The Red Shed – Love My DIY Home

My Double Flipped Dresser

Occasionally I will buy a piece that another furniture artist has listed that they couldn’t sell. They will put it up for sale super cheap. 90% of the time there is something wrong with it like water damage or messed up drawers that they didn’t address in their redesign. Those things will discourage buyers and then they get stuck with a piece that they put effort into that doesn’t sell. Most hate keeping pieces around and will give up and get rid of it to cut their losses. I watch for that scenario and if the piece is solid, just not up to par, I’ll grab it. This happened with this piece. I bought it for $40 on Marketplace. There were some details that hurt its saleability, but it had good hardware and was a brand that said, “quality”. The BEFORE: Looks good, right? So why was it for … Read more

A Bit of Couch Table Glitz

Every time I flip a piece of furniture, I wish I could find a permanent spot for it in my own home. I think this is common for anyone who turns an old out-dated piece into art. We put our heart and soul into it throughout the creative process. It’s something that you must experience before you understand. It’s even hard to see it go out the door when it sells. You feel like a piece of yourself is leaving. Of course the cash in hand is great as is the thought that someone else will enjoy your creation. But still. It’s an emotional moment. I find it quite funny that we would get so attached to a “thing”. But it’s true. A piece of ourselves goes out the door each time. Here is the before. We got it from our favorite shop in Door County here in Wisconsin. We … Read more

Antique Door Hall Tree Part 2 – The Seat

#sponsored The Second Part of My Upcycled Hall Tree Project. First I painted a door for the back drop of my hall tree. See it here: Antique Door Hall Tree Part 1. Now I’m showing you the seat part I’ve attached. It was an antique radio base that I found at an antiques estate sale. The Before MATERIALS (RED indicates affiliate links for your convenience) Old Fashioned Milk Paint Snow White Old Fashioned Milk Paint Marigold Yellow Old Fashioned Milk Paint Salem Red Scotts Rags General Finishes Gray Gel Stain General Finishes Gel Top Coat – Wipe On Polyvine Wax Finish Flat Varnish Renaissance Innovations Paint Brush Thinking Outside the Box Since it has a flat back, there are few uses it could be upcycled for – it’s a perfect fit for a hall tree. I cleaned and sanded it, then white washed it with Snow White Old … Read more

Carved End Table “Victoria” Turns Blue

A trip to Door County in Wisconsin has often yielded us treasures. Well, treasures to be that is. This one. This carved end table was sitting, as you can see, in a consignment warehouse. This consignment shop appears to be a quaint little shop on the main drag. But if you walk on through to the back, you will discover a huge warehouse full of furniture from days gone by – tossed aside just waiting for someone to see its potential. I happen to be that person. This one was pretty to begin with. It had a glass top, so I’m guessing that’s hwy it was tossed aside and considered outdated. BEFORE Materials List (affiliate links in BOLD for your convenience) Pure & Original Greek Sky Classico CrystaLac’s grain filler and black satin CrystaLac Top Coat, Matte STIX bonding primer CrystaLac Top Coat, Matte Scott’s Rags Krud … Read more

Did someone saaayyy, “Bombe”?

#sponsored My DD tagged me on a FB bombé chest ad. So we drove out to take a look. As I was looking at it, the lady told me she kept getting “no shows” and was so tired of people saying they’d come by to take a look and then never show or message her. She took $10 off just because she was happy I showed up! They just don’t show up. I’ve experienced that same thing over and over too. Hundreds on our Forum tell the same tale. People message me and say they are coming to buy a piece and then don’t show up. Only one out of half a dozen lately bothered to let me know something came up or they changed their mind. Not long after my DH’s knee surgery, I had two people make appointments to buy three … Read more

An MCM Road Rescue by the DH

#sponsored DH brought home a side of the road freebie last summer. 14 months ago I cleaned and sanded it. A few months ago I primed it. Just yesterday I finally got to painting it. Go Bold or Go home, right? So here it is in the raw…sad and unwanted, tossed out for the garbage truck. It’s a Mersman MCM. And it was Uggg-Lee. Here is my disclaimer regarding the MCM label in case anyone cares: When researching this table, we could find nothing that placed it into the mid-century or mid-century modern category. Though Mersman tables are plenteous, there aren’t any out there like this one. So who knows? Mid-Century…Mid-Century Modern? Vintage? Antique? Either way, it’s old and not from this era. The store closed down in the mid 90s and produced more than their share of tables for around 100 years. … Read more

Hannah, a Parlor Table Beauty, Lives to Serve Again

#sponsored I’d Never Noticed Parlor Tables Before It’s a funny thing. You buy a white car and all of a sudden you notice every white car on the road. That’s what has happened to me. I saw a really cool table at an estate auction a while ago and won the bid. After I refinished it, all of a sudden I saw parlor tables everywhere – antique stores, estate sales, online… Today I introduce you to Hannah, named after the man who owned the store that made her – Hannah’s Furniture in Kenosha, Wisconsin. She had a tag on her underside: She was quite beat up with gouges on her table top. We decided to pretty her up with Pure & Original Classico in Black Hills (a deep green) and add a bit of glitz with Champagne Metallic accents. Materials (Most are … Read more

Mission Beautify Ivy by Saltwash and Pure & Original

#sponsored Have you tried Saltwash yet? While at the General Finishes Conference, we met the Salt Wash originator, Carol Hunter, and she gave us a 10 oz. can of Saltwash to try. Pure & Original had already given me two of their classic colors, Poetic Blue and Steel Blue, so we chose them to combine with the Saltwash. The combination was stellar. The Saltwash gave it a unique look – one that will fit into any home from a classically traditional to Coastal, to Farmhouse. Not many designs can pull that off, but this one can. “The Before” “Ivy” was sitting in an abandoned house amidst piles of trash. We almost missed her. We brought her home, cleaned her up, sanded and got her ready to try out a new look. She had great bones. We named her “Ivy” because she is no longer … Read more

Oh, Susanna, don’t you cry for me…

#sponsored post Susanna, a Royal Settee Another estate sale – another opportunity to save an old piece of unwanted furniture. This time it was for my granddaughters. I could see my little two-year-old grand daughters sitting in this little chair holding the teddy bear that used to belong to their moms the second I found Susanna. Here she is “before” at the estate sale Before I took her home Before she changed Before she became mine Susanna, “BEFORE” Tired, worn and hoping to serve again… These outdated and worn out pieces of furniture can have another 100 years if we bring the back to life. Most pass them by. Most don’t even see them. The estate buyers typically look for the big antiquey pieces that make a statement. Little Susanna just sat there as everyone walked right by, unseen. It was the same for Paige. She … Read more

When the Low Ballers Come Out to Play

The Two Types of Furniture Artisans There are two types of furniture artisans that you’ll find in this furniture flipping business – the soul-invested and the business-directed. But both probably rely on marketing tools like those business cards to expand their network. The Soul-Invested Artisan The soul-invested artisan, or SIA, leaves a little bit of themselves in each piece and views their creations as an extension of themselves, an expression of their deep-down selves that they must share with the world. The SIA’s emotions are painted onto their canvas and seem to speak back to them, “Here I am, I am are part of you, the artist who created me.” They view marketing process as tiresome but a necessary evil – it allows them to continue creating, as there are many strategies which can be use such as content creations or adding Backlinks to your website as well. When they … Read more