Welcome to my blog about things I love to collect, refinishing furniture and decorating using flea market finds (with a few crochet projects now and then).Thanks so much for visiting!




Wednesday, July 10, 2013

$10 chest plus free paint! Total cost $10! Super Thrifty!

We stopped at only 2 garage sales so far this spring, I spotted a chest of drawers for $10 and knew right away I could do something with it.
I really needed somewhere to store my vintage lace and embroidery.


 I sure wish I had taken a picture before I put my freshly painted chest of drawers into my closet!
What a pain to try to get a good picture with artificial light and have it turn out to be the color that it actually is, sorry about the glare but I just can't seem to fix that.

It's actually a very light aqua and all 3 photos are off.
This one below seems to be the closest to the actual color.


But...back to the paint job. We have a county recycling place close by where we can pick up paint, stain, polyurethane, bug and weed sprays, deck wash even books all for FREE! 
We stop in about once a week and stock up because we have a ton of projects coming up.

I found a full gallon of exactly the color I had in mind for this chest. It was Dutch Boy and called Hawaiian Sky. Doesn't that sound pretty!

I also found a full gallon bucket of Plaster of Paris...it's amazing what people don't want.

Well, I have never seen (other than on blogs) anything painted with chalk paint.
Now I know I'm supposed to distress the furniture but on some things it just doesn't feel right and this one is so plain that I decided to leave it alone. But I still wanted to find out what the faux chalk paint was like so I looked around online and found that I could mix 1 part Plaster of Paris with 3 parts paint.
(Be sure to mix the amount of plaster of paris with a little water first 'before' adding the paint or it will be lumpy, add a little water to the mixture as needed while applying onto your project because it can thicken a little bit as you use it)

I do like it because the Plaster of Paris gives it some 'tooth'. It seems to adhere well and cover well. I can see it would be great for distressing furniture but wasn't necessary here. 

I found that the Plaster of Paris causes the paint to sand off more easily...great for easily distressing but not so much if you just want to give the paint a light sanding...the paint sands off very easily.  But at least now I have an idea what all the rage is and I will use it on future distressing projects, but I'll stick with my thrifty 'free' supplies. (At $40 a quart for 'real' chalk paint...I'll save that money to buy vintage treasures!)

I then stenciled dragonflies here and there using free white paint (I already had the stencil).

I did apply a coat of wax (already had that) because the paint is 'softer' with the Plaster of Paris in it and it needed something to seal it.

I was going to put on glass knobs but decided I liked the old wood ones.



The before...not bad looking here but it was painted green and blue, pretty nicked up and a bit dirty.
I even sealed the entire inside using 'free' water based polyurethane because I wanted to make sure I didn't bring any 'bad' smells into my closet.


I just love this...$10 chest plus $0 supplies...total remake...$10!!!

How can you beat that!

Now I'm in the process of filling the drawers, I have vintage crochet table cloths in one, vintage embroidered linens in another, it's so nice to be able to open a drawer and see what I have so I can stop buying more!

On top I have vintage goodies and an old chippy white shelf that I am putting more treasures on.
When I get it all looking good I'll post it...soon. 

It really makes me smile every time I walk into my closet, straight ahead is the pretty dresser and all the lovey vintage treasures.

Check around and you may have a recycling center near you....

and if I decide I don't like a color of paint I brought home, I can bring it back and they will recycle it again!

Now that's being thrifty!!!

(I wonder how many times I mentioned free!!!) 

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9 comments:

  1. Faye- That turned out great and I LOVE the color. You were smart to seal the drawers-there is nothing worse than a piece of old furniture that "smells". xo Diana

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  2. Love the color! It's nice to have stuff organized. Can't beat FREE!
    Warmly,
    deb

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  3. What a sweet little dresser Faye! I love the dragonflies and the color. Thank you for sharing it at What We Accomplished Wednesdays. Have a great week!

    Hugs,
    Deborah

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  4. That turned out so cute. Can you believe I have not tried chalk paint, faux or original, yet either, so thanks for your thoughts on it. You can't beat free paint either. As long as you have some white on hand you could probably make any shade you wanted!

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  5. Wow! I love that idea...and your chest of drawers is darling. What a fresh looking color.

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  6. Beautiful! I just bought a quilt for my bedroom that is that color! Thanks for the plater of Paris tip - good to know!
    :) Jill

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  7. That color is wonderful on the dresser, Faye! and the dragon flies look perfect on the drawers! You did a fine job on it!!
    I'm glad you shared how you went about mixing the paint with the plaster. I've never used chalk paint either.
    Neat, Neat, Neat!!!!!
    xo

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  8. Your chest is gorgeous. Love the colour. We would never get freebies here in Australia. Lucky you :)

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  9. My husband always says...free is good!! Turned out very sweet!

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