Thrift Store Tour

There is one big consequence of blogging, that I never would in my wildest dreams have imagined. Something that caught me so off guard.

As a grown up, out of college/university, working a steady 9-5 in an office, meeting new people is hard. Really hard. If its hard to meet ANYONE its damn near impossible to meet people with common interests. As a grown woman, I don’t walk up to strangers and ask if they like decorating, thrifting, or woodworking. I certainly don’t ask them if they’d like to be my friend.

Then blogging happened, and I started to chat with readers, and other bloggers. People my age, who were into the same stuff as me. Discussing fabric, power tools and paint colors! Making connections with real people.

Then this happened:

Myself and four other bloggers, traveling around Toronto in Ford Escapes on a whirlwind thrift store tour. We traveled throughout the city hunting for great home decor finds at Value Villages. Not just one store, we’re talking every single store in about a 30km radius.

It was SO.MUCH.FUN. Virginia from Fynes Designs, Dani from Lifeovereasy, Lucy from Craftberry Bush and Melissa from The Sweet Escape were a blast. We all had completely unique styles and tastes, and wandered the stores grabbing finds for ourselves, and ones we knew the other gals would like.

I feel bad for the other shoppers. We scoured those Value Villages high and low searching for the best scores in store. I got some amazing stuff. My (unintentional) theme was lighting. I found some fab items! My first nab was this brass lantern with smoked glass. I needed a new light for the guestroom, and knew this could be turned into something cool.

Next I spotted a couple of brass lamps. These were also picked for the guestroom. I have visions of wood and metal, with some badass shades.

Next I spotted a small chandelier. I have been on the hunt for some candle lighting for the back deck, and knew this would be perfect converted into a candelabra.

This mirror jumped out at me from the shelf screaming “take me home!” I loved its shape, only wished it was a bit bigger. Will still make a great accessory in our office or powder room.

Last but not least, I spied a whole collection of Nancy Drew books. I used to read my Mom’s collection when I was a kid and adored them. I nabbed every single book and can’t wait to pour over them.

The other bloggers got some amazing finds as well. It was really cool to see their process, and how they picked things. You would have thought we’d be fighting for the items, but we really went in different directions. I can happily say that there were no cat flights or any arm wrestling for items.

With bags and bags filled with finds, we piled into our Ford Escapes. I got to drive the red one the whole day.

I have to say, I went in with little expectations. The last Ford I was in was a “vintage” bare bones clunker. For small SUV’s I really enjoy driving my mother in laws Honda CRV, but I have to say the Escape impressed me. The model I was driving had a bunch of fancy pants features including a backup camera, this cool blind spot warning, and one heck of a nav/console touch screen.  The only problem I had was trying to operate the rear door. I learned afterwards that it was one of those fancy hands-free foot operated ones, but I just kept trying to lift it manually and it was giving me attitude. Guess I should have read the manual eh?

With all my finds at home, I set to transforming one item from my haul. I will be working the rest of the items into upcoming projects I promise, but I have to start somewhere! I took my brass lantern apart, and set to giving it a refresh for our guest room.

I picked up some angle iron and got El Granto to cut me a few pieces to make new sides for the lantern. The smokey glass needed to go (and good thing, as we broke a panel. oops!). El Granto and the dremel made quick work of the angle iron, and I got to priming all the pieces.

We have oil rubbed bronze accent pieces I the guest room, and thought that would be a nice bold color for the lantern. After the primer had dried I used Rustoleum Universal spray paint to give some nice even coverage to the pieces.

After everything was painted, I assembled it all together, and this is what I ended up with.

 

What do you think?

Can you also spy a few of my Nancy Drew books on the nightstand?

Make sure you check out all the other bloggers finds! Thank you so much Virginia for organizing this, and the event sponsors Value Village and Ford. It was amazing to spend a day doing what home bloggers do best, with some badass blogging ladies.  Make sure you check out their posts:

 Virginia @ Fynes Designs

Lucy @ Craftberry Bush

Melissa @ The Sweet Escape

Dani @ LifeOvereasy