I Would Break The 10th Commandment...

I want Crystal of Urban Patina to be my next door neighbor.  

I'd be over at her place every single day if she was.  I'd get nothing done at my house.  My husband and son would go unfed because I'd be hanging with Crystal.  I would break the 10th commandment because I would be coveting every single thing she created.  Her style would become my style.  (It actually kind of is already.)  We would get together and cookout.  Our husbands could be best friends.  If my husband refused to weld something for me (he hasn't yet but I did ask him about breaking out the welder the other day for a project I'm designing and come to think of it, he never did commit to it), I'd run next door and have her husband do it.  She could come over to my house and we could rock on the Triple Rocker, sipping iced tea and counting how many cars don't come to a complete stop at the stop sign.  If only...

Since she isn't likely to move to Illinois and we're not likely to move to Minnesota, I'll have to be content with following her on the internet.  One visit to her blog, or her Facebook page, or her shop will show you why I adore her so much.  

Take a look at this end table Crystal went to work on. She had two of them.  They had leather tops and they had seen better days.  Crystal set about removing the leather.  That left each table with a recessed area that needed to be filled.  No lego building plate here!  Nope!  She decided to use beautiful pieces of wood.  

The wood was cut to different lengths.  She sanded, stained and sealed each piece of wood.  Surprisingly, it's all the same color of stain on each board.  Some pieces just took it differently.  (Kind of like when I color my hair.  Some strands don't absorb the color like other strands.  I can fool myself into thinking it all looks blond because I've set my home lighting to be flattering to me at all times.  Dimmers are a girl's best friend.  It's only when I enter Walgreens and I'm under those florescent lights and catch a glimpse of myself in those stupid mirrors high up at the back of the store that I realize it is gray/white and I'm just fooling myself.  Thus, why I avoid Walgreens.)

On the body of the tables, Crystal painted them using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in the colors Old Ochre and Old White.  She heavily distressed them and sealed them with both clear and dark wax.  She then added new hardware.

Take a look at them now...

Gorgeous!  You can see even more pictures of them on the Urban Patina blog.  There you will fall in love with all of Crystal and her husband Paul's creations.  

I covet this clock...

I'm seriously in love with it.  I love it so much it hurts.  They offer even MORE clocks than this one.  A bunch of them.  Beautiful clocks in various sizes and styles.  All handcrafted.  Don't you feel like you should have one of those hanging in your home?  I know I do.  

Thank you Crystal's parents for producing such a talented Earthling to walk among us less talented people.  Paul's parents, too.  Thank you.  I shall continue to stalk your children but breathe easy because I come in peace.

Get on over to Urban Patina and see what else these two have to offer.  I predict you'll be expanding your Pinterest boards today.  Don't say I didn't warn you!

Midway through the week.  Have you submitted YOUR furniture flip yet?  Get on it.  Email me before/after pics & plenty of details.  Send them to me at furnitureflippin@gmail.com .  I'll be watching for it.

See you tomorrow!

~ Stephanie

Holy Smoke, Copper Nugget & A Coffee Table

When I was a young girl, our family relocated to a small Southern Illinois town.  The kind of folksy area where the big draw each year was the Agricultural Fair at the Fairgrounds, the newspaper was just a weekly one, everybody owned horses, and there was a town named Moonshine.  Our dad thought we needed to have horses, too.  So, along came Holy Smoke & Copper Nugget.  That's not them in the picture but it is me on a horse with Dad holding onto me.  (I sure miss that man.)  My sister is on the horse ahead of mine.

Let me tell you about our horses.  Smoky was a wild one.  He was a smoky color which is how he got his name.  One day my dad and I took off on him.  I was probably six years old.  I was hanging onto Dad for dear life.  We went quite far on our ride.  We were miles outside of town in the middle of nowhere when for some unknown reason Smoky reared up and deposited us both on the road. (That hurt!  Especially since my dad landed on me.)  Then he was off.  Running.  We hitched a ride back to town from a neighbor who saw us walking and crying.  Okay, I was crying.  Another neighbor found Smoky and back to the pasture he went.  
 
(Blatant misuse of a blog!  Grandma Steffie showing off Presley on a pony from this past summer.  It's my blog and I can show him off if I want to!  Plus all of this will be tied together further down the page.)  New readers I have a tendency to ramble...

