Happy Monday everyone!  We spent the weekend working outdoors on our patio, more to come on that project later this week.   Meanwhile, I thought I’d offer up my very best tips for thrifting, plus a peek at my latest thrift store before and after. 

There are plenty of people who don’t care to shop thrift stores.  Perhaps they dislike or are afraid of used goods, or their local thrift stores carry nothing but useless junk.  I’ve seen my share of thrift stores that carried mostly unusable items, but I’ve also scored a few finds in thrift stores that could be resold for hundreds of dollars.  It all depends on the particular store, they’re all so very different.  I’m asked now and then for my best advice on thrifting, so I thought it time to put them all in one place!

Here are a few of my tips for shopping thrift stores:

Stay Focused.   When you find a great thrift store, it’s like shopping in any second hand forum.  Your visit can quickly turn into ”Hey that’s cute” or “Oooh, I like that too!” and before you know it, your tab has climbed higher than you planned, and you’ve brought home things you don’t really need.  Before you walk through the door, remember what you’re there for.  Stay focused on your needs and your budget.    

Know The Sales Days.  Find out when your local store has sales and show up early.  My local St. Vincent de Paul has furniture sales when they have too much in stock (typically after a big donation weekend) so I’m in the habit of stopping in every Monday or Tuesday to see what’s new.  My mom loves to shop at the Goodwill on Tuesdays when anyone over 55 gets a 25% discount.  She’s found so many designer labels and even items that are brand new and have never been worn, you just never know what you’ll find!  It pays to know when your local store offers discounts. 

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Hey everyone, I’m adventuring in New York City today, exploring the downtown area and enjoying the spring weather.  I’ll spill all the details of the event I attended very soon!

Today I wanted to share a recent revamp of a great little writer’s desk I recently scored at a thrift store.  This desk was a total bargain, marked at $49 at my local St. Vincent de Paul, but it was 50% off furniture day, so I picked her up for $25 dollars.  Solid wood, classic lines, rope detail around the desktop, and little pull out ledges on each side makes this the perfect writer’s desk.  How could I resist bringing it home?

The top was scratched and dented, so I thought with just a simple coat of white paint and a little distressing, this desk could be brought back to life, and would be so lovely.

Here is the desk Before:

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And After:

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Wow, such inspiration from this week’s Paint Projects Party, you simply must visit so many of these links!  There are over 400 projects to browse, from furniture to floors to fabrics to home accents.  Oh the power of paint never ceases to amaze me!

Nothing makes me happier than a great second hand find, and the opportunity to revamp the new treasure for a great cause.  This one was for a good friend of mine who recently had a baby girl.  She’s been a little preoccupied with her little one, so her hub and I conspired to makeover this piece for her nursery, currently a work in progress, but sure to beautiful when the space is finished. 

I’ve been looking for the perfect dresser for her for awhile now, and finally scored this one at a local thrift store last week, I was so excited! I brought it home so I could paint it for her as a surprise.

With all the pieces I’ve painted over the years, I realized I should write up a full step by step for repainting an old treasure like this one, including cosmetic repair, priming and painting so here goes!

Supplies to Have Before You Start:  Power screwdriver (+ drill bits if replacing hardware), medium (80 – 120 grit) sanding wedge, primer, latex paint color of choice, Floetrol, 2” angled quality paintbrush, water based polyurethane protectant. 

How to Paint Wood Furniture: The Basic Steps

These are my tried and true techniques for repairing, priming, and painting an old hand me down, or a lucky Craigslist or thrift store find like this damaged honey tone wood dresser.

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I finally finished up a chair makeover I’ve been meaning to get to for awhile.  I found this one at a thrift store last year and I bought it specifically for the vanity in my bathroom.  I loved the curve of the legs and the size was perfect, but the fabric?  No thank you.  It was dingy and stinky so the entire chair definitely needed to be reupholstered.  For this piece, I had some fun adding a glamorous feel with a silver leaf finish on the legs, plus I replaced the foam and fabric with a modern geometric. 

Here’s what it looked like last week. 

And now.

I went back and forth deciding whether to add some tufting with fabric covered buttons, but decided with the glitzy silver leaf and the swirling detail on this Annie Selke Pearls Slate fabric, to skip the tufting this time. 

I find the best way to understand how to reupholster a chair is to analyze the original upholstery job.  This particular chair was a hint more complicated because of the necessity of tacking strips along the back of the chair.

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