The Pick Goes On - Part Two With a Before & After

If you missed part one of the story of The Pick at a defunct business my friend Lynette and I went to, you can read that tale and see the images HERE.

Today, the story continues. Since I've shown you the trash we dug through, let me show something cute that I dug out of the mess.


I know, they're just little bottles and scissors, but I like 'em!

They came from this room that I showed you yesterday where at first glance it seemed there would be nothing salvagable. 

I think the bottles were in the caddy or in one of the drawers.

I have a fondness for little bottles. Dropper bottles conjure up all sorts of memories of my own childhood and that of my kids.

There were numerous bottles of glycerine and who even knows what, along with some syringes (thankfully unopened) that I unearthed in the dark. Yes, finding an open used syringe with my hands in the dark would have made for a different kind of tale. I had not considered there might be syringes in there!

Here's the camera lens we got. The book was there too, but not this particular camera, unfortunately.

Don't be jealous of my amazing 1980's boombox. I think it's from the 80's anyway. Might be 70's, but I'm not sure. I couldn't find one of these online to compare it to. 

It seems like most everything in this place we were picking was from the 80's. All I know is this was one bad boy. It could make duplicate tapes - and look at all those techno-cool functions. It still works well!

But wait...there's more!

For those who aren't quite as ostentatious, there's this little am/fm cassette that works great too! It plugs in or takes batteries. If we have a hurricane and the stations all get knocked out, I can put in one of those old cassettes lying around and pretend I'm 20 again. Yes, that would take a lot of imagination even with a cassette tape.

We found this camera, the case and the booklet, not to mention a roll of film...used. Hmmm...wonder what the pictures are of.

You may have seen this shot before, but it shows some things yesterday's pictures didn't. I got multiple office type phones which proved invaluable. The phone I use at work has had a bad connection forever and was getting really annoying. We kept putting off doing anything about it. I cleaned one of these up real well and plugged it in. It works great and sounds clear as a bell. Love when a pick nets me things I need. I can't tell you what a relief it is not to have to jiggle the cord and struggle not to miss every other word the person on the other end says!

Some of you have already seen a few of these items in previous posts, but as you will see, there is plenty more junk where that came from.

I told you we got some practical things from the business that went out - file folders, adding machines and adding machine paper rolls, a whole box full. We also found a polaroid, some polaroid film, office supplies and a cute little brass pineapple lamp. And how about the box? Next time I'll show you what I've found that I put inside!

We see another mirror redo in our future.

The style is adorable, but the red isn't working for us.

I showed you this before: The Berlitz French in a briefcase was good enough for a rerun.

There were two of these accordion racks. We took just one of them. The other was hard to reach and we were about over the whole rummaging through junk thing for the day when I spotted it. I let it go. However, it turns out that the leftover stuff may still be there. If so, Lynette could always go back and snag it. I'm just sayin'... why let a good accordion peg rack go to waste?

We love this cart. Can you imagine it holding paints, stamps and other crafting supplies? It's definitely a keeper.

Or we could go into the hairstyling business.

The two chairs are in good shape, but the color isn't cutting it in our world.

Who doesn't love a little industrial metal stool...

...or the larger matching barstool version?

Here's a fine assortment of goodies. An ab workout thingamajig from back in the day. Those narrow baskets attach to pegboard so you can organize larger items that don't normally hang. That way you can get them off of your workspace. Love 'em! The little pink/mauve thing is a vase and the metal thing on the left attaches to a desk, table or whatever, and it holds a blow dryer or curling iron.


Of course we had to try out the ab thing, but it was too much like work and our weak, flabby stomachs didn't have what it took to keep at it. I mean... we had junk to clean. That's it. Honestly, the junk cleaning was work enough, so the ab work out thing sits unused, as such gadgets tend to do.

Who can pass up a wood ladder, especially with the company name burnished/branded into the wood. 

Farmer and Irwin.

We liked the shape of this piece with its mid century sentiment, but it has fabric trim lacquered around all the edges on both the top and the lower shelf, along with a print of some kind. It'll take some work to get that off. 

This is the little beauty that caught Lynette's eye in the first place, one of the few things she originally thought we'd want. We haven't started on it yet because she is currently recovering a wingback chair I got her for her birthday (she's doing it in a perfect red) and then her son found her another wingback chair to recover. There are reupholstery projects aplenty in our future.

Big brass-look easel

Two cool utility desks with plastic bin drawers with electric cords came our way . This one has drawers on only one side...

...the other has them on both sides. Unfortunately these photos were taken at night in the storage area so the light was not good. Not sure what it is about these that has won our hearts, but we really do like them.

Several adding machines and credit card machines were found in the mix. A couple of the paper roll holders were broken, so I tore the keys off of one thinking they could make some sort of funky addition to a project some day. We'll see about that.

These metal bars lock together and create a sort of dolly. They are extremely heavy. You know how I love casters. These are good ones, and this will probably come in very handy.

I think I see a clipboard project in my future. More like many clipboard projects.

Then there was the bench/ottoman we salvaged:

BEFORE: This little bench had lost it's luster.

The gray was just not attractive.

Sure, the chevron pattern has been all the rage the last year or so, but this one was quite dated in color and texture, and it was very dirty.

The bench got painted white and distressed. The fabric was removed from the cushion. 

Lo and behold, beneath the dated chevron fabric was this vintage kitchen pattern. Now that'll take a person back to the day.

AFTER
And here is my take on the bench: First, this is the back. I guess it was made as a bench to sit up against the wall, because there is an apparent back and a front.

I'd had it in my mind to try painting burlap on a piece of furniture like this for a while. This bench seemed right in line for such a treatment with it's country/farmhouse style.

Here's the front with a little curvy trim detail the back doesn't have.

So the picked bench has been given a bit of an updated country/farmhouse style and now makes a fine foot rest or seating. The stripe was painted on with acrylic craft paint. The fabric was painted with, of all things, these little brush attachments I got from the picked business. They were round and soft and I knew I could use them for something. Indeed I did. (Don't tell me I don't need all this junk I find!) I lightly loaded them with paint and dabbed the bulk of it off and then painted by dabbing and pouncing the brush on the fabric. It's amazing how the things I need come my way. No, they weren't meant for painting burlap, but the little brush attachments did the trick in a pinch.

You can see the little attachments on the right in this picture. All the bottles and whatnot came from one of those little dark rooms in the business we picked as well. The little brass note paper holder is on my desk at work now. Isn't the little shaker adorable?

 Lynette had some good burlap, the kind with a tight weave, unlike the cheap stuff they sell these days, and she had washed and softened this with loads and loads of fabric softener, then sacrificed it to my project. Isn't she the sweetest!

Check back and see what else we scored in More From The Pick, the next installment in this series. You will hopefully see a little more of what we've done with our finds and I'll show you the interesting set of quirky items I discovered.

I'll try not to dawdle, but Thursday is junk day and I already found some things this evening. I could only get one of them home so I'll be off before sunrise trying to scoop up all the rest. My stash is forever growing. So then are the possibilities, I suppose.

I'll be at these sweet parties this week: