OK - so now you know- I love cast offs, the abandoned & forlorn objects of other people's wrath. A ding, a nick - that is nothing to me. Replace a table top - sure in fact, I have 4 legs that need a top - presto, table.
This talent (obsession) started when I was but a wee lass. My father was a very talented inventor and re-purposer. Almost everything would "Come in handy " someday and a lot of things did. I rescued an old wooden bench from our local dump along with two puppies that I found homes for. The bench I painted, decal-ed, and sold for $90.00. What encouragement to this young entrepreneur.
Now when a church or other organization has a Vacation Bible School program, a Christmas musical. wedding or other event - I am the "go to" person. Need retro clocks - how many? Top hats, fur capes and Victorian caroler's costumes - got those. What I don't have. we will make. Did you know that louvered bi-fold doors zip-tied together make a great background for an Indian Jones style marketplace? I have great ideas for Fourth of July floats
A lot of rescued items make great decorative objects for staging. Stained damask tablecloth - make pillows. Salvaged architectural corbels look stunning hung on the wall with a pillar candle or vase of flowers on top. A iron fence section makes a unusual headboard.
If we can do this with trash, just think of what we can do with your treasures!
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Thanks,
Erica
Deanne, It is true -I do!
Kimberly, when I am butt end up it is dumpster diving, but what I pull out is Architectural Salvage for sure!
Christine, Erica, and Deborah Thanks for the Thumbs up!
Luci - Thank you for the info - haven't tried that one yet.
I saw a big star over a bed for a staging on someone's blog - that could probably stand on its own as a headboard.. We commented on a blog a while back on headboards and someone had a homemade one.
Maybe someone can add that on here if they remember.
I'm missing out on a whole other world----I need to get out more!
Julia
Kathleen - I love junk too! I love that creative resourceful aspect of breathing new life into things. I have a friend who has a retro furniture shop called Lois Lane. She actively engages in putting a new spin on old stuff. The last time I visited her shop, she was bringing in a small footstool that she'd 'renewed' & set it like a jewel among all the other treasures - such joy she had in it - her face gleamed.
I like your analogy of dumpster diving - architectural salvage! Great!
Kathleen, this is so funny... My dad retired from the NYC Dept of Sanitation (NY's Strongest!) and when I was little, he and my mother would refer to the dump as the 'Big Store'. Yes, I was too little understand my friends' parents would never consider taking their little girl to the dump to scour through the household piles for treasures! I never knew this wasn't normal! But what fun we had and things we would find! Lamps, books, furniture, etc.
My mom, to this day, always says "if it's free, it's for me" and most of her house is decorated with curbside finds or people just giving things away. And, it looks good, too! Her house was even featured in an article that the Staten Island Advance wrote about Free-Cycling a few months ago. Everything has a story to go with it, too, which makes it more interesting! She is a big believer in 'one man's trash is another man's treasure' and it is so true.
Great post!