Category: thrifting.

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.

I’m not gonna lie people, my creative well has gone a bit dry lately.  I’m still struggling with tooth extraction pain, and it took a while to get over the cold I brought home from Florida.  OK, I haven’t exactly ‘bought the farm’, but I definitely haven’t felt very creative lately.

In addition, I’m heading out of town again tomorrow, this time on a solo trip to visit my mom.  So it seemed like a the wrong time to get started on any sort of more complicated project.

I did manage to get out for some thrifting with my friend opK earlier in the week though.  I didn’t find much, but I thought I’d share my very meager haul with you guys.

We started out at a Goodwill where I made just two purchases.  First up, this amber bottle.

I brought it home, gave it a good wash and then added that faux French apothecary label.

I did some similar amber apothecary bottles in February last year …

and I thought they turned out quite nicely, so I tried it again.  I shared the source for printing those labels back in that post, so you can find that there if you’re looking for it.

The labels are easy to apply with some Mod Podge.

Since I already had the Mod Podge out and some labels printed, I decided to add labels to a couple of other jars I already had on hand.

I’ve had that pair of jars for ages and they originally had a much more faux looking paper label on them.  I soaked those labels off to replace them, and these are so much better.

These jars have the cutest little galvanized lids.

I also found this dollhouse barn at the Goodwill.

It needs a little TLC, but I couldn’t help but be reminded of the dollhouse that I fixed up back in December.

That was such a fun project to work on, so I’m thinking this one will be more of the same.

Here’s the other side …

I had to laugh when I brought it up to the register and the clerk said “oh, I see you’ve bought the farm!”  LOL.

Anyway, the barn has already gone over to Ken’s workshop for a few repairs.  I’m looking forward to giving it a fresh look.

We headed to a spot that was new to me next, the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store in St. Paul.

By the way, can I just point out that it was a beautiful sunny day and the sidewalks were completely clear of snow and ice on the sunny side of the street.  This is not the norm for Minnesota in February, but I’m loving it!

Unfortunately, I think their sidewalk sign was a bit of false advertising.

I didn’t find any hot deals.  However, as we were waiting in line for opK to make some purchases I saw a shoebox full of old photos so I started flipping through them and this one caught my eye.

Just look at those stern faces!  These guys were very serious about their sport.

The basketball … wait … is that a basketball?  I guess I’m not 100% sure about that.  Is there some other sport played with a ball that looks like that?  Or is that what basketballs looked like in 1929?

Well, whatever it is, it says “E.F. HS 28 – 29” on the ball.  There are no markings on the back of the photo, so that’s my only clue.  So the age of the photo is obvious, but no idea where it was taken.

The photos were priced at a mere 15 cents each, so I thought I really should take it home with me.

I really have no plans for its ultimate fate, but for now I’ll just enjoy displaying it somewhere.

And that’s it.  I only purchased three things.  I’m really looking forward to garage sale season because I am not finding much at the thrift stores these days!

As I mentioned, I’m headed off to my mom’s tomorrow.  She has a to-do list all ready to go for me.  So far I’m doing her taxes, cleaning out her fridge and her closets, and replanting some of her pots on the patio.  I’m looking forward to just spending some time with her though, and maybe enjoying some sunshine and warm weather.  Once again I don’t have any blog posts planned during my absence, but hopefully I’ll be ready to get busy on some creative projects when I get back home again!

Today I’m bringing you another wooden box makeover.

Since there really isn’t any way to tell the scale in that photo, I’ll tell you that this is bigger than your average recipe box.  I suspect it was used by a business of some kind.

And that’s partially based on this stamp inside the lid calling it a ‘merchants box’, and partially based on the size.

I gave this box a quick scuff sanding, followed by wiping it down with a damp cloth.  Then I painted the outside in two coats of Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy.

Then I pretty much lost my head.  That’s the best way to describe it.

I decided I really wanted to use just the wording from inside the circle of I.O.D.’s The Botanist transfer.  You may remember when I used this full transfer on a bed last summer.

I had ordered another one recently, and I just couldn’t resist using the typography portion on this box.

It was a perfect fit.

If I was keeping this box for myself I probably wouldn’t bat an eye over the $25 price tag for the transfer, but I’m planning to sell this box.  So I fully admit that it doesn’t make any kind of good business sense to spend this much on a transfer that I used on one measly box makeover.  I hesitated quite a bit before deciding I just had to do it.  I also think I’ve come up with a use for the rest of the transfer, those floral swags that surround the typography, but we’ll have to wait and see if that comes to fruition.

So will I get my money back out of this one?  Probably just barely.  I certainly won’t be making any kind of profit.  That’s OK with me, but I know many of you guys need to turn a profit, in which case this is not the way to do it.

By the way, yes, I did consider filling that big crack down the middle of the lid.

But I decided it added a little character and age to the box.  I’m OK with that.

You may have noticed that in addition to the typography, I also decorated this box with some florals from the I.O.D. Floral Anthology transfer.

I filled the front of the box …

and trailed over to both sides …

with various scraps of Floral Anthology.

I should also mention that prior to adding any of the transfers, I used the wet distress method on this box.  This method involves using a damp rag to rub paint away from edges where the box would have naturally been worn over time.  It can be a good alternative to distressing the edges with sandpaper, often looking more authentic.  This only works with a paint that is reactivated with water, so mainly chalk style paints.

I did add one little Tim Holtz number transfer to the front of the box as well.

I finished the box with some clear wax both inside and out.  I hadn’t painted the inside, but chose to leave it in the natural wood instead.  The wax freshened it up nicely.

I should also point out that this box must have had some sort of slider thingie inside originally that had since been removed, leaving a sort of empty track in the bottom of the box.

