The secondhand shoppers always looking for bargains

Who doesn't love star quality?

We love shopping for bargains and many times this means the Goodwill Stores in our area.  We have three of them and we check periodically for new donations so we can find what I call: the pretties, for our home decor.  Once in a while we like to visit Goodwill Stores in neighboring towns too.

The stars in the picture were once a Christmas decoration someone had made.  They were screwed together, rusty and had lights between them.  We looked at them, saw the price of $5, set them back down and took another look at them.  We realized we could take them apart and repaint them to make them look better.  Once we saw we were getting two for $5 we decided to buy them.  Each star costs anywhere from $8.95 to $28 each on auction sites and in stores.  So $5 for two is a bargain.  Never underestimate any decorative piece's potential.  After painting them, they look great on the primitive wooden bench in our home.

Victorian planter, another great find

Many folks like yard and garage sales too.  We check out festivals in our surrounding small towns because they have yard sales and once in a while, flea markets.  The fun is you get to have a nice ride and you never know what treasures you'll find.  I have always eyed those Victorian metal planters at out local flea market but could never afford them.  Flea market ones can go for as much as $75 to $150 each.  Way out of our budget.  Last year we traveled to a festival and checked out a barn sale.  A lady had a barn full of antiques.  We were able to buy this Victorian planter for just $5.  It was pretty rusty but we took it home, Steve cleaned it up and painted it flat black.  It's been on our porch holding plants all summer long.  I'd say it was our find of the year.   

                Shadow boxes, always pricey

Shadow boxes online and in person, always seem to be high priced.  We were shopping the Goodwill Store one day and there was one just tossed on one of the shelves.  Dried flowers and fake birds seem to be a popular subject and command a good price.  In my research I found they sell from $60 to a few hundred dollars.   We got ours for $1.99 and it appears to be an antique one.  We absolutely love it and it looks very pretty on our wall. 

Our local courthouse in puzzle form


Last but not least in this blog, is a puzzle of our local courthouse.  It is framed and appears to be a picture from the 1950's, judging by the vehicles. We were browsing through the framed pictures at the local Goodwill and stumbled across this old puzzle of our courthouse downtown.  This is absolutely one of my favorite finds.  I adore old photos of our city and local places.  This also looks wonderful on our wall, in a pretty frame.

You just never know what secondhand shops, garage sales or flea markets will yield.  So to find pretty bargains, always shop those places.  Remember: Cleaning and paint, will make it what it ain't.  Happy shopping and feel free to share anything you have found in your hunt.  Follow us on Facebook. 

Budget fashion and style

A mid-century modern rather large dresser

We bought a set of rather large, dressers which came with some nightstands.  This particular dresser (in the pic) has sat in our living room, posing as a Credenza.  We even offered them for sale, once, on Craig's list at a pretty bargain price and had no takers.  I'm mystified as to why no takers because these dressers are in excellent condition and dressers aren't cheap in any store these days.  Be that as it may, we finally have settled on what this dresser would be when it grew up.  Right now, its permanent home is in our kitchen as an island. 

The dresser's new role as a kitchen island.

When decorating your home, remember it is just that, your home, a reflection of your taste, your style.  Don't let decorating become a daunting task.  You read in magazines about eclectic designs, or taste or designs.  Toss it out the window.  Whatever suits you can become an eclectic design.  Your taste, your choice is you, as a person, as a designer.  Whatever color or style you choose, is you, it is unique, no one else's ideas.  Don't be afraid to mix the old with the new either.  Let your own personal style shine.  What makes an interior designer famous anyway?  Lord only knows.

Tin stars on an old bench makes a nice fall display

We bought the tin stars at the Goodwill Store.  We paid $5 for the pair ($2.50 each) and we repainted them.  Shopping our local antique stores, we found tin stars for $10 to $15 dollars each, this same size.  Coupled with an old bench we bought a while back for $4, they make a nice display for Fall, or anytime of the year.

                      Umbrella holder

We bought this ceramic umbrella holder at Goodwill for $3.  Since we don't have real umbrellas, we paid 99 cents each for the paper ones we have on display.

   Old game board

The old game board in this picture was found in a dumpster.  Price: free

These game boards are still made, but this one is an older version of today's models.  We found this in a dumpster.  I told you we are not above dumpster diving if there is something interesting.

