new town, new thrift!

i mentioned that we moved to a completely new town back in october... one of the great things about small town living is checking out the new small business thrift places in the area! it's also been my fun escape from the stress of so much new [& anytime i get a little mommy-break in the afternoon] to wander & check out the local cool junk. i'm sure they thought i was casing the joint, walking around taking pictures with my cellphone, but i was armed & ready with the explanation that i''m a local blogger, new to town, & eager to share all their beauties with my readership! hopefully they can't argue with that. [truly, i think no one noticed/cared.

here are some of the fun stuff i've come across & had a hard time not bringing home with me:

this little chair is just the perfect shade of mustard. i keep going back to visit it... it's $70 which is not too terrible considering the perfect condition of the upholstery, but i can't quite pull the trigger. i do love it though, & it would be perfect for my little living room desk.

 i loved these hook racks, but for the price i think i'll have to diy- it looks like they are old cabinet doors painted pretty colors with big beautiful coat hooks. i actually already have something similar started for our little hallway that i'm trying to make into a mudroom of sorts. but i loved the colors of these & the 3rd one has burlap added! pretty.

one of my favorite parts about a place with multiple booths is seeing how many different styles of display there are- & i especially like seeing creatively upcycled ideas! this booth had an old rake handle hung upside down holding wine glass stems. so pretty! i think if i did something similar i'd use it for big chunky necklaces instead, but with the glasses it would be a cool touch to a farmhouse/industrial kitchen wall.

 here's one that did come home with me! i'd written about how much i loved that scrolly ikea mirror that everybody's doing such cool things with, so when i found this awesome similar one for only $18 bucks, it had to come home with me. i'm already in the process of spray painting it my favorite green & i think i might hang it in the dining room- we may possibly re-do K's room in a paris theme when she gets a little bigger, in which case we'll move it over to hers.

 if i was going to do a whole mirror wall like this awesome one, i'd have picked up this beauty too! i actually did text the photo to a friend to see if her little girl's room needed it.

i also did buy this little set of 4 vintage clothespins for $1. i saw an adorable nativity ornament on pinterest that i'd like to make with them... & the price was right!

i very closely considered buying this little guy for toilet paper/extras storage in our little master bathroom corner, but hesitated because i didn't love love it & then it was gone. 

 thankfully, the one i did really love was this chippy off white iron one... i stalked it for a few weeks, & when i thought it was gone, i was sad. then i looked up & realized they had just moved it to a hanging spot from the ceiling! it even had gone on sale for just $15 & i snapped it up! i didn't get a photo of it in the store, but here it is hard at work storing our bathroom toiletries:

there was one booth in particular that had more obviously handmade stuff. i ended up accidentally running into the owner one day & got to meet her! i especially loved her burlap webbing & glitter chipboard letter banners [this one was back at  thanksgiving] & lots of her stuff since then has been really cool. she's one of the first booths i go look at whenever i visit. always inspiring!

goodwill is farther away [& there's only one in town instead of the 2 we used to have nearby] so i haven't found as many scores there recently, but i do check as often as i'm able. i was laughing last night at how all of my lamps have been from goodwill, & i don't think I've ever paid more than $10 bucks!

what's your favorite recent thrifty score/discovery?

naked lampshades.

i've written quite a bit in the past about lampshades... it's not that i'm obsessed with them or anything, i just find it strange that a simple affordable one is so difficult to find. whenever i buy vintage or thrifted lamps, the lampshades that come with them are almost always damaged or terribly out of date. & i'm a firm believer that updating the shade takes the whole lamp from strange goodwill find to chic new-to-me lamp!

so. i did finally find some completely plain white ones for about $15 at target. good size, great price, but they stayed plain as i never could really figure out what to do with them. cover them in fabric? stencil a pattern in fabric paint? start over with some really cute ikat ones i wish i'd seen first?

i was trying to figure out a temporary & non-permanent solution until i decided & this is what i came up with. i had some book pages lying around from christmas crafting that were about the same height as the shade. i added some mini clothespins to keep them on & thought it turned out pretty cute!

this is the odd little corner i'm still trying to fill up now that our christmas tree isn't there anymore:

& my little temporary solution:

yep! just clipped up there! still a little more neutral than i'd like, but at least now there's a little something interesting going on with my little thrifted brown wooden lamp.

what is your favorite go-to fix for temporarily giving something some color or texture?

little blue tables!

one of my favorite ways to get cheap paint for furniture projects is by checking out the 'oops' section at home depot. i first found out about it when my hubs worked in the paint department at the depot & told me about it- anytime something gets improperly mixed, they slash down the price & stick it in a little section to be found by some enterprising diy-er... ahem... someone wanting cheap paint.