To cover that up I simply cut a thick piece of cardboard to fit the bottom of the box, and then covered that with some scrapbook paper.

It’s quite sturdy, but also quite removable.  So down the road if it gets all grungy from use, it can easily be pulled out and replaced with something fresh.

I took this one into the shop this week, so if any of you locals are interested in it you’ll need to pop into Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater.

As for the rest of you, what do you think of this box makeover?

I’m starting to suffer from some serious garage sale withdrawal, so I hit the thrift shops last week.  Unfortunately, I didn’t find much, and definitely not anything very exciting.

In addition to a couple of Goodwill stores, I also stopped in at Turn Style, which is a consignment store.  It was a little startling to find one of my creations for sale there …

That was one of my first cupboard door signs, but I really don’t remember when I painted it.  I couldn’t find a blog post about it, so it may even be pre-blog.  Back in 2014 (yikes!  10 years ago!) I put that French Market stencil on A LOT of items including cutting boards …

and buckets …

I likely sold that sign at one of my Carriage House sales.  Whoever purchased it from me must be getting rid of it now.  I debated buying it back, and then redoing it in some other way.  But at $18, it was a little too expensive to be worthwhile for me.  I prefer to get my cupboard doors for free, or for less than $5 or so.

So I left the sign at Turn Style.  But here’s what I did bring home.

Well, most of it anyway.  I did also purchase a pair of ice skates and some red & green plaid dishes for the 2024 holiday season (not pictured).  I’m going to hang onto the little metal lantern for next Christmas season too.  I think it will be adorable with a little bottle brush tree and a reindeer inside.

One of these items is for me to keep and that’s the hygrometer (which is the fancy word for a humidity gauge).

I’m not entirely sure that it works, but for only $3.99 I thought it was worth a shot.  I am often wondering what the humidity is outside so if this works it will be handy to have for my workshop in the carriage house.

I did purchase a couple of things to flip that didn’t require more than a good cleaning.  First up, this 1 qt. pitcher.

I’m always drawn to things with numbers or words on them.

I also grabbed this glass cannister.

You can never have too many glass cannisters.  I use them inside my English pine cupboard to hold painting and/or crafting supplies.  I like being able to see what’s inside them.

I also like to have them on hand to contain a grouping of items to sell, such as vintage cookie cutters or old children’s blocks.

The rest of these items all got a paint and transfer makeover starting with the French flower bucket.

It looked just a bit too new.  So my goal was to add some faux age.

I gave it a base coat of Dixie Belle’s French Linen first, then added a layer of their Sawmill Gravy over it.  I was planning to do some wet distressing back to the French Linen layer, but uh … yeah … I forgot that I was going to do that and after the paint was dry I added a coat of clear wax.  Turns out, the clear wax does protect the paint from water quite a bit.  Enough that wet distressing was no longer a good option.

But then I remembered that I had ordered some of the Dixie Belle dirt to try out.

Dixie Dirt is a powder that you apply over tacky wax.  Basically you apply wax, wait 10 minutes for it to get tacky, brush the Dixie Dirt into cracks and crevices, then wipe away any excess ‘dirt’.

I ordered the ‘dirt’ in two colors; Ash and Earth.

FYI, the French Tip brush from Dixie Belle works really nicely for applying the dirt.

I used the Ash color on my French flower bucket.

I feel like the look I got with the dirt is very comparable to using a dark wax.  The benefit to the dirt is that it’s a bit cheaper than wax at $8.95 (find it here), and I think these little containers will go a long way.  So if you already have a clear wax, but no dark wax, this might be a good option for you if you like this look.

I should have mentioned that I also added a re.design with prima transfer to the flower bucket before I added any wax.

Always add transfers before wax, they will not adhere to a freshly waxed surface.  This transfer is from the Lovely Labels Middy transfer set, and it is a dark blue color rather than the usual black or dark grey.

Here is the final look for the flower bucket.

Next up, I decided to give the box a similar treatment.

Again, it was too new for me.  Too smooth, and only scratched up in a bad way, not a good way.

But this time, I added some of Dixie Belle’s Sea Spray texture additive to my base coat of French Linen first.  I let that dry, and then added a coat of Sawmill Gravy over it.  Once the Sawmill was dry, I sanded over it with 120 grit sandpaper to reveal the textured layer.

Next up I added a leftover scrap from the I.O.D. Label Ephemera transfer.

I finished it off with a coat of clear wax first.  Then this time I did use a brown wax along the edges just to ‘dirty’ them up a bit.  It was a pretty subtle adjustment, but it helps disguise any freshly sanded wood edges.

Finally we’ve got the two ‘signs’ that I purchased.

I knew the mustard yellow one would be perfect for that adorable row of birds from the I.O.D. Brocante transfer set.  I gave it the same paint treatment as the box.  A base coat of French Linen mixed with some Sea Spray, then a coat of Sawmill Gravy.  Once dry, I sanded it smooth and added the birds.

I also added some random French typography from my transfer scrap pile, and then finished it off with a coat of clear wax.

I skipped the textured base coat on the 2nd sign.  It has a sort of ribbed surface to begin with, so it didn’t need any additional texture.  Instead I simply added a coat of Sawmill Gravy followed by some floral scraps from I.O.D.’s Floral Anthology transfer and some wording from the Classic Vintage Labels transfers from re.design with prima.

I added a little Dixie Dirt in the Earth color to this one.

You can see how it gets caught in the grooves in that close up photo.

I’ll be bringing most of these items into the shop tonight (Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater, MN) if any of you locals want to head over there this weekend and check them out.

In the meantime, are any of you finding goodies at the thrift stores, or are you finding that there are slim pickin’s like I am?  Leave a comment and let me know, or just let me know which of today’s projects is your favorite.