Little Orphan Trashie

This has to be one of my favorites in my small furniture re-do collection. And here’s why….because I found it by a dumpster behind the grocery store! True story. I happened to take a detour behind a strip mall after I left the grocery store and as I approached a large dumpster, the clouds opened up, a ray of sun shone down and I heard a chorus of angels. There it was. Sitting next to a dumpster.

There are apartment buildings nearby so I assume someone was moving out of an apartment and decided to abandon it there. I hopped out of the car to examine it while my son sat strapped in his car seat yelling, “Mom, what are you doing?” I think my sudden stop and jumping out of the car with out saying a word may have concerned him. I jumped back in the car, flew home and told my husband to get in his truck and go rescue it! He promptly obeyed. Good man, that guy! Once it got to my house and I had more time to examine it I was pleased. It’s a wood dresser. Kind of narrow. Perfect for my living room! I had been searching thrift store after thrift store for the perfect piece to put against a bare wall. Who woulda thunk I’d find it in the trash?! I like to think of it as divine intervention.

After it sat in my mom's garage for a bit (3 months but who's counting) I carried out my plan of attack:

It had obviously come from a home where housekeeping was not a priority. At all. So it needed a little bit of cleaning. There had been food left on the top and there were some pen marks on it so I decided to use this:

It took off any goo and primed it for painting. Although the top had a thicker coat of varnish on it so I roughed that up a bit with my orbital sander with a 150 grit.

I had lots of Behr Cafe Creme paint left from this project so I decided to use it. And I needed something light in my living room of dark leather furniture.

It was missing some of it’s knobs so those obviously needed replacing.

Did a little distressing with some sanding and stain wiping. I thought walnut stain would be too dark so I used a tint called "Early American."

Polished it up with some Minwax Paste Wax.

And here’s the pathetic little orphan that I rescued!! Isn’t she pretty??