Here's Hutch. What Happened To Starsky?

Get It?  Stars, Key, & Hutch!

If you are a furniture flipper, I bet you have now, or have had in the past, an unwanted hutch top sitting around doing nothing.  I had one.  I can't remember what I did with it.  All I know is that it was in our garage, and now it's not.  I think my husband had something to do with it's disappearance, but he hasn't copped to it yet. 

(This pic has nothing but the title in common with this blog post.  And that hutch doesn't look like that anymore either.  Apologies to long time readers who have seen this feeble attempt of humor through pictures before.)

Anyway, today's flip.  The hutch part I'm talking about looks like this.  It would sit on a base.  Many times, people just want the base and have no idea what to do with the top part. Well, here is a spectacular idea that will make you weep for days at the loss of all of those hutch tops you (or your spouse) may have tossed.  

Let's talk about Julie from Simple Redesigns.  I adore Julie.  I check out her website for her work and follow her Facebook page.  I have to dole out my compliments to her projects a little at a time, so she doesn't get a restraining order against me.  A makeover of hers will pop up in my newsfeed and sometimes I make sure I'm NOT the first one to like it.  Haha.  Then after the appropriate time has passed I come back to it, like, comment and dream that I own that piece.  Like today's.  
 
Julie took this hutch top and transformed it.  It's new purpose was going to be as a sink base in a bathroom makeover.  Julie added mirror to the doors to hide the plumbing and whatever other bathroom necessities would be stored there.  Then she painted it in a pretty color.  

After her part was finished, she handed it off to her friend Mindi of MindiFreng Designs.  From there, Mindi's plumber took over and finished its conversion into a bathroom vanity. Look at it now! 

Isn't that something else?  Doesn't that make you want to run out and find a hutch top to convert?  It does me!  If you find one send it my way!  I DISLIKE my bathroom vanity and would be in bathroom heaven to have a piece like this!  

Now check out the one that Julie did for her own 1/2 bathroom.

Julie has excellent taste!  You seriously need to go check out her work.  She very generously shared, too, the recent remodel/reno she and her husband did on their own Mid Century Modern house.  Gorgeous is the only way to describe it.  

We've seen Julie's Simple Redesign work here before on the blog.  I have a tendency to pigeonhole Julie into the "furniture into bathroom vanity" category and that's just ME.  Because of MY obsession with furniture being turned into bathroom vanities and my hatred of my own traditional bathroom vanity. Actually, those conversions make up a very small part of her vast repertoire of furniture flips.  Once you go on her website or Facebook page, you'll be inspired for days.  

Here's what has been featured here in the past...

Her single vanity was a huge hit!  That green desk is so much fun!  The double vanity? Well, there aren't enough words to describe its beauty.   

Head on over to Simple Redesign's website.  There you will find finished pieces available for purchase, unfinished pieces available for you to you request your own look to it, and much more.  Julie & Simple Redesigns are located in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Head on over to her Facebook page, too.  Let her know you saw her on Furniture Flippin'.  I'll be over there lurking.  Hehehehe...   

Keep up the fabulous work Julie!  

That concludes another week of Furniture Flippin'.  We shall take a break for the weekend!  Woohoo!  See you next week!

~ Stephanie 

And Then What Happened?

That is a question I ask all of the time.  Ask my sister Rebecca.  She says I should open a detective agency with her husband because he and I always want to know all of the details, word for word.  I think we could be successful, too.  I think it's a Virgo thing.  I always want to know what happened afterward.  After the movie ended, what became of the characters?  After the furniture sold, what became of it?  Is it happy in it's new home?  

I don't know if you've ever seen "The Middle".  It's one of the few television shows on the air that you can actually watch with your children and not have to cover their eyes or quickly change the channel because something inappropriate suddenly happens.  There was one episode where Sue was reluctant to get rid of her electric curlers.  She worried that she would hurt their feelings.  Yes, she knows they don't really have feelings, but she still thinks that they'll be hurt if she lets them go.  I'm that way.  I place feelings on inanimate objects.  I do it all the time.  What else do you expect from a woman who names the vehicle she drives and then only refers to it by his name.  (Daryl - after Daryl Dixon.)  I love Daryl.

I assume most people want to know the same thing.  I carry pictures on my phone of the pieces of furniture we have flipped in case I run into their previous owners.  I have run into them.  Almost literally.  I spotted one previous owner walking down the street.  He didn't know me.  I knew who he was.  I drove around the block and cornered him in a parking lot with Daryl.  At first I think I startled him.  Then I showed him the pics of the "Derelict Dresser" that became our grandson's Chicago Cubs dresser.  Upon seeing the after pictures, he wanted it back! (I think the Cubs success last season might have had something to do with that.)

I chased down one woman in Kroger's parking lot.  This time I was on foot and pushing a buggy full of groceries.  She had formerly owned the "Dumpster Dresser".  She didn't even recognize it when I showed her the after picture of it.  Daryl was with me then, too, but he was hanging out in the boondocks away from everyone else.  He's a loner like that.  He doesn't let anyone get too close to him.  Only the people he knows love him and won't door ding him. 

