The finishing work on our glorified hallway fantastic mudroom continues. Last week I spent a few minutes here and there adding storage baskets and coat hooks.

First up. A thrifty find! I found these long rectangular wire baskets at our local Habitat Restore. I bought four…one for each person in our little family. Hung one on top of the other, each of us will have one to call our own. No longer can the kiddos tell me they don’t know exactly where to put their shoes (and gloves and scarves in the wintertime).

Before photo. Notice the old poo brown wall color (and cobwebs from it being an outside wall previously).

And after. The walls are now a creamy white and the four wire bins are narrow enough that they don’t stick out too far into the walkway. The lower two hold the kids shoes and the upper two (not shown) are mine and my man’s. Our shoes will have to fit sideways but I’m ok with that. Any deeper and these bins would be sticking out from the wall too much.

Disappointed in Lowe’s selection, it took a trip to a bigger town to find coat hooks that I liked. A quick stop in at the nearest Hobby Lobby solved the problem. Not only did they have a variety of coat hooks to pick from, but metal wares were 50% off last week. Score!

Nothing matches in our house so I thought it fitting to find different coat hooks for a quirky and eclectic look. A couple years ago, during an open house for Penland School of Crafts we had help making a couple hooks. I’ve been saving them for the perfect spot and this was it!

Aw, my sweet girl is so little in this photo which was taken two springs ago. Reminds me of what a great day it was. Local peeps, put the Penland open house on your calendar for next spring! It’s awesome.

My Hobby Lobby finds fit in well with the two hooks from Penland and I rounded them all out with some simple hooks from Lowe’s (the small double style in the center of the photo below). The fact that they are all dark in tone, unifies them.

Next, I tackled the lighting. Can’t wait to show you the unique solution we’ve come up with.

I’m making something every day of the year. Join me? Go here for inspiration that may spur your own Project 365.

Warmly,

Updating...

I love a good Before and After, don’t you? It’s hard to remember to take a before photo because usually the item is not at all photoworthy! But once completed, putting the photos side by side can really show the huge transformation. Glad I took a before on this one! We just finished it yesterday and I couldn’t wait to share.

When we first moved into our house, I found these two mid-century wood pieces at the local Habitat for Humanity Restore. (One is sitting on top of the other in the before photos.) I’m not even sure what to call them. Credenza-like in shape but judging from the parts of them that were unfinished, they were built-ins during their former life. I believe they had been at the restore for quite some time as they had been reduced down to near free.

VERY dusty, I nearly walked right on by—as most any sane person would (and had)!  But I loved the clean lines, credenza-style and that they were double-sided (doors on each side!). As I stared at them for a while in the store I began envisioning what they could be and realized that we definitely could figure out a way to use them. Room divider, sewing tables, media cabinets, bookshelves. The ideas were flowing!

So I called up Jeff (he’s gotten quite accustomed to these calls) and he went by and brought them home. We laugh at the thought now. These things are darn heavy! And of course, they hung out from the back of his SUV a mile. He single-handedly unloaded them and later we struggled to bring them into the house.

Fast-forward 18 months later!

What we ended up doing:

I originally wanted to use these as a room divider and keep the double-sided cabinets as is but in the end there just wasn’t a place in our home that worked for that. Instead, Jeff sliced the 2 double-sided cabinets down the middle length-wise which gave us four single-sided cabinets that are about 13″ deep. I made that sound easy! Jeff is shaking his head. He’s so good to me. We used the longer ones for the top and bottom of our finished media cabinet. And then sliced one of the shorter ones in half to create the two pieces in the middle. As luck would have it, that created the perfect width for the TV to be placed in the middle. But we needed more height. So with my Dad’s help (a master at carpentry), we came up with a plan to add some 1×2 spacers between the cabinets to give us that bit of height to fit the TV as well as using thin Luann on the vertical areas that needed finishing. He also added a toe-kick at the bottom to raise it off the floor a bit. And finally, I  stained the new wood gray and cleaned up the old wood.

We are so happy with the result. Exactly what we need to hold all the TV components, kids games, videos, books…you name it and we’ve got it in there. Plus it only sits out from the wall about a foot so it doesn’t take up a huge chunk of space. Shut the doors and everything is contained in a sleek and stylish way.

And bonus, we had one piece leftover and are using it in the adjoining work area to hold the kids school-books and craft supplies.

I’m so happy we took a chance on the thrifted cabinets. Makes me want to swing by the Restore today to see if there are any other projects awaiting us.

Have a great Monday!

Join me in a couple blog parties? I’ve linked up to Apron Thrift Girl and Southern Hospitality.

It’s Monday! A great time to share thrifty finds from the week and weekend. Our best find this week? A near-new Schwinn bike my guy found at Goodwill!

Ah, I needed a bike. We had sold my mountain bike before moving from Colorado because with the kids little I just wasn’t riding it much. Now that they are both riding, I can’t keep up unless I feel like going for a real run. This bike will be great for our flat and smooth Greenway trail. Judging from the tires and the little nubbies that are still on them as well as the perfect leather on the seat and handles, it seems to have only been ridden once or twice.

