Yes, you read right. We went trash picking. As hubby and I walked around the city, we'd constantly scan over items tossed out by others. When we spotted a piece of furniture that we liked, we would bring it back to our apartment. The majority of our apartment was furnished that way. We spotted our bookshelf while walking our dog outside one night. We dragged a rather large mirror off of a pile of trash and propped it up in our dining room. Once, we even dragged a side table off the sidewalk to a dinner with friends. Yup, we picked up a lot of furniture from the trash. And yes, we were really REALLY lucky that we didn't end up with a bed bug infestation.
When we moved to Michigan, some of our trash-treasures were left to be used by my sister, some returned to the trash pile to be picked by others, and a couple pieces came with us. Below, you'll see a dining room table that made the 800 mile trek with us:
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| We nabbed this baby from a student who was moving out. |
Now that we're moving back East, hubby and I debated whether to bring this table back with us. It's served us well, but we weren't sure if it was worth the moving cost. So, hubby figured he'd try his hand at upcycling. Here's what he did:
(1) He took the table apart.
(2) He used an electric sander to sand the table.
(3) He used wood filler to fill in all the imperfections.
(4) He sanded the table again.
(5) He painted the table with primer.
(6) He painted the top of the table with two coats of chalkboard paint.
(7) He put the table back together again.
And tada, here are the results:
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| I think it looks a lot more modern. Don't you? |
I'm not sure how the chalkboard paint will fare in the long run.
But right now I'm having a lot of fun writing on it!
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