THIS IS WHAT WE FOUND!

Foot stools are a quick and easy redo. Particularly if you are just starting out reupholstering furniture. I pick them up all the time. This cute little foot stool was found at a church rummage sale. It was marked $5—A Deal. I would agree that it is indeed—a deal! Upholstery project like this are great for beginners because the top is easily removed from the base. Simply remove the screw in each corner on the underside of the footstool. This make the old upholstery easy to remove and very easy to add new fabric. For some reason, a previous owner had added this quilt piece to the top of the stool. It had several stains but I saved it. I will wash it and see if the stains come out. If not, it will go in the trash. For foot stools, I always check to see what remnants I have. Foot stools are a perfect way to use up those last little pieces of fabric. This striped canvas was perfect for this piece. When working with stripes, it is important to ensure they are perfectly straight. I always tack down a piece on all four sides and then work my way out to the edges. This is the fabric when fully stapled to the seat. A quick coat of Folk Art Sheepskin Chalk Pain matched the fabric perfectly. Sanding to distress and a coat of polyurethane to protect. When the top has been reupholstered, simply screw it back to the base! I was really happy with this piece. It took less than an hour to do this project. It is a perfect starter piece if you have never reupholstered anything. It sold within a couple of hours of being placed in the shop. Score! If you like my blog, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest! Just click on any of the social media links above! Thanks for following me on the junking journey! #foot #stool #stripes #canvas #shee #distr #reupholstered #cute #useful #chalkpaint #Furniture

