What I did with my garage sale finds

Every week I head out to garage sales.  On a good week, I am able to go on Friday and Saturday.  It's been my thing for years now.  Sometimes I pick up projects to do while I am out at garage sales.  Not everything is perfect, sometimes I have a plan for the things I pick up.

Today I will share with you a few of those things that I had plans for and how they turned out.

In May I shared with you how I was looking for a buffet table for my entry.

The next week, I found this dresser on the side of the road for FREE!

It was in great shape, and was the length that I had in mind for the spot in my house.

However, the color needed a little umph.

So I painted it black.

Notice I hadn't put the knobs and handles back on it yet.

And while I was out at garage sales, my daughter decorated the top of the dresser for me.

It worked, but I wanted something about a foot taller for the space.

Cue Persnickety's Awesomeness Emporium.
In my hunt for the perfect front entry piece, I mentioned to several people about what I was looking for.
Mandi, the owner of Persnickety's listened and called me about a week later with this vintage Ethan Allen piece.  I saw this sideboard and fell in love.  I was concerned about the boldness of the color {my house is pretty boring}, and how it would match with my entry.  I am still not sure why the builders put travertine in the entry and didn't carry the hardwoods through the whole downstairs.  I dragged my husband along to have him look at the piece {we named him Otis} and he didn't hate it.  So we bought it.  With the understanding that I would bring my free black dresser to Persnickety's to sell.

I painted the frame on our family picture the next day to match Otis.

The mat needs to be changed out now.  

In time.

So what do you think?

This is a visual progression of what I have put in this space.

I think it slowly gets better.

I think I forgot to show all of you my wonderful glass canister set that I got for $5.

They started out with blue tops.

And not a cool blue, it was a country blue.

A quick coat of spray paint, and the tops were black.

These types of jars are great for wrapping a ribbon around and putting a label on for a party.

Do you remember these from a few weeks ago?

I got them for $1

I knew from the moment I got them what I wanted to do with them.

I took the curvy top part off.

And then had my kids go search through their legos.

They were on a hunt for every mini fig they could find.

They started lining them up on the box lid.

While they did that, I spray painted the boxes white.

As a side note, not all spray paint is created equal. 

I should have bought the more expensive can.

Learn from my mistake people!

Don't they make the best mini fig display cases?

My son was so excited about them that he could hardly wait for the paint to dry.

He woke up early one morning to put them together before I even had time to offer any direction for him.

Oh well, it's his thing and he loves it!

What have you found at a garage sale lately?And what have you done to make a thrift store or garage sale find better?