Goodwill Find

I haven't been thrift store shopping for a while.....a long while. Maybe the winter did me in or maybe it's just that I'm running out of room. Perhaps it's time for a garage sale. A very large garage sale! Temptation got the best of me last week and I took a ride, just to look, of course. To be truthful, I always find something that I feel the need to buy so I can paint it, fix it or play around with it. This piece was no exception-but what is it? What was it? No idea.

Cost $2.00

Condition-OK

Needs a paint job and some embellishing.

and.........maybe it could hold some extra toilet paper rolls in the bathroom.

I'll take it.

I forgot to take "before" pics-sorry, it just slipped my mind. I sprayed this piece with Rustoleum and it already started to look better. I picked a light beige. It matches everything and gives me a good base for the color painting.

I then used some acrylic paints to paint the flowers.

In this photo you can see some of the paint I used to brighten up the flowers. I added more detail later and also painted the leaves.

Below some more detail is added to the flowers.

Here is the completed job.

I added some black detailing to the flowers and leaves.

2-3 coats of clear spray to keep it from chipping. You know, for 2 bucks and a little work it gets a second life and becomes functional. I like that!

Chris

01 02 12

I stopped at the local thrift store the other day and found this wrought iron candle centerpiece. Cost=$2.00

It came with plenty of dust, a few rusty spots and some very old looking silk flowers. Seems pretty easy to get this thing looking like new. I'm thinking some paint and new silk flowers will do it.

Step 1-take a "before" picture. Well I forgot to.......ugh, I hate when I do that.

Step 2-clean it and then spray with Rustoleum. I picked a black metallic shade and it came out great.

Step 3-throw out the old flowers but then decided to keep the Styrofoam holder for my new flowers.

Step 4-cut and arrange the flowers so they look good. Ok.....now a visual.

Here is the base of the centerpiece. It has the original Styrofoam in the center, so I've come along and added some green and brown leafy stuff. Using wire cutters I trimmed all the greenery down so it sits low in the centerpiece.

Below, I'm just adding some simple flowers as a point of interest. I used floral picks. This allows you to cut the flower short and stick it into the center. Technically you really should wrap the stick with floral tape, but in this case you're not going to see it.

Below is the arrangement completed. I thought it came out very pretty considering is cost 2 bucks and only a few more for the flowers. The candles were the most expensive part. Try to ignore the fact that the candles are still wrapped in cellophane.

It actually came out pretty impressive in size so I think it may be destined to reside in the dining room, although my original intent was for the screened in porch.

Someone asked me the other day where I get some of my ideas from. It just takes imagination and vision. I look at something that may be considered old, damaged or used and I envision what it will look like after it's repaired, repainted or revitalized. With this project it was just a matter of a good cleaning, a new paint job and fresh silk. Now maybe I'll go and straighten out the candles!!!!

01 02 12

Thrift Store TV stand Makeover

I wanted to remind everyone that this subscription to Lowe's Creative Ideas is a totally "free" magazine that comes to you four times a year. It's filled with some great ideas, tips, new products and more. If you haven't signed up, go here and start getting it free. This issue includes 7 quick room redos, tips for transforming your home for the holidays and new ways to work with lights. Every once and a while they include a $10.00 coupon for a $50.00 purchase.

Just thought I would remind you.

So this week I finished up the television stand that I bought at the Goodwill. It was $12.00 and looked like crap. I knew though, that this stand could be made into something nice enough to put into my den. I had been passively looking around at tv stands, but quite frankly they are expensive.

Looks terrible, right?

This is what I thought when I first saw it. I'll sand it down, add some trim to certain parts and re-spray it black. I really liked the idea of having those cabinet doors. I can hide stuff back there that I don't want to look at anymore like remotes (all 50 of them), movies and things like that.

I started by giving the stand a good cleaning then sanded it down and sprayed it black.

I used one of my favorite products, Rub & Buff to add some gold accents around the door and also on the handles. Use your finger to apply this stuff, it's great. You can read more about this product here.

I added two pieces of trim to the center shelves (they were kind of beat up), so it would hide the damage and add to the piece. These were glued and nailed with small tacks to the unit.

For 12 bucks, you can't go wrong. It serves a purpose, looks nice and even has some storage.

Ah.........the thrift store find!

Christy

01 02 12

Thrift Store Find

I just love this.  Goodwill...........$10.00..........and what is it?  I'm not sure exactly what it is but I absolutely love it.  It was in perfect condition and very clean.  It appears that it was once attached to something (not sure what).

