q is for quandie

a handful of finds.

Published on May 19, 2026May 17, 2026 by Quandie9 Comments

I feel a bit guilty that I have been slacking a bit with the blog posts.

But I have been busy, busy, busy.

Between getting the garden up and running, hitting the garage sales, and trying to keep up with my exercise routine (you have to make it a priority or it just doesn’t happen), I haven’t had much time for painting stuff.

But not to worry, I have a fun painting project to share later this week.

In the meantime I thought I’d share some of my garage sale finds from the last couple of weeks. I admit that I haven’t brought home huge hauls, but I definitely have found some really great vintage items starting with this set of travel books.

Wouldn’t they make a great gift for someone who loves travel? Even if they aren’t going to read them … because let’s face it, most of us wouldn’t actually read them … they would look fantastic on a mantel or bookshelf. Plus Google says the books by H.V. Morton “are celebrated for their charming, observational style”, so they might just be worth a read too.

The camera is a garage sale find as well, in fact I purchased three of them at one sale (only two made it into my photo).

I already have an example of each of them in my own non-collection (because I’m in denial about collecting anything!), so all three will make their way into my upcoming occasional sale.

I also brought home this fun darkroom beaker.

As you can see, it has measurements printed on it. It also has a big Kodak logo on it.

Apparently these were used in darkrooms to measure the developing chemicals. You know, from the olden days when people actually got photos developed.

I also brought home a pair of McCoy vases, and a pair of green floral frogs.

Well, only one of the vases has the McCoy mark on the bottom so the 2nd one may not be an authentic McCoy. That doesn’t really matter to me, and these two are destined for my own non-collection of matte white mid-century pottery. Yep, another thing I’m in denial about collecting.

Another fun find were these wrought iron garden edgers.

I just love the old fashioned appeal of these. I have a couple of them myself that I use in my herb planter.

I also purchased a couple of buckets, and have since added some stencils to them.

A couple of them got a simple French Market stencil.

And another one got a laundry themed stencil.

Once the stencil paint was dry, I added a couple of coats of Rust-Oleum matte spray sealer to protect them.

I’m sure no one wants to use these old heavy buckets for actual cleaning anymore, but I find they make great trash cans. I use bucket trash cans at my desk, in my bathroom, in Mr. Q’s study and the bedroom.

But a couple of the buckets have already had drainage holes drilled in the bottom, so that also makes them perfect as planters … and I have a couple of those at my house too.

All of these buckets are going into the inventory for my upcoming occasional sale, as are many of this items in this post.

When I picked up this enamelware coffee pot at one of the garage sales, it was unadorned of course. I thought it would be fun to add one of the I.O.D. transfers from their Home Sweet Home set.

It was the perfect fit.

While I had that set of transfers out, I also added one to this crock.

The crock itself and the vintage cookbooks were also garage sale finds from last week.

I always grab ironstone when I see it at a good price, and that was certainly true of this next pitcher.

Now and then I find them in this style, and I did hang onto one of them for myself in the past, but I’ve always sold off any others that I find. But now I’m starting to wish I’d kept them all! I find that this style appeals to me more now.

Hmmmm. Do I keep this one, or sell it? Decisions, decisions.

That brings me to my find of the day!

Eureka! A whole box of vintage ornaments!

It has been a while since I’ve found a good stash of ornaments. And some of these are really quite unique like this red one with children and their toys on it …

You just gotta love that little boy on his pogo stick.

A few of them are missing their caps, but I happen to have a stash of extras so hopefully I can match them up with ones that fit.

I did bring home a few other things, like some old metal buckets and another small wheeling stool. I’ll be sure to share those as I get them painted up, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, let me know which of my finds is your favorite.

planting plugs.

Published on May 17, 2026May 15, 2026 by Quandie4 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

It has been awhile since I’ve sent out a Sunday morning in the garden post. In fact, the last one was on December 14 of last year!

Things are definitely looking a bit different now.

Once again, I am out in the garden. I’ve been super busy getting things cleaned up, mulched and weeded. I’ve also been shopping for plants!

I know I’ve said it here before, but just as a reminder to my local readers, Country Sun Farm in Lake Elmo has far and away the best annuals around.

