Trash To Treasures

Have you ever been driving down the street and spotted some perfectly good furniture or home decor sitting on the curb put out for trash? Well, for the past few months, I've been stopping and bringing those castoffs home with me. And So if you are ready for some genuine trash to treasure transformations, let's get started. I had actually been looking for a vintage mirror to use in my bathroom, so I couldn't believe my luck at finding the mirror itself was in perfect condition, but I wanted to make use of the mirror stand too. So after I removed the mirror, I separated the sections of the stand by tapping each piece with a mallet. I set aside the spindles to use on a project later I clamped everyt Then I took the two short pieces that had been on the outside of the spindles and attached them to the center piece at a 90 degree angle using wood glue and a few brad nails. I found an old board in my stash that was just slightly longer and wider than my frame pieces, and I attached the frame pieces to the underside of that board using both wood glue and brad nails. Originally I hadn't planned on painting the mirror pieces, but since some of the veneer was missing and since I had filled some cracks with wood filler, I changed my mind. I wanted to use t However, I quickly realized the black chalk paint looked terrible next to the c I didn't want to paint over that wonderful old green paint, and matc So I painted over the black paint with a very light green chalk paint. When the paint was dry, I distressed it with sandpaper and then brushed on black wax. I was hoping the wax would give an older aged appearance to the light green paint. T At first I passed it by because I didn't know what I would do with it, but then later I changed my mind and went back for it, and luckily it was still there. I wanted to create a decorative facade for the bookcase using wood that came out of a dresser makeover. I had two large boards that had been the back of the drawers and four shorter pieces that were the sides. I cut the two long boards down to the inside width of the bookcase. There were some small wood brackets on the inside corners and one in the center, so I needed to cut notches in my board so it would sit flush to the front of the trim work along the edge of the bookcase. I wanted to cut two arches in the board, so I did some measuring to determine their placement. To create a pattern for the arches, I folded a piece of paper in half and then used a paint can and a straight edge to help me draw out the shape. I traced around my pattern making sure that each arch was equidistant from the center of the board. I don't own a scroll saw, so I used my jigsaw to cut out the arches. I just took my time and when I got to the top of the arch, I stopped and cut out that half arc before cutting out the second half. Before placing the board inside the bookcase, I sanded the cut edges smooth with fine grit sandpaper. I used wood glue to adhere the board to the inside edge of the bookcase trim and clamped it in place until the glue dried. I didn't add brad nails because I didn't want to nail through the bookcase trim. Once dry, wood glue is actually super strong and t Next, I cut some of the remaining wood from the dresser into six pieces, two to go across the middle sections and four for the edges. I cut them to fit snugly in place and adhered them with wood glue. I made sure to apply wood glue along the top and bottom edges of each piece too. For the last bit of trim, I cut four very skinny strips from the remaining wood to fit across the top edge above each arch. Once the wood glue was dry, I gave the cabinet a good cleaning with Restora Finish and Fine Steel Wool, w The wood from the dresser drawers was a bit lighter than the bookcase wood, so I brushed black wax over all of the facade pieces, lightly wiping off the excess. I couldn't believe how well t Have you ever been so frustrated with a DIY project that you just threw it away? Well, I'm pretty sure that's what happened that resulted in me finding the back fabric had been ripped off and there were small bits of fabric and dozens of staples left be It probably took me 45 minutes to pry off all of the staples. Then I gave the chair a good cleaning with liquid sandpaper. T I sure wish the chair had not been painted because there is no easy way to get paint off of the caning. And I'm so tired of w I even sprayed over the back straps and the burlap. The back cus So I cut off the torn fabric and attached a new piece of fabric just be I didn't reuse the foam square. Instead I stuffed it And then I used a garment steamer to get rid of the button impressions in the velvet. Although I thought the spray painted straps on the back looked fine, it only takes 15 minutes to cover it with fabric. So I cut a piece of fabric just slightly larger than I needed. I pulled it taut over the area and stapled around all four sides. Then I cut off the extra fabric trimming close to the staples. And to I found t It'sturdy, but it's ugly. The sides and top are made from plywood. The bottom edges had some water damage and needed a little repair. I added wood glue between the layers and clamped the bottom edges until the glue dried. I also added a few very small brad nails to hold the layers together. I unscrewed the wood handles, but