Flea Market Find

Every once in a while Garry and I like to take a trip to the local flea market. Sometimes we go with the hope of finding something particular (like this last weekend) or just to see the sights.

We recently rearranged our living room so the television now sits on our teak stand. The spot where the tv stand was seemed rather empty, and when we moved a small stand in that space, I realized that we needed something bigger.

I thought a bookcase (or bookcase-sized) piece would be perfect. Something kind of tall, sort of wide, but I had no *clear* definition on what that had to be.

We walked around, found a few bookcases, but nothing that had much personality. If I'm going to put the time and effort into refinishing a piece, I wanted it to be special. Otherwise I'd just buy something already finished.

Then I found this...

It called... well... okay... it shouted to me "Please save me from this neon hell!"

The top is upside down in the photo.

This is an incredibly unique piece made of mostly solid wood (the backing isn't) and luckily whoever painted it these hellish colors didn't paint the inside of the drawers as well.

Of course, this is one of those moments where I don't believe in coincidence. I was meant to have this piece. You can tell just by the smell that it had been sitting in someone's basement/barn/garage for just about forever. The scratches, scrapes and paint splatters indicate that it hasn't be loved in quite some time.

Since there are a few missing pulls, I'll be replacing them with ones from Anthropologie. They have some gorgeous vintage-style pulls and knobs that will go well with this piece.

After reading about various ways to strip paint - I decided to go give Citristrip a try. Because there are so many nooks and crannies, I bought some small wire brushes to get the paint off as well as a plastic scraper.

I'm not sure what color(s) this piece will end up, but I know the flowers will be painted white (big surprise). Since my living room is mostly neutral colors, I'm thinking that might be the best way to go (possibly a medium warm grey color, with white - there might also be some small touches of teal or blue as well) but only time will tell. It will take a while to get all of the paint stripped off, the hinges cleaned and any other repairs that need to be made. I think drawer liners will also happen.

This piece deserves all the love it can get. I'm looking forward to the process.