I decided it would work in my bathroom as a place to put a few important items.

If you can believe this, I totally forgot to take a "before" photograph.  This is the cabinet all finished.  All I did was add some decorative tissue with Mod Podge to the four little drawers.  The handles are original and the center cabinet has glass.  I wrapped the same tissue around the grid on the glass cabinet. 

Done!  I can't tell you how functional and nice looking this little cabinet looks in my bathroom.

It pays to shop at the thrift stores and put some effort into things.  The end results can be delightful.

Christy

01 02 12

Thrift Store Headboard

There's a story behind the headboard below and the bench at the foot of the bed. This old headboard was found in a Salvation Army for $10.00. It had a giant "wagon wheel" in the center. My friend had the vision for this piece. She could see in her head what it "could" look like with a little work. That's something you just have to have when shopping around at thrift stores. You have to have a vision of what a piece may look like after you bring it home and make the adjustments.



My friend cut the wagon wheel out and replaced it with a padded fabric backboard. This particular headboard had so many beautiful elements to it that it was worth salvaging. The original wood was in great condition and only needed a little lemon oil to shine it up.



I think she did a great job with this project. For $10.00, a vision and some work she got herself a beautiful headboard.

The bench at the end of the bed was also picked up at the Salvation Army. She only had to recover the top piece and it was a perfect match to the headboard.

Sometimes you have to add and subtract to make old furniture work for you and your home. It's worth it though. Most new furniture today is made with veneers over particle board. Solid wood furniture is hard to find these days unless a very high price tag is attached. I'm still finding solid wood furniture out there occasionally that is well worth the work when you get it home. The end result can make a great addition.

01 02 12

Thrift store Makeover of Chair and Mirror

I purchased this chair in a local thriftstore with my son in mind. He needed a chair for his room and when I saw this, I realized it would be perfect. At the time, his room was decorated in a "rustic" decor which included some bears and pine trees. He's older now so thing have changed considerably. He actually moved into another room a few years ago. This chair, which cost me $5.00 was sturdy and in great shape-all it needed was some paint and a little imagination.

It was painted using mostly metallic acrylics. For a kid's room I thought this would make it more interesting. Each part or section of the chair had a different color. It took a while to paint it but it really looked good in that room at the time. I clear coated the chair with several coats of paint.

The mirror below was $3.00. I painted it and added the wood cut out trees and stars to the top, adding some more interest to a plain mirror.

The mirror was painted with a dark brown base coat and sponged with a rust color. The tree you see on the wall was painted with acrylics. The whole room came together very nicely.

The only problem with decorating for a kids room is they grow up so fast. Before you know it, they have grown out of the "room motif". If you like to decorate and re-decorate, it's not a problem. The goods news is that all the furniture was cheap (and I mean cheap). It can all be re-painted and fine tuned for the teenage years.

Ok.....that's just more work!!

01 02 12

A Few More Things

Thanks to my friend Kathy I found the perfect stool for my thrift store vanity. My vanity (in perfect condition) was purchased for $8.00 but needed a small stool to place underneath. I found this at TJMaxx for $29.00. Certainly not cheep, but since I only paid 8 bucks for the vanity, I could justify the expense. It turns out to be an exact match for the vanity. I really got lucky with this one. Looks cute, right?

The other day I stopped at the local Goodwill and found these four little espresso cups. In perfect condition and made in Italy, they cost me $1.00. What a deal!

I bought this lamp about 5 years ago for my daughters room. The lamp itself was wrought iron with a fabric insert that was a light purple. At the time, the lamp matched her room perfectly. Since then the room has been changed into a guest room done in earth tones. I use Mod Podge and some more rustic looking tissue paper and changed the entire look of the lamp. So, before you get rid of existing furniture, think about how you could change it to match your new decor.

Old lamp, new look.

01 02 12

Decorating the College Apartment

Back To School

It's that time again! Here in Georgia most of the kids are back in school so it's time for my home to become "normal" again. My oldest left for her last year of college and moved back into last years apartment. This year she has, yet again, a new roommate which means a new decorating scheme. I happened to have a very large painting of an Italian village at home that I was willing to part with for the girls to have in their living area. The colors in the painting are shades of green, white, brown and blue, so we used this to create the central color scheme.

