Cheap Laminate to Mid Century Glory

We saw this in a Salvation Army.  It was marked $11.  It was cheap and ugly, but Thrift Chick has a record collection that is bursting at the seams.  I saw possibilities.


First step was to replace the legs with something a little more mid century.  I removed the old legs (they were simply screwed into the base.) and purchased new ones at Lowes.  You can buy the plates and legs pretty cheaply at any home improvement store.

Then I roughed up the outside of the cabinet with my sanding block.  Since mid century aqua is one of Thrift Chick's favorite colors, I bought a sample size of aqua at Lowe's (less than $3!) and gave the outside a couple of coats.  When I finished, I noticed the handles did not stand out at all.  I made a trip back to Lowe's for replacements only to find out that these handles were not standard size.  So it was back home for plan B.  I grabbed the leftover silver paint from Thrift Chick's diy project and gave them a quick spray.

Now they pop out!  Quite a difference from the sad little cabinet at Salvo, isn't it? Start to finish it was about two hours....minus the trips to Lowe's.  A pretty easy redo.

I am guessing by Thrift Chick's reaction when I finished it that she did not see my original vision.  She must have been humoring me when she agreed that it had potential.  She is a believer now!

Patty

Thrift Chick's Apartment Part 2

You know school has started when there is a long time between posts!  Sorry for the delay in part 2 of Thrift Chick's apartment -- Patty

I realize it is a small apartment, but when you and your mother have a hard time saying no to a good deal, you just amass a lot of stuff...thanks for coming back to see the rest of my stuff!

We left off in the living area, so now we will turn to the dining room which is probably my favorite place.  It is loaded with tons of both mine and my mother's junking, thrifting and antiqueing finds.

 Let's start with that table shall we?  I got that table at the very first estate sale we attended when I was a freshman in college.  I paid a whopping $10 for it at the end of the sale.  It originally had large ugly nubby chair backs and seats, but I replaced them as soon as I was out of college and earning a paycheck.  It was probably this purchase that started me on the road of vintage home decor.  Yes that is a lot of pyrex in the back.  You can read about it here.  However since that post a month ago, my mother has acquired numerous new pieces....can you say obsessed?

 This is the other of the pair of mid century chairs we found at an estate sale for $5 several years ago. My mother made me sit in them while she kept looking so no one else would claim them...estate sales can be vicious places! That is the second pillow made from my map handkerchiefs.  The bookcase is from helping my aunt downsize...it was in her musty old basement.  A little aqua paint and it has a new life!

 My mother has a tendency to pick up old thermoses when she sees them at rock bottom prices.  She also has three different picnic baskets.  She says it is because they remind of things in her youth....things seldom seen these days.  She took her lunch to school every day in her lunchbox with its matching thermos.  Her mother would pack a thermos of kook-aid whenever they would picnic.  Personally I just think it is another obsession.

I just love aqua and red together.  I first found the red pitcher.  Then we saw the rooster glasses for a quarter each at a Goodwill.  I didn't think I needed them, but my mom insisted I would love them (and of course she was right.)  The red Pyrex hostess dish is her pride and joy.  She also has the five smaller dishes that come with it.  It will be mine when she downsizes!

This is the other side of the room.  My grandfather made the hope chest for my mom when she graduated from college.  It is one heavy sucker....it is not going anywhere so it is a part of the room.  The ugly green bar chair is part of a pair and hopefully will be a diy project soon.  I am always on the lookout for things for my wall..not sure if these will remain here or be changed.

My kitchen is a pretty ordinary kitchen...stove, microwave, refrigerator...you get the picture.  However there are two things I want to share with you.

 This awesome paper towel, wax paper holder came from this tiny junk (and I mean junk) shop my brother found.  It was marked $1.  I know....it is not even red or aqua....but there was no way I was passing up that rooster.  The enamelware utensil holder was a gift from my mom.  She has a sixth sense when it comes to finding cheap, cheap enamelware pieces that are awesome.

This is my diy project for the kitchen.  I bought letters from Hobby Lobby and sprayed them with galvanized silver paint.  So simple.

My bedroom has not changed much from how it was when I was with my parents.  In case you missed the post about its redo, you can read it here.

