Before & After: Dining Room Buffet

I found this dresser at the thrift store a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday and was delighted to find it was one of the half-off colors. For $40 I thought that it would be a great dresser for our bedroom. I don't usually like to spend more than $25 on something there, but hey, rules are made to be broken.



I decided that I didn't like the center cabinet and wanted that to be open for visible storage.



These knobs won't be staying on the piece, I'll be switching them out with some acrylic ones but they aren't here yet. I'm not done tablescaping yet, but it's a start at least. I'll probably play around for months until I'm happy. I'll be moving some of the pieces around the house once other projects are done so it won't be so cluttered. I have a crystal lamp sitting outside right now drying after I spray painted the base black. That will go on one of the corners. I'm excited for that.



Here are some of my crystal wine glasses courtesy of thrift stores. They are sitting on a silver tray that I also picked up at the thrift store.



This is the bottle of champagne that we popped after Kevan got down on one knee and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. I think that it looks beautiful in my new champagne bucket cooler from last week. The coasters and champagne glasses are also from last week's thrifting.



How Pottery Barn does this look!! Wait until you see the before on it. Yet another piece that Kevan questioned my sanity for buying.


I'm super thrilled with how this turned out, it took a lot of priming, painting, sealing and time... but the end result is well worth it. It looks like a high end furniture piece in my formal dining room now. Once the kitchen is done and I can move everything off of my formal dining room table, I can show the before and after on that room.

This week I'll be posting another Before and After on a dresser in my bedroom, be sure to come back and check it out!

Thanks for checking out my latest Before and After! I'd love to hear your comments on it!

My love affair with Silver continues...

I just can't get enough of Silver and Crystal. I'm utterly and completely obsessed. There just might be an intervention at some point in the near future. Damn you Centsational Girl!!!

So today I continued my quest for the perfect dresser and nightstand for our bedroom at the thrift stores. I found the dresser and a temporary nightstand and will be converting them to Tarnation style hopefully over the next couple of days.

But I found more than just that.

I hit the motherload. Well, the motherload for a silver and crystal obsessed person like myself.

Today was the most random day ever. I started off at one thrift store and found three silver/crystal coasters that I couldn't live without. Here they are after a little lovin' from my trusty silver polish. ($2.99 for the set)


Then I found three beautiful crystal wineglasses at $2 a piece.


Then I ran over to another thrift store close by and couldn't believe it when I found 6 more of the matching coasters (which were also $2.99!!) and the fourth matching wine glass!! I was giggling like a maniac and there might have been some awkward glances in my direction.

In my euphoria, I almost missed my next find.



It's just a beautiful little ashtray. The top of the globe flips back to reveal the frosted ashtray inside. I think that it will be perfect on my desk at the office holding paperclips. Oh, and did I mention that it was $4.99??

Here is that ashtray after some much needed beautification. It's got a silver engraving on the bottom saying that it's William Adams, Made in England. It's Copper Plated Silver and I haven't had time to do a lot of research yet.



I just about called it at day at this point. Because after the insane find on the dresser, nightstand, coaster, wine glass and ashtray I figured that there was just no way that I would find anything else and I would be wasting my time even trying.

But I'm addicted. I couldn't just walk out at this point. I was committed. I just knew that there was another treasure waiting for me to unearth it.

I almost missed it.



In case you can't tell, it's a wine / champagne bottle cooler with a liner to keep your special bottle cold. How freaking amazing is that. For $8.99. Seriously. I kid you not. Unbelievable. $9 dollars. I love thrift stores.

Here it is after some polish


This piece is marked as Sheffield Silver Co., which is out of Brooklyn, NY and is just gorgeous. I'll be doing some research on this piece to see whether or not it stays with me as one of my most treasured possessions or whether it will go up for sale. It looks a little small in these pictures, but it is a full sized bottle cooler.

I couldn't boil the silver to remove the tarnish on the coasters or the wine cooler due to the glass on the coasters or the liner on the cooler. So it involved some elbow grease, but was well worth it.

Tomorrow, the kids go to school and I have a lot of painting to do. I've got a buffet table, dresser and side table to beautify... wish me luck.