Thrifty Find: More Cabinets

Sometimes I wish I had a larger home or at least more storage space in my house. On my weekly trip to the thrift store I ran across these beauties. I'm not sure what's gotten in to the Habitat Restore but lately they have been jam packed with some beautiful, high quality solidly built furniture. A lot of them show very little wear and tear. 

I first spotted this dresser. I am not crazy about some of the embellishments but it is still quite lovely. I could paint it a color like red or navy or even your basic white or black. I'd either remove the stars or leave them gold. The lines are great but the best thing was that it was solidly built. Oh and the price was only $10. 

I also spotted two small chests. They were about 30" wide and 36" tall. I'm sure they were once a part of a bedroom wall unit that was dismantled and for sure they are not in good shape. A little sanding, a good coat of paint and new hardware and these would make outstanding nightstands. By the way, they were only $1.00. Seriously. I may have to rethink not taking them and see if they are still available. Buy them, paint them and sell them. It would surely be worth the effort and money.

My favorite find of all is this mid century modern cabinet. OMG. I fell in love with this piece the moment I saw it. It is solid wood, has clean lines and is in near perfect condition. It's about 5 ft wide and would make a perfect TV cabinet. I still have the same problem in that I have no where to put it. I may have to find a spot for it though because one should not pass up a deal like this. Oh did I mention that it's only $10 too. I'm thinking of going back to see if it is still there. With my luck it and the nightstands are probably gone. 

Man I wish I had a big house.

Cheers,

Barbara

Thrifty Find - Garden Stones

I ran into my sister's in law sister at Home Depot some time ago. We got to chatting about yard work and such and she mentioned that she had these "things" in her yard that were really heavy, flat and kind of round but she thought they were ugly and wanted to get rid of them. I assumed they were garden stones. Whatever they were, they were free so I told her I would be happy to take them off of her hands. That weekend I sent my son over to her house to pick them up and this is what he brought back.

She was right about the ugly part. I have to admit I have never seen anything like them and I'm not sure what to do with them. I'm thinking either a mosaic, or paint them bright colors. I even thought about painting them with glow in the dark paint. I'm planning on doing some landscaping this year and will use them somehow but am not am not sure exactly where. 

I love mosaics so I am thinking about going this route. Using a single tile color for each one that follows the shape of the stepping stone is a thought. It would be easy to do and be a little more fun than just paint. I would love to get some ideas because I am stumped. 

If anyone has an idea of what I can do with them I would love to hear it. Please help.

Cheers!!

Barbara

Thriftstore Finds: Laundry Room Cabinets

Man did I catch a deal. I had been looking for something to replace my laundry room cabinets. I had moved my base cabinet around several times and eventually it fell apart. I first visited the Habitat Restore where you can almost always find good quality used cabinets but often you would have to buy the whole set. I really only needed one replacement base cabinet but would be open to replacing all of them if I found a good enough deal. After several attempts I could not find anything I liked and thought I may just have to pay a little more. 

After not finding what I needed I decided to go to the local Menard's store to get some nice inexpensive cabinets. I  had purchased some previously for my moms house and they turned out pretty nice so I thought this would be a good place to start. I priced them out and to replace all the cabinets would cost about $700. I did not want to pay this much because it is just a laundry room but frankly I was tired of looking. 

After several unsuccessful trips to Habitat and really just being tired of seeing everything I had stored in the broken cabinet sitting on the floor I decided to go ahead and buy the Menard's cabinets. I set out on Saturday afternoon to purchase the cabinets but thought I would take one more stab at Habitat and boy I'm glad I did. 

Habitat was having  a huge sale. All kitchen cabinets were $5 each! Cough cough, choke choke, say what?? I rushed to the back hoping against hope that I would find something, anything close to what I needed and low and behold I found these.

They were at least as good if not better than what I had. I didn't know if they would fit but I had a pretty good idea they would. Frankly even if they didn't I would make them fit. Besides if it was a lost cause I would only be out $5. As soon as I saw them I ripped off the tags and ran up front to pay. OK, I didn't exactly run but I did hurry. I told the cashier I wanted the three cabinets. She rang them up, tagged them SOLD so finally I could relax. Needless to say there were a bunch of people looking at cabinets so I wanted to get mine immediately.  