The kitchen and the den are open to one another so we made sure the colors blended through both rooms. There is a little bar in the kitchen that needed two bar stools so we shopped around in the thrift stores. We were very lucky to find two stools for $10.00. They looked brand new to me and in perfect condition.

I offered to paint the plain wood seats with the exact colors that are in the painting. I thought using random designs that "did not match" with colors that did match would look nice in the room.

Here is a photo of the tops of the stools. I used acrylic paint and a durable, strong clear finish on the top to seal them. The stool on the left looks very yellow in the photograph but more closely matches the green in the stool to the right.

Below are both stools completely finished and ready to pack away in the car for the trip to college.

The random circles were penciled out using a kitchen ramekin and the squares I just did without a pattern, as you can see. They look great in the room, match the painting and the girls seem happy with the final results. Total cost $10 bucks. Thrift stores are great places to hunt around when you are on a budget.

01 02 12

More Vanity Stuff

After I posted my newest thrift store find, a vanity, Reagan sent me some information on a vanity that she found and recently refinished. What a great job!! It looks beautiful. The best part is that she "found" this little vanity next to a dumpster. I love free!! Check it out....





All the details are available on her website: http://jereandreagan.blogspot.com/2008/07/vanity-affair.html



Thanks Reagan for sharing!


On another subject, have you noticed my new website layout? Thanks to Sashway's Studio I now have a site that more closely matches who I am and what I'm about. She was great to work with, did exactly what I wanted, answered all my questions and ultimately created just what I wanted. Her prices are very reasonable too. If you need any of her services, here is her site:

http://www.handprintsonthewall.org/sashwhystudio/






Thanks for coming!
01 02 12

Thrift Store Vanity

I haven't been able to blog for a couple of days due to some technical problems that occurred on my site. Don't ask me what happened because it's all too technical for me to explain. I'm just glad to be back.

As always, I've been lurking around a few thrift stores looking for little treasures to buy. Last week I found something very unique and useful. I purchased this piece for $8.00. It was in perfect condition and just needed a little polishing. I've decided to use this in my guest room as a vanity.

Placing a vanity in a guest room is a nice addition for any visitor. For the females, it's a spot to apply make up and brush hair and for the men it's just another place to keep the essentials.

This vanity is made of some kind of metal, has a glass tabletop and is very unusual. Now all I need is the perfect stool to go underneath. The room is painted green and parts of the vanity are highlighted in a matching color. Unfortunately you can't see the green that runs through the vanity in the photograph.

The back of the vanity has an elephant motif which looks very nice in the room that it's in.

I found this chair (very, very retro) with a bright orange pillow. I'm thinking this chair may have been around in the 70's, but I could be mistaken. I have recovered the pillow and polished up the chair with some lemon oil. This chair actually fits perfectly under the vanity, but just doesn't look right. The vanity needs a stool!

What I love about this chair is the size. It's very small and fits just about anywhere. Oh and did I mention the price? $5.00. The fabric I had hanging around so that didn't cost me anything at the time.

01 02 12

They Think It's Garbage, I think it's treasure

Thrifty is one thing but free..... is another.

Thrift stores are full of undiscovered treasures but people's garbage can yield some wonderful finds. What some people consider garbage can be perceived by others to be useful artwork. Consider the item below. Someone threw this cabinet away.

My friends husband found this in the garbage. This beautiful little cabinet would have made it's way into a landfill. Instead it has found a home in the corner of their den.

Below is an old umbrella/coat rack that was also found in the garbage. My friend's hubby was kind enough to give it to me!! Thanks Joe!

It's made of solid Oak and has carved pieces on the face. It also has a small box on the front for hidden items....

I have it in a long hallway that joins the garage. It's very handy to have for someone coming through the garage door.

I'm so glad someone thought this was junk, it's a beautiful and functional piece.

I have to admit that I'm a bit shy about pulling in front of someone's house and going through their garbage....ok.....I really won't do that, but if there is something I see and like, I'm stopping.

Here is the problem.......I may be running out of room!

01 02 12

Before and After Thrift Store find

Before and After Pictures

My Thrift Store Find

Before......

After

Exactly what I did:

• First I washed the pillow and laid it out in the sun for the day.



• The chair was sanded and spray painted glossy black. Since this chair swivels, I sprayed some lubricant on the movable parts.



• The chair pad was then re-covered.