i found a super cute pale blue one day on the cheap & snatched it up. i started using it on a table & loved it so much i wanted to know what color it was in case i ever wanted to get more mixed. a little googling of the color code printed on the top uncovered the truth- it was wedgewood gray by benjamin moore! it's a really lovely pale bluish gray that i can just as easily imagine covering our living room walls as i can the little side tables i was working on! in fact, here it is on the walls of a pottery barn image that i pinned awhile back:

& these are the little tables i was working on... i discovered them at a local mini flea market owned by just about the cutest little old man on the planet. when i saw they were a set of two, i couldn't resist them! he even cut me a deal because i somehow lugged them up to the front of the market to ask the price on them while also carrying a baby! hah.

 when i purchased them, they had glass cut to fit the tops, but with two small people in the house [& another one on the way!] i've pretty much sworn off glass furniture of any kind. so i ditched the glass to the recycling & that's when the wedgewood gray came out to play!

the color turned out really pretty & i was very happy with it- especially paired with my tan couch & dark brown wood lamps! the little shelves underneath were just the perfect size for our media boxes full of rarely-used cds & extra office supplies.

truthfully though, it was the petite little size of these tables that won me over. they are such a unique size & so incredibly flexible. they can go long-ways or short-ways next to the arm of the couch, & when long-ways, they provide a table top accessible by the chair next to it as well! 

 i'm thinking they could also be paired long-ways, pushed together next to each other to make one long console-style table, but still petite. i think they would be great that way behind a couch floating out in the room. here's how they look in our current living room set-up:

i haven't glazed them yet, but i think they need it. i love the glazed look!

a little yellow table.

remember when i bought this lovely blue thrifted mirror for the entry & mentioned that i needed a table to go underneath it?

well, i found one!

& i can't get over how perfectly it fits. it holds a basket for our keys [that we still keep losing anyways], a basket for the dog's leash & collars, umbrellas, & a little shoe-putting-on stool [also thrifted! $3 at goodwill!]

but i'll be honest, when i first got it, it was not so cute. a friend gave it to me unexpectedly after i mentioned that i liked to paint junky old furniture- he had found it on the side of the road! we had to take it completely apart to get it home in the trunk, & it was obviously handmade, just a bunch of boards nailed together, really. don't you love a 'piece' with a story?

i took a terrible dusky before shot after my hubs put it back together for me [with screws this time, for stability!] & before i got to work sanding it.

at least, that's what i thought! the more i sanded, the more i realized i really needed to completely strip it down & start over. so i got to work with my favorite paint stripping product, citristrip, & let it sit for a bit. the stuff really is magical- it smells like oranges & you just glop it on really thick & then the paint scrapes off fairly easily after it has sat for awhile.

after a couple of coats of citristrip & LOTS of scraping, rinsing & sanding, it looked like this, ready for priming & paint:

i had really wanted to try out a paint color by behr called 'french gold' ever since seeing it on a dresser via lindsay at the pleated poppy. i figured since the table was small & all i was investing in it was a little elbow grease & the price of a sample can of the paint [just a couple bucks- love those things!] it was the perfect chance to try a bright, unexpected color. especially since this little table would be in the entryway, & didn't really have to 'go' with anything else nearby- it could be a bit of it's own destination so to speak.

it took a little time, but i couldn't be happier with how it turned out! i'm hoping to find some baskets that will fit perfectly on the little shelf for winter gloves & hats & such, and maybe a little bucket for umbrellas!

the look for less: painted frame!

i'm always on the lookout for fun new paint finishes. i'm all out of love for the plain, dark brown wood finish in our home. honestly, i've taken some pieces that most people would be horrified to "ruin" & just painted them. i figure paint can always be sanded down/off and a dark stain re-done. but in the meantime, i want bright, fun colorful wood finishes in my home, not dark traditional/formal ones!

i literally stopped & said "oooh" when i saw these blue & green frames at world market:
if you've been reading here long, you know i was immediately a sucker for those green ones. but i must say the lovely neutral cream & greywash truly were almost equally delicious:
i have all but sworn off buying plasticky frames when you can do so much to make a frame look cool if it's all wood.... go messy distressy on it. glaze the heck out of it. spray paint it & glue it to another piece of wood. even the dollar store has all-wood frames & there's a rotating plethora of almost free ones at goodwill. you could even try layering & then gluing together a smaller frame on top of a bigger frame to get that big chunky edge.