I have a passion, obsession, mania for vintage jewelry.  I will have to do a post about it someday.  Just know this is a mere portion of the jewelry I own.

I hope you enjoyed the tour.  I am sure by next week I will have changed or added something.  Some teachers from work want to go junking with us.

Blessings,

Thrift Chick

Thrift Chick's Apartment: Part 1

Hello all! It's me, Thrift Chick! We have done lots of posts about the treasures we find while thrifting, so I thought it would be fitting to show you where a lot of those treasures find a home...My apartment!

After college, I moved back home to pay back loans and save some money.  I currently live in the 2 bedroom apartment in my parent's house.  Considering the amount of "treasures" I have accumulated over the years, it is perfect for the time being.  It is larger than the apartment that I lived in with three other girls in college, so I am in heaven! 

My entry has a shelf that I snatched up when helping a family member downsize.  All it needed was a new coat of paint!  The cork board is actually a sample cabinet door that was with a whole bunch of sample doors at a random garage sale. I added painted cork and some cool knobs. 

                                             

Here is a close up of the vintage pennants that I found in an antique shop.  I love travel and maps (as you will soon see!) and these fit right in!

My living room is a random assortment of unusual objects that have been collected over the years. This floor lamp is something my mom found at our very first estate sale experience.  My favorite thing is the pillow. I found two handkerchiefs with Chinese maps on them and my mom made pillows out of them for me.  Maps, postcards, anything with a travel theme is a bit of an obsession for me.

My most prized find is the 1970s pull down map that I hung on the wall.  The best part is that it was completely FREE! I don't know if you have priced wall maps lately, but the prices will make your head spin!  It was part of the pitch pile that was in my classroom that I inherited from a retired teacher.  I bought the trunk as a birthday gift to myself from an antique mall's bargain room.  (That's right our local antique mall had a bargain room...we were seriously bummed when they took it out.)

My side tables are another half off estate sale find ($7 for the pair.)  That weird lamp??  Mom rescued it from my uncle's donate pile years ago...way before mid century became popular!  I know it is ugly, but isn't the shape awesome? I love it!  As for the tub chair, it's original home was in the girl's staff quarters at the camp in Michigan where I worked at for 4 summers!  My mom saw it when visiting and asked if we could have it. My friends at camp thought she was crazy, but into the car it went at the end of the summer!

Not to brag or anything, but my couch is quite possibly the best couch in the world! It was bought by my grandparents when they were first married in the 1954.  It was in their home until they downsized and then my mom claimed it.  She said for years it was dark nubby brown, but in the eighties, my grandmother recovered it...unfortunately in eighties mauve and baby blue.  However it is nine feet of comfort that you just don't find in stores today and in a family of giants that is worth something.

Music is my passion so I devoted a corner of my living room to music.  The chair is another find that I picked up when helping my aunt downsize. (if you are willing to clean, dust and move people, you get a lot of random, but awesome stuff!) The cushion was in bad shape, but nothing a little dye can't fix!  I collect vinyl records and have amassed a lot of them over the last couple of years.  I found a really cool record holder that I spray painted light green and put some of my records on.  They have since overflowed to my bookshelves.  The cabinet holding my record player is a recent addition that my mom redid for me.  We will be posting on the redo soon!

I collect vintage cameras and own 27 of them.  In the post about my family's surprise redo of my bedroom one summer, you will find the history behind the shelf and the postcards.

The last wall of my living room is the bookshelves that hold the rest of my records, books, and a random assortment of interesting objects that I find while thrifting, junking and cleaning out other people's homes!

Since this post is getting a little long, I will save the rest of apartment for another day.

Blessings, Thrift Chick

Summer Decor2

This is the second part of summer decor.  I realize it is now July, but I have embraced the meaning of lazy summer this year.  For the rest of the house, I went with a softer wildflower look.  Hobby Lobby has these great silk flowers that look just like the flowers you see long the road.  I love their velvety leaves and muted colors.  I buy a few bunches whenever they go on sale.

 I love old canning jars.  When we moved into our house, my husband found a bushel basket full of the above jars in the barn.  Cleaning them out was quite traumatic because not only were they filthy, but a mouse was giving birth in one of them!

