It’s no secret. I love antique stores, flea markets, thrift stores, and salvage yards. They love me as well. My hope for you is to help you create a home, filled with the things that you love. Simply that, and only that. Today I really want to just scratch the surface of why I shop at these types of places.
Buying used wood, used light fixtures, and other furniture pieces has changed the look of my home in so many ways. My home is unique, it works for us, and is like none other. I hope that you can say the same thing for your home.
Buying used has also saved us thousands of dollars. No kidding around here. I feel good when I’m not participating in the throw out/purge everything in sight to get something new movement that seems to be going on. Sorry that was a bit of a rant and run on sentence. What someone else labels as junk, could quite certainly be a treasure if it is used properly in your home.
Yesterday I was thinking of all the good times we have had in our yard. The days of summer could not come quick enough for me right now. For now, I’ll have to tuck those thoughts away for a wee bit, or should I say for a few months. We spend a fair amount of time in our yard so my husband created this lattice-work to create a barrier to hide the neighbours chain link fence. It worked so well, I really can’t even see the chain link fence it in this picture. He did this with wood we purchased at a Salvage Yard, costing way less than it would to make each panel from new wood. We still received the privacy we were looking for and the money stayed in our pockets.
Being unique and not following the grid that is “supposed” to be followed in design is high on one of my values. This makes me think of the table my husband made for us. I came up with the design and he created it for me. Such a nice guy isn’t he? Well it wasn’t really that easy. If it was, I would have made it myself. Who am I kidding. I’m the designer and he is the builder in this relationship.
We purchased real, old hardwood boards to create this truly, one of a kind Harvest table. All from used wood.
I came across this on Home and Gardens. This tired old cabinet was turned into a beautiful storage system. You won’t believe the results. It started in this state… Any easy find in most homes.
After it looks like this. Stunningly modern and sleek.
Or this tired old bookcase that needed some serious love. The post I did on this DIY bookcase still sits at the top of one of my most popular posts. Like I said, “Who knew?”
The after product sits quite pretty for the person that bought it off me on Craigslist the very next day.
I showed you this post again to show you what’s possible if you think a little different about pieces that come from second-hand shops or even existing furniture pieces in your home. What you already own could be the piece that takes the feeling of your home from fine to fabulous!
So I’ve got some Home work for you this weekend!!! If you are looking for new Furniture pieces, humor me and try some second-hand stores first. You never know what you may come across…
I Hope you will find yourself Simply Inspired this weekend.
Jodi
I agree wholeheartedly. LOVE, love, love taking the old and making it new!