Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Furniture Curbside Find: I Need Your Help. Which Color?


I got rained out of the flea markets and thrift stores didn't give me what I wanted at the price I wanted. At least Lady Serendipity threw me a bone when I spotted this furniture piece on a curbside! A glass-front display case has been on my wish list. This one isn't exactly what I wanted, but it's a nice start.

I may keep it for the future brick and mortar but I think I'll fix it up and put it in the antique store instead. This is where I really need your help. I will have to replace the top piece of particle board since it's warped and water damaged. While I'm at it, should I paint the whole piece? Decoupage it? Paint it two colors, solid colors, or hand paint a fun design?

My thoughts are to paint the outside mod aqua blue and the inside lime green and maybe decoupage the top of it and coat it with table top resin. What do you think?

That's the fun part of free finds, we can play with them with little guilt. What do you like to do with your furniture finds?
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39 comments:

  1. I always choose the original wood finish. Looking forward to seeing what you do with this one.

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    1. I'm always tempted to leave the original wood finish as well. Hmmm...decisions... ;p

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  2. Would it be a good cabinet for Christmas goodies? Red, green, Xmas paper on the back? or white with a pale paper decoupage to make seasonal colours pop? Ooh, you got me thnking now! Lynda

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    1. That would be fun! Or perhaps it would be fun to Halloween it up for the fall season.

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  3. i love the idea of aqua outside, what about some kind of pattern on the back? or vintage wall paper?

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    1. That's a good idea too! Gotta find me some vintage wallpaper. Perhaps tomorrow's thrift trip will bring me some.

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  4. I like your aqua blue and lime green idea. As a buyer, someone might be turned off by certain patterns/decoupage .. If it were me I'd just do the two tone paint job. Black and white would paint would look nice, too.. or rusty orange and mustard yellow.. :)

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    1. Thank you, I was hoping someone would offer the buyer's perspective. I was thinking that too, the fresh paint would make the piece special and keeping it pattern-free would help it blend into their décor better. I did just sell a Calvin & Hobbes decoupage table though, so who knows? ;)

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  5. Is it not a record player stand/table? The height of the two shelves seems designed for LP records? With the stereo 'n' speakers on top? No?

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    1. Nope, no stereo 'n' speakers on top unfortunately. I did ponder the same thing when I first pulled up to it. I just tried putting a record on the shelves but their too short to accomidate them.

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  6. I like the aqua blue/lime green idea.You could take pieces of foam core to fit the back of the shelves,then cover them with vintage wallpaper.That way you could change it to suit your mood.

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    1. Very good idea! That's what my friends at Old Skool Junk did for their antique store booth to add some colorful fabric to their shelves.

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    2. You could paint it a classic neutral color and make two reversible panels on tagboard(four sides in all)-one for each season.

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  7. I'm all about crazy color. I'd go with bright, different colors and then also a funky hand painted design on the front edges. I like wacky though :)

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  8. decoupage is so tacky. whatever you do, don't do that.

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    1. Haha, to each their own ;) But agreed, it's not a universal way to make furniture appealing to buyers.

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  9. I like painted cobalt blue or emerald green with the inside done in a vintage black & white wallpaper.

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    1. That's a good suggestion too, the black and white keeps it nice and neutral.

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  10. I say paint it like a melon - green on the outside, coral on the inside. I'm always in favor of color combinations from opposite sides of the color wheel.

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    1. Oh, that sounds like a fun combination to play with too!

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  11. I'd go with mint green on the outside and then a black and white pattern on the inside/back. I'm obsessed with mint green right now!

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    1. Oh, love that too Dina. Your icon there is actually giving me some mod tiki inspiration for the piece too!

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  12. The aqua would be great with maybe with some houndstooth or plaid fabric. I like the idea of panels you can remove.

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    1. Love that idea too, looks like we're all agreeing on the black/white to offset the bright colors.

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  13. I vote for orange and turquoise! I think if you're going to go BRIGHT and MULTI-COLORED, then DON'T decoupage. If you're going to decoupage, then keep the colors simple. What about the colors you mentioned with a sunny yellow top?

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    1. Oh hell yeh, that's sounds beautiful. Incidentally it's the Thrift Core brand colors, too ;)

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  14. Whatever you do (and I like your color idea), please promise us a before and after blog post :-)

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  15. I like the fresh colors of aqua and lime (very Florida) and interchangeable wallpaper designs too. But, since we are heading into fall, perhaps something suited to ring in the Holidays.

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    1. I'm a tropical creature, the love of saturated Florida colors is innate ;) But I do also like the idea of autumn colors to see how that does in the shop. Nice experiment to see if staging with the seasons increased sales.

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  16. I love all the ideas.It sounds like the only solution is to get more furniture so you can try all the combos. See why my friends call me an enabler,lol?

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  17. I think if you're planning to use it for display yourself until/unless it sells, then a pattern on the inside might detract from the items being displayed. The light/bright solid color inside would highlight them and make them pop.

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    1. Thanks for the suggestion! I agree, better not to have something busy on the inside if I use it for display.

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  18. You are so, so funny Van. You're like me, it all sounds good! I was going to suggest using inserts for the inside to change with the seasons and your mood. If you had a number of inserts, you could compliment the background colors to highlight the items for sale. For the outside, you do something that is fun, like you and that will make you and buyers happy.
    Decoupage, done right, can be fun, classy, artistic or whatever. I believe that you can get a lot of bang for your buck with inserts.

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    1. It might be interesting to try to sell it with the inserts so consumers can switch it out with their moods. Explaining that on a giant tag with arrows would be necessary, but it could be an interesting experiment...

      And yep, I'm bad, everything does sound good!

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  19. I have a similar piece. It came with a piece of glass that sits on top. I painted it white and placed old travel postcards under the glass. My dad's old globe sits on top of the glass - travel theme.

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    1. Sounds amazing! When I first saw the table I felt like it was made to house a globe on top, actually. Something about it...

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  20. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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I love reading your comments. Thank you for adding to the discussion! I always reply to any and all questions.

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