Re-vamping Items

Have you ever gone shopping and found something you like but its not really the greatest color, or its got some scratches on it? I run across this a lot when I shop at the ARC stores. (These are like Goodwill stores, but I find they have better stuff and its priced MUCH better) Now I used to just walk past and search for something else. This started to really bug me because a lot of the time I would run across something on sale (another reason while I love the ARC stores, they have 50% off sales on just about everything and all the time) and it would piss me off to just let it go because it was not 'perfect' enough. Well not anymore!

I found a cardboard tube container and I thought it would be perfect to hold my pain brushes. It had a label from around 1970 for a wine company in California. I loved the look of the label and that's what sold me. However it was a nasty color and would not go at all in my room. So I painted it to match the colors in my room. Now its perfect. Best part is it cost me $.99 for the container and $.67 for the paint. This is what it looks like.

About a weekend or so later I found a wooden flower pot container that was about the right size to hold all my craft paints. It was pretty beat up and dirty, but the design around the rim is what sold me on it. It had an etched in design of leaves sort of blowing in the wind. I thought it looked very Greek and for some reason instantly knew what I wanted to do with it.
When I got home I wiped it down and cleaned off all the dirt. I sanded the scratch marks, but they wouldn't come out! Didn't really matter, but I thought I might be able to get them out. I was going to paint it anyway and that would cover them. I painted the entire thing, inside and out, a bright metallic blue. Then for the detail leaves I painted them metallic gold. I just painted the etched in part, so that it stood out more. It turned out wonderfully and looks even more Greek now I think. Plus it was useful for me.



Just because something isn't perfect does not mean it can't be perfect again. Just everyday household items can be spruced up and made to me useful again. Random items you can't see as ever wanting might be something just perfect.

I found an old Coke a Cola card tin from the 1960s, which I use to hold my recipes in. That actually started the theme in my kitchen. I have an old style country look and collector tins all over. I use them to hold sprinkles, to put flour in, to hold toothpicks, just anything at all.

So go out and explore what you think is useless or "junk" and see if it could have potential for something else.