I forgot about this one!

I think this is the last item from the flea market that I needed to post about.

Here's the before:



And the after (at the flea market):
told you I was behind!


Have a great day!!

The Ashtray That Almost Caused A Divorce.

Here's his story.

If you're a furniture/ everything collector, you'll understand.

If you're a mother, you'll understand.

If you're married to a guy that gives you "The LOOK" when you bring junk home, YOU'LL UNDERSTAND!

So one day I stopped by a garage sale and found this vintage ashtray. I knew I had to bring it home and it had to be painted a BRIGHT color (side note: no, I'm not a smoker). I loved it and knew it had to have a good home other than the garage of crap the guy I bought it from had it hiding in.

Now I was a little nervous to bring it in the house after the tons of other stuff I bring home so I hid it in the front closet. I knew Sammy wouldn't look in there.

One evening during dinner, I said something and got my youngest daughter in trouble. Her revenge you ask... these words... "Dad, mom's hiding an ashtray in the front closet". And with that, he turned to me and said "No. Please No. " I nodded in defeat. Yes I was hiding an ashtray in the closet. His reply to my nodding: "just please tell me it isn't one of those hideous old stand up ashtrays." So I walked over to the closet and said "like this one". He hung his head in disbelief. Funny how the tables turned huh?

Well I didn't really get in trouble too bad, not to the point of divorce anyway. But I knew then I couldn't keep it so I painted it a bright color and sold it at the flea market this weekend.

AND BY THE WAY... I got lots of compliments on it, thank you very much~

Rita

A.J. (Abe Jr.)

For some of you, this may seem like deja vu', but I promise this is a new piece. I was originally going to paint it gray or dark blue so I mixed different colors together and what did I get...the exact same color as Abe, my first china cabinet. Oh well...this piece still came out lovely.

Again my pictures aren't the best but this cabinet was a light yellow and had some scrapes and scuffs from years and years of ware.

I painted it, inside and out and wallpapered the back walls and bottom inside door panels with textured paper. Not the same paper I used on Abe though. This was an ivory damask wallpaper. I painted the trim in off white and added new knobs which I painted to match the piece.

Here is the end result:

It didn't sell at the flea market like I had hoped ( as did Sammy because he had to lug it back home) but it's still for sale.

Thanks,

Rita

Head Board...Hat Rack??

This was sold at the flea market before I got to post my before and after. I'll have a couple more to post in the next few days as well.

This is piece of a head board I found at a thrift store for next to nothing.

Here it is before as a headboard (well piece of one it looked like):

Here it is as a hat rack after:

Sorry i didn't have a better picture to show.

Rita

P.S.

Terri and Rusty, I hope you enjoy it!!

YAY!! THEY DO!!

JUNKADOODLE DAY!!

We had a great time and sold lots of stuff today!! I had awesome neighbors and some of my family and friends came out to support me - so THANK YOU!!

Here are some pictures from my Junkadoodle Booth:

JUNKADOODLE!

Don't forget to stop by the Junkadoodle Flea Market this Saturday. If you're in the Dallas area this Saturday from 9-6, I'll be there with my Curbside Creation items.

Cross section is Lovers Lane and Lemmon. It'll be a great time I promise!
Rita

Place paper bag over mouth...commence hyperventilating

WARNING:
Before you read on I must warn you. There is a gorgeous mirror that I never thought I would cover with paint...but I did. So, for those of you with a love of old furniture and a weak stomach, you may want to stop reading now.

This old mirror was given to me by my in laws. The found it in the attic and gave it to me for a face lift. I immediately knew I only wanted to restore the old wood and try to save this mirror. I promise that was my intent.



Not knowing the condition of the wood on this piece or the mirror I began to dig deep into the layers of dust to see what I had to work with and what I could salvage.



Let me say, there wasn't much to go on. The wood was falling apart, the mirror was ruined and the back that holds the mirror in place was not replaceable. However I couldn't see this piece as a total loss. So I racked my brain trying to find a use for this beauty.

SIDE NOTE:
Typically I blog hop and have to say that I see many beautiful transformations, BUT, there are times I have to admit that I see something transformed and think "WHAT IN THE WORLD WERE THEY THINKING". There, I said it. Not all before and afters are better after. And normally I wouldn't paint something for the sake of painting it. Also in order to sleep tonight I must add that I did try every option before coating this beauty in green paint! Yes I said GREEN!


...there I feel better after venting. So what was an old antique mirror is now a green chalkboard that I'm hoping would fit in a little girls room, mounted to a wall perhaps??




I do have to admit that I like the way it turned out and am semi glad that it didn't end up at a landfill but half my heart wanted it to be restored to it's previous state. oh well..maybe next time.