Since I told you about Smoky, let me tell you about Nugget.  Horses are smart animals.  And very good actors as evidenced by their appearance in multitudes of movies and in this story.  Nugget got his leg caught in a barbed wire fence.  He tore his leg up and we had to apply an ointment to it daily.  He didn't enjoy that.  So, we would come armed with carrots to coax him to us.  One day, we all loaded up in our green paneled station wagon and headed out to the country to perform this task.  The horses could see us coming, winding our way through the countryside.  We could see them from afar, too.  The fact that if he could see us, then we could see him, never occurred to Nugget.  Smoky didn't bother to tell him either.  (Not surprising.  Smoky was an "every horse for himself" type of animal.)  We watched both of them come running across the pasture with their mane flying.  When we got closer, Nugget began his Oscar worthy performance.  Like a flip of a switch, he stopped galloping and started limping.  I think he even winced a little.  He stopped short of turning on the waterworks.  (Why the Academy didn't take notice of Nugget is beyond me and one reason why I never watch their silly awards show.)   

Those days of horse ownership are behind us now.  When we again moved the horses were sold.  They lived out the rest of their lives in Southern Illinois as we made our way a little farther north in the Land of Lincoln.  Horses are still big in that area.  I can imagine today's furniture flip would go over big with the equestrian crowd that makes up Clark County.  
 
Take a gander at this coffee table.  We've all seen them like this before.  We may have even owned one in our lifetime.  Linda from EEK To Chic bought this one off of her friend.  It was "plain, boring and scuffed up" according to Linda.  As soon as she saw it, she knew exactly how she would remake it.  

You might recall Linda's two previous appearances on the blog.  This one which was the inspiration for one of my most favorite blog titles EVER.  "Flippin' The Bird".  

And this one, where you all marveled at how the pulls seemed to become a part of the guitar.  

Linda said this makeover was a challenging one.  She used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  As she painted the background she would lay the picture on it to ensure that she was headed in the right direction.  It all came together.  She decoupaged the poster in place and finished it all with polyurethane.  

Check.  It.  Out.  

And two more...


Isn't that unique?  Somebody buy it!  It's for sale! 

EEK To Chic is located in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  You can find Linda and all of her EEK To Chic creations on her Facebook page.  Get over there and tell her you saw her on Furniture Flippin'.   

Thanks Linda for sharing your wonderful furniture flip.

Dear readers, you can see your Furniture Flips here, too!  Giddy on up and send me before/after pics along with all of the details you'd like to share to furnitureflippin@gmail.com. Your flip might inspire someone.

~ Stephanie

Ain't Nothing Fishy About It...

There was a time when a fish aquarium was the focal point of our family room. My stepdad had built it into the wall along with a place for the television, stereo and speakers,VHS tapes and the dust that I liked to collect. (See the dust? Don't judge me. My oldest two were little and I was busy.)

We enjoyed this fishtank. We watched fish come and go. One little baby goldfish was named "Pizza Hut" by my daughter. We called it Pizza Hut until she started calling EVERYONE Pizza Hut. By the time we realized she thought Pizza Hut was a bad word (I can still hear her little voice, "you PIZZA HUT!!") little Pizza Hut was dead and flushed down the toilet.

After a while, the built-in fish aquarium lost its coolness factor. It was a pain to take care of and the back part of it took up too much space in the closet behind the wall. Out it came. Now, I could tell you we repurposed all of it, but there wasn't much we could repurpose. There was a mantel that spanned the entire length of it and that we kept for another project. The rest was burn pile bound.

This brings me to today's flip. Had we owned an aquarium on a metal stand, we might have thought of doing this project that Dee from DeeConstructed did. Truthfully, I probably wouldn't have thought of it. Until now.

If you saw this discarded piece of metal by the side of the road on garbage pickup day you probably wouldn't have given it a second look, let alone dragged it into the back of your vehicle and hauled it home. Well, I guarantee you that you will never EVER think of leaving something like this languishing on the curb once you see what our talented furniture flipper did to it.

Dee dragged that baby back to her place and gave it a makeover. She worked on some rust spots and added wood for a table top and also a shelf below. (I'm glossing over some of the details because you need to read her version of this transformation on her blog. I'm not going to spill all of the beans here. Plus, she has more pictures.)

