We have been pretty busy this past month so I haven't been able to go to too many auctions. I was forced to scrounge around on Craigslist and online garage sale sites to find a few pieces to work on..

They did not disappoint!

As usual, I am drawn to the "nobody wants me because I am totally ugly" pieces of furniture.

I like different and unusual.

This chest and side table checked off all the boxes...kinda ugly and unusual.

The ugly part is pretty obvious but they do have nice "bones." Solid and sturdy!

The unusual part was the hardware. I love unusual hardware. Sometimes the hardware dictates what direction I go with a piece.

In this case the heavy black handles pushed me towards blue/gray. A friend asked me what paint color I used. Well, let's see...I had some blue, I threw in some black...too dark, so I added some white.

So I have no idea what color it is....blue/gray!

They had some detailing so I decided to do a chalk paint and distress treatment. I usually save that for pieces that have good detailing that will "pop" when I distress it.

Two coats of chalk paint, a little distressing and sealed with poly. The hardware just needed a little cleaning and it was good to go!!!

Hardware can be a booger when it is missing. I picked up a campaign dresser last week and the brass hardware was amazing. The only problem was it was missing one handle and they are next to impossible to replace.

I really wanted to stay "true" to the style of this dresser...a mid century campaign. But the old finish was pretty dark and dated. (did I take a before picture like a good blogger...um...no!)

Very similar to this little side table I recently refinished.

I decide to shine up the brass hardware and give the piece a sleek new look with gloss white paint.

The missing handle, however, posed a real challenge!

I knew I was going to have to scale back to one handle on each of the top drawers but I couldn't just patch little screw holes because the handles actually "inset" into the face of the drawer.

The thickness of the hardware was 1/4"...so I bought 1/4" pieces of craft board....

....cut out a hole big enough for the hardware to sit in and then attached the boards to the face of the drawers with wood glue to cover the existing cut outs!