I’ve been to nearly every garden center in my area over the last week or so, and they outshine all of them.

And no, this is not a sponsored post in any way.

As for prices, at $6.99 for a 4.5″ pot they are no more expensive than the same size from Fleet Farm or Bachman’s.

They do only sell annuals, no perennials, and they get picked over fast. I purchased a couple of gorgeous caladium on my first visit, and then the rest were already gone when I went back a few days later.

I also visited Dragonfly Gardens in Amery, Wisconsin last week. It’s a garden center that focuses on native plants. I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of native plants. I know they are good for wildlife, low maintenance once established and are less prone to pests. But honestly, not too many of them appeal to me.

However, what I discovered last week is that Dragonfly also sells plugs.

If you aren’t familiar, plugs are young plants cultivated in individual cells, typically in seed trays, that are ready for transplanting into larger containers or directly into the soil. They are much more cost effective than perennials that are already potted up. For example, a one gallon perennial at Dragonfly is $14.99 and a plug is only $7.99. So that’s almost a 50% savings.

If you are planning to plant some perennials en masse … or even just in a grouping of 3 or 5, this is a much more affordable way to do that.

You might be thinking that planting something this tiny must mean that it takes forever for them to turn into a full sized plant, but from everything I’ve read online, theoretically they catch up in just one growing season.

I’ve never planted plugs before, mainly because I’ve never seen them sold in a garden center. I know you can order them online, but it just never has occurred to me to do that. So I’ve decided to give it a go. I purchased three Candytuft plugs and three Brunnera plugs.

At Dragonfly, you simply pop the plug into a small paper sack to take it away. Just keep in mind that you have to plant them fairly quickly … or otherwise keep them from drying out until you can. I planted mine right away the next day.

Another big benefit to planting plugs is that it’s easier to get them in the ground. You just need a small hole. That works especially well if you’re planting around tree roots, or, as in my case, you don’t want to disturb too many of your scilla bulbs.

Another reason to purchase plugs is if you don’t have the space or the inclination to start things from seed yourself. You can purchase all kinds of annuals as plugs too, including many vegetable plants.

I plan to update you all near the end of the growing season to let you know how the plugs worked out for me. So be sure to stay tuned!

In the meantime, have you ever planted plugs? Leave a comment and let me know.

the one that almost got away.

Published on May 12, 2026May 8, 2026 by Quandie13 Comments

Remember that adorable little dresser I picked up at a garage sale recently?

I’m going to call it the one that almost got away, because that other shopper almost snatched it up ahead of me.

Luckily it wasn’t the right color for her.

It wasn’t the right color for me either, but I’ve fixed that.

I started by taking off the little porcelain knobs and starting to give it a quick scuff sanding. However, at that point I realized that the existing paint was not properly adhered to the surface (hence all of those scratches and dings you can see in the ‘before’ photo). As I started sanding, the paint just flaked right off. So I had to sand it down completely.

Then I realized I should probably begin with a coat of Bonding Boss, just in case the bare wood wanted to bleed through my new paint. But also to make sure my new paint would adhere better than whatever that blue paint was.

I let the Bonding Boss dry overnight. My usual strategy is to quickly get a coat of Bonding Boss on something before bed knowing that I want to finish painting it the next day.

The next day, I painted the dresser inside and out with two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth. Once dry, I applied a design from I.O.D.’s Gloria paint inlay (for more on how to apply a paint inlay, check out this post).

I should mention that this was technically a “Christmas” themed paint inlay, and perhaps if I could actually read it (I think it’s in French) that would make sense to me. I’m guessing that it’s some sort of public notice, but how it relates to the holiday I do not know.

Regardless, it was the perfect size for the front of this little dresser.

Once the inlay was applied and fully dry, I gave it a quick spray with some Rust-Oleum matte spray sealer. Then I applied Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat over the entire piece.

Your q tip for today; it’s best to seal a paint inlay with a spray sealer first to avoid smearing it all over the place. I’ve ruined more than one by forgetting this step. I have seen others who say you can delicately brush a clear coat over them, but that never works out well for me. Maybe I’m just not all that good at being delicate 😉

Once the clear coat was dry, I lined the drawers with some of my October Afternoon scrapbook paper in a simple grey and white pin stripe.

