The Magic Junk Wand

You might think the lazy days of Summer have taken me by the hand and led me to a sunny seaside place for a relaxing toes-in the-sand vacation. Ha! No...the only lazy ways for me this Summer have come in regard to my blog. Yes, work on projects has ramped up with the Summer heat and humidity, so something's had to give, and that something has been Quirky Vistas. 

For shame!

My only nod to the seaside lately has been this beach bum dresser that came by way of the curb.

For weeks and weeks, junk adventures have led me down side streets galore, mostly on the way to and from work, where the discards of South Florida seem to be lined up and waiting just for me to pick and chose what will make it home to the bedragled collection awaiting a Fairy Makeover Mother to wave her magic junk wand, fix their foibles and dress them in gowns of glory, so they can dance in the eyes of whomever will one day fall in love with them.

How can I leave these potential beauties hanging out there with the lumbering sounds of the trash truck inching ever closer. How can I turn my head and drive on when a promising little Cinderella is crying curbside?



I saw this dresser on the way home one evening, but there was man in a truck there at the time who looked like he was getting a TV that had also been left out. A woman who appeared to be the owner was standing there talking to him. I didn't want to join that junk scene (I don't like people around when I pick stuff up and yet, there always seems to be someone right where the good stuff is!), I figured I'd go back by in the morning when things were a little less active in the vicinity.

So early the next day, I headed out, and wouldn't you know, right across the street from the awaiting chest of drawers was a fire rescue truck with lights twirling, as well as three police cars lined up and making the scene even more dramatic. Come on! Someone was on the sidewalk and the rescue crew was attending to them. I was not about to stop with all that happening. Last thing I needed was to be part of a scene already drawing gawks from passers-by. With my luck, someone looking over at that would ram into me. This was on a pretty busy street. No, I was going to have to drive around and around waiting for them to wrap up their rescue and move on. It took a while of driving the nearby streets for other treasure, but finally they all left. It was time to get the orphaned dresser, and my junk mojo was waning. When I finally got to it, I discovered that the top drawer wouldn't open. Ugh...I didn't want to stand there messing with it while the passing world watched, and probably the owners too, so I decided to hop back in my car quickly and just let it go.

Of course I got most of the way home and realized I really should have gotten it. (Head. Bang. Wall.) I mean a drawer can be fixed... duh. If not, I could always throw it away at home. Back I went. I know. I'm hopeless.


It's becoming obvious that I have to go to every junk pile at least three times. I rarely pick things up the first or second pass by, and in the world of free junk, being indecisive is tough on the gas tank.

After all that, my goal was going to be to get that thing home, clean it up, fix the drawer, slap some paint on it and call it done... and make it snappy!

But not so fast! When picking this cheap little thing up and hauling around to put it in the car, I heard a... [Crack!] ...and felt the side wood come undone. Oh, brother. Now I would have to add stabilizing the weak construction of this thing to the drawer fixing and painting. I started to think I should have left it after all, but I'd invested too much time as it was and it was on its way into the back seat, I was not about to put it back now.

As you may have noticed in one of the pictures above, there was other stuff that came home with me that day too. I had plenty of cleaning to do all before the rain started falling. Good thing I was working fast.

After scrubbing these drawers in and out as well as sanding, next came glue and nails. Oh, and don't forget sticker removal. During that process, many unkind thoughts passed through my head about people who let kids put stickers on furniture. I also went a little crazy with the staple gun. (It may have had something to do with thoughts of those who let kids put stickers on furniture.) It seemed the only way to hold the separating wood together and wood was coming apart everywhere. I wasn't going for pristine construction work here. This was a cheap dresser and we were going to use it to house more of Casey's stuff that's been overflowing onto her bedroom floor. We aren't concerned about the inside of the drawers and whatnot looking rigged. After all, I am the rig queen. What do we expect?

I worked in hyper mode and by 1:00 I was finished, except for figuring out the knobs. I was very pleased.

I didn't want to put the round wood knobs back on because they are just too ordinary, and painting them with little designs would have required a plan as to what to paint. Plans take time.

Time is the mortal enemy.

Casey's other little dressers have rope handles. Another quick version of a rope handle would keep things consistent, but I couldn't find that great idea someone did that I wanted to copy. Dang! I always forget to pin things.

So I made do with shells. I almost used shells for her other dressers, but never had a good way to secure them with what I had on hand. This time I didn't care. Lack of a killer glue didn't stop me, nor did my lack of 8 of the same shells. I did have two each of four kinds, plus I had some rope and a hot glue gun on hand.

A supply on hand beats two (or more) in the store, (or any I might have to procure by other means). Never underestimate the power of supplies on hand! It helped me beat back my mortal enemy. You can't put a price on that! (and if anyone hassles you about all your craft stuff popping out of drawers and bins, piled up on counters or shoved into closets, remind them you are beating back the mortal enemy of time by having supplies on hand.) Supplies are power!

The top two shells were pulled in close to the drawer, but by the next drawer down I decided to let the rope extend out a bit so it could actually take some of the stress of the pull rather than putting all the load on the glue holding the shell. After all, these were held on with hot glue. I don't find it to be known for it's strength, so I had to try and give it a little help.

We'll see if it holds. If not, one day I'll remember to buy the heavy duty stuff. Not a big deal. This was quick to do (after threading the rope through the hole. I finally quit making myself crazy, got out the drill and made the holes slightly bigger. Again, duh.)  Each rope end was tied into a tight knot so it would wedge into the shell opening that had been filled with glue. If you do this, have something on hand with which to hold the shell. The hot glue makes the shell burning hot.

The pearlized shells on the bottom drawer here add a little glam to the shabby.

And that is how I took IN the trash...

...waved my magic wand...

...and ended up with a cute and shabby little beach bum. 

Princesses are highly overrated.

We fell for a beach bum.

 I'll be out and about visiting some of these parties this week :