FIVE LESSONS WE LEARNED FROM THIS BAR

FIVE LESSONS WE LEARNED FROM THIS BAR

This is "A Creative Piece" of refurbished furniture.  A free china cabinet made into a rustic wine bar.  We learned five very valuable lessons and have come a long way since then.  Making mistakes is how you learn.  Right?  Let me start by telling you that we have a strong background in building things together.  This was not our first furniture piece, but it was our first wine bar.  It turned out to be  a nice piece and the family that bought it was very excited to take it home.  I was very excited to see it leave.

Lesson #1:  Pick your material wisely.
We used 3/4' plywood to make the "x" wine racks.  That made the furniture piece very heavy.  Next we used pallet wood with a light gray stain which looked nice, but again added weight.  We used chicken wire to replace the broken windows.  That gave it a nice rustic feel.  At first we were concerned because we needed something to keep the edges from sticking out.  This was an afterthought and was quite perplexing.  At the last minute we used a braided rope that looked awesome and kept to the rustic theme. The light bulb was a great choice as it gave the piece a complete look.

Lesson #2:  Prep for paint.
This piece had a commercial finish that was shiny and too thick to strip off.   First we painted the whole thing gray.  Then I used home made white chalk paint to go over the top.  My goal was to distress the edges and have the gray show through.  Because I did not prep with sandpaper first,  when I tried to distress the edges some of the undercoat gray rubbed off.  The original color then was left showing in some spots. This really frustrated me. These spots did not stand out in the end and really gave more character to the piece.  I however, knew that they were not supposed to be there and have made sure not to make that mistake again.

Lesson #3: Manage your time.
You can get lost in the moment of perfection.  Don't!  Enjoy the excitement of creating something new, but don't let the little things consume you.  Sometimes, this can bring the wheels of creativity to a halt.  For instance, I had myself convinced that after two coats of gray and two coats of white I needed to strip the whole thing and start over because of the few imperfect spots I mentioned above.  That would have been really dumb.  The piece was perfectly imperfect. No need to spend that kind of time for a few small spots that nobody was going to notice. As it was we spent almost fifteen hours from start to finish, which brings me to the next lesson.

Lesson #4:  Price it right.
Just because the cabinet was free did not mean that we did not have any money into it.  We bought stain, paint, wax sealant, and an expensive light bulb.   Our original  list price was $500.  We spent $75 and with 15 hours into it we would have made about $28 per/hour.  Several people looked at it and did not want to spend that much money.  I wasn't sure if they felt it wasn't worth it or if they just did not want to spend that much for something that was not brand new from a store.  I still struggle with what people want to spend.  Finally, one person made an offer, so we jumped on it.  The offer was $350.  That gave us a profit of $275 which averaged out to about $18 per/hour.  We felt comfortable with the final profit.

Lesson #5:  Take good pictures.
This is a lesson that I am still trying to master.  I get really excited to start a new project and then I forget to take before pictures.  Also, I have come to the realization that I am a terrible photographer.    Maybe I should take a class.

Looking back, there are things that I wish I would have done differently, only because of the five lessons that I learned.  Please tell me your lessons learned and if these lessons will help you with your next project.  Now, go!  Make  yourself A Creative Piece.  Don't forget to leave me a comment!