A treasure hunt and a perfect little find…

It all started on the way to a swim meet. I spend a lot of my time traveling to and sitting at swim meets. The week before last I was on my way through downtown, when I passed the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Shop. I’ve passed it many times before, but in the window, a pretty little soup tureen caught my eye. It was early on a Sunday morning, and the shop was closed. And I had someplace to get to. I made a mental note to make my way back down to that store. I had some time last week, so made my way down there to check out the soup tureen. I thought it was a white ironstone. Turned out, it was not. It was more of a white china with pink flowers in a rim. Not what I wanted. But, since I hadn’t been in before I thought I’d take a look around. It was quite the treasure trove of things. Of course, there was the usual array of aisles and aisles of clothing. And books, toys, kitchenware, household items. But, they had a huge room full of just furniture. I’m not talking cheap, beat up furniture. Most of it was pretty nice – old, some scratched, but in general, most was solid wood, and in fairly good shape. With a little love and elbow grease, there were endless possibilities! Since I don’t have a truck, and I don’t have tons of space, I decided to look for a small table for a project. There were several, but I found the absolute cutest little table to work on. It’s a Mersman end table. Probably from around the 1930’s-40’s. Looks to be mahogany. (clearly I’m not an antique expert). Warning:  If you hate painted furniture – stop here! I’m not an antique collector. I like a special piece here or there, but I do like the lines of some antique pieces. And I like how well made furniture used to be made. But most of it does not blend with my lifestyle and home.  Now I’ve been wanting to paint something red (after all, it is February – so much red – Valentines Day, Go Red for Women – Heart health awareness – I mean – I needed to do something in red!) So this perfect little table came home with me.

Now, a year ago, a red table would have fit right in at my home. My colors of my main floor were tan, red, green, and even orange. It was very Autumn colored. Which I loved. But, it’s been 6 years since we moved here, and I don’t keep things the same for too long, so I’ve set about lightening things up. I’ve moved to a more neutral palette, cream, yellow, with blues – ranging from soft blues to turquoise. One small step at a time I’m getting there. So this table isn’t for me to keep. But I just needed to paint something the perfect red – and that perfect red is….Emperor’s Silk by Annie Sloan. It’s such a beautiful, rich red. And with just a touch of dark wax – it’s really nice. And so easy! (picking the color was easier than me figuring out how to rotate the image – sorry about that!) 🙂

There were 2 fairly deep scratches on the top so I used wood filler to help fill them and smooth it out. 2 quick coats of red, followed by a coat of clear wax was all it took. I then rubbed just a touch of dark wax on the edges, and just a tiny smidge on top. A good buffing and then the final touch – new knobs. I found these beautiful knobs at Hobby Lobby – 50% off – for just $2.49 each. I think they add the perfect touch to the table.

And here is the end result…

As you can see, Xena (the kitty) approves! She pretty much lays claim on anything I bring in. I’m pretty excited about it too!

While in the shop I also found a couple of other cute items – a little glass candle holder and a flower vase – in the perfect shade of blue! Now, if I can just come across a white ironstone soup tureen…

What kinds of things do you go on treasure hunts for?

Thanks for visiting!

Til next time…..

Jovony