I’m honestly a little hung up on the vintage-style and single speed as we live in the mountains and are more into mountain bike riding. Single speed and hills just don’t go together. So we’ll see…if it doesn’t work for the type of riding I’ll do it was such a steal at $60 that we can resell it and put the profits toward a bike that will work.

I love that about buying second-hand. Often we’ll see something that is valuable but we feel uncertain if it will work perfect for us. Knowing that we can resell it easily for more than we paid if it doesn’t end up fitting our needs makes it a quick decision to head to the check-out.

Any finds for you this week? Us treasure-hunters have to stick together! I’m linking up with Southern Hospitality and Apron Thrift Girl…both are blogs which share their finds on Mondays.

It’s back to school time for us! The first day of school always has that exciting and fresh-start feeling. Both kiddos woke up early with huge smiles and eagerness. Our littlest is off to Kindergarten! I haven’t quite figured out how to feel about that notion. It’s a bit strange to be sitting here without a little buddy this morning. Thankfully both go to the school just two full days a week and work from home the other three. It’s a great schedule.

Since our shopping was a bit more special this week, we went “to the city” to buy polo shirts and lunch boxes. Getting out of the mountains is always a treat. Especially when “Target” is on the list of places to go. Can you believe we don’t have a Target? I could go on and on about that.

Anyway, we did stop by a couple second hand stores amidst our school shopping. I always need more cashmere and wool to make my pillows and scarves so anytime we are out, we squeeze in Goodwill if there is one close. I scored a lot of great cashmere colors which was great and much needed.

Cashmere and wool is a given and I could share those finds every week, but that would be boring! it is much more fun to have other things to share here. We had been diligently watching for a third fan. Being in the mountains, our temps are cool enough not to need air conditioning. But we do need that extra bit of help to get the cool air in…especially in the evening when the kids rooms get stuffy and they are trying to go to sleep. Just knowing that a used fan would turn up if we had a little patience, we decided to wait a few weeks before purchasing one at the big box stores.

I’m glad we waited!  Vintage fans are so much cooler than anything we could have found new in town. Jeff scored this one killing time with the kids while I was in school orientation meetings. I love the color! And it is a powerful little thing for just $3!

And coincidentally, a matching find. During our trip to the city last weekend, I made a beeline for this blouse/jacket as I walked into a goodwill. I still have the Anthropologie catalog from when this jacket came out (it’s from a few years ago). Happy day when you find anthro at goodwill. It is waiting in my studio for one of the hook and eye’s to be tightened but with that done, and a cleaning, it will be great for fall!

What about you? Any frugal finds this past week? I’ll be linking up with a couple blogs (here and here) that share frugal finds on Monday’s.

Hard to believe it is August! We have just a couple weeks left before school starts and I need to get a move on in order to finish up our new home-work area for the kids. They go to an alternative scheduled school where they are home more than at school. Sort of in between “normal” schooling and home schooling. We love it!

My “Thrift Share Monday” find is school-related and though not from a thrift, it did save us $80. thrifty to be sure!

In our new school work space (which is part of our newly finished basement which I shared a bit about here) is a long wall perfect for a large map. I had it narrowed down to this wall map from Ikea and this one from National Geographic. With shipping to include on the NG one, they came to about the same price but I still couldn’t pull the trigger easily on either one. I’m guess I’m just spoiled by the cheaper prices at thrift stores! $150 was a lot to swallow. That is until we found one in the As-Is section of Ikea for 50% off! I was pumped. The guy helping in that section  mentioned that there was nothing wrong with it except for damage to the box. He was right, the map itself was still sealed in the cardboard tube. Score!

Jeff hung it this weekend…bonus that is is stretched on a frame rather than glued to the wall like the NG map. We couldn’t be more excited to be able to point out locations while we do school work with the kids in a few weeks!

How about you? Any thrifty finds to share? I’m linking up with Apron Thrift Girl and Southern Hospitality‘s weekly shares and you can too!

I could title this post “Free share Monday”. Or “Happy Monday”.

We Jeff drops off our garbage and recycling each week (or so) at the city garbage and recycling drop off site. Yes, you heard that right. We Jeff physically loads it up and drives it over. Odd eh?

While city-folk in Austin, TX and Denver, CO, it never occurred to us that some people actually have to take their garbage somewhere. Imagine that. And now we are those “some people”. Honestly, it’s a stinky job. Think of this. No truck, festering cans of garbage, SUV. Stink. But we Jeff (are you sick of that underlining thing yet?) does it because we love where we live.  I could write a new version of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse and have you nodding your head at the wonders of living rurally. Though the city mouse would be holding his nose during the garbage run. As do we.