The final step was to deal with the screws that hold the knobs on. They were just about a millimeter too long, which meant that the pointy ends of them were exposed on the inside of the drawer. And that won’t do.

So I consulted with my handyman Ken and he suggested just grinding down the ends a bit which worked perfectly. There’s no longer a sharp screw end waiting to snag anything you put in the drawers.

With that, I’m calling this one done.

What do you think? Do you like the simple white and grey color scheme, or do you prefer something more colorful and floral? If so, not to worry, you’ll see plenty of that coming up soon too!

Is $10 the new $5?

Published on May 7, 2026May 6, 2026 by Quandie10 Comments

It’s here! Garage sale season has kicked off in the Twin Cities!

Although there are a few garage sales here and there to be found in Minnesota in April, things don’t really start in earnest until the first weekend in May. Then we are spoiled for choice. There were no fewer than 38 neighborhood sales to choose from last weekend.

I have to admit, I’m not as ambitious as I once was. I used to do a three day marathon of garage sales, starting on Thursday and going through Saturday. But these days I run out of steam after Thursday and Friday.

My friend opK and I stuck close to home on Thursday with the North St. Paul city-wide sales, and then on Friday we headed to one of our favorite neighborhoods, Tangletown.

I found a few fun items to bring home with me.

I found a couple of very reasonably priced metal toolboxes, well, technically one is a tackle box.

The toolbox is quite rusty and in need of some work.

But at only $2, I couldn’t pass it up.

The trio of frames was also a good bargain.

The white with gold highlights feels a little dated to me, but I think I can do something fun with these.

I found a lovely set of green books.

That’s only five of them, but there are 9 altogether.

One thing we noticed while shopping was that prices seem to have gone up once again. Last year opK and I joked about how $5 seemed to be the go-to price at garage sales since Covid. We used to find lots of things priced lower than $5, but over the last several years it seemed like everyone just put $5 (or more) on everything. Maybe because anything less than $5 just isn’t worth bothering with?

But now it seems that $10 is the new $5. We picked up so many things that were priced at $10, it was almost comical. We’ll have to wait and see if that trend continues over the summer.

I did bring home some furniture, a pair of metal chairs with a mid-mod vibe and this cupboard.

I’m guessing it was originally intended for storing sheet music.

But with my handyman Ken’s help, I’m going to remove some of the shelves to make it a little more functional. It also needs its joints reglued in general, and a couple of other repairs. Of course, I also plan to give it a whole new look on the outside, so be sure to stay tuned for that.

I’m giving ‘Find of the Day’ status to this cute little dresser.

You know when you walk into a garage sale and some other shopper is holding up an item, trying to decide whether or not to buy it? And you are just hoping they put it back down so you can buy it? That was the case here. I held my breath waiting for another woman to put this back down on the table, and she did! As I snatched it up she said “that is really cute, but not the right color for me”.

Well … it’s not the right color for me either, but you know I can fix that!

So be sure to stay tuned to see what I end up doing with it.

back home once again.

Published on May 5, 2026May 4, 2026 by Quandie2 Comments

I’m back from a lovely 10 days spent at my mom’s place just outside Las Vegas.

The weather was nearly perfect with temps in the 70’s to low 80’s, along with brilliant sunshine every. single. day. Do the locals ever get tired of that unrelenting sun? You gotta wonder. Personally I appreciate the occasional rainy day for some contrast.

However, I loved being able to enjoy my coffee on the patio every morning while listening to the birds singing. Unfortunately here in Minnesota we’re still having morning temps in the 30’s and 40’s, which is just a bit too brisk for coffee on the deck.

I also really enjoyed the walking trail near my mom’s house. While most of the trail isn’t very green, there are some nice mountains off in the distance (and if you were to turn around and face the other direction you might catch some glimpses of the Vegas strip off in the distance).

But then there is my favorite section of the trail which someone has nicknamed Trail Heaven.

It has some lovely dappled shade.

I did do some painting while at my mom’s, the door into her garage was well overdue for a touch up. I purchased some Sherwin Williams “door and trim” paint from Lowes, and as I started using it I quickly realized how much nicer it is to work with Dixie Belle paint. The Sherwin Williams paint was rather thick, and if you brushed back over it at all it would drag back off. I ended up having to let the first coat dry, then had to sand it down again and start over. What a mess.