i already had a nice thick wood frame that had a not so lovely dark stained finish that had been hanging somewhere in my parent's old house. it had just enough of a thickness & almost stripe to it that made it really easy to imitate the look of the green one. i was so excited to get started on it that of course i didn't take a 'before' picture. i just spray primed the frame & then went at it with a little cream crafts paint to make a messy stripe around the center & then filled in the edges with some green.

a little ralph lauren glaze in smoke [my fave] & it was done! i wrapped & hot glued some burlap around the frame's cardboard backing & was thinking about stenciling a verse or quote of some sort onto it with paint. but if i was going to do that i really wanted to have 2 matching frames to hang together.

did you see my little secret for hanging the artwork without punching a hole in it? a thumbtack plus a leftover little curtain ring. 

a little home in the living room for big girl's artwork. an ever-changing gallery.

quickie frame project.

now that K is making lots & lots of little art around our home, i thought it would be fun to display some of it in her room. i wanted to frame it up nicely, with mats & everything! [usually i just pop stuff in a frame willy nilly, no matting.] when she discovered a 3 sided highlighter with bright pink, green & yellow, she made some really cute scribbly pictures that i thought would be great colors for her room!

but of course, i had to do it on the cheap. so i found these two frames at goodwill, with mats in them, for $2.50 each. yay! have no fear, they will not stay this way for long...

 let me be the first to say that working with old frames sometimes is NOT easy. these were particularly difficult to get the glass back into the frames without breaking them or chipping the edges. i may or may not have ended up almost in tears & handed them over to my husband to try since the only thing that would make me more mad than that glass not fitting was if it broke completely.

i painted the frames a nice glossy white, & sprayed primer all over the paper mats to make them a nice flat white. it bubbled ever so slightly, but you really can't tell when it's under the glass. & look how cute with her little kiddo scribbles in there!

 the frames fit just perfectly between her bedroom door & closet doors. i couldn't be happier with how they fit & we love to see them hanging there when reading books at bedtime.

& someone else is pretty proud of her artwork too!

pretty painted furniture!

i've been really, really into pretty painted furniture recently. i've had some good luck at goodwill and craigslist recently, finding some nice sturdy [but cheap!] furniture in dire need of a little facelift!

here are some fun before & afters:
here's a little more info about this hand-me-down little table, & here's the after!
the infamous end tables before:
and after:
and last labor day hubs & i decided to tackle a project together... our nightstands were very similar in shape, but not matching or coordinating very well. mine was a sweet sentimental relic from my childhood- i remember it always being my dad's nightstand until my mom redecorated & offered it to me. we repainted the plain wood white together & added a new drawer pull from restoration hardware. it's the 1st piece of furniture i ever painted, way back in high school! we did the whole shabang on this one, stripping & scraping it completely down with citristrip [best stuff ever!] then staining the top & priming/painting/glazing the bottom!

here it is before:
during:
and after!

M's nightstand, i must admit, was a bit of a quick grab - we moved here 3 years ago in such a frazzle that we went out & bought a handful of furniture items from walmart, including this nightstand & our t.v. stand that both ended up being a bit regrettable... i know now i could have done cuter & cheaper on craigslist with a little painting & glazing! painting this one made it where i could live with it.

before:
after!
the minwax policrylic that we used to make a nice, smooth, durable finish also gives it that bright shine that reflects the light so brightly. it makes it really hard to see how lovely the dark stained top & drawer front turned out!

nightstands with good bones are plentiful on craigslist, & lots of fun to start out with furniture painting if you're unsure of yourself, want to try a new kind of paint or technique, or want to get a little funky with some color. same goes for dressers, which you can sometimes even find for free in the free section of craigslist or on freecycle!

i don't have a 'before' shot for the rest of these... that dresser, for one, was done before i started blogging... but just imagine them all in that same plain, boring oak finish as the end tables.

after:
this cute little octagonal table i bought at goodwill specifically to paint up & sell... she's listed on craigslist if you're interested & local!

as i'm looking at the before & afters i'm seeing that i've been a bit of a one-note kinda gal... my good old heirloom white with some smoky glaze [with the exception of a little blue apparently!]. looks like i need to mix it up some & do some thing more colorful!

i've got my eye out for a dresser or dress-up trunk that can go pink for my little girl's room, & when the time comes for a big boy bed for my little man, i've got bright green in mind! i even started a whole pinterest board of all the pretty painted furniture i've been coming across, and there are 2 new [to me!] blogs i stumbled upon:

button bird designs & less-than-perfect life of bliss

check them out for some major inspiration!