The Dumpster Dresser

It's the day after Thanksgiving as you well know.  I'm NOT out Black Fridaying it up.  I am being a tad bit on the slacker side though and not writing a new blog post for the day.  Instead I'm picking out my favorite flip that my handsome handy husband and I did earlier this year.  I am updating it for you though and adding some new details. 

It's the Dumpster Dresser!!  While my husband and I are hard at work finishing up the makeover on our dining room hutch and buffet that used to belong to my grandmother this weekend, you can check out all of the work that went into the Dumpster Dresser. 

The story of this dresser/entertainment center began on any ordinary day in the Midwest.  My daughter and I on a dumpster dive.  This was a clean dumpster dive in a nice neighborhood.  No hepatitis shot needed.  Somebody had moved and their throwaway furniture didn't make the cut.  This was one of those pieces left behind.

Mint green, missing a drawer (we dug around for it, too!), the top was coming up and there were some issues with the side of it, too.  Plus the oversize knobs didn't do much to enhance it's appearance either.  

We had to reinforce this piece.  Glue, clamps, the whole shebang.   

We got rid of the curved sides and front trim which screamed "bedroom furniture".  That is usually the first thing I want to do when making over any bedroom furniture into something else.  Off comes the curved trim, in comes a straight piece. 

Since we were missing a drawer the top two drawers came down to the second row.  There was a problem though.  They weren't deep enough.  That's okay.  We hid that with some metal.
Oh, that's not the top but a piece of wood resting on top of the Dumpster Dresser. It would make a cute kitchen island though! 

 
My handsome handy husband used the drill press to pre-drill the holes before attaching this to the dresser.  Doing some grinding - no sharp edges.

We chose shed door pulls for the handles.  We backed them with metal that Triple H cut down to size.

 





I beat the heck out of this Dumpster Dresser with a chain to distress it.  Knicks, gouges, grooves, they were all welcome.  Industrial look baby!

 

Check out the metal rod at the top of the piece.  Then the rusty corner metal pieces.  We used a LOT of metal in different forms on this.  It added a lot of weight to it, too.

Look at the handles!  I love them.  Aren't they cool?  See where the drill press really came in handy?  With the way the screws on the piece line up so nicely?

I used a combination of paint and stain to achieve the finish on the wood.  I wanted it to look oil soaked in some areas. 



Here it is all complete.
 
   

We wanted to give this piece the look that it has a history to it and boy, does it ever! The stain and distressing we put this piece through makes it look like it would be just as comfortable at home as it would be in a machine shop.

Here's one more look at before and after.

Thanks to Triple H for helping me bring this idea to life!  I did the designing, distressing, sanding & staining.  He did all the heavy metal and wood work!  

We had this piece for sale and had some offers from all over, but shipping this beast (it weighs a TON) was too costly.  So, instead we sold our other one and Dumpster Dresser (yes, we still call it that) sits in our family room.  We love him, we love him, we love him.

A whole new furniture flip comes your way on Monday.  If you have one you'd like to share please email me.  Send before/after pictures and all of the details to furnitureflippin@yahoo.com .

 ~ Stephanie

I Could Never, Ever, Ever, Be This Clever...

...like never.

We've all seen them.  The old entertainment centers turned into child size play kitchens.  Well, I'm going to show you an awesome one today.  It makes me wish my kids were still little.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I wish I were still little and could play with this.
 
Let's meet Kathleen Woolsey of The Emptier Nest.  Pardon this picture but Kathleen was in such a big hurry to get going on this project, that she started it and THEN remembered, "Before picture!".  

Kathleen removed the doors and back of the unit.  She cut the top off the whole thing and used part of it for the countertop.  She faux painted it, giving it the appearance of granite.  She then marked and drilled holes for the sink and faucet, which she picked up at her local Habitat for Humanity ReStore.   She drilled holes for the stove knobs which are actually drawer pulls that she ran across the table saw to cut dial indicators.  For the stove top itself, she used a thin piece of plywood painted black with CDs attached for burners.  

The right interior (where the TV sat) was totally gutted except for the bottom shelf.  Kathleen trimmed the right side down to counter height.  Evened the sides of the fridge, put a top on and added an interior shelf.  New doors were made from 1/2" plywood.   You can't have a refrigerator without storage, so shelves were added to the refrigerator door.  Kathleen writes, "Actually what you see is the 3rd door. I don't remember what was wrong with the first one but the interior shelves were too big on the second door and it wouldn't close. The sink door is the second fridge door cut down."   

The long handles are hardwood scraps painted silver. Kathleen has a local furniture builder who dumps their scraps in a big bin out front for the taking.  She says sometime it looks like a "feeding frenzy" out there with people going through it.  