I am very excited to have a guest writing this post today. The guest is my younger brother Patrick! Pat has the creative gene just like his older sister! Patrick retired from the US Navy two years ago after serving for 24 years. He made a trunk showcasing memorabilia from his Naval career for his retirement and it was simply amazing. He posted photos of his latest project yesterday on Facebook and the results were stunning! I asked him to write up a post detailing how he created this gem. Enjoy! TRUNK PROJECT BY PATRICK BROWN I became interested in redoing old trunks when I was getting ready to retire from the Navy and wanted to have a unique retirement shadow box. I really like the look of the old steamer and decorative travel trunks, especially when they are restored or refurbished and thought, “I could do that.” So with a little reading and good ole YouTube videos, I was on my way. This latest project was for a friend and co-worker who also wanted a unique shadow box and trunk to store her Navy belongings. I found the trunk online and got it for a really good deal at $40.00. It was really dirty and the metal and embossed tin was rusty but overall, the trunk was still pretty sturdy and in good condition. It just needed some good old TLC. I figured that it was made somewhere between 1860 and 1880 based on the type of latch for the lock that was on it. In any trunk project like this, the first thing you want to do is start by cleaning the trunk to get the dirt off. A little soap and water and a little Murphy’s Oil Soap usually does the trick. You want to make sure that you do not saturate the wood when cleaning it. Most trunks have a paper liner inside and a majority of them will have the liner peeling off. In order to get the liner off, a good trick is mixing white vinegar and water in a spray bottle and lightly spray the liner and scrape it with a scraper. Be careful not to scrape too hard and damage the wood and also do not saturate the wood. Another trick I found that I like to do is using a Shark steamer and steam the paper liner loose in order to scrape it off. Once you have it all scraped off and the trunk cleaned, let it dry out in order to get any musty smells out of it. On this trunk, I had to worry about sanding the wood and also cleaning the metal, especially the embossed tin. If the embossed tin is too worn or rusted through or has holes in it, you may want to take it off and let the wood underneath show or replace it with sheet metal or new embossed tin. A majority of the embossed tin patterns are not made any more so unless you have good embossed tin in the same pattern that was scrapped from another trunk, you probably just want to take it down to the wood or replace it with plain sheet metal or a new pattern that is available at a parts company. Speaking of parts, I like to get my parts that I need to try and keep the trunk as authentic as possible at either Brettuns Village at brettunsvillage.com or through Antique-Hardware at antique-hardware.com. Both are great sites for trunk replacement parts. A lot of the times you may have to take off old parts in order to work on the trunk or some parts need to be replaced such as wood slats and leather handles. Since these old trunks were put together with cinching nails, you need a prying tool (like a small forked pry bar the size of a screwdriver) and a pair of end nippers to take parts off. Cinching nails do just that, they cinch back into the wood to hold the piece on. To take a piece off, you need to gently pry on the nail to a point where you can snip it with the end snippers to remove the nail. You have to be gentle so it does not damage the wood. Any small damaged wood can usually be fixed with wood putty. When sanding the wood, you want to start out with a 100 or 120 grit sandpaper depending how rough the wood is and work your way up to 220 or more. Cleaning the metal, you can use a soft brass wire brush and gently work on it but do not brush too hard because you will leave marks on the metal pieces. A really fine steel wool will work also. The embossed tin areas will be harder. You can try vinegar to clean the metal. I used a light coating of Naval Jelly to get the rust off and then a very fine steel wool. When everything was cleaned and sanded, I was ready to paint the metal pieces and stain the wood. I carefully masked off the areas to paint the black areas and the red embossed tin areas. This takes time and patience to carefully mask it off. I used heavy paper, cardboard and a good blue painter’s masking tape when masking off the areas. The painter’s tape doesn’t leave a mess and comes off nicely when you unmask the area after the paint dries. When painting, I like to use Rustoleum spray paint products. First, I use a good Rustoleum primer. For the black areas, I use either a flat black or semi-gloss spray paint. For this project, I used semi-gloss. For the embossed tin, I used Rustoleum glossy Merlot spray paint. To make the embossed tin to pop more after the merlot color dried completely, I mixed a Valspar chimney smoke color acrylic paint with a glossy clear acrylic glaze that I got a Lowe’s and painted over the merlot colored embossed tin using a foam brush. Then I used a lightly wet sponge and wiped over it so the raised areas of the embossed tin were wiped clean of the chimney smoke color glaze, showing just the merlot color and the recessed areas of the embossed tin had the chimney smoke color glaze over the merlot color to show the depth of the embossed tin. I then used Rustoleum glossy crystal clear spray to seal all of my painted areas. When staining the wood, I like to use Minwax stain. For this project, I used Minwax Honey color stain for the wood slats and inside of the trunk and Minwax Puritan Pine color for the shadow box. I then used Formby’s Tung Oil Finish to seal and put a shine on the wood. It goes on nicely but you will have to do several coats to start getting a shine on the wood. The more coats, the more it will shine. It would just be your preference. For the gold metal accent pieces, I used a product called Rub n Buff. It is a cream that you can lightly rub on with a cloth or paint brush and when it dries, you can buff it with a lint free cloth for a shine. It comes in a variety of metal colors. I used Antique Gold for this project. To put the accessory pieces, replacement wood slats, and leather handles onto the trunk, I used good old fashioned cinching nails just like they did in the past. You can order them at the web sites I mentioned earlier. When cinching nails, you want to use a nail that is ¼ inch longer than the thickness of the area you are nailing into so it can be properly cinched for a good hold. When doing this you want a good hammer and a metal heel which is just a metal block. Some people use a small old fashioned metal flat iron. You just want to make sure that your heel is strong and flat. You place the heel up against the wood where the nail will be coming through and when you hammer the nail, it will hit the heel and cinch into the wood to hold the piece on. You want to be gentle so you do not damage the wood. Once I had everything finished on the trunk, I made the shadow box out of red oak and stained it with Minwax Puritan Pine stain. The finished project turned out nice and the customer loved it. It turned out to be a very nice display piece. I hope this information was useful if you are interested in doing a trunk yourself. It is a long, slow, tedious process but the end result is worth it. Happy trunking! I don't know about you, but to me, THIS is amazing work. Such attention to detail. Just incredible. Thanks to my brother for sharing this with all of you! I hope you enjoyed it. If you like my blog, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest! Just click on any of the social media buttons in the sidebar above! Thanks for following me on the junking journey!

Vintage tins can be used in a variety of ways. This Old Master Coffee tin has some amazing graphics. It also has great patina. And the best part is it only cost $2 for the tin (with a pile of spice tins thrown in). This looks great in a kitchen next to an old coffee grinder. Another way to use this is as a vase. To protect the tin, I used a tall beer glass to set inside the tin. It was the perfect size for this tin. This is the lid of the tin. It promotes Royal Garden Tea. That makes this tin even more ideal for use as a vase. Next, just add a bouquet of flowers and of course every master needs a puppy! This chalkware dog watches over my living room. Here is the finished display. Think outside the box when displaying your flowers. Take a look around your home and see what can be repurposed. #coffee #oldmaster #chalkware #dog #repurpose #repurposed #garagesale #FabFind

