Moving up the Ladder

Guys, I have a problem. It’s a small one, but a problem nonetheless. I’m running out of room in our home for the furniture we keep redoing. We still have a few projects to go, and some pieces we’d like to either build or refurbish, but those are planned and we have a place in mind for them. But it’s these spontaneous pieces that we just can’t pass up that are causing the problem. Although this one all belongs to Sam. He was browsing through the free section on our local Craigslist (always a bad idea) and saw this ladder being given away. Well in minutes we were loading it into the back our truck and taking it home. How can you pass this up when it’s free?!?

We put it in the corner of our guest bedroom while we tried to decide where to put it. And then we decided nothing. And it sat there. For a long while. But eventually we had to deal with it when we moved the furniture all around in the second bedroom and it was then that we decided we weren’t really a big fan of the color.

The wood tone didn’t match any of the other wood finishes in our house. So now…paint it? Re-stain it? I was trying to think of some super creative treatment I could do on it but after thinking it over and getting some advice from my friend we just decided to let the beauty of the natural wood shine through and just stain it a different color. The first step was to sand it down to the natural wood. It’s bamboo, and its so pretty.

Since it was freezing (winter in New England!) we set up a makeshift workshop in our kitchen and used left over stain from our dresser re-do.

That is more like it. Such a simple and easy little change. It is subtle for sure, but the color fits in our house much better and it was all free so why not?

Now that it was stained we had to find a place for it and so we moved a couple of things around to find it a perfect home. That home is right beside our bookshelf in the dining room and next to the living room.

Oh free items. I just can’t say no. And apparently neither can Sam.

I love these little white dishes that I found at an antique market in Cambridge. Talk about dangerous. Five floors filled to the brim with antiques. Very fun.