My friend opK and I hit the thrift shops last week and I came home with a nice little pile of things to makeover.

I’m always looking for wooden items to paint, but somehow I ended up with mostly metal items this time around starting with this trash can.

This is made out of heavy duty galvanized metal, the foot petal still works perfectly and it just needs a good cleaning.  I did a quick online search and found this exact trash can for sale on Wayfair for $81.99.  But I’m wondering, should I paint mine?  The one on Wayfair almost looks like it has a bit of a wash over the metal …

and I also see some rusty spots.  What do you think, leave a comment and let me know, add a wash or leave it alone?

Next up is this little group of items.

The little bird on a cage is already perfectly rusty and fabulous, and he’s going to fit on the urn in the front.  But first I’m going to rusty up that urn with some of the Dixie Belle Patina paint.  In fact, I’m going to rusty up all three of those other items.

Next up are a couple of buckets.

The tall one was a simple makeover.  After cleaning it up, I gave it a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth and then added an I.O.D. transfer from the Brocante set.

It already had a nice black rolled rim, and I’ve painted a couple of similar pieces in the past that ended up looking like enamelware.

As for the smaller bucket, it had some strange textural flaws.

I don’t know what that is, but I couldn’t sand it down so I decided to just work with it.  I mixed some of Dixie Belle’s Sea Spray texture additive with some of their Dried Sage paint and then stippled it onto the bucket with a chip brush.

Once dry I sanded it lightly to knock back some of the peaks.  Then I added a coat of Drop Cloth over it, and once dry, sanded again.  Finally I added another of the Brocante transfers.

Now that it has an overall texture, the drippy looking clumps don’t stand out at all.

I love the end result on both buckets.

I did manage to find a couple of non-metal items while out thrifting that day.

I’ll admit that I was a bit hesitant about the chalkboard.  I think the chalkboard phase might be over.  But it’s one of those more authentic vintage chalkboards with a little wooden rail to hold the chalk.

So I thought I’d take a chance on it.

After giving it a good cleaning, I refreshed the wooden frame with some brown wax and then I simply added a little different wording to it.

Now we’ll see whether or not it sells.

As for the other item, it’s a cookbook holder.

Someone had decoupaged it to within an inch of its life.  That’s three layers of torn paper, all decoupaged into place.  It took me forever to get those off.  It involved lots of soaking with water, scraping with a razor blade and finally some sanding.

I wanted to give it a far more subtle look so after painting it with Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage, I simply added a paint inlay from the I.O.D. Melange set.

Those artichokes seemed like the right touch for a cookbook holder.

While opK and I were heading from one thrift store to another, she spotted an estate sale sign so we hit the brakes to check it out.  It ended up being the estate of some serious antique collectors.  They had collections of antique crocks and stoneware jugs, old glass bottles, vintage soda pop bottles, and interestingly enough, mortar and pestle sets.  I bet there were at least 20 or more of those.

As can often be the case at professionally run estate sales, most of the prices were too high for me.  But I did come home with a couple of things.

I couldn’t resist the little enamelware pot.  It was $18, so a little steep for me but not outrageous.

After washing it up, I decided to add an I.O.D. transfer to it.

I’m sure that antique purists will be horrified by that.  But the transfer could be easily removed down the road when I get tired of it, or if I eventually sell it on to someone who doesn’t like it.

But for now I’m planning to keep this little pot and use it as a vase.  And I think that transfer made it just a little more special.

As for the other items, they are hose guards.  At least I’m fairly sure that’s what they are.

If you aren’t familiar with hose guards, you put them at the edge of a garden bed to prevent your garden hose from dragging through the plants.  I purchased some plastic hose guards last summer and they didn’t even last through one season.

These are super heavy, maybe cast iron?  I’m not sure what material they are made out of, but I think they’ll be far superior to the plastic ones.  And at only $5 for all 5 of them, they were definitely a bargain.

So overall it was a successful day of thrifting.  Which of my finds is your favorite?  And what about that trash can, would you add a wash?  Leave a comment and let me know.