Today was one of those days....an apartment full of nasty furniture. But in the mess of trash, I found a few items with the potential to be treasure. A fairly solid oak dresser and a three legged table. I know...WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!??? That's what most of my family use to think when I would hall this garbage home rather than taking it straight to the dump. But the dresser can be "something" wonderful with a LOT of TLC and the 3-legged table...well, lets just say it has potential...somewhere...for some purpose.

I plan on painting the dresser, and refinishing the little table. Both are in need of some serious repair...as you can see, the little table has issues with his legs and the dresser needs all her drawers rebuilt! But it is all doable!

What a PERFECT opportunity to share with YOU how to turn ANY piece of trash into a treasure! So when it warms a bit and I can get started (hopefully this weekend), I will post step by step pictures of these two projects, along with instruction, on how to paint and refinish and restore old pieces you might find along your path!

For now, suffice it to say that the outcome of ANY project all depends on the PREPARATION!!! How well you fix, fill, mend, putty, prime,and sand a piece before you ever go near it with paint or finish!

There are a lot of people out there who will tell you all the "tricks and shortcuts" to refurbishing a piece of furniture....honestly, there are none. You do it, and do it right from the beginning, or you will have wasted a lot of time, money and materials on something that is nothing more than a piece of trash, just a different color.

So gather up your "trash!" I look for solid pieces, with solid woods. Particle board goes in the dumpster....but even pieces that have laminate or veneers are salvageable. Busted drawers or drawer tracks can be fixed, flaking veneer can be puttied, missing knobs can be replaced. Its hard to visualize something so old and beat up becoming something beautiful and treasured....but you CAN do it!

If you have any questions before we get started, feel free to post them in the comment section...or email be at beckcampbell@att.net!

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Beckwith's Treasures