Collecting Furniture

I've been slowly collecting furniture from thrift stores, estate sales, craigslist, etc. since this summer and it is just now beginning to be painted/transformed.  Some will be for use in my home, but much of it will be for sale and I plan on sharing all of it with you!  Today I just wanted to include a few pictures of works in progress - the "before's" and "during's" if you will.  I plan on hopefully sharing the final pieces with you in the next day or two :).

This is fun magazine rack my husband and I found at an (awesome!) estate sale this summer.  We'd really just gone for some dressers for our bedroom, but I ended up coming out with this one too.  As you can see it's been loved.  The finish was pretty dinged up and there were some other dingy spots on it from grease and other things.

However, the details are beautiful!

This is it after two coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in "Old White".  I heard about this paint from a fellow teacher.  She swears by it!  So far I've enjoyed using it :).  All thats left to do is lightly distress and wax it.  I'll keep you posted on the finished product!

This is a secretary desk I picked up this summer.  I'd planned on using it as is, however, the longer it has sat in my garage/basement (it's been in both places haha) the more I've thought I wanted to spruce it up a bit.  Plus, it had been painted with a spray paint that was drippy and unfinished looking in a few places.  So this is my before picture.

Since this picture I've sanded it and put a watered down coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in "Old White" on it.  I've also spruced up the inside :).  Stay tuned to see the fabulous changes!