Too hot to trot! You too?

[eleny]

I've been wanting to go thrifting. But I can't seem to peel myself away from the house. Yesterday, the thermometer on the west side of the house registered 104 degrees in the afternoon. I go out every day and sit on a footstool and deadhead the perennials. It's cloudy today and was trying to rain earlier. I think it's virga.

But the other day I primed the thrifted metal end table and then the past few days I spray painted it with a couple of coats of black satin paint. It's looking good. I'll give it a couple of days to cure before I slap on the little soft plastic cushions that go on the top rim to help protect and grip the glass top. The glass top is that wiggly sort of opaque glass. It doesn't appear to have any flaws of note. It was just pretty dirty. The table will sit beside a black metal chaise lounge on the back patio.

[Vinca]

1. I've been painting, too, but it's a balmy 86 here. Frigid to you.

For some strange reason any small table painted green will sell almost immediately in the group shop where I have space. I pick up little tables at tag sales, thrift shops, along the side of the road (I swear) and at the dump. Give them a coat of colonial green paint and they're good to go. Today I also painted a magazine rack that had been put out after a tag sale. I never price the tables more than $50 and usually stay in the $35 - $40 range. Sometimes I go whole hog and put a piece of glass on top of them and put old photos underneath or do some decoupage or decorative painting. I had a friend who used to pick the trash bin at Home Depot and construct little tables from scraps, paint them green and sell them. It's always got to be green though. :rofl:

[eleny]

2. That's so good to know!

Our outdoor metal table and chairs with the umbrella are green with tiny teal speckles. Green just looks good.

I have a square wooden side table that was my mother's. I was thinking of painting it and getting a glass top to replace the old one that vanished over the decades. The table is late '40s and I've always liked it. The wood is so dried out that painting it is now the way to go. Maybe I should make it green!

A friend of mine would pick up furniture, paint it white or shabby pink and sell them at outdoor markets in Denver. She'd slap that paint on, metal handles included and take it in with the long rake.

Btw, is colonial green a dark shade?

Several years ago I found an old wooden picnic table with the benches attached. It's very small for kids and looks homemade. Now, the paint has peeled off to the point where it isn't weathered but the wood will get messed up badly if I let it go another year. So it's on my list to scrape and repaint. It's going to be a dark green for sure, like the original paint.

[Vinca]

8. The color I favor may or may not still be produced. Cheap as I am,

several years ago I ran into a pile of little cans of green paint in one of the dollar stores and bought them all. The original price was $10.99 a can and it was Forest Green by Minwax, a latex enamel. I'm on my last can of it now so I'll be searching for it again very soon. It's more of a medium green, although "park bench" green will sell on a little table, too. It really is the funniest thing. I've tried all kinds of colors on little tables, but my friend was correct about that green. Last Monday I was dragging a little green bookcase I had painted into the store and it sold before I got to my booth.

[eleny]

9. At least you can get it duplicated these days

Paint some on a piece of white oak tag/poster board and the store can get pretty close. We took our neighbor over to Lowes to help him get some paint duplicated since his eyesight isn't good. And the woman at the paint counter made up 4 cans of paint using his swatch before she got it right. She kept saying "Nope, this isn't the right shade". She put the others on the sale shelf. Once you get your numbers, you'll be set.

[Vinca]

11. Good idea. I'll have to paint a piece of wood before I toss the can. nt

[eleny]

12. I'm curious about that color and wondered....

There's a green that I particularly like. I've always referred to it as "1940s green". Watt used it for the leaves painted on their pottery usually accompanied by a lovely shade of deep rose fruits.

At first I thought it might be a darker shade of green that was one drop to the blue side of the color wheel. But I've always been drawn to that deep green my family used to paint stuff back when I was little.

Good luck getting it replicated!

[grasswire]

3. I can't get a green table out of my mind

I saw it about six years ago at the Brimfield market in Massachusetts. It was the size of a side table. It was COVERED with wooden thread spools. I can't remember if they were cut in half or not, but the effect was knobby everywhere. It had green paint which may or may not have been vintage. My friend the long-time dealer just called it a spool table as if it were nothing rare. I've never seen another. If I had bought it, I would have had to send it 3,000 miles home. My Radio Flyer wouldn't do for that one.

But I've never forgotten it and always hoped to see more knobby spool furniture. I've thought about trying to duplicate the technique if I could see another one for inspiration.

[eleny]

4. Sounds like a piece of tramp art

[Whoa_Nelly]

5. Spool table...am curious...

Was it like this?


http://www.diannevetromile.com/Furniture1.htm


or more like this?



http://www.hillsdalebarnantiques.com/folkart.htm

[grasswire]

7. well, not like either

a rectangular side table, in a regular form but with spools adhered all over it. IOW, the legs were not spools, but spools adhered to legs.

[sandnsea]

6. I won't tell the temperature here

I'll just say I found the cutest Santa apron and oven mitt today. Somebody advertised it in freecycle and it was 2 blocks from my house. So I got a short walk and a surprise sale. Woohoo!

I have too many projects. I need to repaint the rocking chair for my granddaughter who is 4 mos old. Put a new plug on a lamp. Redo those skillets I posted about. And I have a couple of ideas for these old mink coats I keep seeing on Goodwill. Plus I told a couple people I'd put a couple things on Ebay for them.

But I still can't stay away from DU!!

[eleny]

10. Nice thing about painting is you have to let it dry

More time for DUing!

How lucky is that to find a freecycle 2 blocks away? I joined our local group but haven't done a thing with it. I might have an old but good fridge to give away. Somebody could use it in their garage for beverages. I need a freezer and want to put it where the fridge sits.