Large letters, Maxwell House coffee mug, cute nest

The letters are displayed in our dining room and the nest and coffee mug were all found at Goodwill.  We repainted the letters red, from a plain brown.

Wicker sleigh

This little wicker sleigh was found at Goodwill for $2.

So now, don't be afraid to choose whatever style you like.  Your style can be as fashionable as any 'professional' interior designer's.  Happy decorating.

Decorating, the perpetual secondhand store shopper

Find of the year, antique radio, maybe the find of the Century, for us anyway

This picture is in our dining room.  To the left is a primitive birdhouse we found at the Salvation Army store, the glass washboard we found at Goodwill, our antique style glass shaded lamp, our vintage radio and on the right, the cabinet Steve made for me to house some of my collections.

List of prices we paid:  This list proves you can decorate cheaply if you look hard enough.  1) primitive birdhouse: $2.00 at Salvation Army Store.  2) Glass washboard: $3.00 at the Goodwill Store (asking price in many antique shops is $35.  3) Antique style glass shaded lamp: $2.00 at local secondhand store.  4) This one is the find of the year for us..antique radio: a whopping $20.00 at our local secondhand shop (marked down from $35 because no one wanted to buy it (Fools).  In the local antique shops: radio prices range from $125 to $200, whether the radio works or not. I did tell you that decorating with taste, cheaply, is not impossible.  We have a shoestring budget, so we frequent the Goodwill Stores, Salvation Army Store, and garage and yard sales and secondhand shops in our area.  It takes some looking to find bargains, but we love it, the thrill of the hunt is what makes it so much fun.  

The ever growing collection

I love Coca Cola items, both old and new.  As my collection of Coke items, my advertising tins and anything else that catches my eye while shopping for vintage-style items, grows, so does my need for places to display them.  Many of my tins are displayed on top of the kitchen cabinets, but when those spaces got filled up, Steve decided to construct display cabinets for me in the primitive style I love.  He knew I needed the display cases or risk being on an episode of Hoarders.  Bless him.  The Coke glasses and matching pitcher cost me $.49 per glass and the pitcher cost $2.00.  

   Some of my extensive Coke collection housed in the homemade cabinet.

A mixture of advertising tins, Coke collection and vintage vinegar cruets. 

I love vinegar cruets, the old ones, because as a kid, I grew up with vinegar cruets on the kitchen table.  My Dad loved vinegar on fresh cucumbers, baked beans and many other foods, so Mom always had vinegar handy in cruets.  Yeah, it's the nostalgia of it all for me. 

Food choppers, cruets, advertising tins and advertising trays, displayed in our country kitchen.

Berries above the French doors leading from the living room into the dining room.  I love the country look of the berry swag.

Primitive looking rocking horse on the wall in our living room.  Love the country colors.

Dining room with my display of nesting boxes, cool trunk and paper ma~che teddy bears. 

Now again, the list of prices for the collection.  1) Teddy bears, $3.00 for the pair.  2) Rocking horse, $3.00.  3) Nesting boxes, I did splurge and paid $6.00 for the set.  But in the country magazines I have, they are $50 from country craft stores.  Oh, BTW, I also buy my country magazines at Goodwill for 99 cents each.  Outdated?  They are, a bit, but cost $6 to $8 brand new.  I can live with outdated. 4) Vintage cruets, $.99 each.  5) Cool trunk, $6 at Salvation Army Store. 6) Country bench that nesting boxes rest on, $2 at a yard sale, Steve painted it a nice country color for me.  7) Berry swag above doorway, $2 at the Goodwill Store in the Christmas display pile.  8) Advertising tins from $.49 to $.99 each.  Advertising trays, $1.00 each. 

All of the items we use to decorate our home with, usually cost pennies, the radio, yes we paid $20 for it but we'll splurge a bit for good quality vintage items.  This blog is designed to show you that yes, you can decorate your home with beautiful items for a fraction of what you might have thought.  We also love flea markets (don't be afraid to haggle on prices) for many items too.  I hope you enjoyed this blog and Happy Hunting. 