I still cannot believe I got 3 cabinets for $15.00. That's what you call a steal. My next challenge is to find a counter top. The base cabinet is smaller than what was here before so I will need to find a new one. Hopefully I can get another great deal. Back to Habitat next week.

Cheers!

Barbara

Freshen Up the Kitchen on a Tiny Budget

It's time to freshen up my kitchen. It's not a bad kitchen just kind of ordinary. It's a little scuzzy like most kitchens I imagine so it could use a really good cleaning. I was going to move a couple of years ago and wanted the kitchen to be pretty neutral so I painted the walls this warm gray which honestly I am quite happy with. I don't want to start replacing counter tops and moving walls. It just needs a little pick me up to make it more cheery. 

I have a tendency to get bored with colors after a while and don't want to have to paint my kitchen repeatedly so I am going to leave the walls neutral. I want new curtains, dish towels, accessories, a piece of art or a clock for the only large wall in the room. 

The storage closet still has the original door and it is in good shape but that dark wood has got to go. Since it is a special size it will be cheaper to paint than to buy new so I'll paint it and replace the knob. I think I may replace the paneling on this large wall and possibly replace the ceiling fan.

Also I have to show you this issue. Oh my goodness I am so embarrassed. I've tiled my kitchen twice in my 17 years here and each time this happens because of a sag in the floor. 

We've tried shoring up the floor underneath the house and putting thick plywood down before tiling and it's not working. I finally remembered that when I bought the house the kitchen had sheet vinyl and that was why the floor tile breaking up was not a problem. I don't want to take the chance of this happening again so what I want to do is put vinyl tile down. Vinyl has come such a long way that I think it can be quite beautiful with a lot less trouble. It's an expense I am not ready to have right now so for the time being good old area rugs will do.

I have long term plans for the kitchen as well that I may tackle next year. I'd love new counter tops as this Corian counter gets so dingy and is hard to clean. Also I hate this half sink and would love to have more counter space. My kitchen is too small for an island but I am hoping I can get a peninsula.

They last thing to look at and something I need help with is this kitchen table. It is a solid wood oak table that is one of my favorite thrift store finds but as you can see the color is way wrong. It needs to be updated to match the room which means either paint or stain. 

My other option is to use my moms old table which i absolutely love.

Mom and I use to sit around it looking at all the different shaped stones to see what we could find that resembled something else like a fish or a dog. The top is resin so it's super durable and has lasted for at least 40 years. The only thing it needs is a touch up on the legs which will be simple to do. Other than that it is in perfect shape. I cannot decide whether to keep the stone table or stain the wood one. Either way I am keeping the stone table until I can find another use for it. The wooden table is not so easy to store away so it's use it or lose it. 

So that's the plan. I don't want to spend more than a few hundred dollars so I have to be frugal and shop at home first and then look for some deals. Time to get a move on.

Cheers!.

B.

On general principal I go to the Habitat Restore and the Salvation Army store about once a week. I am always on the look out for great used furniture and often find they are of much better quality than what you find in the stores today. The trouble I have is stopping myself from buying too many pieces because I just don't have the space. 

Having said that I recently found two ivory wing back chairs at the Habitat Restore. I was concerned I might not have the space in my living room but I knew I had to have them. Seldom are you able to find two of anything at a thrift store. Try finding two of the same lamps, nightstands or end tables the next time you go. Whenever I have found two of something I grab them right away because it's rare. There was little sign of wear on these chairs. There was no dirt, no rips and only a few minor scratches on the legs. In fact, for white chairs they looked nearly brand new. I checked the label and they were from Wicks Furniture Showroom which was a good quality furniture store that has since closed.  

These chairs are very comfortable and the tone on tone ivory fabric with a leaf design and dark stained legs make them a perfect choice for any room. The way the fabric was woven gives them a lot of texture and even little shimmer. I've considered using them as end chairs for my dining table but my dining room is really to small. 

I paid $40 a piece and would guess that wing back chairs of this quality brand new would be $200-300 a piece. I am so pleased with my purchase. They are beautiful chairs and I just love them.