I really missing being able to go to garage sales and auctions lately. It's one of the joys of Spring, being able to get out there on the weekends and find treasures. Hopefully we can all get back to it soon. Meanwhile, one of our local auction companies has switched to online auctions. It is not ideal, but I am still able to pick up a few pieces now and then. I picked up this bookcase a couple weeks ago. It was clearly a home build with scrap wood. The pieces don't fit together well, the boards are warped and it had nails poking through everywhere. But it is so charming, I couldn't resist. It is also incredibly heavy. I started by cleaning every crevice, removing the years and years of grime. I also removed all the nails that went astray and were poking out here and there. I replaced them with new nails that actually hit the intended board. I wanted to paint it a cream color chalk paint, but I knew the original finish might bleed through so I coated it with Kilz primer. I let that dry for a couple of days and then used Folk Art Sheepskin chalk paint. It took two coats for complete coverage. I used 60 grit sand paper overall to distress this piece and applied a coat of Varathane Crystal Clear Satin Polyurethane. I was really pleased with the final piece. I love all the little cubbies to display vintage treasures. The cream color allows the pieces to pop. I moved it into my new booth space. The booth is still a work in progress but it is coming together. If you like my blog, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest! Just click on any of the social media links above! Thanks for following me on the junking journey! Below is an image to pin to Pinterest if you would like to save this idea!

Buffalo check is so popular right now. You see it everywhere in farmhouse decor. This little ordinary milkstool needed a little lift. Buffalo check was just what we needed. I don't remember where I picked up this particular piece. I didn't get a photo of it before we coated it with Waverly Chalk Paint in the Cashew color. I cut a stencil with my Silhouette Cameo 3. Weeding (removing the vinyl in the area to be painted) this stencil took forever! This was definitely the part of the process that took the longest. We applied the stencil to the top of the milkstool and trimmed it to size. We used painter's tape to mask off the sides of the milkstool. We used Rustoleum Chalk Paint in the Pebble color to stencil the buffalo plaid design to the top of the piece. The entire piece was distressed and coated with Varathane Crystal Clear Satin Polyurethane. Now this is a really cute piece which can be used for layering in a farmhouse decor setting. It looks great with this pottery pitcher on it sitting on top of a cabinet. If you like my blog, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest! Just click on any of the social media buttons in the sidebar above! Thanks for following me on the junking journey! Below is an image to pin to Pinterest if you would like to save this idea!

I love vintage lamps. They have so much character and I think they really defined the interests of the original owners. I found this one recently at an estate auction. This has such nice detail! I believe from my online research this is from the 1920s or 30s. I don't know if the globe is original or not. I have seen a couple of different versions in my research. One was a green globe and one was a white ribbed globe. The metal is called Spelter. It is a zinc alloy (typically mixed with copper). Spelter is fairly soft and you will often see damage in a lamp made of this. These are often misidentified as brass. Scratching a piece of spelter will show a silver color (brass will look gold). Scratch somewhere it won't be seen please! LOL. One thing I don't like about old lamps? Old wiring. It's unpredictable and downright dangerous. This is the cord that was on my lamp. The cord covering was very frayed, but the cord itself was not. The plug just looked like I would be electrocuted. I didn't even try to plug this in. I will re-wire most of the lamps I re-sell, particularly if the cord looks like this. I re-wire all of the lamps I will be using in my own home—safety first! I learned how to re-wire a lamp in the 7th grade. That's when Indiana started requiring girls to take shop classes and the boys to take home economic classes. I won't say I remembered how to do it from the 7th grade, but I wasn't afraid to try it when I started doing it a few years ago. You can purchase lamp kits at any big box store. Pay attention to what is already in your lamp (pull cord, knob, flip switch) so you can be sure to purchase a similar kit. I say this because as I was standing in the Menards lighting department, I was trying to visualize how this lamp operated. Since the lightbulb was encapsulated in the globe, how did the lamp switch on? I left Menards with nothing (well, nothing for this lamp) and came home to inspect it again. There was no on/off switch. I guess back then people just used the wall switch to turn on their lamps. I did want this lamp to have a switch so I needed an inline switch on the cord. They didn't have what I wanted at Menards (second trip), so I found this rayon covered lamp cord at Amazon. I bought the socket at Menards. I liked this one because it had the inline switch and it was wrapped in fabric. I felt this fit really well with the period of my lamp. You have to take apart the lamp to re-wire so I had to remove the felt. This is the original socket. This illustrates perfectly why you should not plug this in. One of the wires was frayed and the other one was not connected at all—yikes! All of this went in the trash. The new socket is grounded as well. I won't provide a tutorial on re-wiring the actual components. There are directions included in the lamp kits and there are several great tutorials and videos online if you want to learn. Now this gem lights up again! It is so pretty. I wish I had a place for it in my home, but it is going in the shop. I will add new felt to the bottom to seal up the wiring and prevent the piece from scratching furniture. Don't let old cords keep you from purchasing a Fab Find lamp! It is so easy to re-wire—seriously, if I can do it, anyone can. #lamp #hunter #dog #globe #wiring #lampkit #FabFind #spelter #1920s #1930s