Yeah, we're decorating some more

              Dry sink Steve made from recycled wood, it sits                 in our dining room                


I adore wandering through different secondhand shops and seeing all of the furniture and decorations for sale.  I've always loved antique shops since I became an adult.  Funny thing though, I remember, as a kid, my Mom would drag me to every household auction in town.  Back then I was usually bored and I hated those old, worn looking pieces of furniture she would bring home to our house.  

Back then, no one was into antiques much in those days.  Those 1920 era furniture pieces could be bought for next to nothing at household auctions.  My Mom never paid more than $5 for anything at auction.  She bought dressers for $1, kitchen tables (big ones) for $5 and end tables and even a Hoosier cabinet for $1 to $2 each.  When I grew up, someone must have decided all that stuff was antique and began jacking up the prices.  I guess, as with everything we think is valuable, nostalgia had a lot to do with what people were willing to pay. Well into the 1990's I could still find nice old pieces at yard and garage sales for around $5 for wooden dressers and iron beds usually sold for $10 to $15 (complete).  It wasn't until the middle to late 90's when shops decided these pieces were hard to find.  But when EBay came along, we became aware most pieces were not as rare as we once thought.

Whatever the reason antiques have fallen from favor now, I'm just glad they have.  In our older house, the now pretty much, cheap antiques, fit right into our decor.  Does anyone really decorate their homes any more?  I don't know, but we do.  Since traveling has become so expensive for the most part, we enjoy being at home and we like it as pretty and as comfortable as possible.  

Some of my favorite pieces of furniture are primitive that look like they could have come from Great Grandma's house or log cabin.  Furniture that was made before fancy saws, mills and still have signs of hammer marks, country paint colors and crude nails.  The cruder, the better for me.  Those pieces are rare to find.  Either because people hoard them or people threw them out long ago because they were not refined pieces.  That's a shame because even though primitive, they show ingenuity and craftsmanship.  Furniture made by people using no plans or blueprints, by people not schooled in making furniture.  Since that furniture is hard to find, my husband has set up a nice wood shop and makes me the pieces I seek.  Since, in recent years, there's been an epidemic of filling landfills with things people no longer want, we always seek wood we can recycle.  Recycled wood makes the best looking primitive pieces.  The following pictures are examples of the primitives I love and the type of furniture my talented husband loves to make. 

A smaller dry sink Steve made for the bathroom

This picture, above, is a smaller dry sink Steve made for our bathroom.  This house has a rather small bathroom with the old iron tub and I didn't want modern junk to store our bathroom items in.  In the old days people used dry sinks, so Steve made me a smaller version of one to store toiletries and such in.  I have a larger one in our dining room, both made from recycled wood, both made in the primitive style I love. 

I also needed more places to store my plants for winter inside the house.  The plant stand is one Steve made, using old wood and covered it with a lovely Pennsylvania folk art sign I've had for several years.  My plants have grown rather large so I need stands that are both decorative and sturdy.

A closeup of the stenciled flowers on the dry sink

Butterfly knobs on the doors, also recycled

Plant stand from recycled wood

Top of plant stand

Decorating on a shoestring

The Windsor chairs we bought for next to nothing

The best thing about antiques, in 2015, is the fact that they have fallen out of favor so much, now I can afford to decorate our house with them.  In this top picture, we have four Windsor chairs at our dining room table.  But, in fact, we bought six of them, four for everyday and two spares for dinner guests.  We go into antique shops and find that antique shop owners are Die Hard.  They still have big prices on antiques, yet month after month, those same high priced items sit there, never selling.  I guess no one has told them those prices are so ten to fifteen years old now and the high priced antique ship has sailed.  Bad news for shops but good news for me because I still love antiques and now can afford them at yard sales and Goodwill stores.  We bought the Windsor chairs for 2 dollars each. 

My primitive rooster, Victorian style bird cage and nesting boxes

The items in the picture above are good examples of decorations I could not afford several years ago.  All of the items came from the Goodwill stores and cost next to nothing.  I paid three dollars for the wooden rooster, 99 cents for the Victorian style bird cage, which has a small bird with feathers inside and a mere six dollars for the country style nesting boxes.  I have several country decorating magazines and each of the nesting boxes cost 50 dollars, or more in their country store outlets.  Good finds, indeed. 

