Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick is having a
She wants us to spill the beans on what items we've decorated with from garage sales, thrifts, free, whatever. Yikes. How many days do you have?
Ladder - used goods store. Pedistal sink - free from a friend's barn.
Step ladder from a thrift. Now is a light holder for my island until the real deal light is installed. Then I get to invent a new use for it again!
An old sign scooped up from a local gas station boneyard which is now my headboard. Oh. Free.
$10 worth of matching pillows and / or cases from the thrift.
Lamp is a scoop from a local thrift. It had two strange finial things that stuck out like ears so a friend helped me grind them off. I've yet to paint the lamp. The lamp is too busy to be painted it seems.
Lattice piece from someone's front curb waiting for garbage pickup. I refabbed it to cover a phone cord. The SADY sign is an old original cow sign from my dad's farm.
A couple screens morphed into temporary curtains. But now I like them! So I have visions of painting them white and perhaps burlap in behind. I love how the light penetrates through them now so I don't want to diminish that aspect. But I'd like my boy to stop calling them the Japanese things, so they need a new look. Soon!
The black box is actually a trunk that I got from a closing out sale at a flower place. The woodsy box is from someone's curb. But they actually have a purpose other than adding funk to the room.
The black trunk turned over on it's end holds my stereo and woofer thing. The woodsy box holds two speakers stacked one on top of the other.
This is a little greenhouse I have out back. The wood I'm using to create a character building out of is from someone's fence on the way to a burn pile. I asked him to drop it off in my driveway instead so he did! This is how far I've gotten so far. The gate is from the dump that will hold up trailing flowers one day. (I asked if I could take it from a guy hucking it onto the pile. I have no shame) The small old window is from a friend that he took off an old barn himself, and the bigger window is from a thrift.
The door is made out of the same wood but turned on the other side so you see more greys. Also because on the right side there were vines STUCK to the wood I couldn't remove. It's freaky lookin' inside. Whatever. The door turned out cool...
Canning jar lid wreath for $1 from a garage sale. Yeah, it was already made up like that. All I did was pay the $1 and hang it up.
Metal stuff is cool in a garden. The square one is from a thrift. The can is what I found buried way back in a shed when I bought my place.
This adorable little birdhouse came with a post and was going to be burned. It was buried under all that fence wood that was delivered. I squealed when I saw it!
Oh my gosh. I feel like I should join a Junkaholics Anonymous group or something.
All the progress of these projects are on this blog so feel free to snoop around to spot more info on them.
I'm rather pleased at how I'm supporting the local thrifts which is always a good thing. Decorating on a budget has forced me to be ultra creative with used finds. And honestly, I go into Homesense now and walk right out thinking I can make that. Regular retail is such a thing of the past.
Simply buying isn't fun anymore. But buying to create most certainly is!
Lattice piece from someone's front curb waiting for garbage pickup. I refabbed it to cover a phone cord. The SADY sign is an old original cow sign from my dad's farm.
A couple screens morphed into temporary curtains. But now I like them! So I have visions of painting them white and perhaps burlap in behind. I love how the light penetrates through them now so I don't want to diminish that aspect. But I'd like my boy to stop calling them the Japanese things, so they need a new look. Soon!
The black box is actually a trunk that I got from a closing out sale at a flower place. The woodsy box is from someone's curb. But they actually have a purpose other than adding funk to the room.
The black trunk turned over on it's end holds my stereo and woofer thing. The woodsy box holds two speakers stacked one on top of the other.
This is a little greenhouse I have out back. The wood I'm using to create a character building out of is from someone's fence on the way to a burn pile. I asked him to drop it off in my driveway instead so he did! This is how far I've gotten so far. The gate is from the dump that will hold up trailing flowers one day. (I asked if I could take it from a guy hucking it onto the pile. I have no shame) The small old window is from a friend that he took off an old barn himself, and the bigger window is from a thrift.
The door is made out of the same wood but turned on the other side so you see more greys. Also because on the right side there were vines STUCK to the wood I couldn't remove. It's freaky lookin' inside. Whatever. The door turned out cool...
Canning jar lid wreath for $1 from a garage sale. Yeah, it was already made up like that. All I did was pay the $1 and hang it up.
Metal stuff is cool in a garden. The square one is from a thrift. The can is what I found buried way back in a shed when I bought my place.
This adorable little birdhouse came with a post and was going to be burned. It was buried under all that fence wood that was delivered. I squealed when I saw it!
Oh my gosh. I feel like I should join a Junkaholics Anonymous group or something.
All the progress of these projects are on this blog so feel free to snoop around to spot more info on them.
I'm rather pleased at how I'm supporting the local thrifts which is always a good thing. Decorating on a budget has forced me to be ultra creative with used finds. And honestly, I go into Homesense now and walk right out thinking I can make that. Regular retail is such a thing of the past.
Simply buying isn't fun anymore. But buying to create most certainly is!
With a bunch of $1.99 hardback books stacked on it: 
With the covers taken off of course, and they have to have titles I love. 
Gorg! It's actually an antique, if you can believe it! I had a marking underneath that I researched (I'm too lazy to get my butt off the couch to look now) and it is really old. 
Here's a few before and afters I've done in the past few months. I was looking for a little tray for the cat food and water, for, like EVER. I mean, I'm not paying $20 for a tray the cats eat off of. I mean, I love them and all, but really? This bed tray was $4 and falling apart: 
Don't ask about the water fountain. Please. Just don't ask.
I love it! This little beauty was $2.99 and was OK in white:
But it needed some cleaning and I'm a black paint kind of girl anyway:
It still had a Crate and Barrel price tag on the bottom for $20ish. 
Our dining room cabinet has collected quite a few, although I haven't figured out what I'm doing with them yet:
Remember the 
That gorg tall carafe is fantastic and was $4! 
My little 
I am loving our local consignment shop too -- I've made more than $200 by selling old stuff there over the past year. I find great little treasures there as well (that have completely blown the $200 I made. Huh.) My 
Sooooo...what have you transformed? Made your own? Made work for you? Do you need a mask and gloves or do you lurve Goodwill?
