Briar Spontaneously Tries to Flip Some Furniture

Well, hello, my friends!

Okay, so this post is going to be a total adventure, so strap in for the ride!

I’ll give you a hint: This involves talking to several strangers, being stressed out at Home Depot, getting paint on my nicest clothes, spending more money than I was originally planning, and sanding until my arms were numb…

Oh Briar, when will you learn?

This week’s side quest started on Monday morning. 06/08/2026

I was driving home from work when I noticed that the entire neighborhood was throwing all of their large pieces of trash to the curb. I’m talking refrigerators, dressers, chairs, couches, mattresses, toilets, basketball hoops… all of the above.

Naturally, as I am a self-proclaimed scavenger of roadside garbage, I decided to browse the aisles of the labyrinth that is my neighborhood.

Down one street, up the next.

Occasionally, I’d pull over to inspect something more closely, but most of it was unsatisfactory to me. I did snag some fabulous finds for my nonexistent cat, but that is beside the point.

After about 30 minutes of this, I could not believe my eyes. In front of me stood a beautiful little black end table cabinet that looked to be in good shape. I hopped out of my car and gave it a look over.

It was solid oak, it seemed sturdy, and I saw minimal damage. Some paint chipping, but that was about it. Bingo. Treasure acquired.

Without thinking about further implications, I started to attempt to carry it to my little car. Remember, this is a solid oak cabinet… it was not a light piece of furniture.

“You need any help with that?”

I spun my head around to see a man on a bicycle coming towards me.

“Oh, I’ve got it! Thank you, though.”

“Are you sure?” He said it as if he were very skeptical.

“Yep!”

🤦‍♀️Briar Albaugh, you do this every time. You say you don’t need help when you clearly do. Oh well.

“Okay, you might need to put it in your trunk with the back open.”

He biked away, and I thought:

“Nah, this will fit in the back seat.”

A couple of minutes of struggling later…

“You know, I think that guy was onto something.”

I took all of my possessions from my trunk (dog catching kit, cat catching kit, bee suit, mini chair stash, Bible for spontaneous evangelism, etc) and moved them to the back seat of my car.

I then started the process of heaving the dresser into poor Mia the Kia. It slid in quite snugly, but it was just poking out enough that I needed to leave the trunk open.

Huh. Just like that guy had said. Fascinating.

I had a 4-minute drive to my house. Every little bump in the road elicited:

Creak. Thud. Clank.

Despite my face looking like 😐, we successfully made it home unscathed.

I parked my car and gave a sigh of relief.

Oh wait, where am I going to put this thing??

It had not yet occurred to me that this piece of furniture was now solely my problem. I couldn’t keep it in my car because I had places to drive to, and it was not sustainable to have the trunk flopping around.

It was also too heavy to haul upstairs into my little bedroom… besides, it was no good up there.

“I have to refinish it like right now.”

Now, mind you, I have never painted a piece of furniture before. I have always thought it would be cool, but I’ve been too scared to try.

A rush of excitement washed over me. I had been planning on being so bored that Monday afternoon, but all of a sudden I had a project! Not just any project, an entirely new skill to attempt.

I ran upstairs and got out my laptop for some madman researching. After 10 minutes, I had a plan in place. I was hoping to only spend about $30.

The plan was:

1. Go to Home Depot

2. Buy paint

3. Buy paintbrush

4. Buy sandpaper

Simple enough, right? I got the name of the paint that I thought would work best for the project and headed out the door.

I unloaded the dresser and propped it outside the garage and sent a quick text to the house group chat:

“I hope you don’t mind, but I picked up this little cabinet on the side of the road and I set it here while I went to grab some things for it.”

I got the approval from the people I live with, so I felt much better about my decision.

Next, the trip to Home Depot.

I waltzed inside with too much confidence.

“This won’t be hard.” I thought.

Well, I walked over to the paint section, and immediately it felt like my head was going to explode. 🤯

There was a lady standing at the paint desk, so I figured she would be my best bet at figuring out what I’d need.

I explained what my intentions were with the cabinet and asked her advice on which paint to use. I told her the kind of paint I found online.

“That’s not going to work super well.”

“Oh.”

“I would recommend you try either of these two.”

She pointed to the fanciest-looking paints on her chart.

“How much do those cost per quart?”

“This one is $30, and this one is $20.”

“Ahhh, I see. I’m going to walk around for a bit, and then I’ll come back and decide.”

If you know me, then you know I don’t like to feel rushed to make decisions on things. I much prefer to be given time to think things over first.

I started to meander, and I decided I should probably find the other items on my list.

The sanding set was $11. It came with a sanding tool and three different grits, which was what I needed.

