Decorating Your Home With Gently Used Items - A Few Updated Pieces

If you recall, last Sunday I posted about decorating our new apartment (which probably won't happen until August, but that's another post for another day), with repurposed and re-crafted pieces that I picked up at yard sales and thrift stores. If you missed it, then you can go back and read it here.

Anyway, I was able to update two of the pieces to suit my style and decor this week and I wanted to share them with you today.

In the picture below are the pieces as I originally purchased them are on the left, and on the right you can see the updates.

As I mentioned in my first post, I didn't care for the look of the pine trees on the ribbon of the basket, which ended up not being a ribbon at all, but a thin piece of wood. But thankfully I was still able to cut it and pull it out pretty easily and, as I suspected the green and black check ribbon I bought for 75% off at Michaels after Christmas fit the space perfectly! I am IN LOVE with this basket! I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to use it and for now it's sitting on a shelf at my daughter's apartment. I spent a little time there this week visiting and crafting, and this was the first project I worked on. I knew it would be the easiest and that the ribbon was the only change I would make. It took me less than 20 minutes to complete it.

Since you can't see the wooden kleenex box very well in the second picture above, here's a better view. This one was pretty easy, as well. I had a day this week when I was feeling well enough to work with my husband on some projects in our storage facility, one of which was painting two chairs to go with our kitchen table. We've been functioning with two black chairs and just pulling in odd ones here and there from the rest of the house for awhile now and I was eager to have four black chairs specifically for the table. So now I have two sets of two matching chairs but they are similar in style and to be honest I kind of like the mismatched look, and the fact that they are all black groups it all together nicely. I'm going to let the paint set for a couple of weeks on the two we just painted to make sure it adheres well, then I'm going to distress them with sandpaper like the other two chairs and the table.  But, while I was at it I decided to go ahead and paint this wooden kleenex box, and I love how it turned out! Like the chairs I'll let it set for a bit, probably not quite as long as the chairs, but I also have to buy some sandpaper the next time I'm out, and then I'll scuff it up!

My husband wanted to hit the thrift stores again to pick up some DVD's to take on the road with him when he leaves (which will still be awhile yet), and while we were there I came across these two tablecloths in my FAVORITE colors and both in perfect condition. They fit my kitchen table well enough, they won't hang over much on the end, but I don't mind that, and I'm sure I'll find a multitude of other uses for them. And the best part is, they were in the linen bin and almost all the items in that particular bin are only a $1, so this was a real steal!

I picked up a few other pieces, too, but I'm going to save that post for another day. A few of the times I plan to keep, but I did pick up a few things to sell, as well. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to work all of that, but I'm not in any hurry and I still have to craft and repurpose the items to get them ready.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed seeing my "flipped thrift", I guess you could say! I'll be back on Monday and hope to visit with you then!  Have a beautiful weekend, it's gorgeous here!

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