Redeeming Furniture to New Life

What we need in South Georgia is a person who can take your boring, run of the mill, even trashed furniture and refurbish, reshape, redesign, and REDEEM it back to new life.

ENTER: Janetta Oni

One of my new found hobbies has been taking the free crappy furniture I got once I got married and making it a little cooler.  So that's what I'm in the part time business of doing these days.  Every week, I take a plain piece of furniture and figure out how to make it unique or simply interesting (without making it an eyesore of course).  I like pieces with "character".  Is it a "bookcase", or is it an AWESOME "bookcase with loads of character. Is it  just a "dresser", or is it a "dresser" that makes you wanna drink coffee and read a book.

Look, I'm a visual learner so how about I just show you some examples of some previous work!

This was my first "redeemed" piece of furniture.  I don't have the before picture (which I hate) but it was basically a plane Jane, white dresser.  That's it.  It was a nasty, high gloss white dresser with normal, boring hardware (that's the knobs.... get used to that word).  So I sanded it down, got some slate blue paint, and gave it a light cover.  Then I bought some tobacco colored glaze and lightly brushed over it to give it an old weathered look.  Then I bought some new hardware (which you can get from Home Depot, I got these from Target actually).  Then i took a piece of sand paper and scraped over the edges and corners.  Makes it look like an antique! Might not look like anything special... but I sure could use some coffee and good book right about now!

Whilst (you like that verbal usage there) this isn't furniture per say, I'd like to draw your focus to the decor above my bed. These are some original pieces that I've done.  In case you can't read them they say (from left to right... because that's how we read English) "missed the mark", "paid the debt" and "the new has come".  My creative take on the Gospel.

This dinning room table was inspired after pining over a table I saw in a Pottery Barn catalog and then looking at my bank account.  Let's just say the figures weren't adding up. But then, a phrase came out of my mouth that makes my husband just a tad bit nervous: "I think I can make that".  Well, I was right.  "Where's the redemption" you might say.  Well the wood that this table is made of came from a ramp that was built into our deck because the people who previously own our home needed it to be handicap accessible. My husband and I, not having the need for the ramp and wanting more room on the deck, ripped it up and had loads of free left over, weathered lumber and potential sitting under our deck.  Rather poetic if you think about it!! You can see its pre-redemptive state below.

    The Original Deck                             Ramp Removed                         Free Wood!

With some extra wood left over from the deck, I also built this.  The drawers are just faux (meaning, they don't open).  After building it one Sunday afternoon, I took some extra green paint that we had left over from painting our living room and lightly went over it to give it an aged look (are you discovering that I like the aged look).  Our "Specials Board" now sits on top of it, another redeemed piece that was once a huge mirror that sat in our carport for 3 months.  But with red paint, and chalk board paint (one of my new favorites) it adds a splash of fun to our dining room!

Alright... you get the picture (get it... picture).

But wait...

You can be apart of this too!  "How" you ask?  Well, (1) Each week I will create a new redeemed piece, a "One and Oni" (you like how I did that there).  The first person to claim it at it's price gets it. (2) Since I can't mass produce things, there's only really "One" of each.  HOWEVER, if you see something I've done before OR you see something done on the internet or magazine and want me to give it a go, AND you have a piece of furniture that I can redeem (something you were maybe planning on getting rid of or just want a little more out of), then I'll not only do it, but I'll blog it!  I'll blog the whole process and you'll become famous (probably not, but it'll be fun).

So, for example, if you see me redeem a bookcase and make it cooler than it was (that's the hope), and I sell it to someone for $30, and you get jealous and think to yourself "man, I want an cooler bookcase too, but all I have is that boring one over there that I'm thinking about throwing out."  Just bring me that bookcase and I'll do the same thing (or something different, we can suit to please; varying colors and such) for $30.  This is a hypothetical situation of course.

But tune in!  The first one to claim it gets it!  You don't wanna miss out on your One & Oni piece.  Follow me on Facebook or Twitter and I'll let you know when the blogs are going to be posted so you can get in there and get it first. And remember, when it comes to your furniture, don't throw it away, redeem it!