thrifty thursday

I'm not sure if this post will really qualify as being thrifty seeing as I spent $92 acquiring these items but they did come from a thrift store...

I was at Value Village yesterday looking for a small bookshelf (which I didn't find). While there, I noticed and debated over two wall shelves. They were $5.99 each and would need refinishing in the form of painting. Though I held them in my hands and turned them over and over and very nearly carried them around the store with me, I couldn't think of where in my house I would put them. So I left them behind without another thought. Until this morning when I realized that they would be perfect for the empty hall wall that runs along one side of my open kitchen and extends a little into the living room. So back to Value Village I went to buy just these two items and nothing else.

There they are. On the left. Two somewhat cheaply-made shelves. They're the ones that look sort of like molding and have a plate groove running along the top. Clockwise from the bottom, they are standing next to a plain and solid corner shelf which has a bit of a scalloped apron (is that the word?) on the front; another shelf with pegs and a horrible paint job (I'm seeing new paint, distressing, and three different-sized photo frames hanging from jute off those pegs); a slatted wood thing that I'm thinking may make a cool bathmat once it's sanded and stained; a cork board (you can juuuust see the corner peeking out); and a wooden frame from one of those big wall calendars, which I'm thinking could be used to house a variation on this. (There's also a bit of a gallery of them here.)

Nevermind that darker wood piece in the left corner of the picture. That's just the bookshelf that I couldn't find yesterday.

Solid wood and only $4.99. It has a ring-shaped water stain on the top (which I kind of like) but that will be taken care of once it's painted or otherwise re-finished. I'm not sure where this one will go since I like the cube shaped one in the sewing room despite it's contrasting colour. I just bought this one because I couldn't find it yesterday. Elude me, will you!? Tucked in the corner between the shelf and the wall is a pack of five lengths of beadboard-like MDF panels; these guys are only two strips wide and when putting them up, they over lap each other. I have a possible project in mind using them on the sides of a cheap pressboard flat-pack bookshelf in my rec room and finishing it out with molding and a couple of coats of paint.

What else did I find at the thrift store today? A roll of paintable slightly-textured wallpaper, a roll of white contact paper, a bag of about four or five mats for a picture frame, a bag of three- or four-inch cork circles, a plethora of baskets, some faux  flowers,  a bag of wooden rings with eye hooks in them (I have the idea to string them together into a wreath but I'm stuck after that), and a wooden wall hanging thing with three sliding tiles (to be completely re-worked).

Thrifty in that they were thrift store finds, not so much in the total price considering I just went for the two wall shelves. I have my projects cut out for me! And I still have thrift store items from previous purchases that I haven't blogged yet. It's a sickness, I tell you.

This post is linked to Thrifty Thursday.