Free Trophies

After Doug and I finished renovating our attic with virtually no photo documentation a few years ago, we vowed that we would do better with before-and-afters in the future.

And for the most part, we have....

But sometimes the excitement of a project takes over, and we just plunge in without remembering to reach for the camera--or at least the iPhone.

So, yesterday, our neighborhood had a big yard sale, and Doug spotted a few things on his way back from his morning walk.  When he got home, we grabbed our wallets and went in search of cheap treasures. Our friend Rene had some items marked "free" right by the street. Both Doug and I zeroed in on the packing crate she was using to display the freebies.

"Oh that's free too," she said, "but are you sure you don't want some trophies?"

We passed on the trophies and told her we'd be back for the crate in a few minutes.  We had already decided that, turned on its side, it would make a perfect "bar" cabinet for the beach house.

So now I'm going to ask you to use your imaginations and picture the before shot here because WE DIDN'T TAKE ONE.  You'll just have to take my word for it that it was an ordinary wooden packing crate kind of like this one:

After the yard sale, we went to our friends Martin and Jennie's house, so Doug could help Martin with his bathroom renovation.  Luckily for me, they live less than a mile from two fantastic antique barns, so Jennie and I left the two guys to their plumbing project and went shopping.

Today, we headed down to the beach with the crate and some scrap wood that Doug used to make the shelves. He also brought along a small piece of leftover bead board for the top.  After he finished the construction, I took over with the priming and painting. I used the same paint--Sherwin Williams sea salt--that I used for the trim throughout the beach cottage.

Although the paint was barely dry when it was time for us to come home today, we moved the bar into place in our little dining room and filled it up.

Here is the after picture:

I bought the sign and the bottle crate, which came from a local company, when I was shopping with Jennie yesterday.  My cousin Lou painted the ice bucket for us as a gift several years ago, and we already had all of the glasses.

But before I get too excited about it being done, Doug just reminded me that there is one thing missing--a bottle of Jack Daniels and one of Bombay Sapphire.