drab to fab

These tables were sad. Their knots were showing through the cream finish but instead of looking aged they looked... old. You know the difference, right?Enter their new life... I sanded, primed, sanded, and added a couple of coats of Krylon Mediterranean. It looked really, really bright. I was a little nervous. But I sanded some more, applied some RL Tobacco glaze, sanded again & recoated with glaze, and here they are!


I love them!

Now, who can guess where this next project is headed?! And if you've been in my garage (or, uhm, studio!) over the last few days, you can't guess!
kathie

new blog address

I am SO sorry if any of you had trouble finding me here! On the advice of my attorney (aka my sweet sister!) I changed the blog address. It was the right thing to do, I just hope it doesn't cause mass confusion!

Now on to our regularly scheduled programming...

kathie

the furniture fairy

The furniture fairy stopped by my house yesterday!The trailer came bearing all sorts of goodies... a huge table, five chairs, a china cabinet, buffet, hutch and another drop leaf table. It was like Christmas morning!








Looks like I have my work cut out for me :)

A HUGE thanks to all of you who have sent emails, left comments & FB messages of support for the blog & business! You all delivered the affirmation that I needed to know I did the right thing by coming out of my comfort zone. I appreciate all of you so much & am so thankful to have all of you in my life!

kathie

ps... please don't mention this to my husband, as I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate being referred to as the 'furniture fairy'! I might lose my delivery service!

a few good pieces get a new home

A very dear friend of mine from church posted a picture on her blog of her 'new' kitchen table & chairs... you will recognize them from my blog! She really gave me tons of encouragement to make a 'go' of this business, for which I am eternally grateful. Thank you, Donna! Donna blogs about all~thing~Dunwoody and her blog is one of the first that I began to read on a daily basis a couple of years ago.

Check out her blog & the picture here...

http://knitternall.blogspot.com/2010/08/kathie-c-collection.html

(If I were more sophisticated, I could make a link out of that, but I'm still learning!)

The deciding factor for me, though, was the sermon at the early service this morning. Our minister Jason spoke of how often we let fear hold us back from our dreams, when we know all along that God is right beside us, urging us forward. Now, to be clear, his example was overcoming fear to enter the ministry, NOT to start a furniture refinishing business :) However, it struck a chord with me.

So, since the beginning of this blog, the only people in my 'real life' who have known about it were my husband & my sister. I've already made so many new friends through blogtown, but now the word is out to my friends & family in 'real life', too!

I've gathered my gumption, so here we go!

Thanks for all your support!

kathie

a successful day!

Today was a great day, despite the rain & the 5:45am wake up call to get ready for our big sale! It was fun to see neighbors we haven't seen in a while (that happens in Atlanta during the summer because it's too hot to play outside!) I was also grateful to see so many friends! That is really the best part of these things, I think.

We said goodbye to a number of pieces and I almost put the brakes on one sale~ I didn't realize how attached I had become to my buffet/hutch until it was being loaded into someone else's car... sob!

Goodbye, buffet & hutch. I am going to miss you. My voice echos in the dining room without you!

Goodbye, china cabinet. Have a wonderful life in east cobb...

Goodbye chairs with 100 coats of poly. I'm glad you live up the street now, where I can visit you if I want to!

Farewell, one Drexel mirror. You're not quite as stunning with only one of you :)

See you soon, fabulous chairs. Again, glad you sold to a friend, who promised to send pictures of her new room!

Hello, vintage restaurant chairs! Am I the only one who loves you?! No takers on these today, but some offers on CL. I have 8 in black and 6 in white. And why, yes, they are a bit wet. Why? Because it only rained about 20 times today during our sale! Pull the furniture back in, take it back out, wait a few minutes, and repeat. Sigh.

So what am I doing now? Relaxing, glass of wine? Nope! Wheeling & Dealing on CL for the remaining items. Including those vintage restaurant chairs...

And this:

It hardly got a glance today, but I've had ELEVEN people contact me about it since I listed it this afternoon. It belonged to a friend of mine who brought some things to sell. I tell you what, I am having trouble keeping up with all the traffic on this sweet dresser! {Updated to add: now I'm up to 13 different people wanting this dresser. ???}

And, this:

A desk with someone's monogram on it. Fairly basic, but this piece is buzzing on craigslist! Why all the attention all of the sudden? (FYI, my husband says it is because I priced them too low!)

This tired momma is ready for bed. Hope you're all having a great weekend!

kathie

freshened up chairs

Freshened... is that a word? Regardless, as you can see, these chairs needed some freshening! They were a goodwill find, at $8 a piece, I couldn't pass them up.

Funny story, though... they were for sale as a set, with a tile top table that I did not care for. So, I went to the cashier with my sticker and let him know that I just wanted the chairs, not the table.

His response: We can't break up the set.

Me: Oh, I understand. I'll pay the full price for the chairs, I just don't care for the table and I'd like to leave it here. So you can sell it to someone else?

Him: Let me call my manager

Manager: Sorry, we can't break up the set.

Me: I'd really only like the chairs, though. I'm happy to pay full price for the set, even without the table. Can't I just leave the table here?

Manager: Nope, sorry.

Me (after much pondering) : I have an idea! How about I'll buy the set, and then I'll donate the table back to you?!

Manager: Great idea! That will work!

Sigh...

So the chairs finally made it home with me :) I sanded/primed/painted them in a color matched to Heirloom White (trying to step away from the spray paint), and then stripped/sanded the seats. I stained those a dark walnut and put about 50 coats of poly on them. Or maybe only 7, but a lot of poly!

I love how they turned out!

I know this isn't the best picture of them, but with the garage sale tomorrow, I've literally run out of places to take a good picture! We live in a ranch, and it is literally overflowing right now up here~ the basement is emptying out, but the pictures would be even worse down there!

thanks for stopping by!

kathie

garage sale goodness

I am in the final push to get ready for our sale tomorrow! I'll admit it, it has consumed me this week, and I am pretty excited for tomorrow morning to get here. Actually, this afternoon should be fun, too, as we have a number of people coming to preview things. Also, my sister, parents & dear friends are bringing over their loot in trucks/trailers to add to the mix :)

Please don't let it rain!

I've advertised well, I think. An add in our local paper, several (according to the category) on Craigslist, I've posted an album of sale items on my Facebook page. We have 12 signs ready to go up in the morning. What else do you do to advertise a sale at your home? Ideas?

Here are some of the goodies I've been working on for tomorrow.

Gorgeous french style table with 3 leaves & custom table pad (see 'before' picture in previous post!)
This hutch & buffet won't be sold, but were included in my frenzy. This is their second makeover since I inherited them from my mother-in-law... they originally belonged to her mother!
I scored these vintage restaurant chairs in a parking lot. Six are white...
And 8 are black.
This great table is up for grabs

And this precious member of our family got in on the action, too! She snuck out into the garage (aka my paint booth) and got good & dusty! I had to take pictures because I knew the boys would never believe me that she looked like a ghost :)

Have a great weekend! I would love to hear your thoughts on advertising for garage sales!

kathie