Where am I going with this. Garbage. Oh! At our garbage site, we can also leave our unwanted items and others leave theirs. Leave what you don’t want, grab what you do. Yesterday during the weekly garbage run, Jeff brought home this vintage chalkboard out of the swap pile. He knows my tastes well! I love that it has a ledge for the chalk. And speaking of chalk. I can hear the little ones have found it and the new board. Chalk on a chalk board is a rather distinctive sound.

It’s leaning in the window now with a chair to keep it there while I scope out a permanent spot.

We’ve lived here for almost two years and over that time we’ve found several other great finds from the swap pile. Here is another: 3 vintage locally made rocking chairs. Love! And free for the taking!

I’d love to hear about your fabulous free finds! I’m linking up with “Thrift Share Monday”…join in the fun!

My share today for Thrift Share Monday was actually purchased a couple months ago. Hope there are no rules to break! We work on a monthly cash budget…and well, it’s the end of the month and our cash is gone. So I’m sharing a sofa we found in May. I brought it home for $65 plus tax.

We recently finished our walk-out basement and all our comfy overstuffed furniture moved down into the new TV/family area. The furniture is nearing 10 years old, slightly outdated 90′s style, but still in great condition. With white slipcovers it works great down in the new space but that left our main floor completely bare of furniture.

I wanted something a little more interesting, eclectic and less matchy matchy. So in came this…good or bad I’m not yet sure!

This bright yellow-green floral print couch is in near perfect condition. I’ve toyed around with the idea of reupholstering it (maybe in a warm grey like this gorgeous before/after example). Or leaving the fabric be and painting the wood frame. If I can figure out a good color that would update the couch. Help!

You can see in the upper left I’ve already started playing around with a creamy color. Hmmm. It’s not working for me and will easily come off (it was just for trial). I may try dark grey next.

Any suggestions?

In case it helps to see the rest of the room. Here are a couple “before photos” as well as a photoshopped “after” photo. I put in a grey wall, dark gray paint on the couch and a bright rug. hmmm. Thoughts?

Photoshopped version:

Hope all the Dad’s out there had a wonderful Father’s Day! Yesterday was truly the most relaxing ever at our house. After church we had a movie marathon and ended the day with ice cream cones and a walk on the greenway. Ahhh. Our only caveat was Blockbuster not having Swiss Family Robinson (wierd, eh?). We’ve been reading the book to the kids and had wanted to watch the movie yesterday. We’ll have to be on the lookout for it.

The final outcome of the kids’ gift to Jeff (first mentioned here):

And to show just how many photos I have to take to get a handful of great ones. Here are the “get-the-silly-out” shots:

It’s Thrift Share Monday! Inspired by the blog Apron Thrift Girl by Selena Cate, who shares her thrifted finds on Mondays and invites others to do the same.

Must be the week for donating mid-century chairs. Not more than two days after finding the Barcelona style chair (which I shared last Monday), this one turned up.

And yet again, I didn’t buy it right away. I knew what it was but having JUST bought a chair a few days before I walked right by with great will-power. Well, not right by. I first turned it over to look for a label (none).

Two days later I sent my man back to see if it was still there. What great willpower, eh?

Neither is it a real deal Eames chair from Knoll which would be worth a thousand or two, nor is it in perfect shape but still a good find for being in the mountains of North Carolina. Actually, I think our thrifting is better for mid-century  and older items because we are not in or near a city. Current items? Not so much!

Unfortunately it has a significant scratch on the plycraft back, wear around the wood edges, an oddly made button or two, and is upholstered in vinyl (rather than leather which was originally intended for this chair style).

But as you can see, it’s already been used for my pillow business. Happy day.

So I thought I’d start sharing a few of my favorite thrifting finds. I’m sure you’ve read the stories about someone finding a real-deal Picasso (insert other cool items here) at a garage sale for a dollar. Well, I may have never found a Picasso but I sure enjoy the hunt and have some really interesting items around the house that came from thrifts or garage sales. Because I shop second hand to fulfill my wool and cashmere business needs, I often find other things for my family as well.

Inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Apron Thrift Girl by Selena Cate, who shares her thrifted finds, I thought I’d join in on her “Thrift Share Monday”. It just so happens to be Monday and I arrived home with one fabulous find. Woot!

Can you believe I actually walked out of the store without this chair? Well, I’m sure some of you can. Just a very masculine brown and chrome chair right? It was a bit dusty and being somewhat of a chair freak who has too many already, I forced myself to leave without it. But then forced myself right back in. It’s not just any chair. It’s a version of a barcelona chair. The chair of chairs. A piece of art in itself. Mine doesn’t have quite as nice a line as the original Barcelona chair which has a curvier chrome base and two cushions rather than one.

But for $35 you can’t even buy a cheap ikea chair these days. I reasoned that I had been looking for a modern chair for a photo prop. Even if I only use it as a photo prop for my pillow business, that was reason enough to buy it. Right? Right! With thrifting you have to act quickly. So I grabbed the tag off, paid, and called the man of the house. He knows a call from the kids and I at Goodwill means a pick-up on his way home is likely. What a good man I have.

Now to find the perfect place for it!