That '70s Chair

...Well, I'm not really sure how old these chairs are, but one things for sure: They are are from a decade that is long gone!

I found these simple oak chairs this morning at the local Goodwill store. I really wasn't looking for chairs, but there they were! Goodwill Gold! (And at $4 each, they were even more perfect!)

I love the worn look of them. They remind me of the chairs you'd see in a college library. Imagine how many hung-over college students sat in these chairs over the years!

After giving each chair a little wiggle to make sure they weren't too wobbly, I soon came to the conclusion that they only needed one or two screws tightened and a good old cleaning. So off I went to the register with one chair in each hand! And let me tell you, these chairs were hea-vy! I nearly broke a sweat!

I didn't even bother carrying these chairs inside when I got home. Nope! They first needed lots and lots (and lots!) of cleaning to get through that layer of grime so the "patina" can show through. I left them on the front porch and brought out my arsenal of buckets and sudsy water and then I scrub, scrub, scrubbed for about 30 minutes.

After their much needed cleaning with a little sudsy water, and then some Murphy oil soap, I gave these chairs a rub-down with some Old English furniture repair polish. After that, I used some regular wood furniture polish to really make them shine.

Wow! Talk about a power combo! Soon these chairs were just shining in the sunlight coming into my front porch. Are they perfect, museum-quality chairs? Well, no. Did I want perfect, museum-quality chairs? Absolutely not. After all, I did pick them up at Goodwill! These chairs look great in my office, replacing the mismatched chairs that I've been wanting to replace.

With this $8 investment, I am so pleased! And now I have matching chairs for my kids to sit in when they're all playing on the computer together. I have to say it was a good (will) day!

Doin' the Paint Shelf Shuffle!

So I was stalking my friends, Natalie and Heather's blog the other day and saw this project that they just finished. Now, I'm not one who jumps at the chance to paint a room and I certainly don't enjoy painting furniture, but I do likes me a furniture make over every now and then! Well, with this shot of inspiration this girl decided that it's high time to roll up her sleeves and find something to paint!

I've been needing a wooden shelf (well, actually this house has so many built-in shelves, I really don't, but that's beside the point). Anyhoo. I've been on a closet organization mission and thought a shelf would be perfect to organize my shoes, so I found this shelf for only $36 bucks at the Habitat for Humanity store:

I know first impressions are everything when it comes to furniture shopping and this poor thing didn't stand a chance to become much more than kindling if left in the state that I found her. There was a thin layer of furniture stain, complete with drip marks, and she was rough to the touch. Also, when they loaded her up in my car, only then did I see the spider webs and eggs covering the bottom and in all her cracks and crevices. I had the heebie jeebies the whole way home. I kept getting that feeling that there was a spider crawling on me. (Shudder)

Well, I managed to get this big old gal out of my car all by myself without getting one spider on me. Oh, and I forgot to mention that this is intended to be one unit, but luckily the guys at the Habitat store keep a screw gun handy so a few zips here and there and she was broken into two pieces that slid into into the back of my vehicle.

After my daughter and I pulled her outside, we began wipe the cobwebs away and clean the heck out of this thing. I did not want to bring any unwelcome visitors into my house with this thing so we got rid of all the webs and checked the cracks for spiders. Once we got the all-clear we began to paint, and paint, and paint! This shelf took three coats and I'm sure I could go back for more touch-up!

And here it is! Ain't she a beaute?!

Remember how I mentioned that this shelf was bought with the intentions of closet organization? Well I changed my mind.

I decided that my office was in greater need of some shelves because, well, it didn't have any. I figured that if I got my printers off my desk and found a place for my stacks of books and miscellaneous items, my desk could be a nice, wide-open space. And I love big, clean desks!

I also decided that I like this unit better separated so I shuffled the pieces around.

Here it is broken into two pieces. The smaller one now holds my printer and scanner and the larger piece is filled with my favorite books including my new obsession, John Jakes. Well his books really aren't new at all, but after picking up that copy of North and South, I'm hooked!

And here you go! My new (to me) shelves with paint so fresh it still has that new paint smell!