Foof? What foof?

Knowing we are always looking for furniture to rehab, our son in law, Andy, offered us his old nightstand which he'd used all throughout his childhood. Originally a brown wood stain, it had seen better days with its surface scarred, water stained and well used. Despite this, it was easy to recognize its good "bones" and interesting details, so we accepted it and gave it an "extreme makeover". I thought someone might enjoy a fun, Frenchy look on this table. It could now take a respectful place in a bedroom or any room of the house.

Oh yes, Andy is a modern, no frills or foof kind of guy... do you think he'd like it back?

-Linda

Stool Pigeon

It's an old idea. Take a vintage piece of furniture - in this case a small stool - then paint it to give it new life. Simple, right? When we bought it, the stool was covered with a dusty, crusted yellow paint which came off on my hands. My wife wanted this specific look that she had seen somewhere. As often happens in these sort of cases, the challenge is communication of what she wants from her brain to mine. I thought, "Sure, I'll repaint the stool for her, no problem." Little did I know that this small project will require sanding, priming, two coats of base color, black accents requiring both taping (the stripes) and hand painting (both stripes and dots), then a very carefully applied glaze, then a clear coat. I think I may have been suckered. Not that Linda would ever do that to me - of course not.

It was more work than I thought it would be, but I'll admit it was fun as well. I always enjoy doing things I haven't done before. However, unless we end up selling it to a multi-millionaire with a highly developed sense of the ridiculous, there is no way I can come close to recouping my cost in time spent. But I guess that would probably be true of most things I fix up. I try not to look too closely at the bottom line, being afraid of what I'll see. I'm not the only one, am I?

I wish I had thought ahead far enough to take a "before" picture, but here is the "after".

What do you think?
-Jon