Day 36: Old to New

Take something old and make it look new.
I've been on a hiatus from crafting while I worked on moving and settling into my new place.  There hasn't really been a night to relax.  The work I did actually qualifies for today's craft:
I flew my mom in to visit me for her birthday and mothers day and being the amazing daughter that I am, put her to work.  We went to a thrift store to look for some needed furniture to find out that everything was half off.
I have a lot to learn yet, my mom luckily had the eye to see the possibilities in all of this furniture.
Before & Afters
Fish tank stand ($12). Perfectly hides all my fish tank equipment!

File cabinet ($6). I work from home and always had my docs and office equip awkwardly stashed around my desk and even under my bed. So excited to have this.

My craft equipment has a home!($7)


Nerd Case ($25). This bookshelf had space camp and 'Artificial Intelligence is Real!' stickers all over it.
Look at this ugly thing!


Can't find a before picture of this table but the top was different than the legs but it looks great painted and will work great as my work AND craft desk! ($25)

Bathroom Storage ($23). This thing was so ugly without the paint, mom had to do some persuading.

Last I made this coffee table. We found a bucket of random table/chair legs $1 each at a flea market. Unfortunately, the kid at Home Depot couldn't cut a consistent height and kept chopping the legs shorter and shorter. Finally I took them as is and tried to even them out with felt.


I learned:
- Sellers in LA know what their products are worth at flea markets and apparently that value is, more often than not, more than it's worth to me. I get more pride in a cheap find that I made an attempt to make my own vs a ready-made very cool but very expensive item. I found it best to stick to the thrift stores for cheap big fixer-uppers and the flea market for the unique smaller accents. *The midwest is completely different, there is always an attic, basement, garage, or even barn being emptied full of amazing treasures.
- I may be wrong on this point but I prefer going to the flea market later in the day; the professional shoppers will have finished their shopping and I hate haggling so the fact that the seller may not want to pack this item up and haul it back home takes care of some of the haggling effort for me.
- Take time to sand and clean the furniture before painting.
- When in doubt use a primer before painting.
- For small projects save money by going to the dollar store for paint trays (and depending on the project, even rollers and brushes).
- Don't screw directly into wood or it may split, drill a hole first (thanks mah)
- The wood for the coffee table seemed smooth enough until I tried to wipe it off with a paper towel and this item will need to get wiped off regularly I guess I should have sanded it with a fine sand paper? Ryan's going to help me fix that one, will update with the results.
- Last, if you make your mom do heavy lifting, clean, paint, and decorate over her bday or mother's day (or in this case both) make sure to take her drinking afterward to earn back her love.
Happy birthday and mother's day mah! Thank you for all of your help. Love you!
Mom & I at the flea market. She bought me that tree for my jewelry.