Trash Picking

     The trash picking was pretty good a couple of weeks ago.  I found two projects.

I found this on the curb.  It was a yellowy/blonde color with gold drawer pulls.  The wooden piece across the back had popped up and the middle drawer wouldn't close.  Also, the two front legs were loose.

I scraped and sanded.  I used a drill to enlarge the nail holes for the piece that looks like a back splash.  I applied glue and tapped the "back splash" into place.  The wood was a bit warped and remained lifted on one end, so I turned the dresser over, using its weight to press the "back splash" into place.  While the dresser was upended, I glued the wobbly front legs, and tapped in a small nail to hold things tight.

With all the loose parts strong and solid, I flipped the dresser right-side-up and primed and painted.  The inside had sloppy splotches of paint from previous paint jobs.  I used painter's tape to wrap the paint job inside and keep a neatly painted edge.  I used left over white and black paint to mix shades of gray.

These are the gold drawer pulls.  I sanded as much paint off as I could.  I would have soaked the pulls in paint stripper if  I intended to keep the original brass finish, but I decided to repaint these. 

I hung the pulls from fishing line, allowing the handles to hang straight down.  Then I primed and painted from underneath.  That way they could dry, and the handle wouldn't touch any other part of the pull, ruining my paint job.  You guessed it.  I had just enough paint in the bottom of two old cans of spray paint to do this job.

The middle drawer wouldn't close because the bottom of the drawer extended below the drawer front.  This caused the drawer to sit high, so that it wasn't centered in the opening.  I wish I had a hand plane.  Instead I used a file and #80 grit sand paper to remove the excess wood.

With the excess wood filed and sanded away the drawer sat lower, and it closed.

The finished product - white hardware, very pale gray drawers, and a darker gray frame.  Pretty.  

   

     The second trash pick was an old wooden ladder.  I would liked to have painted this find turquoise, but I didn't have any turquoise paint.  Nor did I have blue or yellow paint for mixing.  I try never to spend money sprucing up my trash pickin's, so I painted my ladder with some white paint left over from house painting.  This will work as a plant stand, but turquoise would have been oh-so-much better.

It's painted white, then distressed.  I painted the hardware with some left over bronze paint.

   

     So, there you have it - free stuff prettied up for nothing with left over stuff.  Now that's recycling.