Let's take a look at this kitchen masterpiece...

What did I tell you?  Clever, clever, clever!! 

Yesterday Kathleen delivered it to the Green Light Restoration store in Grass Valley, California where she sells her goods.   When she came back to get it displayed, it had already sold!!  How about that?!?  Great job Kathleen!  We can't wait to see the next one you do.  There has to be a next one, too!

Kathleen says this is the first time she has ever taken on a big project like this one.  I have to say, I think she has some serious talent going on.  I'm glad she tackled this furniture flip AND that we all get to see the completed piece.  

Head on over to The Emptier Nest's Facebook page and let Kathleen know you saw her on Furniture Flippin'.  Go look at the table she made out of a set of encyclopedias.  Try doing THAT with GOOGLE in a few years kids.  You won't be able to.  Say what you will about Google and the internet making books and libraries obsolete.  You can't make a table out of Google or the internet, now can you?  I rest my case.

Thank you Kathleen for sharing your fun furniture flip!  

The rest of you...what are you waiting for?  Get out there!  Grab something, redo it, and submit it to me.  Email me at furnitureflippin@yahoo.com .  In the meantime, we are ALWAYS accepting your witty comments here on the blog. 

See ya tomorrow!

~ Stephanie

Proof That I Can Flip, Too!

Triple H likes to say to me ALL THE TIME, "Well, you've got the talking part done."  Yes, I have grand ideas and plans.  It's the carrying out of those plans where the problems lie.  That's where he comes into play.  He is a doer.  The man does not stop working.  It usually takes him being out there with me, keeping me on task, for me to complete a project.  I can't help it.  My mind wanders and I get bored easily.  That's why the Park Ridge Project was so perfect for me.  I had all of these furniture pieces to redo in a short amount of time and I could flit from one piece to the next whenever the mood struck me.  Usually I rolled from one piece to the next on Triple H's creeper chair.  (Little fun fact about me - the first time I used a creeper I was 16.  My stepdad was teaching me how to change the oil on a car.  I got my hair caught in the wheel of that creeper and there I was stuck under the car attached by the head to this red thing with wheels.  Fun times!)

Anyway, (see how EASILY I get off track?!?) today's flip was necessitated by the following dilemma:  We had a built-in oak entertainment center in our home.  The home I have lived in since I was 8 1/2 years old and we now own.  This entertainment center was cool when my parents built it in 1989.  At that time it had a fish tank underneath the TV area also built into the wall.  Times change, fish croak and I want a bigger closet behind the wall that this built-in shares.   That's my two oldest children when they were babies checking out the fish swimming in the tank.

Here is the built-in before we removed it but after I had attempted to paint it white and never finished it...see the missing door knobs?  See the missing trim from enlarging the TV area many years prior?  See where the fish tank used to be?  See that terribly outdated television?  And, WHY is that "Peace On Earth" sign crooked?  You can tell I wasn't staging this picture for public viewing.  Don't judge me.  I actually think I was starting to decorate for Christmas, thus the bare mantel.

So, the unit was tore out.  Triple H rebuilt the wall and the hunt began for something else to place our television on.  At this point, I'm excited because I'll be able to FINALLY rearrange that room plus I gain more closet space in the bedroom.

After much searching of the used high priced crap available in our area, I finally found this reasonably priced dresser and the gentleman threw in a free end table with it.

 

Nice heavy solid piece of furniture.  We took it home and got busy with it.  We removed the hardware and that bedroomy piece of curved trim at the bottom of it, replacing it with new trim.  We removed the top row of drawers and with scrap wood from my brother in law's cabinetry business, we installed a shelf.  Then we sanded and painted.  I bought new drawer pulls.  The matching end table already sported the style I was planning on using.  Bonus!!

 

After all was said and done, all was said and done.  We ended up with this...

Please excuse the terrible picture quality.  A Robin tried to kill me but got my camera instead.

There you have it.  I love this flip.  I've skipped a few steps of what we did.  You can see all of the details at The Hardscrabble Home.  As you can tell upon your arrival there, I'm H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E about updating that blog.  That's why I have this one.  It allows me to have a place to write and not actually do much of the work.  Hehehehe.  Thanks for that furniture flippers!  You rock!    

We've since moved on from this entertainment center.  We decided to keep our heavy metal Dumpster Dresser entertainment center.  

Have no fear though because we sold the other one to a lovely family and here it is proudly sitting in it's new home next to a chair we also did for them.

