Roadkill

The topic for this week on The CSI Project is dubbed "Roadkill Rescue." I have been a savior in this arena for a very long time, so it wasn't hard to round up a few past projects for a post dedicated to this theme.

The criteria for this entry is that each rescued item was found, donated, willed, discarded or in one word, FREE. 

My all time favorite freebie was a bed.  The sad news is, by the time my son's friend told me about it, the rest of the set had been hauled to the alley and had disappeared.  But, I did get the bed you see here.

The detail had me in a frenzy.  At that time I was "in love" with the McKenzie Childs look and I'm surprised I even took time to get a picture before grabbing the paint.

I wanted to be able to see all of the headboard over the mattress and springs so I had to boost it up foot or so with an extra board.

The lovely lady is a poster decoupaged within the arch.  The poster was a little narrower than the arch at the bottom so I fudged the extension of the picture with a little paint.  The arch was done in a granite look which is hard to see here.  The rest of the headboard was marbelized and the ornamentation was gold leafed.

The flowers in the arch of the footboard are decoupaged wrapping paper.  The rest is hours and hours of painting on my kitchen island.

What a chance to try every finish you know on one piece!

I think this might be a good candiate for CSI's "roadkill rescue"

Check it out.

Another item that came my way was a little round table on a barley twist pedestal.

I thought perhaps whimsical was the way to go with this piece.  Nothing practical about an ice cream sundae with chocolate sauce that you can't taste.

In case you are wondering, the whipped cream is the expanding insulation you use to seal around leaky windows.  It dries yellow so I painted it white.

A pair of chairs that had seen their better days are up next.

I paired these with a table and painted them as a set.

A friend had plans to refinish this little bench but she gave up on getting it done and gave it to me.

It was stable so a little paint and upholstery was all it needed.

I detailed out the design on the legs and found some pretty tone on tone fabric and tassles to bring this piece back to life.

It found a spot in my house and has been content there for some time.

The final piece I want to show you is a settee my chiropractor snatched out of his alley because, well because, he knows how I am.

I painted the wood parts in a peeled paint finish with beige and pink as the underneath layers and a creamy finish for the top coat.  The fabric is a greenish/beige which has held up really well since no one sits here.

I took this shot today before I found new lamps for the end tables. 

I'm excited to show the new lamps I found today but that's for another post.