Thanks for looking,
Rita

Thanks Aunt Ana!

My aunt Ana gave me this little side table the other day. It's brother was the chunky handle table you saw on an earlier post. I lover her style!

Here he is brown and a little beat up on some sides:


And here he is gray with white handles. I also darkened some of the lines on this piece so that they really pop.
I just love it. There's nothing better than old furniture (well as far as furniture goes).


I don't have a name for him yet. Nothing screams at me. Ashley and I usually name each piece after celebrities or characters. Believe it or not each piece really has it's own characteristic.

Maybe I'll have a name before Saturday's flea market. Well see.

Rita

The Long Boring Post About Me and My Blog

I thought it would be a good break between my before and after posts to say a bit about my blog other than what you see when you get here.

How it started:
It started one day last year when I felt bad for bombarding my family and friends with pictures of things I found and redid. They loved the emails (I think) but I started turning so much stuff that I figured rather than email, they can visit a blog posting and see them there. And thus this blog was born.

How it got it's name:
I originally wanted to have my sister's name in the title because she lives in Chicago and I miss her like crazy and she has always supported my creativity. She was a lot of the reason it got started in the first place. My husband, Sammy, came up with the name Curbside Creations. He said it fit because lots of stuff I found at the time came from people's curbs.

Why the blue background:
I have to give recognition to my friend Todd Brannon who I work with. He created the background for me based on a color I gave him and ran with it. He's awesome!!

Why only before and after photos:
I hated going to other blogs and reading tons and tons of extra stuff. Sometimes I was just in the mood to see the photos only. I figured family and friends get busy and don't want to read about how I changed it, but just see what I did to it before and after. I was only thinking of you!

Why don't I do tutorials about what I've done:
I've actually thought about it and honestly the only reason I don't is because I don't know what the heck I'm doing. I do it because it's fun and therapeutic but by no means am I an expert. I kind of get bothered when I read someones tutorial and then I try it out and it doesn't work. It gets really frustrating. Not to mention web tutorials are everywhere. Every blog I hop to anyway!

Why my photographs are bad:
Because I'm not a photographer and I have a small digital camera :)

What I really do for a living vs. what I want to do:
I work at a trade show company full time. It's my bread and butter but one day I'd love to work with furniture. Some how, some way. I would love that. It makes me happy. For now I'll keep dreaming about it.

My family:
I've been married to Sammy for 15 years. I have two daughters, Ashley and Brianna and two dogs, a yorkie, Reese and a Chow Chow named Tubby. They are very supportive of my "furniture craze" and only get tired of it sometimes. Like today when we went to the fair and I couldn't fit them in the car because I had furniture in the back. That's just an example :)

What's the whole point?
Here I am a year later and even though this blog started for one reason, it has taught me, for one thing, more about myself but especially more about furniture. I love that I can transform a piece of furniture, I love that I'm recycling and I love that I can see something that not a lot of people can see but love the end result.

The point is, you don't have to spend an arm and a leg on furniture. You can reuse furniture as much as you want. Scour craigslist, shop at thrift stores, and climb in the garage for old furniture. Those are usually the best pieces!! Look up photos from Anthropology, Pottery Barn and Z Gallery and base your design off of those expensive pieces. I promise you'll save money and probably get a better looking piece.

...and if you need help, let me know. I'd love to help.

Thanks for following my blog,
Rita :)

Pottery Barn Table and cute lamp!

I found this TV stand and immediately saw the Pottery Barn-esque possibilities...



See what I mean? This table will be for sale at Junkadoodle...if it stays around that long :)




And to for those of you asking for colorful projects (and you know who you are), here's a fun lamp to brighten your day (no pun intended)

Thanks for stopping by , oh and I reluctantly joined Face Book so you can check our Curbside Creations happenings there too!

Rita

The Chunky Handle

Is it possible to fall in love with a piece of furniture simply for it's chunky handle? Well I did. I got this table from my aunt along with two other fabulous pieces. The cord you see hanging below is attached to a power strip that is adhered to the table. What it is for exactly, I have no idea. But I love getting treasures like these. It's like finding a secret passage way for me.

Needless to say, I loved this table for it's other characteristics, but the handle...the handle stole my heart. It was a big ol' brass handle. Nothing fancy about it but oh the possibilities!!

Here it is "after" my transformation:

I used scrap material to cover the inside drawer.

And my favorite part is the handle. I don't know if you can see the detail but I especially paid attention to the detail here. If you're wondering how it was done... shoot me an email. I'd love to see who really likes this piece...maybe it's just me?

This has already been sold but thanks for looking~

Rita

posting before and after to my friends blog at :

http://primitiveandproper.blogspot.com/