Blue Happy Living

Often people contact me asking for advice on how to redo a piece of furniture. I’m happy to give out that information even though that is what I do to fill my stores. I want people to redo their homes, furniture and collectibles. I want people to make their homes a place of rest and relaxation. It’s important for our lives to be filled happiness. What I don’t want people to do is toss out what they have and spend a fortune getting new stuff. It’s not necessary.

I’m blessed that I have so many loving and supportive people in my life. Calls, text and emails come weekly about furniture I can have, pick up off the road or buy at garage sale prices. Last year that happened, a call came from a friend that I work with at the school. Her mother in law had a patio table she didn’t want any more. She ask if I could come and get it. I told her sure I’d be over the next day. I picked it up and it was in great shape. It did have quiet a bit of rust but that doesn’t scare me at all. I stored it in my backyard thinking I’d redo it and put it in one of my stores.

The weekend I put it in my back yard my bestie Karen came over. Remember she was battling breast cancer and was at the end of her treatments. Karen isn’t a person that ask for much if anything at all. She noticed the set and got up and walked over to it. She ran her finger along the edge of the table and ask what would become of this pretty little set. I casually said oh I’ll redo it for the store. She walked away and set back down. I noticed she looked at it a few more times. Never once did she ask for it, but she did say that set would be pretty in red with lovely cushions. That is where the conversation ended.

Over a year later that night ran over and over in my head. So I pulled it out, grabbed some spray paint and started painting the chairs red. I decided to find some cushions before I went to far into painting. What if I couldn’t find anything to go with the red. YIKES! Good old Walmart had the most beautiful cushions by Pioneer Women. The had the perfect red along with my favorite color the blue family. When I got home and put one of the cushions on the chair a light bulb went off about the table. It wasn’t going to be red at all. I had the most beautiful blue breeze spray paint. So I made an artistic call it would be blue.

Using the blue pulled all the colors together. The red and blue didn’t seem odd together at all. As a matter of fact they seem perfectly different together. I believed the table last Friday so they had it on their patio for the father’s day cook out. I didn’t get to see Karen the day I delivered it because she wasn’t feeling well. Tim said she loved it and she had the biggest smile when she did come out and sit at the table. I got the best text from her about how she thought it was so beautiful. The next day we talked and she told me how much she loved it. I could see her smiling through her words and that was worth picking it up, holding on to it and taking the time to restore it.

This table cost me nothing but a few cans of spray paint and 4 cushions. Such little cost for such a big payoff to have my bestie smiling. She is the best friend ever and I love it when she smiles. It’s not always the big things you do for people that make a difference. Sometimes it’s the small things you do that give them happiness.