Thift Store Find- Before and After

I found this awesome desk organizer for $2 at a near by thrift store. It was in pretty good shape, but it was pretty plain looking and it had pen marks all over the inside.

So I spray painted the entire thing white.

I pulled lace trim around the edge as tight as it would go (scalloped side up). And I spayed painted over the lace  with very light bursts from the spray paint can.

I was surprised at how neat the detail turned out. It reminds me of a photo darkroom technique I learned in high school where you plop an object on a piece of photo sensitive paper and expose the whole paper to light. Then when you develop the whole thing you get a nice silhouette of your object.




Here is the final not-so-boring version of my thrift store find:

 

And speaking of great finds. I came across this old musky junk store that was filled with ancient odds and ends. There was old license plates hanging from the ceiling, antiqued silver spoons, worn horse saddles, various dusty jars with wiggly glass and disintegrating tin boxes. There were button jars filled with god-awful ugly buttons from all eras. Old tools to work on machinery and rusted oil cans. There was a lot of vintage Coca Cola merchandise and even an unopened bottle from the 50s... eaw. There was a weather vein, super old trading cards, and steel ball bearings. I even saw a military ID there from the 1940s. The place was quite charming in an "old broken down barn" type of way. I had to get something, so I looked through the spoons. I picked up 3 spoons which had engravings on the back that said "1847 Roger Bros". Just think... who has eaten off of those spoons in their 150 years of existence? I did some research on the spoons and apparently in 1947 the Roger Brothers perfected the silver plating technique and mass produced these puppies. 

Another thing I came across was this old cigar box. For some reason I am in love with boxes, so I had to buy it. The top of the box read George W. Childs. I did some research and found out a lot about this guy. He lived 1829- 1894 and was  born into a poor family and worked his way up to become a successful business man at a very early age (he opened up his own law firm at 18!!!) He excelled in many fields and was known above everything else as being a philanthropist. George W. Childs's Cigars were produced in the late 1800s and early 1900s, making the box over 100 years old! 

      

If you would like to purchase this box I am selling it in my Etsy shop. You can find the it under my "shop" tab above. Happy Thursday.

 

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