When it was all finished and a picture was snapped and posted, it sat idle for all of ten minutes. Yep, 600 seconds was all it took for her neighbor to come knocking, fork over the money, and haul that baby home.

When I tell you I think of this project a lot, I'm not exaggerating. My son has this chalkboard wall area in his apartment and I totally want him to have a smaller version of this to use as his coffee bar. I even had a lengthy text exchange with him and sent him to Dee's blog to see it. He's on board with it. Why wouldn't he be? It's gorgeous and very urban chic. I almost forgot to show you the after.

See what Dee did? Magnificient! Now hurry off to DeeConstructed and see what else this talented lady has been up to!

Get your flips in! We want to see what you've been up to lately! Email me at furnitureflippin@gmail.com. Send before/after pictures and all the details you can spare. You could be tomorrow's flip!

Shellac(s)! You Turn Out Gorgeous!

Well, Mr. Duncan Phyfe you had seen better days.  At one time you were scratch free and brand new.  As with all of us, as time goes on, we lose our luster and deep lines start to appear.  Oh, how I wish it were so easy for us humans to become as youthful in appearance as it is for you and the furniture sect you hang out with it.  That's not to diminish the work that Gina from Re-inVintage did to you.  Because it wasn't without effort that you became gorgeous again.  Let's take a look at how Gina found you...

Gina says "there wasn't much wrong with it as is, except for a few deep scratches. I personally didn't think the finish showed it's true beauty and gorgeous grain through all of the "shellackedness".  Yeah, that's a word...I promise."  (Readers - if you use that word credit Gina.  That way if someone says it's not a real word then you can blame her.  Remember, that veneer-ial disease in relation to bad veneer is totally MINE though you are free to use that word, too.)

Gina painted the base and pretty legs with a pale icy blue shade. 

The top was then sanded...a lot.  She hand scraped it for a more rustic appearance. 

Finally, she stained it in a rich, custom mix and poly'd him up. 

She left the original drawer pull after oil rubbing it a bit. 

Let's take another look at the finished table...

Told ya!  Gorgeous!  Re-inVintage is located at Sisters Cottage in Jacksonville, Florida located at 4159 Oxford Avenue.  Isn't that shop adorable?  Gina says the mission of her business is upcycles with a {Re}purpose..as a portion of the profits benefit charity.  She is also working on a line of pieces called the "Survivors Collection".  These will be pieces that she's refurbished and will donate to victims that are transitioning out of domestic violence shelters.  Gina feels that is her calling.  (How awesome is that?)

You can see more of Gina's work on her Re-inVintage Facebook page.  Get over there and make her day today.  She's recovering from a car accident she had this week so she can use our cheering up.  Let's try and push her likes to over 1,000, too!  Let her know you saw her on Furniture Flippin'.  Remember when I showed you this piece last October?

Thanks so much Gina for sharing your gorgeous furniture flip!

Dear readers, one more flip left this week.  Is it yours? It could very well be...if you've sent one in.

See you tomorrow!

~ Stephanie 

The View Outside Her Window...

It's almost warm enough for porch sitting at Durdanation.  (That's the title of my not yet a reality show starring me and whoever crosses my path.)  From my view on the back porch I can set my clock by a guy who rides his bike past every single day at 4:38pm.  Same guy, same bike, same basket on the bike carrying a case of beer.  I'm pretty sure it's NOT the same case of beer in that basket every day though.  I feel like I'm in an episode of "Groundhog Day" when I see him.  If I move to the front porch, (where the Triple Rocker resides) I get a steady stream of people going past.  There is usually a guy on a unicycle that rides by.  (There are TWO guys in our town who ride unicycles.)  There is a couple that walk by for exercise every evening.  They walk to the corner, turn around and head back.  I know that the wife will not head back until she taps the telephone pole first.  

As far as animals go, we have rabbits, squirrels and birds.  We've never had anything stroll by like Sherri from {Simply Paint It} encounters in her town.  

Check out what meandered into her neck of the woods one day.  Sherri said that was a Baby Moose and not even a grown one.  I can't imagine.  The closest thing we had like that in our neighborhood was a lady riding her horse down the sidewalk.  At the time I saw that, I wondered if she carried a big pooper scooper and a plastic bag like dog owners have to.  

