Have been holding off posting this until the bench was finished.
This is the before of the candle holder screen I picked up for $2.
A little bit of spray paint, seven glass votive holders and tea candles….this is the after.
This is the before of the headboard and foot board.
Here is the after.
My husband and I stumbled onto a fantastic “yard” sale. It was actually in the parking lot of a liquor store. Our town doesn’t allow liquor sales on Sunday, so the owners of the store waited until Sunday for their yard sale. They had two large storage units they were emptying, so the trucks just kept coming. We went back several times, and there was always something new. A large part of their success was their extremely low 
prices.
I restyle junk to resell, so this was heaven for me. Many of the things I purchased I wouldn’t exactly call junk finds. They were fine as is, but I will still add my special touch to them.
One of the items I purchased isn’t in the pictures. It was an above-stove microwave. Ours kicked the bucket about two years ago. This particular appliance is kind of pricey, so it wasn’t in our budget to replace right away. The microwave I found at the sale was $15. That isn’t a typo. It was $15! SOLD!!! WooHoo!!
Check out the pink shelf. It also has a hanger on the bottom for a quilt. Adorable! $2
This wire angel was $1. It stands about three feet tall.
This iron candle holder was $2. This one will require effortless transformation. I plan to paint it a shabby chic white and add glass tea light holders.
My husband and I make benches from headboards and foot boards. This set was $2. I know, right? I absolutely could not pass them up.
The metal reindeer and sleigh will also require minimal transformation. I’m thinking shabby chic white (yes, I love that style), a pine wreath around the deer’s neck and a wreath on the sleigh. I will probably top them off with bows. Too cute!
These urns/pots/vases are as beautiful in person as they are in photos. They were 50-75 cents a piece. The metal is very heavy. I love the colors of them. I am not sure what I will do with them as a transformation. They are perfect already.
This $2 cabinet and $1 shelf may be difficult to part with. I want them. Hmmm…we’ll see.
I bought this box to use with a special order for a bride-to-be. The bride had given me a smaller paper mache box to make a card box. I have been waffling on how I wanted to do it. My sticking point was the box she gave me just didn’t seem big enough to insert several cards. There didn’t seem to be enough angle and drop. I am going to make the card box two-tiered with a hole between the tiers, so the cards will drop into the larger bottom box. I love it when I can marry my finds with projects in progress!
This angel is so cute. ($1) It’s a wire similar to chicken wire. I love it, but it practically disappeared in the photo.
This bench is about three feet long. Just needs the screws tightened. It was $3.
Yes, I am an obsessed junking junky. I have local freecycle posts delivered to my email, but I had never taken advantage of the free offers until last week. The posting that changed it all was for a free “surger”. Yep, that’s how they spelled it. I have always wanted a serger. I have a mini Singer serger, but it really doesn’t cut it. It works like, and gives the same results you would expect of a toy.
After an email to the owner clarifying it was indeed a sewing “serger”, I said I wanted it. We set up a time to meet and she gave me the address.
The house belonged to the lady’s father-in-law. He had been in a nursing home for several years and the house had been closed and uncared for…WITH ALL THE STUFF STILL IN IT! They were going through things they wanted to keep, giving stuff away and trashing what was left. Their ultimate goal was to get the house ready to be sold at auction.
I’m not a wimp when it comes to my junking adventures, but I have to admit that I had a few pausing moments. But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.
She showed me the serger. I was very excited…until I noticed there was no foot pedal or power cord. This started the hunt for these necessary items. The woman and I dug through boxes, under furniture, and inside closets and drawers. Everywhere I stuck my hand had mouse poop, shredded something, or both. Eewww! The house had no electricity. It was dark, dirty and hot. The dark only made sticking my hands into the shadows even more of an adventure.
We never found the pedal or cord, but I took the serger anyway. I’ll give it a few months. If I can’t find a match, I can find the trash as easily as she could have. So, this could have been considered a bust, but I did manage to find a few other junking treasures. I brought home two headboards, a box of thread and a few other crafting odds and ends. The headboards will be used to make benches. I also snagged a tripod for my son’s camera.
All in all, I figure the junking adventure was a success. I may not have gotten what I intended, but in actually going, I did score some great things.
Note to self: Keep wet wipes and hand sanitizer in the car at all times. (shiver)
Other moms get flowers from their kids. I get junk. Gotta love ’em!
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. My son came home the other night with a “gift”. His friend helps his grandfather clean up and maintain several of his rental houses. This is what they found in one of the newly vacated ones.
The set was filthy (there was even mystery chunks on it). It was missing a leg on the table and one chair had two legs that looked like a dog had gotten a hold of them). And I swear it had fleas (the table set, not a dog).
The wheels in my head started turning. My dutiful husband cleaned it for me, and (believe it or not) he even found two table legs at a yard sale for 50 cents. He cut one leg to fit the table and used the other leg to replace the two legs on the chair.
I immediately got to work. I sanded the surface of the pieces first. I really needed a good tooth to the surface so that the purple and the pretty fairies could be covered up with paint. I painted all the pieces using a light grey paint. This worked well as a primer and as a first coat for the legs and bottoms (underneath).
Once dry, I painted a buttery yellow to the tabletop, seat tops and chair backs.
It looked better, but it needed style. I have a stash of old children’s books that I like to use for crafts. I cut out some images and applied them with Mod Podge.
The last touch was a pearl finish over all surfaces. I thinned Folk Art Metallic Pearl White paint half and half with water. I could have used it full strength, but I just wanted a light mist of pearl over the finish.
Do ya wanna join me for a tea party?
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