Trash to Treasure Box

Hey everyone! Hope you are all having a great Friday :) I wanted to share a quick post with you about a great way to turn a piece of trash (almost literally) into a usable piece of furniture.

About a month or so ago, my dear Hubby helped his grandmother clean out some trash that had been piling up in her backyard. Mostly discarded or broken down furniture, trash and other assorted debris. Being the amazing man that he is, he saw some pieces in all the junk that he thought I would really like... and he was right! There were quite a few things that we pulled from the wreckage (future posts in the making) but the one I wanted to show you today is this old canning box from the early turn of the century (20th, not 21st).

It was still in amazing condition with just a little bit of wood rot on the bottom (thank goodness it never rains in Cali). After some good fashion elbow work with the hand sander, it was ready to get a coat of varnish! My little even tried to help me out :)

I know the paint says interior even though it is a wooden box, but since I was using it inside, it seemed like a good idea. The only sad part about this whole project was that the pictures don't capture the true beauty that this box became. Here is a before and after:

Before

After

It is this beautiful dark (cherry?) wood color and is such a drastic change from what I originally started out with!!! Here are some more pictures:

So pretty!!! When I first started the project, I wasn't sure what I was going to use it for or even where I was going to put it at... bedroom? Living room? Should it hold extra blankets? Pillows maybe? And then, genius struck! I decided to put some small casters on it for mobility and also to keep the already slightly damaged bottom (wood rot) from getting damaged some more...

And wah la!!! A toy box for all my little's toys :) I may not always use it for this purpose, but for right now it stores everything she has in a beautiful container and it allows me to look at it every day:) Thanks for visiting!!!

Plant Stand Side Table

It seems like there is a never-ending stream of projects around my house right now. Today I want to share a quick update that I recently did to my side table. I originally had a regular brown table next to my bed and while it was really pretty, it didn't exactly offer the storage options I was looking for. So like most situations, I looked outside of the norm at furniture both around the house and outside the house. That's when I stumbled onto this plant stand that my mom was using.

My little helping me :)

 It was rusting away in the corner of her garden, so I asked her if I could use it. She said sure, but only if I replaced it with something else... done! (I put an old shelf unit in a different spot to hold her plants and to keep the shelf safe from other elements of nature). Here are some pictures of the metal shelf in it's somewhat decrepit state:

Thankfully the most this project required was some scrubbing with a wire brush and a good coat of white spray paint to make it new again.

I have since added a piece of leftover granite tile to the bottom wire shelf to make it look nice :) This night stand fits some much better in our cramped little room and holds everything I need while looking pretty and stream-lined at the same time! What is the most interesting piece of furniture you have found to use for something other than what it was intended? I would love some new ideas!