Garage Sale Queen
That's me! Several weeks ago I struck gold at a garage sale in Bethel and bought a TON of stuff for no money, ok, little money. Then I made it all beautiful and here it is for you to admire and say things like: "Wow, you did this by yourself?!" and "I am so impressed, never have I seen anything even remotely as breathtaking." I'm sorry this might take a while to load for some, but if you really like me, then you surely won't mind. These are before & after pictures, people!!!
The two best finds were a super-cute book shelf for Veronika's room and also a nice little dresser. The book shelf had peeling paint and horrible dark contact paper on it, it was $15. The dresser was rather dull with also some flowery contact paper on top - $10. Here they are:
The bookshelf...
...before and...
... after.
The dresser...
...before
... and after.
Now, wasn't this fun! One more: I also found a set of swivel armchairs with an ugly worn fabric, $25 for both. Here they are before:
And here, after my spectacular transformation and with dog and baby butt accessories:
You can see a wicker basket/box in the background as well, that one I got for $1 and spray-painted it to fit the new upholstery fabric. I am so amazing.
I had so much fun doing this, although it all takes quite a lot of time. Luckily my husband loves me and knows how important crafts really are. Plus I make him cookies.
Posted at 12:38 PM on October 11, 2004
way to go Dinka! They look fabulous and yes, you are amazing.
Boo hoo, you live so far away!! I love doing this stuff and also have refinished and even built furniture from scratch. I think you have better taste in color/pattern idea's than I do. When Cecilia gets older and I have time to do more I should email you pictures for suggestions.
How did you do the chairs? I have no idea how to do cloth coverings, but I wish I did. We badly need living room furniture.
Wow! I am far from creative, so I am extremely impressed by your talent. You're my garage sale hero.
maria,
i put the fabric on the chairs and then cut along the lines to make the different pieces and then sewed them together. ideally you can use a cheap (muslin) fabric and cut the pieces out of that first and then lay the muslin pattern on the actual fabric and then cut it out- that way you can make sure the pieces are cut nicely before you cut into your nice fabric. it wasn't as hard as i thought it would be.
JoAnn's has a reupholstering class I so badly wanted to take. Did you take a class or you just did it?
Gosh, I feel inadequate. You have earned the title "Domestic Goddess" in my book. If I had been the one to have bought that furniture, it would still be sitting in the basement. I have a lot of grand ideas, that never translate into actions. I'm the master procrastinator. :^\
That is amazing! I absolutely adore the dresser. It's so cute, yet chic.
I wish I were able to do that to some of my furniture, but living in college, I'm not allowed to tamper with it. And I've got no room for anything new.
Sorry, random comment from a random person. Surprisingly, I googled dinka and found your site.