Woo hoo, the late summer neighborhood garage sale season has started! My sister and I headed out to one of our favorite St. Paul neighborhoods last Saturday, Macalester-Groveland.
After day long torrential rains on Friday, Saturday morning was at least dry although not exactly sunny. The overcast skies were probably a good thing though because it kept the temperature down and we didn’t have to sweat our way through Mac-Grove.
We were on a mission, and we managed to come home with a full vehicle.
Yep, all of that fit into the back of my sister’s mid-size SUV.
As you can see, once again it was a good day for chairs. I found another library chair that I’ll be painting at some point.
And I’ve been looking for an Eastlake style chair for a while now. I want to attempt the ‘deconstructed’ look, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money in case it’s a dismal failure. This chair was only $15, so if it’s a bust I’m not out too much cash.
I found a pile of galvanized flower buckets at the first sale we stopped at, so I grabbed all of them. These are always fun to paint or to add transfers to.
I’ve already had some fun with the galvanized watering can that you can see in the first photo next to these flower buckets. I removed the green plastic spout, washed the can with soapy water and then added one of the Prima Marketing transfers from their French Pots IV set.
I was curious to find out whether or not the transfers would look good over galvanized metal. As it turns out, the answer is yes. As long as you like a somewhat subtle look.
By the way, those are my Little Lime hydrangeas. They are advertised as a dwarf version of the Limelight hydrangeas. I can report that this bush is about half the size of my Limelights. However, the flowers are much more green and they are starting to turn that pretty pinkish-bronze color while the Limelights are still fairly white.
Here are the Limelights for comparison …
Another purchase from Mac-Grove that I’ve already revamped is this simple chrome stool. It was pretty dirty and had a skanky old vinyl seat.
I started by removing the seat. When I flipped the stool over I found that there were metal tabs that were folded over to hold the seat in place. It’s easy to lift them up and take the seat right off.
Ewwwwww! It was pretty gross under that seat.
And as it turned out, there was an original layer of red vinyl underneath that boring grey vinyl too.
So I ripped off the disgusting vinyl and then cleaned all of the chrome with Brasso. Then I recovered the seat with a layer of fresh cotton batting and the remnant from a feed sack that I had on hand and then just put it back on.
Easy peasy makeover!
I saved the Mac-Grove ‘find of the day’ status for this bed.
It was one of the very last things I purchased, and I was determined to get it in the SUV. My sister’s girl scout packing skills really come in handy at moments like these. And she’s always game to try to fit at least one more thing in the car.
It’s going to be so pretty painted, and I think that foot board is just calling out for a Prima Marketing transfer, don’t you?
q is for quandie 
Oh my. You totally scored! Can’t say which is my favorite, love it all. I know the Eastlake chair will be wonderful, even if I’m not enthusiastic about the deconstructed look. And the metal stool looks like it just was manufactured. Can’t wait to see your transformations and other garage sale hauls.
LikeLike
I hope I find more great stuff at the rest of the sales this season!
LikeLike
Looking forward to all the makeovers.
LikeLike
I’ll be sure to keep you posted.
LikeLike
Great finds! I love the Eastlake chair and would love to see it deconstructed. I am sure that you will make it awesome!
LikeLike
Hopefully I can pull it off, we’ll see 😉
LikeLike
Deb is a champ gotta love a gal with those kind of packing skills. I love the Eastlake chair and that vintage sleigh style bed. Nice stack galvanized buckets as well. Cute cute stool – 👍🏻 redo.
LikeLike
Deb really is a champ! I love having her around to garage sale with!
LikeLike
What a great score! Some wonderful finds. Love it all and can’t wait to see the transformations. The stool looks amazing with your re-do and absolutely am envious of all the galvanized flower buckets.
LikeLike
I love pretty much anything galvanized 🙂
LikeLike
Great haul! Can’t wait to see the Eastlake makeover!
LikeLike
It’s going to be interesting anyway 😉
LikeLike
What a haul ! This year has not been good at all for garage sales in our area!
Our summer was too hot, so maybe that is why. We hope it will be better this fall.
Your area seems to have some good ones. We are hitting a really good looking auction this weekend, and hope to stay late when the bargains start coming. You are so lucky to have a sis to go running around with! I bet this was a fun day!
LikeLike
Our summer has been hotter than usual too. I haven’t gone to nearly as many random lunchtime garage sales this year for that reason. But, the neighborhood sales are still going strong. And yes, it was definitely a fun day. We had lunch and drinks on a patio afterwards, and you can’t beat that!
LikeLike
“Deconstructed look”? You’ve got my attention! What could that mean?
(Btw, the stool turned out very cool.)
LikeLike
What?! You’ve never seen deconstructed? It’s totally a thing. You need to google ‘deconstructed chair’ now!
LikeLike
Love all of that and agree that the bed is crying out for a transfer ! Question- I keep seeing the description “Eastlake”. What is that exactly? What is it’s origin? I see that most of them have carving but just curious to know more. Inquiring minds……
LikeLike
‘Eastlake’ is a style of furniture that was popular in the late 1800’s and tends to have less curves and ornate carving, more straight lines and geometric shapes. Check out this article to learn more about Eastlake furniture. I’ve done quite a few Eastlake style pieces because they seem to be readily available here in the midwest.
LikeLike
I have a chair just like the one you have posted here. I cannot wait to see how you paint and reupholster it.
Pam
LikeLike
Me either 😉 It’s going to be an experiment, that’s for sure!
LikeLike
Lovely finds, especially the last. I cannot even imagine how you packed that all in!
LikeLike
My sister has some mad packing skills!
LikeLike
love love the bed. Is it by chance a Queen? Side rails? What a great hall. I too am a fan of galvanized.
LikeLike
The bed is full (or double) sized. Vintage/antique beds are rarely queen size. Queen and King sized beds didn’t really become popular until the 60’s. So anytime you see a bed that is older than that it’s safe to assume it’s just a full. I’m guessing this bed is from the 40’s or 50’s. You can modify an antique full sized headboard to fit a queen sized bed. I did that with my own bed (see that here). But you have to forgo the existing side rails and foot board.
LikeLike