                     Little country stand and Coke tray

This small, country style stand we bought at a yard sale for about five dollars.  No one attends yard sales much anymore either.  Just 10 to 12 years ago, we had to get up early to beat the crowd in order to find nice things at yard sales.  These days, a yard sale is lucky to see a hand full of people. We have a generation that would rather buy Ikea 'junk' than have nice, solid, well built furniture that has obviously lasted many, many years.  What, don't like brown furniture?  Ever heard of sandpaper and spray paint in the color of your choice?  While the wooden stand is real, my Coke trays are re-pops but I don't care, they still look nice and go with my decor.  Besides, genuine antique Coke trays are probably all in someone's collection or have been tossed in the trash due to paint chipping and rust.  

                      Corner stand my husband made for me

This corner stand is a great example of what you can do on a shoestring.  My husband bought a set of bi-fold doors and made corner shelves for it, stained it, added the decorative top with pegs and now it stands in the dining room corner.  This is just one of three he has created for me.  I have them all through the house.  They look wonderful and fit right in with our antique/country/primitive theme.  He bought the bi-fold doors at out local Habitat for Humanity Store for around 15 dollars.  

I suppose, these days, a generation does not like 'Grandma's old crap' but, for me, it's great, I'll take Grandma's old crap any day because now, I can get a lot of it for a song and it looks great in this old house.  That's another thing too, a generation that would rather own a new, made not so well, house in a damned development, than a nice, older one that has withstood time and the elements.  It's a shame people don't appreciate the craftsmanship that went into these beautiful old houses.  Houses that have seen several generations of people raise kids, enjoyed holiday dinners and celebrations, and seen many, many kids grow up over time. Yes we know lots of people who own houses in developments, but I'll be damned if some housing association will tell me what's allowed and not allowed in my own backyard.  Houses that are over priced and shake when the wind blows.  No thank you.

Decorating, looking expensive and still being frugal

      Just looks like a pile of scrap wood

We search our local Craigslist all the time looking for free anything.  Low cost is great, but free is a bigger bargain.  We happened to find a person who is remodeling his house and advertised a small trailer full of wood he pulled from his house.  He advertised it as free and said if no one wanted it, it was going to the junk.  We saved all this nice wood from going to the local landfill.  Steve, my husband, loves to make furniture and I love the furniture.  For me, old wood is wonderful because I'm partial to rustic furniture.  So from these piles, comes furniture for our house, furniture he makes me for a song.

You might say: "I can't make furniture, never done it before."  Steve has never made much furniture either, before now.  Since I adore rustic furniture, the older wood works perfectly for making my rustic cabinets and recently, two dry sinks.  All painted with the flat, country colors.  

                       A spice rack made from scrap wood

I used to keep my spices in one cupboard.  Every time I cooked, I had to drag all the spices out, place them on the counter just to find a few I needed for that recipe.  We searched stores and couldn't find a decent sized spice rack to hold all our bottles. (Spice racks have fallen out of favor?)  We love to cook at home, from scratch.  This way we control what goes into our food, like no added salt or sugars, so spices are essential to make the food taste good.  Steve made this rack from scrap wood and we happened to have some stencils we bought a long time ago.  He painted the rack in a lovely country color, added the word 'Spices' to it and used a stencil on each side.  I love it, now I can see the bottles without having to drag them from the cupboard and put them all back.  

                      Trash can holder from scrap wood

We also have two cats, who, BTW, like to get into the trash can in the kitchen, if possible.  I needed a trash can with a lid.  I looked at out local second hand shops and the cute ones they offered cost $20 and up, mostly and up.  Steve measured our trash can and put together an attractive box for the trash can in our kitchen.  Now I have a nice looking place for our trash.  We bought an advertisement at Goodwill for 99 cents, that says: " Pride Seed Co."  For a long time I didn't know what I might do with that advertisement.  Steve glued it to the top of the trash can holder and now the holder looks like an old fashioned seed crate.  Very clever.  I've gotten many compliments on this box.

Just because you want nice things for your home doesn't mean you have to spend a fortune.  Look around, re purpose, paint, spend less and you can imagine a ladder, scrap wood or an old piece of furniture painted to become whatever your imagination says it can be. 