 This funny old duck came from this crazy little store in Michigan.  It is filled with the most random things. I think it is stocked with buyout merchandise.  We always make sure visit it whenever we are up north.

The funny old bird (pelican??? heron???) came from Goodwill.  It was realistic looking and Thrift Chick thought it was hideous.  I have learned to look at things as if they were covered in spray paint....it improves a lot of them!

I know...more birds and wild life.  Sometimes things are so weird that they just call out to you.  I mean, who really thought there would be a huge market for ceramic frogs?

Now that I have finished with the summer decorating, I can relax...sort of.....the garage is crying out for a massive cleaning...so it is on to the next project.

Patty

Summer Decor

After our snowpocalypse this past winter, I kind of thought we would never see summer.  With extended days and make-up days, we just now finished school.  I finally got tired of looking at Easter eggs and bunnies and decided to haul out the summer stuff.  This is our front hallway.

It is my homage to playtime of yesteryear.  My grandkids call it heaven.   They love playing with the toys.

We have pried the croquet balls out of toddler fingers countless times and I am sure my son and daughter-in-law wish I would choose a different theme. 

  I own three old picnic baskets.  I don't know why...I think they remind me of all the picnics we took when I was little.  We used to picnic all the time....people just don't do picnics any more.

 The dominos and Parade magazine came from a garage sale,  The marbles are actually from the Dollar Store and the pool balls were left over when we got rid of our pool table.

Thrift Chick found the pick-up sticks at an estate sale.  Aren't they fun?  She has their vintage container on display in her apartment....I just stole the sticks. 

I love old wooden Scrabble tiles and pick them up at thrift stores whenever I can find them.  I have about three games sets right now.  The "Let's Play" looks cute doesn't it?  However, my children can't seem to leave it alone...I am always coming home to find strange new messages there.


Patty

Pyrexmania

It all started with these

 and these

 They came from my mother.  She's had them for as long as I can remember.  The yellow one held our Sunday night popcorn.  When she was downsizing, I took them home with me.  Thrift Chick has already called dibs for when I downsize.  Since she has bugged me day and night to give them to her, I started keeping my eye out and picking up vintage looking pieces at thrift stores, garage sales and estate sales.  Soon Thrift Chick joined me and it evolved to this

and this

 We never pay more than a few dollars for any piece and we have one rule of thumb.  The piece must be usable.  If you do any research, you will find that there are tons of vintage pyrex patterns out there.  I love coming across the odd piece here and there.  Together we have amassed quite a collection.  For me I love seeing things that were used by generations before me.  I love seeing how the patterns and colors changed and evolved with the decades.  

What makes pyrex so fun to collect is that is just so useful.  As you can see we use it everyday!

Patty

City Wide Garage Sales -The Great White Sale

Call me Ishmael.  You know when you are out thrifting whether it is at an estate sale, a thrift store, flea market or garage sale and you have the deep hope that you are going to find the sale of all sales? You know the kind I mean.  The kind you read about in magazines like FleaMarket Style (where they never print the prices...I always suspect they pay a lot more than I would ever pay.)  You know the kind where someone is cleaning out their attic and just wants to get rid of stuff.  Well, we hit one during the city wide garage sales.

After trolling through countless sales with baby clothes, afghans and a thousand candlesticks and bad eighties decor, we drove by this driveway that had one table and lines of boxes up and down the cement.  It didn't look promising, but my daughter-in-law said we should stop.  At first we saw a few things and then my daughter-in-law started digging through the boxes and oh my...things got real fun.

The homeowner didn't have very many prices on things and when I inquired about a lamp, he said the words every hardcore thrifter longs to hear.  "Just make a pile and we will work something out.  I made a pile and he charged me a whopping $5.  That's right.  Five whole dollars for this pile of fun.

 As per my last post, my son took the pictures...a little more artistically than I would have.

 I would have paid $10 for the lamp.  My husband isn't too sure about it, but my daughter-in-law and Thrift Chick both said, "I can see you spraying that some fun color....they got that right.

