PHILADELPHIA — In the showroom of the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, the warehouse-size furniture thrift store, there is lots and lots of brown — huge beige couches, vintage wooden dressers, tables and chairs in hues ranging from beige to ochre to umber.
But when Theresa Clements — the Ambler TV personality, designer, DIY expert, and blogger at My Fix It Up Life — walks through, she sees past the drab, old, and worn.
To her, there are potential showstoppers waiting to be revealed, with a few simple — or radical — tweaks and some bold color choices.
That unassuming, boxy little nightstand could be flipped on its side, with a drawer removed, and topped with pallet wood to make a modern coffee table. Take two office chairs, face them toward each other, saw off the arms, and add a new seat: You have a stylish bench with high, curved arms.
Clements always loved making things as a kid, then she studied architecture and design and began working as a contractor with her husband and collaborator, Mark. But she noticed a scarcity of women on job sites (people often took her for a bookkeeper), and she found many of her friends were afraid to pick up a circular saw.
“A lot of people do a lot of Pinterest, but not a lot of projects.”
Clements walked us through how she would tackle a do-it-in-one-day thrift-store-find transformation.
– Find a piece with good bones: Something sturdy that’s made of solid wood that won’t fall apart if you tinker with it. Clements selected a mission-style china cabinet (ReStore’s price: $35) that was missing the glass on its door and all its shelves and had a door that was permanently locked. But it had sweet simple lines.
– Gather the supplies you’ll need. For this project, Clements used a drill/screwdriver, a saw, painter’s tape, fine-grit sandpaper, pallet wood, stain, a drop cloth, cardboard, a tape measure, a level, and screws. She uses spray paint and spray primer, the keys to making a DIY project like this doable in six to eight hours.
– Clements lightly sanded the cabinet, making it just rough enough to catch the paint. Then she wiped it with a cloth to remove the dust before spray-painting the entire cabinet with primer. Using scrap cardboard to shield the interior of the cabinet, she then gave the exterior a coat of cobalt blue using quick, light coats.
– While the paint dried, she made shelves out of planks liberated with a saw from old wooden pallets. First, she measured the interior of the cabinet so she could make the planks just a bit shorter and narrower. “Measure in a couple places, because with old pieces of furniture, things can move. It’s always better to go big than small, since you can’t make the material grow.”
– She the spray-painted the interior of the cabinet, too, in a contrasting pale green.
– Then she styled the bookshelf with finds from the ReStore, all transformed with a few quick coats of spray paint. She used metallic rose-gold paint to transform a couple of baskets, and used a newer product called seaglass spray paint to upgrade a few glass pieces. “It turns something cheap — this is a 50-cent vase here — into something really cool.”