I know where every piece we've ever redone has ended up.  I've seen it in its new home.  I hear how it's living it's new life.  I stop short of sending them Christmas cards and birthday gifts. 

I often think of the pieces I've featured here.  I wonder about them, and occasionally, I get the answer.  Like with my buddy Susan from Stone Creek ReDesigns and Finds in Fredericksburg, Virgina.  

I featured a gorgeous dresser of hers in August, 2013.  It began it's life many years prior looking in much better shape than when Susan found it.  

What you have to understand about Susan is that she doesn't paint just to paint.  She falls in the middle of being a wood purist and a painter.  That's a good thing.  Painting to just be painting and never appreciating the wood is a no-no.  Susan doesn't do that.  This piece had warped and splintering veneer.  It needed help.

After working her magic on it, I think Susan struck the right balance between wood and paint.  It turned out fantastic.  

I am not the only one who thinks that.  It's new owners think that, too.  That's why they bought it and now it's the focal piece in their bathroom.  (Okay...don't go there.  I know what you are thinking but until somebody flips a toilet, I'm not going to give a toilet the main stage.)  

Here it is...

Pretty, pretty!  Man, I love that piece.  I have serious bathroom envy right now.  (I didn't say that out loud.  My own bathroom may be listening.)

And so, we know.  We know what happened.  That's the "happily ever after" on this piece.  Do you have a "happily ever after" to share?  If so, email me at furnitureflippin@gmail.com .  Before/after/happily ever after pics and details please.

In the meantime, you can visit my friend Susan in person at her shop Stone Creek ReDesign in historic Fredericksburg, Virginia.  Or check out her blog.  Or visit her on Facebook.  She's a sweetheart.

That's a wrap.  I'll see you tomorrow.

~ Stephanie ~

She's Back!!!

I swear Julie from Simple Redesign is out to get me.  I'm not just being paranoid either.  Here are the reasons I think that.  She shows up a few months ago and makes me start to despise my own bathroom by sharing a gorgeous furniture flip she did.  At that time, she had taken a buffet and turned it into a bathroom vanity.  A stunning bathroom vanity.  

There it is > > >  > > >

Then I'm snooping around one day.  Unbeknownst to her (or so I thought) and I find that she is a dresser hoarder.  I'm starting to think...hmmm...word on the street is that I like dressers.  They are my "thang".  She must know that.  She must purposely be snatching them all up in an effort to get to me somehow.  I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't have a whole huge operation covering her state, my state and whatever other states she happens to drive to.  Seriously, you need to check out her inventory.  She has serious hoarding tendencies.  

Then come to find out she has done yet another bathroom vanity.  This time she has upped her game and made it a double vanity.  Last time it was a single.  This time it's a double.  That to me, is a passive aggressive move aimed directly at ME.  She knows I coveted the last vanity.  She knows I complained that my bathroom is too small to accommodate a cool one like that.  So, she hits me with a double.  Now this may all just be conjecture on my part, but let's take a look at her latest bathroom project.  You can form your own opinions after you do your own investigation.  

Julie started with this dresser.  (Look!  What did I JUST tell you!  Look at the dressers she has lined up.  Against their will probably.  I can almost hear them calling my name.  Steffie, Steffie...)

Julie's clients had the sinks all picked out for this dresser.  That allowed Julie's handsome handy husband Marc to predrill the holes for it before Julie got her hands on it.  Once that was done, Julie made it all pretty with paint and lacquer.  

They took it to their client's home and it was installed in the most beautiful bathroom I've seen in a long time.  (Where were these people when I was trolling the internet looking for inspiration three years ago when we redid our bathroom?  That right there is a little suspicious, too.)

So, yada, yada, yada.  The dresser is now a double sink vanity and here's the pictures to prove it...

Here's another one...

I have to give credit where credit is due.  That is awesomely spectacular in a big way.  No ifs, ands, or buts about it.  Genius, I tell ya, pure genius turning a dresser into something that makes all the other dressers of the world jealous.  

Come closer, here's what I need you to do.  You need to go check out all of the behind the scenes stuff Julie has been up to over at the Simple Redesign blog.  She's always up to something.  Leave her a comment there, or here or wherever you heart desires.  You can also find her hanging out on her Simple Redesign Facebook page, too.  Let her know you saw her on Furniture Flippin'.  Then report back here to me everything you saw.  Take a notebook so you don't leave anything out. 

Thank you Julie for sharing your righteously rad furniture flip.  That'll be one dresser please!  

One last task for you loyal readers, I'm looking for some "What Would You Do?" pictures.  So, it's up to you to email me some.  Send me a picture of a piece of furniture that you have no clue what you are going to do with and we'll see what ideas we can come up with for you on our Furniture Flippin' Facebook page.  Email me at furnitureflippin@yahoo.com .  

~ Stephanie

Don't Cha Wish Your Bathroom Was Hot Like This?

