Spotted: A Thrift Trip

It's been a good long while since I've been able to take a couple of hours to just roam through a thrift store or two.  But, as last week's errands would have it, there were four of them within the near vicinity of places I had to go and since I had a little extra time on my hands (well, borrowed of course from continuing painting the kitchen), I roamed...and these things are what I spotted...

(Pssst...if you're local to Mobile, I'll put the thrift store under each photo in case you have your heart moved and want to see if any of these are still there!)

This long tray was only a couple of bucks and would be a nice valet tray to set in a bathroom or atop a dresser in the bedroom to hold pretties and things.  In a kitchen it would also make a great place to lay cooking utensils that are in use next to the stove.

Goodwill on Azalea

Are you a plant person?  Pots can get pricey but I've always found thrift stores to have them.  These three were cute.

A Mid-Century Wood Dresser Makeover / Restoration

We bought this dresser right after we moved into this house - we really needed something to set the tv on in the living room so when I saw it on Facebook Marketplace (being sold by a neighbor...yay!), I pounced.  I can't say no to a dresser with legs.  It's just the best combo.  Proof right here.

It served us really well for a few years functionally and, once we got the paneling painted, it served us aesthetically too; adding a little warmth into a now very light and bright space.

More Painted Kitchen Cabinets...That Didn't Turn Out

 In case you were wondering, it takes about 193 steps to get from here:

to here:

Open for a Surprise

 Opening up a cabinet to grab a can of diced tomatoes is the most exciting thing ever, isn't it?

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I know.  Feel free to laugh or wonder what the heck is in my water.

It's one of the things you can chalk up to monotony.  Well, for me, it still is monotonous, but it at least brings little tiny spark of happy with it because...

I wallpapered the backs of our cabinets!

Our Painted [Upper] Kitchen Cabinets

I've painted a thousand cabinets, ok, maybe not thousands...let's see - four kitchens now, four bathrooms, and more dressers and pieces of furniture than I can count - and each time, I've done things a little differently.  Each time, I learn a more efficient way, or a better way to get a smooth finish, or I use a new paint.  So I can't say that I have an ironclad, tried-and-true method to painting cabinets but I can say that I've had great success in the arena.  The same story follows the most recent endeavor of painting our current upper cabinets in the kitchen.

First, I removed all of the doors and the contents of the cabinets.

I wanted to replace the old cabinet pulls with new knobs so the next thing we had to do was fill in the old hardware holes and drill new holes.