It all started with my grandparents.  They raised 9 children, owned their own rental properties and coin operated laundry.  My grandfather was a school bus driver and my grandmother, between bearing children, was an office worker.  How does all this impact me and tie in with Painted Black etc?  Well you see, my grandparents were extremely entrepreurial, and although they never made millions, they managed to successfully raise 9 children and pass along some excellent values.  One of those values that stand out and that I possess, through exposure I suppose, is the vision to make something out of nothing.

My grandparents managed to get by by being frugal but also by recycling as much as they possibly could.  They were firm believers in garage sales and "one man's junk is another man's treasure".  My grandfather did everything he could around the house...forget about hiring a handyman,,,he was the handyman.  My mother, the eldest daughter, spent a lot of time helping her parents with everything from cooking to changing diapers.  And now, here comes the link...her exposure to her parent's abilities to reuse, refinish and recycle has been...you guessed it, passed along to me.

It actually wasn't until about 5 years ago when my mother was teaching me how to refinish furniture that I started to reflect on the amount of reusing and refinishing that has been going on in my life over the years.  There was the buffet - painted - the wine rack - painted - the coffee table and side tables - painted - the mirrors and bedroom furniture - painted - the cedar chest - painted - the dinning room table and chairs refinished and painted - the hutches - painted.  Believe it or not, the list goes on and on.  In fact, looking back, I actually remember the first time my mother astounded us with her abilities to reuse, refinish and refurnish.  It was my bedroom set.  My gosh it was ugly when they brought it home, I must have been 9 or 10 years old then.  They found this bedroom set at a flea market, and my mom saw past the yellow chipped paint and saw a beautiful Victorian set.  She transformed that set into a STUNNING bedroom set, which to this day I swear we could sell at top dollar.

Since my mom has taught me the way, I personally have refinished many items, including some pretty random things, such as an old guitar and an old pool table.  I picked these things up for free!  I must have saved myself about $3000 on this grab, not to mention, I did something nice for our landfills.

Fast forward to today.  Times are tight, but we are all still influenced by those wonderful shows on HGTV and Woman’s network and TLC…all these beautiful transformations.  Well guess what?  You can do it too!  I have taken it upon myself to help people achieve transformations and help us all do our part to reduce waste.

You can send me an inquisitive email, or invite me to check out your pieces so I can quote you on the cost involved in your project.  Don't be afraid to reuse what you have, take it from me; it is the best bang for your buck.