they had been glued in place. I wasn't going to reuse them, so I just knocked them off with a hammer. T So to add some personality and to increase long term adhesion and to reduce bubbles and wrinkling, I sprayed one side of the nightstand with Easy Hang. I cut a piece of wallpaper slightly larger than the area to be covered. I pulled off about half of the backing paper and lined up the wallpaper with the back edge of the nightstand. I smoothed out that section and pulled off the remaining paper. Then I used a plastic wallpaper scraper to make sure the wallpaper was securely adhered with no bubbles or wrinkles. Finally, I used a utility knife to cut off the extra paper along the edges. I repeated then to cover the front, I cut several small pieces of wallpaper and covered the horizontal sections first, cutting the wallpaper edges even with the wood trim side pieces. When I covered the two long vertical side pieces, I made sure the wallpaper piece was wide enough to fold over onto the side. Because the drawer edges were slightly rounded off, I used a metal ruler to help me cut straight lines along all four sides. Some of the natural wood was showing along the edge of the top piece and around the drawer edges, so I decided to reuse the wood handles after all. I sanded them to give them a clean, fresh appearance. My husband spotted the wood was so rotted that it fell apart loading it into the car and I was questioning whether to keep it or not. I honestly didn't know what I was going to do with it. So I went ahead and just took the whole t I loved the embossed animal design on the iron plaque, but the wood framing it was falling apart, so I cut the edges of the two remaining wood pieces even with the end of the plaque and then cut two additional pieces from the seat slats to cover the ends. I sanded over all of the ends to soften and round the edges. Then I used two wood screws to attach the end pieces to the iron plaque. For a cleaner look and for added stability, I caulked in the crack between the boards and the iron plaque. I did t Next, I freshened up the iron plaque with a coat off-w And to protect the wood and keep the remaining c I t I still had a few slats of c To hold them together, I took a couple strips of wood left from the bookcase makeover and nailed them across the back of the wood slats, making sure to add nails into each board. The slat edges at one end were not even, so I drew a straight line with my T-square and cut off the ends with a jigsaw. I cleaned up the nicer side of the boards and chose a flower rub-on transfer to apply to the c I chose one from IOD's new Rose Botanical Package. I was actually really surprised at how well to make the transfer look original to the wood, I ran the scraper in the groove between the boards. For a rustic embellishment, I removed two metal braces from the bench and flattened them out with a hammer. Then I used a couple of the rusty screws to attach them along the top and bottom edge of the wood plaque. I still had the iron side supports left, so I decided to rebuild the bench using unexpected items from my stash. For the seat, I wanted to use the bottom half of an old suitcase. I pre-drilled holes in the bottom where the screws would go. And then I spray-painted the suitcase with w Once the primer was dry, I attached the suitcase to the side supports using new mac For a bench back, I found the wood handle from an old magazine rack and I trimmed it down to fit. Again, I drilled holes and ran mac I sprayed the handle with primer and then later I spray-painted the entire piece with w To dress it up, I applied some rose rub-on transfers to the suitcase and seat back. Because they didn't adhere perfectly, I distressed them with sandpaper, which makes any flaws seem My father-in-law found t I researched online to make sure that it wasn't valuable and discovered that it once had a round glass tabletop that is now missing, so I didn't feel guilty taking it apart. I cut a hole in the felt on the bottom so I could loosen the nut that holds everyt To remove the top light socket, loosen the bottom half so you can pull the top half off to reveal the screws. Then loosen the screws and pull the wires free. Then I was able to remove the long metal pipe and replace the other parts to create a table lamp. I had hoped to completely disassemble t I didn't I know some people love it, but for the most part, I don't So to make the lamp look more traditional, I popped out the two sideboards. Then I cut down the spindles left over from the mirror to fit in those spots. I attached the spindles with wood glue and brad nails through the top and bottom. To unite the two wood tones, I decided to paint all of the wood pieces. And it might end up looking Then after I painted it, I kept messing around with the lamp and I finally figured out how to remove the main lamp and just keep the chandelier. To fill the hole in the top, I added a bead to the swivel bracket from the dresser mirror and screwed it in place. Tone down the green paint and give it an aged appearance, I brushed black wax over all of the painted wood and lightly dabbed away the excess. This color is not for everyone, but I hope I've shared some helpful ideas with you today. And here are two other videos if you'd Thanks so much for watc Hope to see you next week.