One of the items I showed recently as part of a rustic graduation celebration was a chalkboard sandwich board. I had been on the lookout for large matching frames to create sandwich board signs for this graduation party. I had found two at Goodwill on a Friday but I didn't buy them because it was 50% off day the next day...and they were gone by the time I got there...right after they opened. So the hunt continued. Fortunately, I came across four matching frames at a church rummage sale. There were four total. They had red velvet glued to the wood. Something (not sure what!) had been displayed in these frames. I bought them for $3 each. They were exactly what I was looking for. Tall, skinny and they matched. I would have settled for two, but was fortunate to find four. I scooped them all up! Part of the fabric had already ripped off of the backing. I thought it would be easy to remove and paint over with chalkboard paint. Wrong. Dead wrong. It was stuck on there really well. There were bits of red velvet remaining all over the board. I tried to use the back side, but the plywood was very knotty and really rough. I didn't like it for my chalk board paint. I ran to my local big box hardware store and picked up some sheets of masonite. I cut them to size, painted the masonite with black chalkboard paint. I used a pale yellow chalk paint on the frames. Yellow was the graduate's favorite color so yellow had to be the choice. I distressed the yellow paint slightly and nailed the masonite into the frames. I used a 10 inch hinge to attach the top of the frame to one another. I used eyelet hooks to attach a chain (on both sides) to keep the board from extending too far apart. For a finishing touch, I added a skeleton key. Again, another favorite of the honored grad. A lot of what I do is self taught and a lot of trial and error. This one took a little longer than I thought with having to cut new pieces of masonite. The 10 inch hinge was also a bear to attach. We used one as a welcome in the driveway and one as a directional sign at the corner of the block. They turned out well. If you like my blog, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest! Just click on any of the social media links above! Thanks for following me on the junking journey! #hinge #sign #sandwich #graduation #party #chalk #yellow #board #skeleton #key #signage #Makeover #repurposed

I picked up this cutting board a couple of years ago. In my quest to finish old projects before I buy new things for projects, I tackled this today. I found it at a church rummage sale. It was the bargain basement price of $1. Perfect! It is pretty large—about 18 inches high. It has a great patina. Lots of cuts on the board. Can't beat the price! I used my Silhouette Cameo 3 to create the stencil for this project. I originally was just going to put "eat" on this, but I found the eat, drink and be thankful art and added the flourishes to it. This is the vinyl stencil. I played around with placement on the board before peeling back the adhesive. I burnished the stencil to the wood. I used Folk Art Chalk Paint in Vintage Mustard to paint the stencil. I have used this color before and knew it would take two coats to get the depth of color I wanted. When the paint was completely dry, I peeled off the vinyl. The vinyl allows for really crisp lines. I was really pleased with this, but... the wood had such a nice patina, I used some sandpaper to distress the paint. It is distressed just enough to match the cuts in the wood. To finish it, I used Rust-oleum Chalked Matte Clear protective topcoat. I was really happy with the way this turned out. Obviously this can never be used as a cutting board again, but I think it is beautiful decor for any dining room or kitchen. Below are some links to products I used in this project. Disclaimer: Junk is My Life is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Thank you for reading my blog! If you would like to see more, follow me on Facebook, Instagram,and Pinterest! Just click on any of the social media links above! Thanks for following me on the junking adventures! #cutting #board #mustard #vintage #wooden #wood #eat #drink #thankful #flourish #rustoleum #protective #coating #dining #decor #repurpose #Makeover #silhouette #garagesale #FabFind

I have a small box that I use to keep ticket stubs and other small memorabilia from events I have attended or from my travels. It is fun to go back through them and remember the event or tour and with who you attended the event. Small wooden boxes can easily be found at thrift stores and garage sales. I picked up this one at a garage sale for less than a dollar. The outside of the box had seen better days. The lining of the box was falling apart and was very dirty. I pulled all of out out. To freshen it up, I painted the box with Waverly chalk paint in the Cashew color and distressed the paint and used Varathane Crystal Clear Satin polyurethane over the entire piece. I decoupaged the inside with some old maps. Now it is ready to start holding someone's special keepsakes. If you like my blog, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest! Just click on any of the social media buttons in the sidebar above! Thanks for following me on the junking journey! Below is an image to pin to Pinterest if you would like to save this idea!

