they sell all, you gain much

An estate sale.  The holy grail of yard sales and the easiest way to get quality items at awesome deals.  I visited one last weekend that literally may have been the best thrifty find outing EVER.

Ever been to one?  Much like a yard sale, home owners are trying to get rid of their stuff.  However, estate sales usually offer more of a fire sale situation.  The home owners need to get ALL of their stuff out of the house in one foul swoop.   Sometimes professional estate sale representatives from a management company are hired to oversee the sale.  They call the shots in this case, not the homeowner.

So what was scored this time?  So much my friends, so much for so little.

Check out this really cool old mustard yellow side table that was a mere $17.

Look familiar?  It’s the same mid-century modern style as the stereo console!  Black legs and all.  Such luck.  We still needed something to hold our record player so it was PERFECT.  Except… well, I tested it out in my studio as a sewing machine table:

It’s got storage and everything. 

I’m not sure if it’s going to make its way into the living room now 😉

What else?  Some photography equipment!  As it turns out, I happened to be raiding the house of a retiring professional photographer.  Check this stuff out:

Clearly, there’s not enough room for it all in my little studio nook.  Haha. 

Did you happen to see the computer in the room?  Well, that was the photographer dude’s desktop CPU as well.  I am here to tell you, the photography equipment AND the computer only cost $50 total.  Granted, the computer needed some work, but it was wayyy worth it.

TIPS

Pay special attention to estate sales in older neighborhoods.  The homeowners tend to have vintage furniture and/or accessories there.  Sometimes you can find stuff right under your nose that would sell for 5 times as much at an antique store!

Attend estate sales twice in one day.  Once in the first couple of hours it is open to check it out.  Is it worth your time?  THEN come back in the last hour of the event and expect the prices to be super discounted.  Disclaimer: of course you risk losing something you saw in the beginning, so get the must-haves in the first visit of the day.  But trust me on this, the 2nd time I visited this most recent estate sale, they were yelling “half off everything” at me as I walked in the door.

Happy estate sale shopping 🙂

Share your finds with me!  I’d love your comments and experiences.

DIY repurposing an old stereo console

This is definitely my fave thrift store furntiture project to date.

The hubs and I got this sweet vintage stereo console at our favorite thirft store, Nettie’s Thrift and Consignment in WPB:

Look how cool this thing is.  Original radio & turn table in tact. Honestly, it could have been left well alone and it would be awesome in it’s original essence, but I decided to repurpose it to work perfectly with our space.

The console would be used to store our DVD player, cable box, PS3, record player, etc. under the TV.  We were using this set up before, another thrifty find, but it just didn’t hold that all we needed it to and we ended up stacking stuff on and around it:

See?   No bueno.  I like things neat and organized!

So, first things first with this baby.

I wanted to make sure to preserve and enhance the vintage feel, so I went with a weathered crackle style finish.  To achieve this, all you need to do is buy the crackle glaze, a basecoat paint (optional), and a topcoat paint.  I didn’t get a basecoat paint because we wanted to wood to show through instead of another color.

Brush the glaze on AFTER your base color has dried.  Or, if you’re just using the original surface as the base like this, you can put it directly on there.  Do it pretty quickly, it dries fast.

The insides of the console were removed, with the exception of  saving the “telefunken” radio logo.  DUH!  So cool.  That thing is going right back on there.

Some paint colors we tested too.  Remember to always get samples FIRST before you commit.

The light robin’s egg/Tiffany blue shade is the color of the season AND it matches our beloved dining table set.  Score.

Brush the paint on and as it dries, watch the crackles appear before your very eyes. 

It may not crackle evenly, but to me, a little inconsistency is part of the charm.  It also looks pretty cool if some paint streaking or pooling occurs.

Check it out:

When the paint dried, the edges were sanded for an extra weathered touch.  The legs were also spray painted black, it added some depth

 I looove repurposing stuff, and this distressed finish look is pretty simple to achieve.  Give it a try with your next thrift shop piece! 🙂

Hand-me-down Heaven

Out of all the furniture we own (not including our fabulous clawfoot bathtub- post about that forthcoming!) this set is my favorite:

This dining set is straight off of 5th Avenue in New York circa the 1950’s.  We have been so blessed with this heirloom from the hubs’ Grandma.

I mean, just check out these chairs:

The pedestal detail:

Did I mention this has THREE leaves that extend the table to practically banquet length? Thank you, Grandma Firkser, for this precious gift.