Decorating on a shoestring because we're poor

     Old windows we inherited from the house

Decorating the house, at first, seemed daunting.  We started out by deciding what theme we would run with and carry it through to each room.  You can choose modern, mid-century, Victorian or anything that you like.  We're partial to the country look with a spattering of primitive.  There were three old windows in the garage when we moved in, so we decided to start using them throughout the house.  The one above, is displayed just inside our front door on the wall.  We originally had a hall tree there but decided it just didn't go with the decor we wanted.  We ended up selling it at a yard sale.  We painted the frame a country blue then added the metal word 'LOVE' that we purchased at out local Goodwill Store.  We went searching specifically for decorations at Goodwill that we could use on each window.  We paid 99 cents for the metal letters, and another 99 cents for the small shelf we attached to the bottom front.  I already had a bag of glass owls I'd purchased for 99 cents, so decided it was a perfect size to display my collection.  The antique glass beaded swag was purchased for $3.50 at one of our local thrift shops, but there were two swags in the pack, so the $3.50 was a nice bargain and makes a wonderful topper for this project.  With the paint, the shelf and swag, the entire project probably cost us about five or six dollars.  One of the area antique shops is selling these, not as pretty as this one, for about $35 to $45 so we ended up with an expensive looking piece at a fraction of the cost.  We made a bathroom theme and a bedroom theme out of the other two.  The other two probably cost $2.00 to $3.00 because the decorations were much cheaper than the glass swag.  All decorations were bought at Goodwill for 99 cents or less, some cost as little as 49 cents each.

                      Glass swag up close

                  Bedroom themed window frame.

The bedroom frame is adorned with handmade, calico tulips. 
I bought an entire bouquet of them for about 49 cents.  I guess no one wanted them so they were marked down.  The two plaques were 99 cents each. 

                              The 99 cent plaques

                 The bathroom themed frame.  The metal holder
                  for washcloths, was really an old plate holder 
                  in its former life.
                  

These were the first of our decorating projects.  We were fortunate enough to inherit old windows but you can still purchase them cheaply at garage sales and flea markets. 

 Sometimes people will give them away if they happen to be remodeling.  We hope you enjoyed this project and we hope you will try it sometime.  Thanks for reading and always feel free to leave tips, pictures and comments.  You can find these shared on Facebook under Roberta Davie-Weathers. I look forward to hearing from you. 

Decorating on a shoestring because we're poor

My husband and I recently moved into a beautiful bungalow.  We have always had a fondness for older houses, partly because we both grew up in one and partly because you just cannot get this sort of charm and grace with a new house.  

We searched for months and finally found a lovely, three bedroom older home that we could afford and we both fell in love with.  A house with a fenced in backyard that is big enough for flowers and a vegetable garden and has a patio with a large roof.  This is important because we love to cook out and we enjoy sitting for hours watching the birds.  A backyard that is private, which is important because we live in the city, but the backyard says 'country' all the way.  We also enjoy the front porch in the evening when the street is quiet and the street lights give off that eerie glow.

          The front porch we love to sit on at night

We had been renting a very small house before moving here so we didn't have a lot of furniture nor do we have a lot of money.  When we moved in we noticed this larger house was looking mighty bare.  We may not have much money, but this area does have three Good Will Stores, a Habitat for Humanity store and a Salvation Army store, plus flea markets and a slew of thrift shops.  We set out to find items we could afford and ones that would do this older house justice.  Our favorite look is country with a smattering of primitives, but these stores cater to any design look you like. It's simply a matter of taste. Did we find everything all at once?  Absolutely not, but the thrill of the hunt once a month is what makes all of this fun, at least for us. We still look and since we do not like to pay full price for anything, we are thrilled to find what we need and like for practically a song.  Did I mention we will also, occasionally, do a bit of dumpster diving?  Hey, when we want something, we aren't too proud to dig for it, literally.  

The house looking a little bare when we moved in

With these blogs, we want to show you how to decorate with very little money and a lot of style.  We prove you don't have to be rich to have nice things and a nice home.  We hope you enjoy reading and seeing, the wonderful finds as much as we enjoy showing them off. Feel free to comment and share any decorating pictures or tips you would like to.  We enjoy hearing from you all. 

The front entrance with the hall tree we made ourselves.