The instant we knew we were moving and that we would have an additional 500 square feet, our DI search began. We would have loved to buy furniture brand new but let's face it, we are both in school, with a baby, and it would just be a ridiculous thing to do. So we decided it was in our best interest to refinish old furniture. Shopping at thrift stores can be a tricky. The trick is going everyday, if not twice a day. You need to know when the most donations come in, like garage sale season or at the end of the semester when students are moving. It can be super discouraging, but eventually it does pay off. Well it did for us anyway. We refinished a rocking horse, got 2 lamps, one we refinished to match the other, a credenza, a bookcase and several small decorative items. Spencer definitely did a majority of the work and he did good! We bought him a sander to make the job a little easier, which it did, and after a little sanding a lot of spray paint and plenty of newspaper and painters tape, we ended up with some awesome furniture.
One of the best things about thrift store shopping for furniture, a lot of the furniture is super sturdy and looks great with a fresh coat of paint. We paid $8 for this bookcase. So stinking solid and works great for my craft supplies. When I say sturdy I mean sturdy... I even stood on it for a while! That's quality furniture.
Ani LOVES her rocking horse. She calls it her "Weeeeee". We wanted the classic white look, since her room is mostly black, red and white, and let me tell you what.... This baby took a ton of sanding to get it there! We paid $5 for the horse. We especially like it because Spencer and I can fit on it too!!!
There are no lights in our living room, but if you plug lamps into the bottom outlet you can control them by a light switch. We saw these two lamps at DI. One was black and the other was blue. But they matched, so we paid $15 total for them both and painted the blue one black. Super easy! Also... Why are lamps, new lamps, so expensive? Geez!
We needed to store our DVD collection... about 600 DVD's, somewhere so we built these boxes and covered them with fabric and they look awesome! It was tricky because the boxes needed to be able to fit in a certain space and so we had to completely take apart the boxes we bought and measure them all and put them together all over again. You would never know that they are filled with movies! I LOVE my glue gun!!!! I carefully glued the fabric to the boxes so that when we are done with them I can reuse the fabric!
This is probably my favorite piece we redid. It was super ugly before... don't you love the fake wood look? But after we removed some of the shelving... When I say we, really I mean Spencer, and took off all the rubber pieces and painted it an almond color, which kind of blends in with the wall, but oh well, I think it turned out quite nicely for some refinishing virgins. Best part... It only cost us $35!!! I love the extra storage and I LOVE the look of it in our home! Ani loves opening and closing the little drawers. Not quite sure what to put in there yet.... Also I LOVE having a place for our mail in that basket! No more mail on the counter or on the dining room table.
We needed some new decor for our mantel over our fireplace so I had some extra yarn, bought these glass vases for $3 and hot glued these suckers. Super simple and cheap and looks cute! Thank you Pinterest!
Hard to see I know but I made the valance over the window, with the same fabric I used on the movie boxes, with cardboard. So it cost me a whole $3 basically. It looks cute and gives the room a little more character. It is nice because it still allows for the natural light to come in.
Spencer also did a lot more work. He hung a tong of shelves, my favorite, in the office area and in the bathroom as well as hanging so many curtain rods. He put in a new shower head and basically worked his cute butt off to make this house our home! I'm so lucky to have married such a hardworking and crafty man!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment