Wine Barrel Plaque {a knock off}

Oh, drive by garage sale finds…how I love thee!

I love garage sales, but it seems like my weekends are crazy and I usually don’t end up making it to Saturday morning sales. 

Excitingly enough last Friday,  as I was driving back from getting my first pumpkin spiced latte of the season {heaven in a cup}, I saw a Friday morning moving sale!  If you follow me on twitter, you may have seen my pic of all the loot I scored for only $4!

Lemme show ya what I did with one of those amazing steals…

Have you seen the lovely wine barrel plaques from Ballard?    I noticed them a while back, thinking ‘oh, I wish I could find and old barrel lid like that’.  Well, I have yet to find one.  So what do you do if you can’t find something you want? 

You create it!!

So here are Ballard's barrel lids.  Pretty nice huh? They are three different sizes but the smallest is 14” in diameter and 4” deep.  It sales for $69.00.

Enter my $1 garage sale find. 

Um, what is it?  Maybe a drying rack of sorts? 

Fill me in if you know.  All I saw was my barrel lid project!

So I started with the lid and just stained it with gel stain I had from my trunk makeover.  Next I stenciled on the words I wanted.  I started with Pinot Noir because it’s my fave and the numbers are Mr. Husband’s and my anniversary.  A little fleur de lis stamp for some softness, and there ya go. 

A custom piece for a DOLLAR!

   

The lower parts had slats so I had to add in some cardboard.  I painted it all out in black, almost dry brushing, to give it an aged rustic appearance.  I stenciled on the words and numbers and free handed the shield and leaf in the center.

 

What do you think about 2 custom pieces for a dollar?

How about 3 for a dollar?!

  

For this one I used cardboard again and painted it all in Heirloom white.  I then stenciled on my words, freehanded some designs and lightly sanded & glazed it.

 

I quite like them.  Mine measure 12” in diameter and 2” deep, so they are a tiny bit smaller than theirs, and just a little cheaper.  Just a little. ;)

 

I hope this inspires you to think about things differently look at that garage sale “junk” and see past what it is,  to what it could be. 

Linking up…

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cover Up

 

 

 

I found this sweet shelf last week at a garage sale for $1.50.  Although she is lovely with her little hearts, these little hearts aren’t really my thing.  There are so many shelves like this around in thrift stores and at garage sales, or you may even have some around your house.  (I know when I was little we had a ton around our home.) Maybe you still dig the hearts, and if you do that is fabulous!  But if not,  here is one easy way to update them with a custom new look. 

When I did my kitchen backsplash I had quite a few scrap peices left over.  You can check the back splash out HERE, but for those who remember, I said I would put those scraps to use. So here you go!  These are plastic tiles made to look like tin, so they are very easy to work with.  I bought mine from Lowe’s. I simply measured the parts of the shelf I wanted to cover, traced it and then cut them out.  Easy breezy!  Before I attached the pieces with epoxy, I spray painted the wood with ORB and then roughly painted over it for a aged appearance.  I even dry brushed a little over the tiles to blend them a little.

 

On the little doors I added a copper upholstery tack with a little piece of jute to hook on the existing screw.  And she was complete!  Quite a transformation, don’t you think?

    

Finding existing pieces like this and adding your own touch, is a great way to get one of a kind decor in your home.  That is unless you have mad wood working skills and can bust out little wood creations yourself.  But in most cases you couldn’t even buy the materials for that cheap, right?  Not to mention reusing, reducing and recycling!…Yeah, I’m just trying to do my part.;)

I’m entering this in the CSI Project Challenge this week. Check it out!

Linking up…

Fun Finds

The Thrifting Gods were good to me this week. ;)  First, I went to a cool consignment shop in town that I didn’t even know was a consignment shop!  Where have I been?  Anyway, I have wanted to find a letter “N” (for our last name) from an old sign or something, to add to our home.  I found this lovely chippy N and was so excited!

                         

I was even more excited to hear that it came off the building of the store, which used to be a clothing store that my parents shopped at! So cool!  As you may know I love things that tell a story and now I have a little piece of history from our city!  I know, it doesn’t take much to excite me. ;)

                            
Next, I got this lovely item at the thrift store for $5.  It was already pretty cute, but I decided to paint it in good ol’ Oil Rubbed Bronze.  I added a little tag I made and filled it with some ‘stuff’.  I’m still deciding if I am satisfied with how it looks…I might rough it up a bit and I may change the insides.  But, that’s the fun of it, right?


                              

Oh, and this lamp shade for $2!  I needed one for a thrift store lamp I am revamping, or should I say, “re-lamping”.  (Hahaha, seriously, I am a dork.)  It is in excellent condition.  I am not sure exactly how she will end up….stay tuned.:)



Happy thrifting to you and I hope you all have a great weekend!  I am headed for a night out with Mr. Husband…YAY!
Linking up…

DebbieDoos