Trash to Treasure - the Joy of Restoration

The Joy of Restoration

Of all the creative endeavors I pursue, I don't think any of them is quite as satisfying as taking something that is broken, old, rusty, forgotten...and transforming it into something new and fresh and vibrant and useful again. It is wonderful when you have the vision to look at something that is in a sad state of affairs and to be able to see beyond the brokenness to what it CAN be. And isn't that exactly what Jesus did for us? With LOVE, He looked passed our brokenness, saw what we could be, rescued us, and restored us to something brand new!! I am so very grateful to Him that He did!!

My sweet Hubby and I have been garage sale, flea market and junk store shopping every weekend for the last couple of months and we have found some glorious treasures-in-waiting. Well, we spent this weekend organizing (to the extent we can) all our goodies and we began in earnest to the restoration process on several items - and I have some photos to share, finally! These are all "befores" - and I hope to have lots and lots of "afters" to share soon!! Grab your fanny pack, bottled water and hand sanitizer and enjoy this virtual junk store tour!

I have such plans for those CUTE posts ($4 for all 5)

Free from the side of the road!

Part of the big haul from last weekend ($3.50 each for the end tables!!)

$25 for the complete set of British china - pretty much the most we've paid for anything with a few exceptions

My parents were cleaning out their garage too - got these for free!

We got two of these corner cabinets (only $10 each!)

Here are the doors to the above cabinets

Love shabby old windows ($1 each)

More of the goodies from the "big haul" - most things you see were from $.50 - $2 - the shabby rose painting was $14 though - can't wait to paint the frame!

Detailed view...

This was a great score - there are 11 of these cabinet doors in various sizes and they are like perfect little shabby frames with blank canvases just waiting to be painted with something adorable! ($30 for all)

Cleaning and getting everything up on shelves occupied most of the day Saturday

Can't wait to do something wonderful with this $2 find

All the cool knobs total - $2.75

Various goodies in the midst of being transformed

Loads of frames waiting to be painted so they can hold new "masterpieces"

SO, what is a full time corporate trainer/part time illustrator and an electrician doing with all of these paint, craft, restoration projects? Well, we are planning to spend our spare time working through these projects, making them into beautiful utilitarian items and ultimately either using them in our home, giving them as gifts, and hopefully selling them online and in home shows that we are planning for 2008. This is something that we both love to do and we can do it together - that's the best part of all!

I'll share our progress each week on Makeover Mondays, so please stay tuned!!