 These are Pyrex tear drop measuring batter bowls.  I usually don't buy clear pyrex.  However, my daughter-in-law unearthed them in a box and we both thought they would be quite useful.  Turns out they are also quite vintage and single pieces of them go for $15-$20 on Ebay.  I saw a few full sets for the $40-$50 range.  I just like how much use I am going to get out of them.

 The enamel pot was filthy.  It is amazing what a magic eraser can do.  I have a growing collection of enamelware.  However, I have never paid more than $1 to $2 per item.  I actually saw some enamelware at some other sales for $15 fa piece.  Some day I will do a post about how I started getting enamelware when I didn't actually like it!

 Okay the Pyrex gravy boat and saucer is not all that vintage because it has microwave instructions on the bottom.  I just liked the look of it.  I actually collect the red translucent vintage cookie cutters and put them on my white Christmas tree (see it here)  My mom used cookie cutters like these so I threw them in my pile.  I am sure I will find a use for them.  The flocked vintage Santa was a piece I threw in at the last minute.  I couldn't think of how I would use him, but he reminded me of my grandmother's decorations.  Thrift Chick said "He's cool in a real creepy sort of way."

There was also this vintage small casserole dish in the browns and harvest gold of eras gone by.  I forgot to have my son take a picture of it, but you can kind of spy it in the top picture.

If you divide up the $5 total by pieces, each item cost me less than $1.  Now that is a "Great White Sale" for ya!

Patty

City Wide Garage Sale

I am not a fan of blog posts where people post their recent thrifting finds.  After all, it is not like it is going to inspire me....more like make me wish I lived in an entirely different state.  However, I had such a great haul at our city side garage sale days that I feel the need to share.  Outside of Thrift Chick, no one else in our family really gets it.

This year Thrift Chick had an out of state funeral to attend so she missed out, but my daughter-in-law stepped in.  My lovely daughter-in-law had never been to a flea market until she started dating my son.  She is a fast learner!  She was a great companion.  She was on the hunt for preschool clothes and kid games.  However, she is also is very knowledgeable about kitchen items and has a great eye.

This lovely plastic pitcher set cost me a whole quarter.  I bought them for Thrift Chick's apartment.  She has this whole vintage vibe going and was in need of some display items.

 I have this thing for old thermoses.  I think it is because I carried my lunch to school every day with a lunch box and thermos.  It was the highlight of school shopping to pick out a new lunch box.  These were $2 and have also found a home in Thrift Chick's apartment...but they will be back home soon.

Whenever I see pyrex in vintage colors I pick them up.  I will post about our growing collection of pyrex.  However, we have two rules.  One is we use the pyrex.  If it is not usable, I don't want it.  The second is we refuse to shell out big bucks or antique store prices.  These two were just $2 each.

About a year ago, Thrift Chick picked up four Apollo 13 glasses at a Salvo.  She thought they were kitchy and fun.  She paid 50 cents a glass.  Turns out that many people sell them on Ebay for around $3 a glass.  I came across some also for 50 cents a glass.  They also had Apollo 12 glasses so I picked up some of those as well.

Lately I have had a thing for old textiles.  I don't know why.  Thrift Chick uses vintage 50's era ones in her kitchen.  I mostly have them stored away.  I think I like them because I know someone long ago sat down and hand stitched them....that kind of effort is worth more than $1 but that is what I paid for the two towels (which also came with a bunch of handkerchiefs to add to Thrift Chick's collection) and $1 for the tablecloth.

I also picked up these old skis for $8.  My family laughed, but they will be a part of the Christmas decor.  However, if we have another winter like this last one, they just might be how I get out of my driveway!

I also picked up other miscellaneous things like a toy box and new toys for the grandchildren as well as a dog cage.  You know the everyday things you need, but gasp at the retail prices...that is what garage sales are really for!

Stay tuned for one more post on the city wide garage sales.  I hit one sale that deserves its own post!

Patty

Disclaimer:  My son took these photos for me.  He has a real artistic eye and takes some amazing photos....so that is why some of these are less about getting a good look at the haul and more about the cool angle.  However, since they don't have the bad lighting and fuzziness I tend to end up with, I will take them.