But, this isn't about the large oversized animals that Sherri shares her town with or the cast of characters that reside in my community.  Nope.  This is about Furniture Flippin' (as the blog name implies) and what Sherri did to this nondescript entry table.  

Sherri got her hands on this table and knew it needed a bit of color to spruce it up.  She chose Old Town Paints in the shade of Avocado Green.  After painting, she lightly distressed it and gave it a coat of glaze.

Let's take a look at the after...

Tada!  {Simply Paint It}!?!  I'd say it's SIMPLY FABULOUS!  This isn't the first time I've shown you Sherri's work.  Remember this piece?  

Sherri is currently based in Alaska.  She's been super busy.  Go check out her {Simply Paint It} Facebook page to see all that she has been up to!  Let her know you saw her on Furniture Flippin'.  

Thanks so much Sherri for making the world of Furniture Flippin' a better place.  Keep on flippin' on!  

Dear readers, I shortchanged you again this week.  If you are followers of our Facebook page then you know I was busy over the weekend.  So busy.  Stripping paint off of 14 drawers, one desk and three sides of a dresser.  I should have listened to my mother when she told me not to be grow up and be a stripper.  Stripping sucks!  Especially stripping 5 layers of paint from a dresser.  Let's see, there was light blue, dark blue, peach, cream, white...I think that's all of the colors I encountered.  So, that is why you were not shown a new flip yesterday.  4 out of 5 days won't be bad though.  We'll get through the week.  I can't say the same for my stiff neck or sore shoulders. 

I'll see YOU tomorrow!

~ Stephanie

She's Not Only A Dealer, She's A User, Too.

I'm tired just looking at today's flip but, I'm totally inspired, too!  You'll see what I mean in just a second.  Let's say you have an entire dining room set.  Six chairs, a table and a humongous hutch.  If you are me, it would take you a YEAR to get it done.  I didn't even have the chairs or table to do, but just a hutch and a buffet and it took me that long, however, I'm not Stacy from Diamond In The Rough.  The safe bet is this: If you are looking for a furniture flipper to revamp your dining room set and you only have me or Stacy to choose from - PICK STACY!!!  Here's the set her client commissioned her to makeover. 

 

Stacy's client received this set from someone in her family and it had been in storage. They had recently moved and decided to get it painted and finally use it.

Stacy likes to paint in CeCe Caldwell's Paint, Websters or MMS Milk Paint (she's a Dealer for all three - visit her online store to purchase some for yourself.)  One of the reasons she loves those products is because she HATES sanding and priming. In this case, though since it was a dining table Stacy took the extra steps.  Knowing the use this set would get, she wouldn't recommend sealing with wax.  She chose to antique it with a stain.

 
Stacy sanded, primed with oil based primer and painted 2 coats in Behr "Antique White".  She then broke out the sander and sanding paper and distressed it.  She antiqued it with Minwax Stain "Early American" and sealed with CeCe Caldwell's Satin.  She did 6 coats on the top of the table for EXTRA protection since her client has kids but only did 2 on the chairs.

Stacy's awesome mother-in-law reupholstered the chairs. Look at how fantastic they look all lined up in a row...

Makes you tired just looking at them, doesn't it? When I ask our Furniture Flippers what they don't like to work on - the #1 answer is chairs.  

After the work on the chairs & table was complete, Stacy moved onto the hutch.  She did the same treatment to it which also turned out completely awesome.  

Stacy was excited to get started on the hutch and skipped taping off the glass, figuring she would deal with any paint mishaps on the glass later.  BIG MISTAKE she said.  It took forever to get that paint off of the glass.  Save yourself that energy and tape it off she says.  

Look at the closeup of the detailing now...

Stick around...I have some bonus pictures coming towards the end of this post.  Get your "pin" button trigger finger ready, readers.  

Diamond In The Rough is located in Brookhaven, Mississippi.  You can follow along with Stacy on her Diamond In The Rough Facebook page.  Let her know you saw her on Furniture Flippin'.  She's my former "cellmate" from last year when I was in Facebook Jail. 

