400 Miles of Treasure!

It is one of my favorite times of year, YARD SALE SEASON!!!!  To kick it off, my two best friends and I hit the 400 mile yard sale that runs right through the town I live in.   Seriously, 400 miles of yard sales, laughs, good eats, and the best girls you could ask for, what could be sweeter!?  I get most of my trash to treasure projects from yard sales, and this is the mother of yard sales.  Deals, Deals, Deals (and we got a truck load of them)!!!!                                             

Thanks to my husband for letting us take his beautiful truck! 

How's that for some loot!?

I am so excited about my finds from this year!  I am most excited about the saw table I found and the huge transformation it will undergo.  I will take lots of pics so you all can see the project unfold!  I thought I would share with you a project from last year to hold you over until the posts from this year begin!  Last year was our first year for the 400 mile yard sale.   We began on a Friday with my sister, Allison, my neice, Sid and my son, AJ.  We were on the hunt for a vanity for Sid  The plastic ones were too little and the antique larger vanities were too big.  We found the vanity on the first day.   My before pictures are not as great as I'd like, but these were before blogging, so this year's will be better.  

The is the vanity as it starts.  This was a console/ entry table.  The original color was white.  It had 2 drawers and was much taller.  What made me pick this table?  #1.  It had great, simple lines.  It was a blank slate.  #2.  It was solid wood. #3  It was the right width and length for the space it was going to go in.  So the first step was to take out the bottom drawer and  cut the supports so Sid could get her legs underneath.  Next, I sanded the entire piece.  There were two reasons to sand; to get off the original varnish and to smooth out the cut pieces.  Then we painted it pink!

The following day, we found the stool.  This is my sister Allison looking it over and measuring.  No, it was not the right height, but nothing a little saw couldn't fix.  We found this stool at a "Barn Sale".  Those are my favorites.  Check out that lovely fabric!  It would definately need some new, so we added that to the list! 











I have a huge paint stash at my house so I had Sid pick the colors she wanted before we left the next day.  Look what we found!!!!  Not even kidding, the fabric we found matched PERFECT!  I actually got this piece for free, which fit our budget perfectly.  Did I mention we had a budget of $25?  The fabric was a bit dirty and had a giant peacock on it.  I washed it, cut the piece to fit, and since it was quilted, we used the back of it!

No vanity would be complete without a mirror.  We found our mirror at another yard sale for $1.  It had a cheap gold frame, but we took that off.  Remember the bottom drawer I removed?  I used it as the top of the vanity.  I affixed the mirror to the bottom of the drawer, flipped it upside down and screwed it to the top of the table.  I took the original knobs off and replaced them with some glass curtain finials I had at the house.  $0

My neice, Sid and I painting the vanity.

  Sid was so excited to have a new vanity and was so happy to have Aunt Nae Nae (that would be me) be the one doing it.  Which, of course thrilled me.  It was a really fun project.  We went over budget by a dollar but Sid loved it, it fit perfect and it was exactly what my sister was hoping for.  The best part for me was the hunt, the challenge, doing it with my sister, and of course, seeing the smile on Sid's face when it was done! 



Here is the finished product!  I suggested trimming out the mirror with a boa when they got home, which they did.  It looks fabulous!  Sid now has all her makeup in the drawers, her necklaces hanging off the glass knob tops, and the perfect place to make that already adorable face even cuter!