Had to share. Someone was throwing out an old dresser, with no drawers, so I took it! LOL DH is making fun of me for it, but I have honestly found some really cool stuff that way! Anyway, it was black, but I painted it and turned it into an herb dryer
Neat! Did you put a fan in the bottom to help dry the herbs faster? I thought about making my own dehydrator a long time ago but I didn't have anywhere to put it so I ended up with a counter top dehydrator. You did a great job!
No fan But I moved it out to my deck this morning. Things usually dry pretty quickly out there. BUT, I may need to cover the front at night to keep the cat from crawling in there! Usually she's in at night, but she ancient and old now & sometimes she just sleeps outside.
That's what I was thinking. I have an old screen door in the basement. I recycle EVERYTHING! It's how I'm able to stay home with the kids. We're on one income and we run a tight ship when it comes to money. My kids hate it, but I often grab stuff from the side of the road, just to see what I can make from it. I can't afford furniture stores. We only buy stuff with fabric there. But anything wooden, I'll just pick it up if someone doesn't want it. It kinda keeps me from getting gloomy. It's hard to be on one income and see everyone else buying all that stuff, but I really enjoy making my own furniture. It becomes unique & then people wonder where I got it. LOL You should see their faces when I say "The Trash"...hahaha
This was in someone's garbage. It was dark blue and worn. I added a scrap of fabric to the drawer (from an old dress), painted it with leftover paint from the baseboards, added glass balls (from an old fish tank), then decorated the vase (10 cents at goodwill). So the whole thing cost 10 cents Dh never really seems to care. He's just glad he doesn't have to pay an insane amount of money for furniture. This little unit is where we store all the flashcards for math.
OhioMom, NICE JOB! I like the way you think. I love taking pieces that I find and refinishing them, or taking what I have and making them into something else. I hope I am not taking from your thread by adding two photos of an old hutch I refinished. I enjoy this sort of thing and wanted to share with a fellow fixer-upper! The hutch is from the mid to late 1800s. This is all I know. It had six layers of thick paint, so as hard as I tried, I couldn't remove the paint that was deep in some of the grain. It is made out of different types of wood, so I couldn't sand too much because the soft wood sanded faster than the harder wood. I had to make new shelves because the old shelves were like powder when I touched them. As you can see, some of the paint needs to be touched up, but I think it adds to the charm. The pictures are crumby. I do not have a good camera, but I wanted to share.
Patty: I LOVE the hutch! It's beautiful. There's just something about creating it ourselves that makes it more special. And it's even better when we don't have to pay a ton of money to decorate our homes. It always astonishes me some of the things that people throw out in order to buy a better one. It would be so much easier to just remodel it and make it your own. This pic is from an old dollhouse my neighbor threw out. I made it into a cat tree DH thought it was a little strange at first, but then he realized it kept the cats off my couch.
We added a cubby hole in the bottom. My kids added all the paw prints. One man's trash is another man's treasure
What a clever idea for the cat tree! I have to show my daughter. She will want a miniture version for her rat. :? The biggest project I took on was the piano. Our piano was about 100 years old and needed too much money dropped into it for repairs. We decided to go with a used piano because all the new pianos were at least $4,000 and up. We found one at Salvation Army for $400. We waited until 1/2 off day and bought it for $200. Em's piano teacher looked at it and said it was in extremely good condition on the inside. BUT! The outside was UGLY! Whoever owned it before us used it as a plate holder, set wet and hot cups on it, and it was an ugly blonde color that was partially shiny and worn. BUT, after taking it apart, sanding and staining it, we now have a beautiful cherry stained piano that was cheap as far as pianos go. Handsome was very pleased that it came out so nice. He sometimes thinks that I am strange when we go for a walk and I walk back home, grab the van, and go back to pick up something I see in the field. lol I told him to blame my dad; I get it from him.
I wish I could fix ours Our piano is a mess. It's in the basement and my DS13 poured baby powder all down in the kids (Don't ask...ugh) That is a big project. I'm not quite brave enough to do a piano yet.
The piano was time consuming, but not as difficult as I thought it would be at first. After all was said and done, there really wasn't much difference from any other project. It was just a BIG project; a lot of taking apart, reassembling, taking apart, and reassembling. Look at it this way, as of now, you aren't using it. If you mess it up, you still will not use it! From looking at your other projects, you can do it!!!!
Love the doll house/cat tree idea! I want to by a cat tree/cat condo for our kitties but they are so expensive and big. This would be perfect. Thanks for sharing!!
