This post is for my "Goodwill Girls" who want to know how the stuff I buy ends up. Here are some recent fix ups.
The chicken-coop- looking thing in the first pic...I have no idea what it was, but the doors open up pulling down with a very skinny chain inside. $4.25 Goodwill All I did was clean it, paint it, replace one of the knobs (99 cents at Lowes) and fill it with towels. The pic is of my late father-in-law and the pitcher was from TJ Maxx, when I used to go there instead of being lean and green at Goodwill. My in laws bought the lacy table runner on top in Europe.
The red and black shelf was $1.25 at Goodwill The finish was damaged and it smelled bad. I washed it out with bleach and rubbed the stinky drawers with vanilla extract. I spray-prainted it and mod-podged a page from a calendar my mother -in-law gave me to the back. I think "Mr. January" Rooster looks very handsome on my kitchen desk.
The white shelf with the heart on it came from Goodwill today. I'm not sure if you can see it, but the heart is lined with chicken wire. $1.25. All I did was wash it off and spray paint it. The cups and the white planter also came from Goodwill, as did the lace that is on the desk underneath. It was actually a curtain valance and was half price yesterday at Goodwill. The desk underneath was a curbside find. It had melted wax and cigarette burns on the original finish. I painted it white and got some fancy knobs from Lowes to replace the missing ones. There is a really cool secret drawer in the middle.
The vintage mirror is Art Deco and came from a trash heap in front of Dutch Andrew's house. It was missing a bit of trim, so I hot glue-gunned a silk flower in the missing area. Two of the hats were from Goodwill. The brown velvet one with the green flowers belonged to my Grandmother.
In the picture on the stairwell, the 1920's dress also came from Goodwill. It must have fit an impossibly slender flapper, because I don't think it would have fit me in second grade Another case of decorating with thrifted clothing. The little purse on the top of the hanger was my Grandmother Dunn's, whose engagement picture you can see on the top suitcase. The handsome gentleman in the larger frame is my husband's grandfather, Orville Bremer. The stack of suitcases also came from Goodwil and church "Rags to "Riches" sales. It took me several years to accumulate them.
One of the suitcases has the monogram "MLK." The kids I mentor decided that it had belonged to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. LOL. I know who the suitcase belonged to. She was a sweet older Southern lady whose name was Mary Lou. I can assure you she was as different physically from Dr. King as is possible.
The vintage globes? Goodwill, of course. I look to see if the country in Africa is called Rhodesia or Zimbabwe in order to see how old it is. Rhodesia means it is vintage. I also look for the Soviet Union vs.individual countries like Russia and Ukraine, added after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The little bead board cabinet was left out for garbage pick up when my church was renovated. The shutters were in my attic when I moved in. The little picture frame came from a yard sale and the pic of the little boy inside came from an old reading book.
I've been under a lot of stress with my father's illness, so please forgive all the edits I had to make on a second look at this.