Recovering

I purchased a few yards of fabric (used my 50% coupon) and paid less than $15.00 for the 2 yards. I pinned the fabric around the pillow, right sides together. From there I cut away the excess fabric. When I was pretty sure that it would be a good fit, I pulled out the pillow. I sewed up around the edges, pulled it right side out and hand sewed the opening.

Total cost for completed chair:

About $28.00. For this money, I think I got a great chair.

01 02 12

Today's Thrift Store Finds

$6.00

Another hot day in Atlanta! Too hot to go out and too hot to stay in. All the more reason to visit the local thrift store for some bargains and new projects. The beautiful vase above, which certainly fits into my decor, was only six bucks! Not a chip, scratch or flaw on it.

$12.00

This custom framed print with three layers of matte board was only $12.00. The frame has a few nicks and scratches so I'll have to do some work on it. It's just a matter of sanding it a little and then giving it a coat of paint. This sweet little print has three bears with hats that say "Harrods". If you have ever been fortunate enough to take a trip to London, you know that Harrods is a huge department store which happens to be one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city. It has 7 floors, 300 departments, 20 restaurants and bars and averages 35,000 shoppers per day. A very busy place! I love this print and really appreciate the fact that I got it so cheaply. It's signed by the artist, Elspeth McCreadie, but I'm not able to find any information on her. If anyone has ever heard of her, please let me know. It saddens me that people throw these things away, but I'm happy to give it a new home.

$1.50

Four little ramekins in stellar condition. A perfect addition to the table when serving up some Mexican food.

$10.00

My favorite find for the day is this chair. It swivels and reclines and will go great in my son's living area. I'm going to sand this, paint it brown and cover the pillow with a funky animal print. Wait to you see it all done.

I'm adding the frame and chair to the long list of projects I currently have going. Hopefully I'll be able to muster up the ambition to complete them!

I really believe I could decorate an entire house with thrift store finds.

01 02 12

Thrift Store Makeover

I'm back from a wonderful and restful vacation at the beach. The week was great despite the four foot long shark that appeared at my feet in the water. I have to tell you that I have never seen a shark in the ocean before this! It's a first and hopefully the last for me.

It didn't stop me from enjoying the ocean though. Not even Mr. Shark would keep me from enjoying that water!

I'm back now and ready to finish up some unfinished projects and of course, clean the house, do some laundry, get some shopping done and deal with the three "finished with school" teenagers.

Today I bring you a Thrift Store Makeover. I found these three "candy" containers or canisters for $2.50 at the local thrift store. They would work great for my daughter's college apartment. She needed a place to store coffee, sugar and tea bags. They were in perfect condition. Three glass containers with plain wood lids and a little rack to keep them in position.

Since these were going to be in a "young" persons apartment, I decided to hand paint them with colorful, fun look. I used a pencil to draw out the designs and painted them with acrylics.

When they were all dried, I sprayed them with a high gloss clear coat. My daughter was delighted with them. Just another great find for a very "thrifty" price.

Today I was looking around the Pier One website and they had a great page on "how to decorate above your cabinets." This topic comes up a lot on the decorating forums. Everyone is always looking for inspiration and this article gives some great ideas to work with. If you are looking for a fresh new look check this out:

http://www.pier1.com/TopMenu/GetInspired/DecorateAboveCabinets/tabid/280/Default.aspx?utm_source=Email_Marketing_US&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=20080602_Decorating01 02 12

Latest Thrift Store Find and More....

Here is my latest find from the thrift store. Who could resist this one, not to mention a price of $2.50. A cabinet with arms and feet? One arm was broken off completely so I used it as a template to cut out another one from plywood. This is exactly how I found this cabinet (minus the broken arm). It reminds me the movie Beauty and The Beast!

It was too cute to pass up. It's on my list of projects to do this summer. When I've figured out exactly what to do with it, I'll post it for you to see. The "critics" (that would be my family) want me to paint a face on it. If anyone has any suggestions, please comment below. I'd appreciate some input.

I spend plenty of time looking around at other blogs and websites. Occasionally I find one that I think my readers may like. A few weeks ago I mentioned http://www.diylife.com/ where they highlight the best DIY projects. It's a great site and I visit it daily. They have some great ideas and information.

I found a site a few weeks ago that I recommend you visit at http://blog.craftzine.com/ This site seems to focus on sewing, but they have a wide variety of projects. I also check this site once a week for ideas and they have so many. Take a look.

01 02 12