Hey! Made ya look...!

Hey! Made ya look…

In thrift stores, you've seen me--I’m one of those characters peeking under tables, turning chairs upside-down, looking for the yellowed label or other identifying mark. Oh, inside drawers, too. I hate imagining something special plopped in a basement, covered with laundry, or unused fitness equipment. Old, antique, vintage furniture deserves better, right?

Thrift shops, antique stores, yard sales, outdoor markets (will we ever have indoor ones again?)…these ideas aren’t new to anyone, I’m sure. And, by the way, I don’t want to hear about anyone’s dumpster diving. My best luck—or the most fun, perhaps—comes in unexpected places. Some years ago, wandering around an antique shop, I noticed a drawer on the floor against a wall, simply being used to hold little china cups and whatnot. I asked the proprietress if I could just buy the drawer? Yep, took it home, and it sat in my imagination as an open tabletop. Reinforced it, added a tripod of chunky old table legs, then, trying and failing to arrange a mosaic of wood scraps inside, I noticed a vintage Parcheesi gameboard—10 cents at a yard sale--on my workshop floor. (Seriously, it had been there for quite a long time.) It was a perfect fit, now highlights a cool little game table, and the pieces can’t fall off the board.

So, for me, the other side of the Thrifty coin reveals the repurposed: Using an item’s unique character to frame or feature in a new, well, purpose.

Once, at a buddy’s workshop, he handed me a couple of old oak table slides, removed from their original spots: “…here, you’ll do something with these…” Holding one, I turned it around and…Long story short, it works just as well wall-mounted, with not-new hooks attached in particular places, providing an always expandable coat/key/leash rack.

A local antique shop keeps (kinda for me) a drawer of miscellany, an assortment of faucets, window latches, bolts, other odds and ends. Parts and pieces I use instead of buying anything new, and/or to use in a weird way: window latches work well as hooks, you know. (Another by the way: often, there are similar finds at any local Habitat for Humanity ReStore.)

At a yard sale, someone put a sweet old cabinet door on sawhorses and used it as a tabletop for their array and clutter of sale items. Asked the guy if I could just buy the door? Yup, and with legs from the “Legs” drawer in my basement, it became a cool table of its own.

After a family friend died, I was given an assortment of his tools, including old hand saws. Looked at one for awhile, then had that moment when an entirely new meaning/purpose shows itself. An old saw handle, the blade removed and resting, becomes an owl. The little fella hangs out in the kitchen, perched on old bead board trim, and holding several hooks (or faux hooks).

For several years, the image of using an old sled as a tabletop, ironically featured outside, in spring or summer sun. Finally, this recent Wisconsin winter, an antique wooden sled retired, becoming a sweet little porch table, for the vase of flowers and a mug, in the summer sun. The legs? Again, from my ominously labeled "LEGS" drawer.

My point? Well, other than showing off a bit, I’m suggesting we look in unexpected places, and find the undiscovered, perhaps creating the new purpose, even in parts and pieces. Keep looking!