In hindsight, I wish I had brought some Dixie Belle paint with me like I did when I painted her front door.

I painted that in Dixie Belle’s Midnight Green Silk Paint back in March 2022 and it still looks great.

I also did some gardening … of a sort. I raked the matted pine needles out of the rock bed that runs alongside the sidewalk next to the fence.

I pulled out five grocery bags of pine needles!

But I’m back home now, and first of all I want to thank all of you who left comments on my re-run posts while I was gone. My mom doesn’t have wi-fi, and I’m practically incapable of typing comment responses on my teeny tiny phone. But I did read all of your comments, so thank you so much if you left one.

Now, onward. It’s starting to feel like spring in Minnesota. The muscari is blooming …

as is the white bleeding heart …

and the brunnera.

But as is always the case, I did suffer some losses over the winter. It looks like my favorite lungwort is not coming back this year. Here it was in 2023 …

But it was significantly diminished in size last summer, and now I don’t see any sign of it coming up at all. Bummer. Looks like I’m gonna need to do some plant shopping 😉

That being said, I didn’t suffer nearly as much damage this year as I did last year when the the frost line was deeper than any year since 2019. Thank goodness.

I always find it difficult to imagine that the garden that looks like this right now …

is going to look like this in just a few weeks.

I’m feeling very impatient and ready for it to warm up a bit more, and for things to grow!

I also have some fun makeover projects underway and hope to be sharing some of those with you soon, so be sure to stay tuned!

my favorite furniture makeovers.

Published on April 24, 2026April 17, 2026 by Quandie6 Comments

Today I’m wrapping up my week of furniture re-runs by sharing my top five favorite furniture makeovers featuring transfers or paint inlays.

I have to admit, while I do think the simple paint job makeovers can be lovely and the mid mod makeovers are super easy and fun, the pieces with transfers or paint inlays are my personal favorites. In fact, I really struggled to pick just five for this post.

The only problem is that these sort of makeovers are more expensive to do because the transfers and inlays are not cheap. Secondly, they also take a bit more time. And in my experience they take longer to sell, I suppose because they are possibly a bit more of a niche market. So I don’t do many of them these days.

No. 5 on today’s list is the Summer Villa dresser from March 2023.

If you head over the my original post about this piece, I explained that when I picked up the dresser it had a bit more damage on the front legs than what was shown in the seller’s photo on Craigslist, but I bought it anyway. Ken helped me make some alterations that helped disguise those issues including adding some air dry clay molds.

I followed that up with painting the entire thing using Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy.

Then I applied I.O.D.’s Summer Villa paint inlay.

I swapped out the original wooden knobs for some clear glass ones that would sort of disappear over the inlay.

Isn’t it just stunning? I have to admit that this one was hard to let go of.

No. 4 is the Queen’s Glory Bench from November 2020.

This was one of several benches that my handyman/neighbor Ken built for me using old bed frames.

I initially painted this one in a pale blue color, but it didn’t sell so I gave it a new look using Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth. I followed that up with re.design with prima’s Parisian Letter transfer.

It really was so much better this way.

It is definitely one of my favorite pieces!

No. 3 is the Restored Armoire from January 2011.

As the name implies, I purchased this piece at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

Handyman Ken did quite a lot of work on this piece too, which seems to be a running theme in this post. He did a bunch of repairs, but also added some shelves to the right hand side of the interior to make it more functional.

Once he was done, I painted the interior in Dixie Belle’s Apricot.

I also added some of the Wondrous Floral II transfer from re.design with prima.

I painted the outside in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth and then added one of my all time favorite transfers from Prima called Seeds.

I have literally lost track of how many times I have used this transfer, both in the large size (which is on this piece), the small size, and even the white version. Here is it on a dresser …

and another dresser …

and here it is on a pair of beds.

Gosh that was a good one, unfortunately it was retired years ago and is very hard to come by now. It sure was perfect on the ReStored armoire.

No. 2 is the St. Paul Hotel Bed and was a Facebook Marketplace find from January 2021.

Isn’t it fabulous! Such a unique shape, and I love the curved footboard.

This one is also painted in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, and then I added IOD’s Le Petit Rosier transfer.

