I’m a shy one.  I am so uncomfortable pulling over in front of a business or, worse, a residence to pick their trash.  The thrifty, creative side (“living on the edge”) literally takes over the steering wheel and the foot hits the breaks before I know it.  I work at record speed to pop the trunk open and feel extremely vulnerable .  Now it’s time to quickly load my roadside finds into the small SUV.  Note to self and husband…. OUR next car must be bigger!  Once someone pulled up along side me and said “great find!”.  I felt better about myself and smiled and replied “Thank you” and then drove away feeling redeemed.  I saved something from a landfill and that’s a beautiful thing!

This piece was sitting outside a daycare with the golden words “FREE” written on a piece of paper which was flapping in the wind.  I quickly grabbed this piece and a few other treasures as well.  All solid wood and clean!  A bonus when turning trash to treasure.

My Plan:  Using Smoky Mountain Gray on the base and shelves and Vintage White on the top, lots of distressing to show the pretty wood and then a stencil to “French it up”.

Two quick coats did the trick and a wet rag was used to pull back some of the paint to show the pretty wood underneath.

I “Frenched It Up” with a stencil using a grayish beige called “Rushmore” by American Paints.

Wax was next and then a quick buff.  From start to finish this took less than 1.5 hours.  We kept the color scheme simple because the piece was in fantastic, clean shape and the color of the wood stain below the paint added the depth we love.  There is our trash to treasure results.