Guest Post - Erica From The Painted Trailer

I'm so happy to introduce Erica from the blog The Painted Trailer as my first guest blogger of MOXTOBERFEST!  She has some lovely words of wisdom and some great ideas in regards to making old furniture look downright amazing.  And look at how she arranged her goods for display with a fall theme...awesomeness!  Ok, enough chit-chat from me.  I'll let Erica take it from here...

Hey everyone! I'm Erica from The Painted Trailer and one thing that I haven't talked about much yet over there is all of the vintage shows that I've been to where I sold my re-purposed and painted furniture. When Jennifer sent out the call for Fall guest posts and had painting as one of the topics, I knew I wanted to speak up! But more than that, I want to tell you that re-purposing furniture can be even cheaper than you think! You just have to put in the work and be able to see things in a different light. 

Here's how:

Take this for example. Gorgeous turned legs, original wooden casters, but missing drawers.

No problem, you just have to think outside the box. A piece of thin scrap wood (I think it was actually old sliding cabinet drawers) cut to fit the bottom and nailed in then a couple of cheap canvas bins and you have a new custom desk. Even better? Minus the paint and canvas bins, this vanity was free.

Yep, I said free.

Rule #1 to keeping your costs low is to shop yard sales later in the day. I know it's tempting to just check Craigslist and while you can run across some good deals there, generally people are way more overpriced than they would be at a yard sale. Going out later in the day is beneficial because people are tired of sitting outside all day and are more willing to make a deal. Originally this had a price tag of $20, but it was late in the afternoon on a 100+ degree day and the couple just wanted to get rid of things.

This dresser looks a little rough, right? It had a couple of chunks taken out of the veneer on the drawers, but those were easy to fill with wood putty. What you can't see is that those are bow front drawers and original hardware. I got this baby for $10 at that same yard sale  Another thing that DIY-ers can over spend on is paint. If you have the money to spend on fancy chalk based paint (you've seen the stuff-I've even used it) then go for it! But if you're like me these days and you're on a tight budget, there are tricks to still get the look you're going for.

Rule #2 to keeping your costs low is sample size paint. All major home improvement stores carry sample sizes of paint and they actually go a long way! The white on this dresser was left over from another project, but the gray was a sample size from Home Depot that only cost me $2.99! The paint has a primer mixed in so the only thing I had to do was clean it then I painted two coats on each drawer and each side inset and I still had some left over.

The last one I wanted to show you because it was a big project. Sometimes to get things the cheap way you have to get down and dirty and in the end you will have something so amazing that someone will actually love it enough to pay for it. 

I bought this couch (can you even call it that?) for $25 and this is honestly how it looked when I brought it home. No cushions, no cover, no legs, but what it did have is great lines. Those arms and that wood frame are gorgeous!

Rule #3 Don't be intimidated by hard work and always use whatever you have on hand. Like I said, I didn't have the legs and I'm a newbie when it comes to upholstery work. Another vendor at one of my vintage shows said that this would be really cute as a porch swing. So that was it, she was now to become a swing. I got down and dirty (literally) and cut out every single one of the springs, ripped out the remaining fabric, and pulled out every staple. My dad (super helper) had some plywood that we cut and used for the seat and the back, I bought a twin size foam mattress pad (cheap!) and cut it in half for the padding, and used left over fabric of my moms to cover the whole thing. We had chain that we attached to the arms and I bought cotton cording (cheap again!) for trim. Total for this project was less than $50 and...

...someone loved it so much she paid $300. All it takes is time, effort, and a vision and you can make great home decor at a very low cost!

Do you have luck turning something that looks like it has no hope into something amazing? I would love to see! Thanks so much for having me over, Jennifer!

My pleasure, Erica!

I know that after reading this I now have a 'thank goodness it's cooler weather and not super hot and humid and paint-won't-ever-dry weather' furniture/craft/project list a mile long especially since Georgia summers aren't too conducive to my creativity at times and I can wait to start!  I'm on the lookout for an old desk to doctor up and use for my new work area.  Sweet!