Upcycled Garage Sale Finds

One of my favorite summertime activities is picking up 'junk' from garage sales and giving it an overhaul.  

These are some of the upcycling projects from last summer's finds....everything we started with cost less than a dollar - or was even free!

Paid Finds

We started with this Hawaiian-themed desk.  We picked it up - in really beat up condition, but with a good base - for a dollar at a garage sale, and completely overhauled it.  My eldest used some old curtain material for the seat and painted it.  I put in the tile and the chalkboard.   Voila!

We snagged this dingy, nasty chair at an estate sale for a quarter.  It had good bones, and was quality vintage, but needed a face lift.  The boys cleaned it and painted it, and I made new a new seat and back for it.  Doesn't it look like so much more fun now?!  My sister (with her inexplicable love of the color yellow) was the inspiration for this one.....the little bumblebee!

Free Finds

This old captain's chair was out in our shed.  I have no idea where it came from or why it was there.  There were six of them...we gave all six of them different "classic" looks, and sold all except this one.  The desk was also out there, and we cleaned it up, painted it, and used an old pillowcase to make a matching seat cushion.  We resold them for a little 'piggy-bank profit.'

These were during our "ocean phase," when we were visiting the aquarium. We had lots of temporary tattoos, and discovered that they attach quite nicely to old, leather suitcases!  They brightened this blue one up and turned it into a cute, kid-sized piece.  The old window sash was scraped, sanded, and stained before we stuck a poster-sized photo, which hubby had taken in Cozumel, behind it.

The end table was painted with a Dr. Seuss themed / outer space world during my eldest son's space craze.  The youngest was still into pirates, so I created a play table just for him out of some scrap wood we had laying about the garage.  Neither of the tables were painted by the boys, but they each dreamed up the designs for them.

A friend of mine had this old army footlocker that she wanted to use for her girls' toys...so I had her bring it over and got right to work.  This one only took an afternoon - all the kids were playing together nicely, so I was able to finish very quickly once the initial coat of purple dried.  Simple, yet effective, her girls still love it today!

 I hope that these projects have inspired you to go out and create something new with your kids - or just for yourself!  Don't be limited by what the mass-producers create....use your imagination, put your spin on it, and make it memorable!