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50s Chevy

I spotted this metal 50s Chevy at a discount store and couldn’t resist. I thought is was a closer match to our tv cabinet in the basement than it actually was though. A little red sharpie to give it a ratrod look.

Railroad Map

Many years ago I bought this big framed map from the Boeing Aircraft Co here in town because I thought it looked old and cool. It wasn’t till I got it home and examined it closer to find it is a map of railroads only. No roads. I had repainted the frame and it used to hang on the wall but now is stored away.

Print Your Own Print

We were needing something to hang on our bathroom walls that fit with the theme of our bedroom. I found some cheap framed prints and replaced the original prints with some I found on the internet that I re-sized to fit the frames and then printed myself. Note their may be copyright issues with images you find on the internet.

Old Bus Photo

I collect most anything related to my hometown history but the times I find anything are far and few in-between because there just isn’t much. I did recently find this 8×10 photo at an antique store that shows an advertisement for a local car lot on a near-by cities municipal bus. I’m guessing it’s mid-60s.

I looked through our stash of frames, found one that fit and hung it at the bottom of the basement stairs.

Family Rocking Chair

This old rocking chair belonged to my Father-in-law, before that his Father and before that his Father. The chair was worn and my Father-in-law set out to have it refinished. He had someone do the wood but didn’t find anyone to do the caning. For his birthday one year we had a local guy re-cane it (rope actually I believe) for him. My Father-in-law passed several years ago and we were recently given the chair by my Mother-in-law.
It’s relatively small for a rocker and my Father-in-law was a big man but he would sit in it every morning to put his shoes on.

New Fence

We are having the front section of our fence replaced after it was damaged in the Spring storm.

Small Book Shelf Re-Do

I was recently given this little bookshelf that was made by a family member in the early 50s in High School shop class. It had since been painted gold.

I gave the exterior a coat each of 2 shades of green chalk paint that I mixed up. The interior received chalkboard paint as that was the only black I had on hand. I then sanded the exterior down to distress it.
Next using Modpodge I decoupaged a map that I cut out of The Bugle (a publication by the Brooks bicycle saddle company).
I painted a black border around the map and sanded it slightly. Finally I covered the exterior with several coats of Minwax Polycrylic.

Dresser To Sofa Cabinet Re-do

We’d been looking for a piece of furniture to put behind our Sofa in the “big room” in the basement to replace a folding table and chairs. The folding table was was used frequently for crafts, puzzles etc… but looked tacky. Our original intent was to replace it with some other type of table even if it required me making something. Then we had the opportunity to get this old dresser for free so we nixed the plan for the table and decided to go with the dresser.

We wanted to give it a distressed paint look so I started by sanding off the finish and in some places through the finish and stain to the bare wood. I then primed the top and sides which were some kind of veneer. Next I applied an Olympic paint in the color of “Safe Harbor”. Once the paint dried I sanded it again, heavily on the edges and down to the bare wood. I started to go over it with a chocolate glaze but got impatient waiting for the glaze to dry/soak in so I switched to a Minwax mahogany stain and covered the entire dresser. I let the stain sit longer on the bare wood than I did the painted areas before wiping it off. For a clear coat I applied a couple coats of Minwax water based Polycrylic.

The finishing touch was new knobs and pulls.