside uncared for.  The drawers were there but falling in.  The knobs were missing.  Paint was in horrible shape.  It is hard to put an age on Otis because of the mess from damage.  What I paid for it seemed just about fair! 


We sanded.  Doug repaired.  He had to nearly build the inside so the drawers would not fall in.  He had to fix all the drawers.  The legs needed some repair.  Otis has been fixed.  After 2 coats of primer, 3 coats of paint and stain, new glass knobs and re-attaching the original lock covers, Otis is ready for his debut!  Not wanting to destroy the "weathered" look we left blemishes in it.  It has a beach feel.  It is a perfect size for a changing table for a child's room.  Otis makes me happy.  And he is sure to make a bright spot in a new home! 

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Marshall came to us from craigslist.  I wanted a piece I could paint and it was broke down.  Real vintage.  Doug got one look at it and decided there was no way it was being painted!  We named it Marshall because the markings on the back tell us it came from the old Marshall Fields Department store in Chicago.  Marshall is old.  No telling how old.  We have google searched and find nothing similar. 

Doug had to strip the top and completely repair some horrible damage.  It seems as if Marshall may have fallen face first onto a hard surface and the person to repair it had giant screws and gorilla glue.  So it was in bad shape.  After hours of repair and patience, Doug sanded and stained the dresser.  He cleaned all the brass hardware and the old wooded wheels.  Marshall is amazing and beautiful.  It is in our bedroom now.  It will be ours and one day my son will wonder why I have this! 

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This is Mark.  Doug found Mark on craigslist for cheap.  We arranged to go get it and had to drive to north Omaha for it.  We were greeted at the house by a giant border collie mix tied to the front porch.  A young tattooed, pierced man helped load it into the truck and off it came.  To my disappointment Mark came from a smokers home.  Mind you I am not judging those who smoke but seriously your crap absorbs odors and stinks to those of us who don't smoke.  Mark had seen better times.  The top of the tall dresser was stained and burned.  The original paint was banged up.   Structurally the dresser was in great shape.

After serious amounts of sanding and airing out, I primed Mark with the toughest primer out there!  I didn't want to spend any money on the piece so I mixed the paint from what we had left over from other projects.  After several coats of paint and 2 coats of stain Mark looks amazing.  Funniest thing is I didn't want it to look like wood, I wanted a groovy antiqued look, and Mark looks like light wood.  The solid wood piece was built to last!  The bottom drawer has a clever divider that one would not find these days!  I loved the finished piece so much that we have put it in Espen's room.  It is smoke free and loved these days!  Mark no longer is exposed to the harsh chemicals of a smoker but he is occasionally stood on by a child.  (Yep Mark is secured to the wall).

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I found this on the road.  Literally.  Espen and I happened upon it and I swung my little car off the road, jumped out, tossed this broken down treasure into the back and drove home.  I imagine it was on a moving truck headed someplace but it and the futon mattress next to it fell off.  The drawers most likely made it to the destination but not the body of the dresser.  It was in bad shape.  Drawers were gone.  Broken back.  A leg was off (that I had grabbed from the ground).  Doug rebuilt the leg, removed all the braces for drawers, sanded and repaired damaged areas.  I used slats from the pallets we had left over from the fort, sanded and stained them for a new back. 

It is a stunning robins egg blue with a brown shelf.  It houses my old quilts and looks amazing sitting there regally.  This old piece makes me happy.

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This started out as a holder for a tiki torch.  Once Espen became mobile it was not used.  I nearly tossed it into the trash on several occasions but something made me keep it!  It was moved around and housed spiders and the matchbox cars that got thrown and shaken in it! 

I recently weighted the bottom, sealed it, attached a lantern and painted the whole mess chalk board black.  It now is paired with an old washtub on the front porch for my ever changing seasonal display.  I can write messages to my passing neighbors or draw pictures on it!  A clever and crafty way to use something that was just about to find a way to the landfill.