Are you starting to sense a theme here with transfers over Drop Cloth? It’s just such a fantastic combination.

And this Petit Rosier transfer is another of my all time favorites. It also came in both a large and small size and I have used both multiple times. Here it is on a dresser for instance …

Sadly, it too is retired and hard to come by now.

I decided to save one of the few pieces that I’ve kept for myself as No. 1 and it goes way, way back to March 2017. I’m talking about the Specimens de la Decoration cupboard.

Here is where it started out …

I’d purchased a pair of these primitive cupboards a few years prior to this and I was just using this one as a display piece for my carriage house sales.

But when I heard about these new things called decor transfers that were large scale rub-on transfers that were meant for use on furniture, I decided to use this piece as a guinea pig to try one on.

But first I needed to repaint the cabinet, so after giving it a base coat of Rachel Ashwell’s Clear Primer (yes, back when she branched out into paint, which was very short lived) I gave it three coats of Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Linen.

Then I applied my first ever furniture transfer …

and I was hooked!

The rest, as they say, is history.

I’ve since added some casters to the bottom of this cupboard, and it still sits in the same spot in my piano room and I still absolutely love it!

An honorable mention goes to my Gregory’s Catalogue sign.

I mean, technically it is a piece of furniture. It just hangs on the wall and has stuff planted in it.

I also feel like there should be another entire segment to this trio of furniture re-run posts, one where I share some of the more colorful transfers I’ve used on furniture. Like this one …

or this one …

But I’m actually writing these posts on the day before leaving for my mom’s house, and I’ve run out of time. I still have to pack! So I’d better get going.

Be sure to leave a comment and let me know what your favorite furniture transfer is!

mid mod masterpieces.

Published on April 22, 2026April 17, 2026 by Quandie5 Comments

As promised, today I’m sharing my top five mid mod masterpieces.

OK, maybe masterpiece is a bit of an exaggeration! And maybe mid mod is too, now that I think about it. I’m not precisely sure what decades all five of these pieces date back to, but somewhere in the middle of the last century I think.

Let’s take a look and then you can tell me what you think.

No. 5 is the Millennial Pink dresser from May 2018.

Do you remember the Millennial Pink phase? It seemed like everyone was talking about this color at the time. Although in this case, I used Fusion’s English Rose, which I renamed Millennial Pink.

It was the perfect shade of pink for this mid mod dresser.

I gave the drawer pulls a refresh using Prima Marketing Metallique wax in Vintage Gold.

I absolutely love that combo of pink and gold.

No. 4 is this pair of Scandinavian style end tables that I got from my neighbor nnK’s parents in July 2022.

They had a bit of damage on their tops, but the rest of the wood veneer was in good shape, so I opted to just paint the boxes around the drawers using Dixie Belle’s Anchor.

Then I simply spruced up the rest of the veneer with Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta.

No. 3 is this literal trash to treasure dresser from August 2019.

Mr. Q and I picked this up off the side of the road, and it was in fairly rough shape. But after some repairs by Ken the handyman and a little of Dixie Belle’s Bunker Hill Blue I thought it looked quite nice.

This time around I used RustOleum Mirror Finish gold spray paint on the hardware.

No. 2 is the Permanized Duo from August 2018.

Honestly, these were nothing to look at in their ‘before’ state, am I right?

But just look how great they looked painted.

They were both painted in Fusion’s Ash, and inside the little book cubbies on the headboard I used Fusion’s Mustard.

Once again I spruced up the existing hardware, this time with Prima Marketing’s Art Alchemy Metallique wax in Bronze Age.

That was such a fun makeover.

There was a third piece to this set of furniture, and that brings me to my No. 1 mid mod masterpiece … which isn’t really just one piece of furniture but rather many pieces that I painted using the same color … Fusion’s Park Bench.

I used this color on the third piece from the permanized set …

and I also used it when I took another mid mod credenza from this …

to this …

and another from this …

to this …

and yet even another from this …

to this …

This color didn’t just work on the low credenza style of dresser, but also on taller ones like this one from May 2019 …

and this one from January 2018.

I couldn’t pick just one of these Park Bench green pieces to share as my No. 1 mid mod masterpiece, could I?