Stacy's writes, "My customer and her husband were so happy with their set and that is what is all about!  Making pieces pretty again and making people happy make me HAPPY!"

Look at how lovely the completed set looks in it's new home sweet home...
 











Let's do a side by side comparison of the before & after...

Huge difference!  

Thanks so much Stacy for sharing your awesome Furniture Flip!

Dear readers, get your flip in!  What are you waiting for?  Here's your invitation.  Email me before/after pics & a ton of details to furnitureflippin@yahoo.com .

See you tomorrow!

~ Stephanie

It's Ok To Pick Up Hitchhikers When...

...they are of the furniture variety.  << Get that part straight.  I don't want you quoting Stephie wrong and saying I'm encouraging you to pick up vagabonds.  It's only ok if it's furniture. 

That's exactly what Ashley of Dirt Stains and Paint did.  She found a really cool little table on the side of the road.  I assume he was running away from his former home in search of someone to take him in, clean and spiff him up, and give him a new place to live.  Which is exactly what his new benefactor did.  

Here is what he looked like when she found him.  Poor guy.

 Isn't he cute though?  Look at that little latch on him.  Why don't tables like that hit the road in my neck of the woods?

Ashley saw the potential of what he could be under her tutelage and set to work on him.  She cleaned him up, fed him with wood filler, sanded, primed, and really stretched outside her comfort zone with the color.   

Want to see him now?  He is pretty awesome!!

Ta-da!!!

Fun & hip.  LOVE the number 84 on the top of him.  '84 was one of my favorite years.  In this case though, Ashley said her young son was into numbers big time and 8's & 4's are his favorite.  This is his table now!

Head on over to visit Ashley at Dirt Stains and Paint  for all of the details of this makeover.  You will love her blog!  She is HILARIOUS!  Check her out on her Dirt Stains & Paint Facebook page, too.  Let her know you saw her on Furniture Flippin'. 

Thank you Ashley for letting us feature your furniture flip!  And for making me choke on a potato chip and have to do the Heimlich maneuver on myself when I read this seriously laugh out loud post on Craigslist tips.

Dear readers, if you think you've seen this post before that's because you have!  It was one of the very first blog posts I did on here.  I running it again because it's cool and I was too busy over the weekend to write a new one.  

See you tomorrow!

~ Stephanie

Poor Wittle Table...

Poor wittle table.  Are you tired, run-down, listless?  Do you poop out at parties?  Are you unpopular?  Is that why you were destined for the trash truck?  Deserted and left to linger on the curb with the refuse your old owner deemed unusable?  Well, the answer to all of your problems came in the form of Gale of Gale's Treasures and a can of yellow paint she had in her possession.  

Or so she thought...

Gale got busy with ya.  She made a few repairs to you, filled in some holes and made you sturdy again.  Then she primed you and painted you yellow.  Did you look better?  Yes, but to Gale you still lacked oomph.  You needed something more to make you stand out from the crowd and make you the envy of the other tables you may or may not encounter.  (I don't know about you, but I rarely arrange play-dates for my furniture.)

So, Gale decided to do a checkerboard design on your edges.  She cut squares of painter's tape and placed the diagonally around the edge.  Then, since she had decided to spray paint the black, she had to totally tape up the rest of the piece.  Gale admits it took time, but she didn't mind.  

I actually don't mind the look of it all taped up myself!  Of course, I have in the past been known to cover my windows with newspapers just to make the neighbors wonder what we are up to!  Hehehehe.

Once the black paint dried, Gale put a coat of poly on the whole shebang.  Let's check it out now... 
I LOVE it!  Great job Gale!  I'm not the only one who fell in love with it because it sold within ONE WEEK of it's completion.  

You can find Gale on her Gale's Treasures Facebook page.  She's based in Virginia and loves finding discarded pieces and making them lovely again.  Head on over there and let Gale know you saw her on Furniture Flippin'.

Thanks Gale for sharing your fabulous furniture flip!  

Surprise, surprise dear readers!  Today's featured flip was not a repeat.  My midwinter break is over.  Somebody can come take Winter away now.  I'm ready for Spring no matter what that silly Phil in Pennsylvania says.  

Hurry up and get your flip in!  You know the drill.  Before/after photos and all of the details to furnitureflippin@yahoo.com .  

See you tomorrow!

