Blue Happy Living

Oh my goodness if you ride in my truck with me no matter where we are going beware. No matter the occasion or if we are all dressed up if I see a treasure on the side of the road I’m stopping. If its to large or to heavy you are getting out of the truck to help. Recently my friend Christy experienced that, she is still talking to me so I guess she was ok with it. I’m having t-shirts made up that say Official Trash Troller. I’m mailing Christy one as soon as I get them. I’m gonna keep them in my truck so I can reward my friends as they are caught in my trash trolling world.

Last week when I was working on my friend Rachel’s little girls room I saw a treasure on the way to her house. I almost didn’t get to it because I couldn’t find the alley that lead to the house. Finally I was successful and made it to this great piano bench. When I got out of the truck I noticed it had no lid to it only the hinges were left. The legs were great and it was sturdy with lots of life left in it. I tossed it in the back of the Blue Happy truck and away I went.

When I find a treasure my head starts to  over think what can I do with it, how can I breath new life and up cycle this trash to a treasure. I didn’t have to think hard on this piece to make it a beautiful addition to any home. Everything I used was free and I had the paint already. It did take a few hours because there were lots of steps.

I started with a neutral color for the base and gave it a couple of coats. After drying I did sand the edges very lightly not to over do it. I left the brass feet they just seemed like they worked even though they were a bit tattered.  To make the bench seat I used an old fence board from my neighbors trash and the left overs from the wood counter tops in my laundry room. I cut the piece to fit the top and started to lay them out. The fence boards seemed dull and not very exciting so I added color. I took a dry stiff paint brush and lightly brushed on the teal color. After it dried I used my sander to take most of it off. That makes the paint and wood look older than it is and it gives it that shabby chic vintage look.

Call me what you will Trash Troll or as I like to see it Treasure Troll you can’t look at this piece and say it’s trash. I have all these idea’s in my head and if they don’t come out I will explode. Not really but if I get busy and I don’t get to create something often I do get very grumpy. Redoing and renewing things is like art for me. It’s taking the crappy and ugly and making it happy and pretty. I can’t imagine not doing this recreate little blog of mine. I hope that I inspire my readers to redo things they have around the house. What’s the worse that could happen? You redo something you didn’t want anymore and it turns out bad, but it could turn out to be amazing! To me that is the best Blue Happy outcome. I hope that Tuesday is finding you Blue Happy and well. Come back tomorrow for Day 2 of REVEALS!