I have to give an honorable mention to one of the first mid mod furniture sets that I painted, the Vintage Moxie set.

I painted this one way back in 2014 when my blog was just a baby.

The minty color was from Sherwin Williams and was called Aloe, and I didn’t even keep track of what shade of white I used. I was definitely a pretty combo though.

Now it’s your turn, which one of the pieces in this post are your favorite? Leave a comment and let me know!

on second thought.

Published on April 20, 2026April 17, 2026 by Quandie8 Comments

OK, I know I said I wasn’t going to schedule any blog posts while I’m off visiting my mom this week, but then … well, I thought, how about some re-runs?

I was paging through my old furniture makeover posts a few days ago looking for a specific technique to share with someone and I was reminded of some of my favorite pieces, so I thought it would be fun to share some of them with you this week.

I’m going to break them down into three categories: simple paint makeovers, makeovers using transfers, and mid-mod masterpieces.

Today let’s start with the simple paint makeovers.

I think of these pieces as having the best ability to fit into an already existing space. They might still steal the show, but in a subtle way. All of them were achieved with just some paint and some elbow grease. So here we go.

No. 5 is the black bed from August 2018.

Here is the before …

To be honest, looking back at it now I remember that it was quite beautiful even in its ‘before’ state. However, it did require a few repairs, and it also had some missing trim pieces. The finish was rather worn too, but it certainly could have been sanded down and refinished.

But that’s not my thing. I have never been a fan of stripping furniture. So instead I gave it a simple paint job using Dixie Belle’s Caviar.

I distressed the paint job just slightly to make the details really pop.

I finished it off with some of Fusion’s Black Wax.

No. 4 is the Romantic Prairie Washstand from July 2019.

Here is where this one started out …

Your basic primitive-ish washstand.

I stripped the top (I know, I just said I wasn’t a fan of stripping furniture, but I am OK with stripping the occasional flat top), and then painted the body with Sweet Pickins In a Pickle milk paint.

The milk paint did what milk paint does best. It chipped and crackled and ended up looking perfectly aged.

I finished this one off with Fusion’s clear wax.

No. 3 is the Soldier Blue dresser from July 2021.

I loved the details on this piece, but those white knobs were not doing it any favors.

After sending this one over to my neighbor Ken’s workshop for some much needed repairs, I once again stripped the top. Then I painted the body in Homestead House milk paint in a color called Soldier Blue.

This is another of my favorite vibrant milk paint colors.

I replaced those white porcelain knobs with some round wooden knobs that I painted to match.

This piece was finished off with some of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta, which I consider to be the perfect blend of the qualities of wax and hemp oil. It works beautifully over milk paint.

No. 2 is the Bunker Hill Blue Buffet from June 2018.

OK, in my opinion this piece was quite hideous in its ‘before’ state. Something about that sort of ombre stain job just hits wrong for me.

This piece was actually a freebie, but we had to risk life and limb picking it up in the middle of January and carrying it up an icy hill to get it to the van.

Once again, this piece needed some repairs from handyman Ken before I could get around to painting it. I also, once again, stripped the top and painted the body.

This time around I used Dixie Belle’s Bunker Hill Blue. If you’re familiar with Dixie Belle colors, you’re probably thinking ‘wait a minute, Bunker Hill is a bit brighter than that. In fact, if you aren’t a fan of using milk paint, Bunker Hill Blue is a good chalk paint substitute for the Soldier Blue milk paint. But this time around I toned the brightness down with some of Dixie Belle’s Black Glaze.

I also swapped out the knobs for something a little more subtle than the originals.

I added a fun pop of color to the inside of this one with Fusion Mineral Paint in Coral.

No. 1 is the French Wheat Hutch from September 2016.

This was a gorgeous piece of furniture.

But back in 2016 this orange-ish wood stain was definitely not in style. Everything was getting painted back then.

I ended up mixing two different brands of paint together for this piece (because I didn’t have enough of either one to paint the entire thing), Annie Sloan’s French Linen and Cece Caldwell’s Young Kansas Wheat. Of course I called my new color French Wheat. Also, FYI, both of these are chalk style paints and it was fine to mix them even though they are two different brands.

