This Week's Thrift Store Finds

Here's my weekly haul of thrift store goodies. Not much to be found this week, but a few cute things.

I got this cute red storage case for $2. It had the original $19.99 price tag still on the back. It looks really good on my dining room mantle.

This FAMILY sign was 75 cents.

This food tray was $2. I'm not a big fan of the design, so I will be painting over it. Mike really needs this, too since he likes to eat in his comfy recliner in the living room.

Yeah, I know, it's just a laundry basket. I really need more laundry baskets though and this was only $2. Now I finally have one in my bedroom closet!

My $400 Dining Room

I'm not a believer in spending a ton of money to decorate. My dining room is no exception. I think I have created a fun, somewhat elegant dining room for fairly cheap. My budget is as follows: table and chairs - $150, Curio Cabinet - $150, Accessories - <$100.

View from my kitchen.

View from the wall.

View from the back door.

View from the entry way.

My mantle.

Close up of my dry flower arrangement.

Close up of the candles.

Close up of the storage drawers.

Old tv stand I bought from the thrift store and painted to match the dining room.

Close up of my table cloth.

This ceiling fan was also painted to match the dining room. I also bought new light covers for it. Not too shabby for a 60 year old fan!

That's pretty much it. I hope you enjoyed my little tour of our dining room!

Open Shelving

I have the tiniest kitchen ever, so I figured some open shelving would help it feel a little bigger. Here is what it looked like before.

And now, with the doors off. I still plan on painting the cabinets white.

I know a lot of people don't like open shelving because it's a little more maintenance, but I feel like it's a good trade off to feel less closed in.

Bathroom Shelf

Is this picture starting to look familiar? I guess I was pretty bad at taking pictures this week, so it will have to do. I bought the shelf in the middle for four dollars at the thrift store. You can't see it very well, but it has a very antique looking white crackle finish. I'm not really a fan. I like things to look new and shiny.

I spray painted it an almond color and hung it up. No further work needed. We needed this really bad since the old towel rack had to be removed. It was falling out of the wall!

I plan on putting some kind of vinyl on it.

Hanging Tealights

I really should have taken a better picture, but on the right is the hanging tea light holder I found at the thrift store for five dollars. I felt like that was a great deal since similar ones online cost $60-$100. It didn't come with any oyster cups though, so I had to use my own. Thankfully I already had some lying around the house because they cost a dollar a piece.

I spray painted it black, straightened up the leaves, put some cups and candles on it and hung it in my dining room. It now looks brand and gorgeous.

Before

We bought our house almost a year ago. I've been doing as much updating and decorating as I can, so before I post all my changes I thought I would give everyone a preview of how things looked when we moved in.

Our gold and blue master bedroom, ha ha.

Very ugly full bath.

Living Room

3/4 bath

Dining room

Basement foyer

Family Room

Nursery

Kitchen

Each day this week I'm going to feature a different room that I've decorated and detail how I did it on a super strict budget.

Sweater Makeover

I got this sweater at Motherhood Maternity five years ago, and wore it one time before I realized I hate turtlenecks. I finally got around to taking the turtleneck off today. After I took it off I made a few little "flowers" for the bottom with the leftover material. I really love the way it came out!

Before

The neck is off!

Making the flowers.

Some extra fabric I had lying around.

All the pieces.

Pinning the "flowers" on.

All sewn on.

All finished.

Decorating for Fall

Here's the gourd I got from the thrift store for fifty cents. It's from PotBellies and was originally ten bucks. That's a steal in my book. I was hoping to find some kind of pumpkins to decorate my front porch. I'm still keeping an eye out for some, but this is a good start.

I spray painted it pumpkin orange and put glitter glue on the top half.

Close up of the glitter.