Chick in the Styx: Paris in Springtime

Last month I was having picker withdrawals. You know the feeling, too early for garage sales, no estate sales happening, nothing much on Craigslist. I was on my way to lunch with my mother and sister, when I saw a sign in front of our Salvation Army store that said all furniture 1/2 off. Woo Hoo!

Most of the good stuff was already sold, I guess all of the other dealers around know about 1/2 price Fridays, but I did find this little 3 drawer chest for $14. I knew the top would have to be re-glued, but when my husband took it off the whole thing fell apart like a house of cards.

I guess the only thing holding it together were the spider webs. Anyway, these are the only before pictures I got. Good thing we have a lot of clamps.

You know how some projects you have to think and dream about for awhile until you come up with an idea of what to do with it? Not this one, I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. My sister and I have a space at Paris Flea Market in Coeur d'Alene Idaho, and I have been wanting to do something with that name on it, so this had just the right number of drawers to make it happen. First as you can see my husband re-glued the whole thing, then I painted it a creamy white. I glazed it with my good old stand by Martha Stewart Black Coffee. It really brought out the character of the piece. I printed out the words, and traced them on the drawers using carbon paper, and drew them on with a sharpie. Then I finished it off with a coat of wipe on poly. I know you usually don't want to use poly on something white, but I really didn't mind if this yellowed a bit. I had some crackled porcelain knobs from some other project that were a lot better then the wood handles that were on it originally.