Hold on to your refinished chair, though!  I am going to be working this weekend on a new flip.  I'm going to tackle another dresser.  This one intimidates me though because it just needs a paint job and I'm better at tearing apart and putting it back together projects.  Who am I kidding?  I'm better at orchestrating Triple H tearing apart and putting it back together projects.  There's that "talking part" again.  

If you have a furniture flip you'd like to share, please email me at furnitureflippin@yahoo.com .  Before/after pictures plus a lot of details please.  

Thanks Triple H for all that you do!  (There's YOUR feature PAL!  Happy now?)  Seriously though, without him, his know-how, and his tools, it would just be poor me with a paintbrush and fifty half-finished projects.  After all, I'm the talker, he's the doer.  

~ Stephanie

Moving On Up To A Flat Screen...

All of those who were late to join the flat screen television band wagon, raise your hands.  (Mine's up).  Come on, let today's featured furniture flipper know that she was not alone.  Those of you who still have to get up, cross the room, and change channels with a knob, however, well...put your hand down there's no excuse for that.  

Susan from Names On The Jersey Shore bought a flat screen tv.  She hung hers on the wall but then needed a place to store all that comes with the television.  She didn't want something huge that would become a catch-all and one day while searching Craigslist she found something similar to this...

Hers wasn't as good as the stock photo above but it was free and that means it was a STEAL.  (See flippin' jargon above and to the right.)

She put a LOT of work into it, including cleaning it numerous times, and made it into what she had in mind.  

Here's the up-to-date, fresh and clean smelling after...

It's a looker now!  LOVE the contrast of the two colors she chose.  

For more about today's furniture flip, swim on over to Names On The Jersey Shore for the lowdown.  

Thanks Susan for letting us feature your furniture flip!

The Dumpster Dresser

It's the day after Thanksgiving as you well know.  I'm NOT out Black Fridaying it up.  I am being a tad bit on the slacker side though and not writing a new blog post for the day.  Instead I'm picking out my favorite flip that my handsome handy husband and I did earlier this year.  I am updating it for you though and adding some new details. 

It's the Dumpster Dresser!!  While my husband and I are hard at work finishing up the makeover on our dining room hutch and buffet that used to belong to my grandmother this weekend, you can check out all of the work that went into the Dumpster Dresser. 

The story of this dresser/entertainment center began on any ordinary day in the Midwest.  My daughter and I on a dumpster dive.  This was a clean dumpster dive in a nice neighborhood.  No hepatitis shot needed.  Somebody had moved and their throwaway furniture didn't make the cut.  This was one of those pieces left behind.

Mint green, missing a drawer (we dug around for it, too!), the top was coming up and there were some issues with the side of it, too.  Plus the oversize knobs didn't do much to enhance it's appearance either.  

We had to reinforce this piece.  Glue, clamps, the whole shebang.   

We got rid of the curved sides and front trim which screamed "bedroom furniture".  That is usually the first thing I want to do when making over any bedroom furniture into something else.  Off comes the curved trim, in comes a straight piece. 

Since we were missing a drawer the top two drawers came down to the second row.  There was a problem though.  They weren't deep enough.  That's okay.  We hid that with some metal.

Oh, that's not the top but a piece of wood resting on top of the Dumpster Dresser. It would make a cute kitchen island though! 

My handsome handy husband used the drill press to pre-drill the holes before attaching this to the dresser.  Doing some grinding - no sharp edges.

We chose shed door pulls for the handles.  We backed them with metal that Triple H cut down to size.

 





I beat the heck out of this Dumpster Dresser with a chain to distress it.  Knicks, gouges, grooves, they were all welcome.  Industrial look baby!

 

Check out the metal rod at the top of the piece.  Then the rusty corner metal pieces.  We used a LOT of metal in different forms on this.  It added a lot of weight to it, too.

Look at the handles!  I love them.  Aren't they cool?  See where the drill press really came in handy?  With the way the screws on the piece line up so nicely?



Here it is all complete.
 
   

We wanted to give this piece the look that it has a history to it and boy, does it ever! The stain and distressing we put this piece through makes it look like it would be just as comfortable at home as it would be in a machine shop. It's a stained and paint finish but in some areas it just looks oil soaked which is the look we wanted.

Here's one more look at before and after.

Thanks to Triple H for helping me bring this idea to life!  I did the designing, distressing, sanding & staining.  He did all the heavy metal and wood work!  

We had this piece for sale and had some offers from all over, but shipping this beast (it weighs a TON) was too costly.  So, instead we sold our other one and Dumpster Dresser (yes, we still call it that) sits in our family room.  We love him, we love him, we love him.

A whole new furniture flip comes your way on Monday.  If you have one you'd like to share please email me.  Send before/after pictures and all of the details to furnitureflippin@yahoo.com .

 ~ Stephanie