Neighbor's Trash Turned Into My Treasure!

Before I begin this post, I just want to say......don't judge me. 

Perhaps I should start at the beginning......

While taking the dog for a walk recently, I noticed that my neighbor put this piece of furniture on the curb with a bright yellow "free" sign attached.....

Being someone who is still in the process of furnishing her home, loves the word "free" and can make ugly things beautiful,  I was intrigued with my neighbor's junk, so I stopped to take a look at the piece.

Now it was definitely damaged, but it wasn't in horrible shape.   I knew I could clean it and repurpose it, so when the hubs got home from work I shared my idea with him.  He, of course, did not see the beauty nor practicality in this piece of furniture, but after two and a half years of marriage, he has learned that there is a method to my madness.  Nonetheless, he drove to the corner across the street and loaded the heavy dresser-like-thing in his car, all the while not caring what the other neighbors who were out and about for the evening thought of him.  Such a good man, that husband of mine. 

I've had a busy few weeks, so my neighbor's junk has just been sitting upstairs for nearly a month.  But yesterday, I finally got motivated and started the project.  First I took my Black & Decker electric detail sander (that I got at a garage sale for $2 thank you very much) and sanded off the top layer of shine.

 

I bought this primer for the project.  This stuff saved me hours of sanding seeing as how I don't own a heavy-duty sander that can easily sand down to the original wood.  Not wanting to break my wallet by buying a new sander or ruin my manicure by sanding for hours by hand, the nice gentleman at Lowe's directed me to this product and told me that I only had to sand off the top layer of shine on the furniture before using this particular primer.

Using a small furniture and cabinet roller, I primed away.  Two coats of primer later, I was ready for the next step.

Now I really wanted to keep this piece white, but I was going to put it in our bedroom which means I had to paint it black to match the pieces that I found on Craigslist. You can read more about the Craigslist purchases here. 

When I purchased the furniture on Craigslist, the lady gave my a small container of touch-up paint, so I took the touch-up paint to Lowe's.  They matched the color and sheen perfectly.  I purchased one gallon, because I still have an armoire hanging out in my garage that I need to refinish in the same color. 

After letting two coats of paint dry, I added the hardware and put it in its new home ~ the sitting area in our master bedroom.

I left the original hardware on, because I had a hard time finding something that I liked to replace it.  Our bedroom has a vintage feel though, so I think it kind of works.

We did, however,  have to replace the two knobs, because one was missing.  These were $4 each at Hobby Lobby.  If you wait for the sale, they are only $2 each.

We still need to paint our bedroom and add curtains, so try to ignore that in this picture.  Slowly but surely everything is coming together thanks to garage sales, thrift shops, Craigslist......and now I can even say thanks to my neighbor's trash;)