Garage Sale Transformations!
If you’ve ever been to a ReStore — the retail outlet for Habitat for Humanity’s consumer and commercially donated items –you know that there’s an array of used EVERYTHING, from couches and chairs, to cabinets and doors. If you’re in a DIY state of mind this weekend, check out all thee flea market flips and garage sale makeovers you can undertake for pennies on the dollah! And now, the store in Highlands Ranch, offers online shopping!
Doors Outdoors and More
Photo by Gary Payne
According to top DIYers and interior designers one rule of thumb when shopping yard and garage sales or a resale store is “go for the wood.” She Knows cites an expert who says with a little chalk paint anything made of wood can be transformed — and without sanding! She recommends eight garage sale finds you should be on the lookout for.
A door can have more lives than a cabinet – just think about all the possibilities you can create with a 32 x 80 hollow-core or solid wooden door! One possibility is an arbor – one of those passageway “tunnels” that are often draped with climbing plants and vines. The DIY Network shows you how to take a cast-off door and turn it into an arched arbor entrance to your backyard garden! And for some fast-growing vines and climbing plants to cover your arbor, Gardening Know-How recommends Dutchman’s pipe, trumpet vine, clematis, climbing hydrangea, honeysuckle or wisteria.
HGTV can show you how to take a six-panel door (or a much older door to upcycle for a vintage look) and create a porch swing. The tools and materials on this page are accompanied by a video tutorial for a half-day project that should cost about $500.
Shutters and Soda Crates
HGTV offers a supplies and materials list for creating a sofa table out of an old shutter and some wooden table legs. With nails and screws, all you’ll need is some paint to pull it all together. And if you can find four old soda crates – matching or otherwise – a rectangular piece of glass can transform those vintage boxes into a cool coffee table for your living space.
Gather some inspiration from the before-and-after photos on the Flea Market Flip page of the DIY Network. This popular Lara Spencer-hosted show on DIY Network pits creative amateur designers and DIYers against each other to find and flip old, out-of-date, industrial and classic treasures.
Dressers Reimagined
Dressers are everywhere in the Restore and often at garage sales. Take a look at two approaches that converted boring, blasé, furniture into chíc and eye-catching pieces that could grace a bedroom or kitchen.
There’s almost nothing paint can’t help reinvent or retune – it’s all about imagination! A former pedestrian coffee table is now a fabulous focal point with reverse-stenciled floral patterns. The stencils were blocked out over the original wood finish while the whole table was painted white. The results are wood-grain flowers on a crisp white palette that are worth a second look.
All sorts of ordinary wooden chairs can become a setting for plants – toy chairs, baby chairs, wooden high chairs – painted or left au naturel. And mason jars and picture frames can have a longer life, with a little paint and imagination.
Creativity Abounds in Crystal Valley
Residents in the master-planned community of Crystal Valley were attracted to the creative craftsmanship in the brand new homes here. The neighborhoods are nestled in nature, but near amenities, shopping, entertainment and dining options abound, as well. Explore all the beautiful models and move-in ready homes from Richmond American Homes, Kauffman Homes, Century Communities and D.R. Horton – ranch and two-story designs, priced from the $300s.