When Julie from Simple Redesign submitted her furniture flip to me she had no idea the torture she was unleashing on me.  I went through a myriad of emotions.  Anticipation - while I clicked the paper clip icon to see the picture.  Astonishment - at the gorgeous after picture.  Excitement and joy - that it was such a cool use for an old object.  Disappointment - that Triple H wouldn't be home for a few hours for me to show it to him.  Envy - at the fact that MY OWN BATHROOM is too small to accommodate anything like this.  Shame - for thinking of my bathroom that way when it boasts such a cool original clawfoot tub.  I finally settled in on LOVE.  I love today's flip.  I love it so much I want to sell my house and get a bigger one so I can have one of these in my own bathroom.

You see, Julie's business Simple Redesign, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, involves being able to take an old, dated piece of furniture and make it beautiful & modern by using different finishes and techniques.  One of her clients had been on the hunt for a smaller sized buffet to transform into a custom vanity for her bathroom.  Julie had just the buffet.  It needed some modifications along the way but Julie and her handsome handy husband Marc took care of those lickity-split.  Nothing was overlooked in this makeover.  

Julie did a metallic finish on the buffet and used oil rubbed bronze on the hardware.  The top was removed because her customer was planning on putting a solid surface on it.  Then it was off to her client's house.

Let's take a look at how it looks in it's new home with it's new top...

There I go...back to envy.  Isn't that just the coolest thing EVER?  You need to go check out the step-by-step of this makeover on the Simple Redesign blog.  

You can also follow along on the adventures of Julie and Simple Redesign on their Facebook page.  Let her know you saw her on Furniture Flippin'. 

Thanks Julie for sharing your wonderful envy inducing furniture flip!  

That brings an end to one more week of furniture interventions.  We will be doing our wrap up tomorrow and then be back on Monday with a whole new flip!  Have you submitted yours yet?  Email me at furnitureflippin@yahoo.com .  Don't make me remind you again. 

Have a safe weekend!

~ Stephanie

A Rebel With A Blog...

...that's today's featured furniture flipper!  Actually, she's not so much a "rebel" as a self-proclaimed "rule breaker".  I like that!  She's honest.  She's also from Illinois.  See there is one thing you must understand about Illinoisans, this applies to our friend Trina from the blog "Let's Just Build A House" and yours truly, we are an honest bunch.  It's our politicians that aren't honest.  While some of us wish we lived in a big house and some of us build a big house, it's likely to be one of our Governors who actually do end up living in the "big house".  It's true!  Four out of our last seven Governors have been sent up the river.  Now you understand even better why I think our State's motto should be, "Illinois - Where Our Governors Make Our License Plates."

Anyway, let's talk about Trina.  Trina and her handsome handy husband Adam have been busy building their forever home.  In addition to their house projects, Trina tackles DIY Projects and she cooks, too.  (I'll tell you what, I hope these husbands of these extraordinary women we feature realize just how lucky they are to have us!  Feel blessed men, because you are!  Triple H knows!)

Last year, Trina picked up this old dresser at her favorite flea market, the 3rd Sunday Market in Bloomington, Illinois.  

She paid the sum total of $50.00 for it having talked the seller down from $65.00.  Every time I show a dresser in one of our "What Would You Do?" features on our Furniture Flippin' Facebook page, inevitably someone will suggest turning it into a bathroom vanity.  I love that idea.  (I only wish our own bathroom was bigger).  Well, turning it into a bathroom vanity is EXACTLY what Trina did with this beauty.

The dresser was the perfect size for their half-bath in their new home.  Trina says it was in a pretty banged up condition with nail holes in the top.  She filled those in, sanded,  applied a few coats of Minwax's Special Walnut and a few coats of poly to protect it.  The original drawer pulls were cleaned and sprayed with Oil Rubbed Bronze.  (Love that color.)

Trina purchased a vessel sink and faucet from eBay at a fraction of what it normally would have cost.  She won the sink auction for $80 including shipping.  The sink normally sells for over $400.  SCORE!!  

Let's take a look at her flea market find turned bathroom vanity now...

Isn't that sweet as can be?  I WANT ONE!!!

You can see more of this makeover and follow along with Trina, Adam, and their dog Scout as they complete their dream home on their Let's Just Build A House blog.  She is hilarious!  You'll love reading her posts. 

Facebook friends, you can check them out on their Let's Just Build A House Facebook page, too!  

Thanks so much Trina for introducing yourself a few weeks ago!  Keep on keepin' on in your part of Illinois!  You make your old Illinois Valley neighbors proud!

Dear readers, we love to read your comments on the blog so quit being shy.  Speak now or forever be hounded by me.  While you are busy typing away your thoughts, shoot me an email with a furniture flip YOU have done.  You don't have to be a full-time furniture flipper, you can be a DIYer doing stuff for their own household.  We welcome them all.  Email me the before/after pictures and all of the details to furnitureflippin@yahoo.com .

~ Stephanie