Back in 2016 I was still holding my occasional sales (I quit after this sale in 2016, and then resumed them again in 2024). Anyway, I had already moved the hutch into the carriage house to prep for the sale before taking any ‘after’ photos, so the lighting was pretty poor for photos. I wish I had taken more time to get better photos of this piece because it definitely was one of my favorites.

Instead of the chicken wire inserts that came with the hutch, I added some grain sack style cloth to line those two upper doors.

I just loved all of the details on this piece, those curved sides and that pretty detail at the top.

I hope those of you who have been following me since way back have enjoyed seeing these pieces again, and likewise, I hope some of my newer readers who are being introduced to them for the first time have found this post interesting.

If you have a moment, be sure to leave me a comment and let me know which of these five are your favorite. Or, maybe head over to my ‘fab furniture (before & after)‘ tab and pick out a favorite that I didn’t share here today.

Then come back on Wednesday to see my top 5 mid mod masterpieces!

thrifting in the wild.

Published on April 14, 2026April 13, 2026 by Quandie17 Comments

My friend opK and I headed into the wilds of Wisconsin for some thrifting last week. Well, OK, we were just over in New Richmond, but to me it feels a bit like another world over there.

Anyway, as seems to be the trend lately, it was nearly a complete bust.

We went into one shop where the prices were ridiculously high. The first thing I picked up was a silver salt & pepper set. I was considering adding it to my very small non-collection …

But when I saw the price tag of $85 (yes! you read that right), I put it right back down.

I will admit, I didn’t look closely enough to determine if they were sterling or just silver plate, but even if they were sterling that seemed like an awfully high price for a thrift store. They must be doing their pricing research on Chairish or eBay.

Also, I should note that I personally don’t care whether they are sterling or not even though I know it impacts the value.

I’ve chosen the ones that I have based on how pretty they are and I usually pick them up for less than $10.

We did eventually end up at River Revival Thrift in Star Prairie, and I found a couple of goodies.

Namely an ironstone sugar bowl that is missing its lid, and a vintage book.

I like the sugar bowl as an option for holding things like a handful of old paintbrushes …

but it would also work well for pens, scissors or silverware.

I picked up the vintage book because I thought the title, The Black Cat, would be perfect for Halloween. I love the idea of giving a subtle nod to holiday decorating without being overt and this book paired with some apothecary style bottles works for me.

The only other thing I picked up that day was this pile of books.

River Revival Thrift charges .99 for hardcover books, compared to my local Goodwill where they are $2.49 each. So I grabbed a few to paint up.

I painted the first three books in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth. To do this I simply open the books and place them face down on my worktable (a.k.a. my piano) and paint the covers with a brush. I sometimes can get away with just two coats, but painting the Drop Cloth over a book that is black (or in this case one was yellow) takes three coats.

I don’t do any prep at all, well, unless you count removing the paper dust jackets if they have one. I guess I should mention that just in case anyone is confused.

I also think that a chalk style paint like the Dixie Belle chalk mineral paint is best for this.

Next I added some typography using the I.O.D. Ephemeral Type stamps with VersaFine Clair in in Morning Mist which is a medium grey. I gave the ink a little time to set up, about as long as it took me to do the breakfast dishes.

I followed that up with a gorgeous floral from the I.O.D. Madeleine transfer.

After applying some of Dixie Belle’s clear wax to protect the paint and transfer, I gathered the books together with a pretty purple velvet ribbon.

I then decided to go with black on the 2nd set of three books, so they each got two coats of Dixie Belle’s Caviar.

They also got one of the bouquets from the Madeleine transfer, but rather than stamping them I added some gold text from the I.O.D. Étiquettes gilded transfer.

After adding a coat of wax and another velvet ribbon, this set was ready to go too.

I will likely take these into the shop, but probably not until I return from my next trip to visit my mom which is coming up this week. This time around my sister is joining me. To be honest, we don’t have much planned other than visiting with mom and enjoying the Las Vegas sunshine. Hopefully we can get in a little hiking either around Lake Mead or possibly at Red Rock Canyon.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to come up with any blog posts to schedule in advance, so you won’t be hearing from me for the next two weeks. However, I’ll be returning home to garage sale season and gardening season, plus lots of prep for another Carriage House Sale that I’m planning for June 4 and 5. So be sure to stay tuned!