The paint brush was $5. I kind of just bought the cheapest one because it didn’t need to be too lavish.

After I felt I collected my thoughts I determined that $20 for paint was not too awful for a project to keep myself unbored so I started back towards the desk.

While on my way there, a random lady with a service dog approached me.

“Did you decide what paint you want?”

She must have witnessed my indecision from earlier.

“Oh yes, I think I have decided.”

The lady proceeded to detail a whole bunch of paint advice. I tried to listen, but I fear most of it went over my head.

“If you mix this with that, you can get this, which would work so nicely. I usually just experiment and mix various cheap paints. There is no need to buy anything expensive.”

She walked over to the clearance section and handed me a paint sample container.

“See, this would work for what you are looking for.”

She seemed to be quite experienced. I decided to ask the paint lady about this, because it would save me a good $18.

I walked over to the desk. She looked at my proposal with a “you have zero idea what you’re talking about” sort of look and said:

“That’s not going to work. You need one of these two paints.”

I caved.

The adventure of attempting the wisdom of the earlier passerby seemed charming; however, the paint lady seemed to think otherwise.

I went with the paint lady and purchased a quart for $20. Would the other kind have worked? We will never know…

I now had approximately $40 invested in this project.

I got back to my house, got my supplies in order, and got to work.

To begin, I took a washcloth and wiped off any dirt and dust. I realize in hindsight this was almost entirely in vain, as I had to rewash everything after sanding.

I started off by sanding and painting the drawer. I figured that would be great a place as any to start. Besides, I was eager to know what the dark sage color would look like once on the wood.

I was quite satisfied with how that went and moved on to the rest of the sanding.

Here is where my first mistake came about.

I enjoyed the satisfaction of sanding and painting in chunks. Naturally, I decided to sand and paint the entire top of the cabinet before sanding everything else.

This was not the correct decision, as it made sanding the edges more difficult.

I pivoted to just focusing on sanding. That was exhausting, but I finished eventually… a few hours later.

The painting part was a lot more fun.

I got the first coat done and decided to come back to it the next day.

I stood up and, with horror, looked down at my favorite pair of pants.

Splotches of green paint had already seeped into the corduroy. I knew I should have worn something more paintesque but I did not heed my own warning.

I took some water I had brought down and started rubbing it into the fabric in hopes of getting it to release before it dried. It worked somewhat, but I knew I would need to get it in the washing machine immediately if it was to have a chance.

Do you like cliffhangers?

I’m going to keep that as a cliffhanger because there will be more on that subject in a second.

The next day I had a job interview(exciting, I know!). Now, this was my first “adult” job interview, and I needed to wear my best outfit, so I wore my favorite shirt and my other favorite pants. This will be relevant information soon.

For those of you wondering, the job interview went well! I feel as though I answered all the questions to the best of my abilities, and I hope to be considered for the position. There are several other candidates, so we shall see.

I arrived back at my house, and it was time to dive in once again.

I looked down at my nice clothes and thought:

“I should probably change.”

But I did what anyone else would do after they had a paint scare the previous afternoon… I continued wearing my nice clothes and started painting the second coat.

The entire time I made sure to be extra careful. I was talking to my mom on the phone while I was painting.

When we ended the call, I looked down only to see paint all over my shirt and pants.

I can honestly say I have no idea how it got there.

It just was there.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in. I needed to act fast. I did the same water technique I had used the day before, but it wasn’t helping much.

I googled “How to get paint out of clothes,” and interestingly enough, there was something about using hand sanitizer.

I grabbed some from my purse and rubbed a few dabs into the stains.

Sure enough, after some determined scrubbing, I managed to get a majority of the paint out. It wasn’t all of it, but I hoped the washer would do its job. I threw it all in and hoped for the best.

Well, I am pleased and shocked to inform you all that there is hardly a noticeable spot on any article of clothing that was nearly damaged during this project. There is a bit of paint on the corduroy pants; however, you can hardly tell unless you knew it was there.

Hand sanitizer, guys, I guess it really does work.

So now, the cabinet has two beautiful coats of paint! I was having some issues with noticeable streaks because I was not using a paint roller. I considered purchasing one but opted out.

I plan on thrifting some dresser knobs for the front, and I want to find some nice fabric or paper to line the inside. It’s not finished quite yet, but it is well on its way!

I honestly love it so much that I think I will keep her around. I am hopefully going to find a place to move to soon, and it will be nice to have some furniture.

So there you have it!

Briar attempts a new skill, and as expected, comes across some unique individuals, has a few humorous mishaps, and learns a myriad of new things.

It was a good week.

-Briar Albaugh