Okay....now that I've started sharing the projects in our home, you all are in trouble.....I'm just joking...haha! I guess though I may as well go ahead and share some more. Are you really ready...because I have a list to rival the jolly old St. Nick.
Even though I am an interior designer, I don’t have the budget most of my clients do to renovate or redecorate my home. It was no different fourteen years ago when we moved to Florida from the Netherlands. We needed some new furniture for our home and, like most young families, we needed to do a lot with a little. Online resources, shelter magazines, and Internet inspiration were not available like they are today, so I had to do what I knew and that meant shopping the to-the-trade vendor catalogs.
Being on a tight budget was going to mean I was going to have to find a low cost option to duplicate my beloved choices from the catalogs. We needed bar stools and a kitchen table and chairs and I had my eye on a Drexel Heritage set that would have put us back a cool $5,000. I opted to go with unfinished furniture instead and was able to duplicate the look for about $700, but not without putting a lot of sweat equity in before I would have a finished product.
via Drexel Heritage
The only picture I can find over the course of the last 14 years of my bar stools is this....sorry it's not great. I had originally finished the seats in a Provincial stain to match the top of the table and the chair seats and the rest of the bar stool in a distressed painted finish, which also matched our table and chairs.
Fast forward fourteen years. We downsized about 7 ½ years ago when we moved into our 1960 Ranch and I have needed more bar stools for the past seven years, but I was working so many hours at first, I really could have cared less. After I quit working, our focus turned to getting pregnant…..and I still could have cared less. So here I sit, four years after giving birth to our second beautiful daughter, telling you about my bar stools.
Don't they look lonely??
About a year ago, I decided it was finally important enough to do something about the bar stools. The girls like to sit at the bar to have breakfast or with their friends and two bar stools don't go very far. Buying four new bar stools was just not in the budget and buying two more unfinished stools to match was more than I wanted to spend as well. Then I thought of Craig's List. How I wish Craig’s List and been around when Husband and I were first married. What a great option for young people today, just starting out. I use Craig’s List often for client projects; sending my finds in to my re-finisher and upholsterer to create unique, custom pieces for my clients. So, I started stalking Craig's List....well, after about six months, I found two bar stools to almost match my existing bar stools.
After some elbow grease, a lot of paint, sanding, and poly, I now have an almost matching set of bar stools for my counter…..and the original two aren’t looking so lonely anymore.
Now, I just have to make the cushions for our bums……
Do you have a Craig's List find you have made over? Send it in to me...I'd love to see it!
Have a great day!
Susan
