Extreme furniture makeover

So during the time between when we found the new house and when we moved in, I took on a ridiculous number of furniture projects, mostly from trying to save money on new furniture by buying cheap stuff off the online classified site Craig's List. I was truly addicted there for a while, checking the furniture listings multiple times a day, because the key to Craig's List success is snapping up the good stuff before anybody else sees it.

I bought a dresser for our bedroom, a table and chairs set, a very neglected china cabinet and two more antique freestanding kitchen cabinets. All of them needed various levels of work, and my plan was to finish all that before we started in on all the painting and stuff at the new house. Well, no surprise, that didn't end up happening. But I have been slowly finishing some of the projects, so I thought I'd share a few with everyone.

First up is the table and chairs set. I don't have before pictures, but it was in pretty good condition when I bought it. The only thing I did was recovering the seats with new fabric. The old fabric was a dingy grayish-looking white and smelled like bad BO. The actual process of removing the old fabric and foam and putting on the new stuff wasn't all that hard, but getting the seat cushions out of the chairs and back in was a bit more difficult. They didn't screw in, like all the websites said they would, instead they were somehow stapled in. Luckily Jason's mom's boyfriend helped me out with that part. I really like how they turned out! I bought the table and set of six chairs for $120, and the new fabric was $30.




Next up is a bedroom armoire I turned into a pantry for the kitchen. Like I mentioned, we have a LOT less cabinet space in the new house than the old one, so I ended up needing something bigger than the antique cabinet I'd bought (which is now going in the dining room). I didn't actually find on Craig's List, but at a Wal-Mart-type general store here called The Anderson's.


It was originally this brown color, but I painted it the same color white as the rest of the cabinets hoping it looks like it belongs in there a little better. I actually kind of like the darker-colored handles on it, and now I'm thinking of trading out my kitchen cabinet knobs to match ... more projects!