Trash to Treasure

[Kathy]

There's a show on HGTV that has a segment called Trash to Treasure. They take some piece of furniture of equipment and redesign it to be something else.

A set of shutters became a book case.

A headboard and footboard became a bench.

A chair without legs became a child's swing.

A broken mirror is glued like mosaics to a chandelier.

An old tray becomes a table top.

Have you had such thoughts? Have you taken an object and turned it into something else? Something more useful?

I created a headboard with a piece of old plywood, simply by painting a design on the wood.

The plywood was the correct size for a twin bed. I sanded it. I primed it. I painted a design on it with a simple quilt pattern using acrylic paint. I added hangee thingees on the back and attached it to the wall.

I know there are other things around here I've turned from trash to a treasure...but I can't think of them right now.

Inspire us with your treasures!

[wingriderprincess]

I found a piece of marble leaning up against a tree while walking in the timber on my in-laws farm. I had it polished and found a singer sewing machine base on ebay that had been restored. My dh attached the marble to a piece of board and screwed it into the base. I put it in my living room in front of my (very large) window. It makes a place for my kitties to lay in the sun and keeps them off my furniture, and... it is gorgous! On this same farm, I found an old wire gate. I put it in the backyard and planted a clematis by it so it is now a cool looking trellis. I found a bird cage at a garage sale and hang it with green stuff and lots of different colors of flowers ( dwarf snapdraggons and fern are my favorite) in a pot. I grab baskets at thrift shops and use them as flower pots each Spring. My mil had a small antique dresser she was gonna toss. I wood glued the drawers, painted it white and am using it in my kitchen as a microwave stand and I store all my place mats, table linens ect. in it. I get tons of compliments on that piece. I found an antique head board and footboard laying in a ditch in the rain. I sanded it down and stained it and it is now in my guest room. I had an offer of $1800 for it :) I could go on and on because turning trash to treasure is one of my favorite things to do!!

The thrift stores love me :rofl:

[Kathy]

Ohh! I have a similar story!

My FIL has a plot of land that is his spot on earth. We lovingly call this 7 acres "the ranch". He walks it, pushes dirt on it...its in a lovely spot in central texas. In the spring it is covered in bluebonnets.

He is also a ...er...collector of things. He will buy people's garage contents and have it deposited in this lovely landscape. Eeeks.

For a while on the front porch of the little house (not-inhabitable) on the ranch was an old treadle singer sewing machine. Years later he moved it to one of the storage buildings he put up on the hill.

I fussed about it through several visits as this was unacceptable...to have a lovely piece of equipment in a metal building after years of neglect on a front porch. He had been keeping it around thinking the parts could be used for some sort of gadget.

Finally, he gave it to me. I dragged it home. The machine was in horrible condition. Tossed it. The top wood was warped. I put it in the car and took it to a local man who could help me. He was a wood worker.

He was thrilled. He had a lady who was needing him to reconstruct the top of her antique singer sewing machine. He could use my parts as patterns for his project. In exchange, he built a new oak table top for the metal base, cleaned up the metal legs/base/treadle and its back in my living room next to my chair. Its my favorite piece!

[gemsab]

I have refinished and refurbished many a pieces of furniture that now adorn my children's old rooms when they left with their own furniture to go live on there own. In fact, my DD's whole room now is yard sale finds. My best deal was a an old kitchen chair I bought for $8 many years ago. I stripped it, stained it and cained the seat and use it as my desk chair. It has held up for some 20 plus years. God I love yard sales!!!!!!!!

Emily

[Meditating Gramma]

I drug home a old stained dresser that was like one I had as a child and it was old then. I bought it for $15.00. I also bought an old black dresser for $40.00 that I knew underneith just had to be oak. My husband was not very happy with it and called it all junk. Well I stripped them and bleached them, stained them and oiled them and they are just lovely and now worth quite a bit of money. I was offered $400.00 for the dresser. I also bought 2 pieces of pottery at a yard sale, one for $5.00 and one for $25.00. I sold the $5.00 for $2200.00 and the $25.00 for $1000.00. My husband no longer gets upset about my purchases, lol.
In my back yard I have a very old reliable stove that I painted, build a brick patio for and plant flowers in. My husband was amazed at how good it looked. When you live on a tight budget you get good at fixing things.

Julie

[gemsab]

Oh, Julie, you are a woman after my own heart!!!!!!!


Emily

[Ms Big Butt]

I have an antique player piano (1925!), and needed a place to stash all the music rolls. A music cabinet from the old days looks like a kitchen cupboard on legs, with many shelves spaced closely together for sheet music or player rolls. Even "new", a nice one is around $400. :(

One day while garage saling, I spotted an old painted music cabinet in a driveway. The seller said it had been used in the basement as a little utility table, but they weren't really sure what the piece was for. I bought it for FIVE DOLLARS. My hubby stripped the paint off to find cherry underneath, which complements my burled walnut piano :) What a find!! :bliss:

[wingriderprincess]

Today at work the sweet elderly lady I clean for said, "why don't you take that table downstairs you like so well?" *omg*
She didn't have to tell me twice. I called Dh and had him bring the truck over and we loaded it up. It's a drop leaf formica table like they used in the 50's. I put it in my laundry room. I'm going to use it as a folding table. She used it to china paint on and it had paint all over it. I used finger nail polish remover to take the paint off and it is in perfect condition now!! I just love old stuff, made new again :)

[Kim308pl]

When I was pregnant I was looking for the perfect set of chest of drawers for him. I could not find them anywhere. We found this very old set at a little shop on the side of a road. We bought it for 10.00, we got a new backing for it as it was toast. We primed it and I bought white paint. We painted it white. After that I took all my acryliic paints and I painted the knobs different colors. Then I painted a design on the side and then went to the store and (his room theme was baby looney tunes) bought those stickup things, where you can put them on the wall and all, well I put some on diffferent areas of the drawers. It turned out to be exactly what I wanted.

Kim