Thrift Store Finds–Just Add Paint

I’m writing this post because of my twelve-year old son.  The other day, as I was walking in the door from a particularly successful thrift store run, he looked at my fabulous finds and said, “Mom, sometimes the things you bring home from Goodwill scare me.”  Hmmm, obviously he lacks my vision, but I wonder how many of us overlook treasures just because they’re disguised as, um, trash?  This was the item that “scared” him:

I’ll grant him that she does look a little tacky right now, but once I got her dusted off and spray painted white, here’s how she turned out:

Seriously elegant, right?  And have you ever priced statuary?  She’s about 2 feet high and made of ceramic, so I figure I got a steal (I spent $12 on her).  My son’s just glad she has clothes on, as one of the last pieces I brought home was a reproduction of the Venus de Milo, and he was pretty scandalized by her semi-nudity (and armlessness).

Here’s a little frame I found that day.  I love to paint these with either a black or white semi-gloss.  Before:

And after a few coats of white spray paint and a Bible verse I printed on my computer, it’s perfect in my blue and white laundry room:

If you want to borrow that idea, it’s Psalm 51:7b, and the font I used is a free one called “Contribute.”  I printed it on some blue chevron scrapbook paper and hung it on the wall above my washer and dryer.

Here are a couple of other finds…it’s pretty easy to see the potential in the oval frame (I LOVE oval frames), but the duck decoy is *hideous.*  The checkout lady was laughing at me for buying it!

I spray painted the duck in some seriously bad weather just so I could get that white paint on quickly!  Here’s how he (she?) turned out.  Not bad, huh?

The sweet oval frame wound up on my powder room door.  I love hanging things on doors because they’re always underutilized–and under decorated–space.

The glass would also have looked great sprayed with black chalkboard paint and then the lettering done in chalk pen.  Hmmm…may have to change that up one of these days!

I guess my point is that you have to look at thrift store items with an eye towards their potential, rather than their current appearance.  It takes awhile to train yourself to mentally paint, strip, sew, repurpose, or otherwise alter items, but once you’ve figured out how to do it, you really begin to see the treasure behind the trash.

One of our Facebook followers mentioned that the trash-to-treasure metaphor is a perfect picture of how God sees beyond our worn out, dirty, tacky, unwanted, or unloved selves, and instead sees how we can look after He’s cleaned us up and restored us to newness.  I loved that (thank you, Stephanie L), and what a perfect lesson for Easter week.

Thanks for stopping by!