Work Table and Other Garage Sale Finds

Today was the first day of the Decatur First Baptist garage sale, which I love.  I have found treasures there every year I’ve gone.  Two years ago, I got D’s desk for $35, later spotted in an antique store (unpainted, though) for $200.  Last year, I got the kids a wood puppet theater for $15.  Plus it’s always fun to walk around and see what’s there and find a bargain.

Today was no exception.  My first find was this framed print for $6:

Then I found this table.  It’s painted laminate on top with metal, adjustable legs.  It was $10!  I have been looking for/considering how to make a work table for some time, so I thought this would be perfect!  Here is what it looked like after I brought it home:

I sanded the top of it, then painted it with some paint w/primer that I had bought for another project (more on this later) and never used.  Here is the “after”:

I ended up having to paint some of the underside, too, because the previous owner had painted the top with red spray paint and some of it ended up on the underside.  No problem, though.  Covered it right up.

Voila!  Done.  A work table for $10 and two hours’ work!  The paint color, FYI, is Behr Ultra (paint with primer) Citron.

While I had the paint already out, I decided to tackle the project for which I had originally bought the paint.  We had this, ahem, very ugly mirror, which is half broken (in the back), and currently residing in the guest room.  Here’s the “before” picture:

Oh, it’s not attractive at all.  Gold and bronze and black with wheat stalks – not my cup of tea.  It was in our dining room, but when I redid that room the first time, I bought a new circular, plainer mirror that seemed to fit our tastes better.

When I put it in the guest room, the idea was to paint it a funky color to go with the rest of the room, which has purple and lime green accents:

So, 87 months ago, I bought the Citron paint to paint this mirror…and then never did it.  Yes, another project I didn’t finish.  It just wasn’t high up on the priority projects list.  But today, since I already had out the paint anyway, I tackled it.  Here is the “after” picture:

It needs another coat of paint, but I am in love.  It’s awesome.  I followed the advice of the Novogratzes, which is to take something that you don’t like and paint it a funky color to make it into something you do like.  Done.  Love it.  Second coat can go on tomorrow.

Back to the big yard sale…I also found this apothecary jar for $7, which will go in our guest bath:

And I bought some terra cotta flower pots for the Go Green club I am in charge of at the kids’ school.  We do a planting project each year, so it’s nice to find a bunch of pots for very cheap.

So, that’s what I did today.  It was so fun.  And I’m proud of myself because I got the table and finished that project in the same day – something I don’t usually do.  I’m trying to be better about finishing projects, so this is a step in the right direction.

Hope you had a great day, too!