One woman's quest to salvage the world's castoffs, lock, stock and bauble
I had some leftover milk paint after last week's jewelry box redo, so I decided to use it on a sad little curio cabinet I had stored away in my basement waiting for inspiration to strike. The cabinet was a thrift store find -- although calling it a "find" might be a bit of a …
Continue reading "Makeover | Giving a dark, dated curio cabinet a new look"
Here's a little chest of drawers that I redid this week. (I think it's supposed to be a jewelry box, but I've been keeping it on my desk to store office supplies in.) This is what it looked like when I first got it. I picked it up for a dollar at a garage sale …
Here's my latest makeover project: a jewelry box. Here's what it looked like when I found it at a thrift store: The grey pleather and the plastic handles were a little sad. But when I opened the box up and saw the beautiful blue velvet interior, I knew it had to come home with me. …
Old, unwanted chairs have a way of finding me. This one was waiting for me on the curb outside of my son's apartment building in Milwaukee. Here's what it looked like when I found it. The hunter green was a little dated, but otherwise the chair was in great shape, so (much to my son's …
Here's a little train case I picked up at a thrift store ... Except when I bought it, it looked like this ... Cute little case, right? Except for the tragic 1990s floral tapestry. I like to use old suitcases for storage (because a shelf full of vintage suitcases is much nicer to look at …
Meet my two new pets. They're much less trouble than my two old pets. I found them at the St. Vincent de Paul Dig 'n' Save. (The new pets, that is. The old ones were also someone else's discards, but that's another story.) The Dig 'n' Save is pretty much The Island of Misfit Toys …
Here's my new Ohio Star quilt square chair. Here's how it started. It may have been a curbside rescue. If I was the sort of person to pick up other people's trash. Which apparently I am. One of the spokes holding the legs together was missing, so I bought a dowel that was the same …
After buying new cushions for my patio furniture this summer, I had these old pillows left over. They didn't match the new cushions, so I didn't want to use them on the patio, but they were still in good shape, so I didn't want to throw them out. I figured I'd hang on to them …
Continue reading "Makeover | One old bedspread becomes four pillowcases"
I found an old metal breadbox for $1.50 at a thrift store a few weeks ago. It looked so sad, I had to bring it home and fix it up. It had a few dents in it that needed to be pounded out, and it had been painted a nasty pinky-beige color. Apparently it had …
Continue reading "Makeover | Painting and repurposing a breadbox"
One of my favorite parts of traveling is buying souvenirs. My husband and I bought this little (6" x 8") tile painting when we were on vacation in Mexico in the spring. (I blogged about our trip here, if you're interested.) We were walking after dinner one night when we happened upon a small arts …