Even though we still have a couple weeks until it is official, Fall is definitely in the air. Cooler mornings, cooler evenings and gorgeous beautiful sunny days are upon us. I love summer and want to hold on as long as possible, but there is something appealing about switching up your wardrobe and busting out those sweatshirts and sweaters. This project was really simple. Thrift stores are filled with odd pieces of china and dish sets. I found this one with these beautiful fall leaves at a Salvation Army store earlier this summer. There was plenty of room to add some vinyl on the right so I thought it would be great for a fall decor piece. Since the leaves looked like they were blowing off of the tree on the plate, I thought "Fall is in the air" would be appropriate. I created the art in my Silhouette Studio software. I cut the gold vinyl on my Silhouette Cameo 3 machine. I simply applied it to the plate. Voila. Instant fall decor. Adding vinyl to plates is very easy and it doesn't alter the integrity of the plate. The vinyl can be removed at any time for those believers that china and glassware will come back in style at some point in time. For now, it makes a great addition to any fall decor. If you like my blog, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest! Just click on any of the social media buttons in the sidebar above! Thanks for following me on the junking journey!

Painting furniture isn't a new trend. People have been painting furniture for years. Painting with awful enamel based, super thick ugly paint. Chalk paint is a joy to remove compared to shiny enamel paint. Take this old, small roll top desk (and chair). This was a leftover piece from one of our estate sales (I have an estate sale business with a friend in addition to the antiques business). I bought it at 75% off (around $20) and lugged it home. It had really cute cubbies tucked under the lid. I knew that stripping it wasn't going to be an endeavor that I wanted to get in to. Painting a new color was the only option. The chair was a little wobbly but I thought we could fix it. A couple of the legs had pretty severe cracks and it was beyond my "fix-it" skills so I broke it up and put it in the trash. First and foremost, it needed to be cleaned. It had been in the attic of a garage for years. After cleaning, we lightly sanded it. The back and sides had a flimsy cardboard-like material on it so we replaced it with tongue and groove beadboard. We chose Folk Art Chalk Paint in a Sage color. We put the roll top on a tarp-covered cheese box to paint it. We could get the paint down in the groove and it helped keep the slats from sticking together. We heavily distressed it and put an exterior clear coat on it and reassembled it. We put an exterior clear coat because we thought it would be a great potting bench. A new coat of paint made all the difference. It was dirty and drab before and now it is fresh and ready for its next adventure. Thank you for reading my blog! If you would like to see more, follow me on Facebook, Instagram,and Pinterest! Just click on any of the social media links above! Thanks for following me on the junking adventures! Below is an image to pin to Pinterest if you would like to save this idea!

I am so far behind in posting projects! Mostly because we are cranking them out lately—and fortunately, they are selling pretty quickly in the shop! Something to be thankful for in these trying times! Most of the auction companies in our area have stopped altogether or gone to online auctions. Oh how I long for the days I could actually go to an auction and look things over and go toe to toe with another bidder. With online bidding, you can't even see who you are bidding against! I like to stare 'em down. Unfortunately sometimes I end up bidding against my friends—which I would never do at an in-person auction—well, unless I really wanted it! I picked this cute little piano bench up at an online auction. It was a little rough all over, particularly on the top where the veneer was coming off in multiple places. This bench could be used in a couple ways. As a bench of course, and it has some storage under the seat—maybe you could hide your valuables there. It was also small enough and just the right height to be used as a side table, which the storage feature is a plus as well! You could store your remotes, hide your phone while charging, store some snacks.... The veneer was in rough shape so we decided to see what was under it. The wood was really pretty so all the veneer was pried off and it was sanded down using various grits of sandpaper (from 60 through 150) to get it to a smooth finish. We then applied a beautiful stain called "Americana". It gave it a really rich look. For the base, we painted it with a "chalky finish" paint from Lowe's. I have misplaced the paint chip so I don't recall what the color was but it was this gorgeous green color. We hadn't used this paint before and we were pleased with the coverage and the finish. It is nice to have a wide selection of colors. They can mix any color in the "chalky finish". We distressed it and added a coat of Varathane Crystal Clear Polyurethane in the satin finish. We reattached the lid to the bench and it was ready to go! We staged it as a side table in the booth. It sold within a couple of weeks! Yay! If you like my blog, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest! Just click on any of the social media links above! Thanks for following me on the junking journey! Below is an image to pin to Pinterest if you would like to save this idea!