~ Stephanie

Puttin' On The Glitz...

As we close out yet another week on "As The Furniture Turns" we have to remember one thing...IT'S FRIDAY!!!  That means party people!!!  Get on your fanciest duds and hit the town.  I swear around here that means changing OUT of your pajamas before you go to Walmart.  Please note - you may find me at Ace Hardware with socks and sandals during the winter months, but you will never see me in my pajamas in public.  Never, like ever.

Enough about dressin' in America's Heartland...Onto today's fancy Friday flip!! 

This one comes to us from Glo at Patina Pizazz .  What a cool name.  Even her first name screams Glamour!  Well, wait until you see what she has done with this...

Since it is Friday and I have a bunch of invites to go through and excuses to make up, I am going to let Glo tell her story today...

~ ~ ~

"My sister picked these up at a garage sale and I remember my first thought – ‘eeek and there’s not one but two’ I said quietly under my breath.  However, they were sturdy and had some nice detail.  They were brown with black flecks in the finish and very ugly but they were a  diamond in the rough kind of item.  If you can look past an objects ghastliness, you’re home free with your creativity, right?   I wait till all pieces speak to me and for some reason these spoke that day (pretty sure they both craved a makeover, but didn’t know it).   

Any who, there was some gunk on the junk (the tables that is) so we used a chemical stripper to clean the tops completely, sanded down to clean wood, wood filled some spots, treated with a primer and they were ready to go.   Now, they weren’t as easy as I make it sound.  You know those people whose friend’s set them up for a makeover but they push back until you make them go all the way?  Yah, those people and that’s what we got with this wood.  We had to strip more than once and actually painted, sanded and then repainted before the tops looked decent enough.  A little swearing along the way – my poor neighbors!  

I think the metallic we chose really brought them back to life.  So, the Patina is the older item it is and the Pizazz is the metallic makeover they received.  Thus my business name."

~ ~ ~

Back to me, Stephanie!  Are you ready for the reveal?  Wait no further, here it is...

These tables are all glammed up now!  Look!  They've made friends with the other fancy tables in their midst.  They kind of look like royalty!  (I apologize for all of the exclamation points - but I really DO talk like that.)

Now whisk on over to Patina Pizazz to see more.

Thanks Glo for letting us feature your dazzling furniture flip.

The rest of you, let's get crazy tonight...print out those coupons and instead of Walmart, I'LL see YOU at Hobby Lobby!  

Dear readers, if you feel like you've seen this flip before that's because you have.  This originally ran on May 31, 2013.  I'm taking a little break this week but will be back with all new flips on Monday.  You better submit yours.  Email before/after pictures and a lot of details to furnitureflippin@yahoo.com .

~ Stephanie

It Was A Steal Of A Deal...

We are continuing this week of furniture flips with a gorgeous dining room table and chairs makeover from Che at Juxtaposition.  (Isn't that an AWESOME Name - Juxtaposition?)  

Che was combining households with her guy and found herself needing to furnish a dining room.  She had her heart set on a French Provincial style set but had kind of given up hope of finding one in her area.  Until...she finally did.

She found a lovely set that needed some TLC from a sweet older lady who only used it on Sundays.  (<That part is creative license...stay with me.)  

Here's a picture of one of the six chairs (YES, 6 chairs! Mine only has four and mine came from a sweet older lady, too!  What a rip-off!  GRANDMA!)  

Che refers to them as the "ugly chairs" and they were a bit outdated but they were a steal!  THE ENTIRE SET WAS ONLY $60!  This set came with 3 extra leaves for the table, too!  Lucky duck Che!

She set to work on them.  She used homemade chalk paint, some glaze, and pretty fabric.

Here is the spectacular after of her new to them dining room set...

There's nothing ugly about that anymore!  

For ALL of the details and even more before/during/after pictures, head on over for a visit with Che at Juxtaposition.

Thanks Che for sharing your awesome furniture flip!   

Hey dear readers, if you are feeling like you saw this post before...it's because you have.  This post originally ran on May 17, 2013.  I'm taking a little break this week.  Have no fear, I will be back with new posts sooner rather than later.  In the meantime, please continue submitting your furniture flips to me at furnitureflippin@yahoo.com .

~ Stephanie