Estate Finds: Our 8 Gallon Blue Crown Stoneware Crock

What a crock this estate sale was! I say that lovingly as we walked through the backyard of the home having the sale this past Sunday and saw this 8 gallon blue crown stoneware crock in all of it's glory. We fell in love when we set eyes on it. It was really dirty and had some pretty severe paint stains all over the side of it, but we could see past the dirt into the full potential...

Knowing these things can be pretty pricey, we felt like it was a steal given the $30 price tag. If that weren't enough, since it was Sunday, everything at the sale was an additional 50% off, making this guy $15! It was a no-brainer.

One of our best tips for getting a great deal at an Estate Sale is waiting until Sunday (or the last day of the sale which is typically a Sunday) since most likely everything remaining will be marked down to 50% in the interest of moving it out that day. Sometimes you can even place a bid for below 50% off items that don't sell on the final day or the company running the estate might quote you a lower price on larger items if it's close to the end of the day and they aren't accepting bids.

This stoneware crock had somehow made it through the weekend sale — maybe it was just waiting for us. Maybe it was all the dirt and paint stains. In any case, we were more than willing to take a chance for $15, so off I walked with it proudly to the car to get home and clean it up!

It had basically been sitting outside with rainwater in it for some time — the kind of rainwater that had been in it so long it had a putrid smell, so first on the agenda was a good scrubbing inside and out with dishwashing liquid. That is when I realized I was simply not going to scrub those paint stains off and these aren't the kind of stains we consider vintage charm.

Thinking back to our locker console project where we did quite a bit of paint stripping, I figured if I could use the paint stripper on metal why couldn't I use it on ceramic? So I sprayed some on and before I could set the bottle down, the paint started bubbling up like magic:

With a few strokes with my stripping tool, I was able to strip away all of the old paint from the crock.

I carefully sponged everything down one last time and we couldn't believe how clean the crock turned out. I felt like I'd brought a little life back into it and may have even heard it whisper thank you:

We brought the crock inside and set it up next to the front door as a catchall bin for umbrellas and other entryway odds and ends. We're not sure if this will ultimately be it's final function or place to settle, but are digging it for now:

One thing's for sure, we've got puppy approval:

Sometimes that's all that really matters, am I right?

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