thrift store finds: steel storage box

Update: voting for "So You Think You're Crafty" is completed for the week (as of today, January 11th) and I've made it through to the next round!

Thank you all for your votes, and please check back; I'll have a full tutorial for my project up within the next few days. Woohoo!


I found this great steel box with a sliding lid out at Bring awhile back ($4) and have had it sitting in my carport on top of a set of lockers for a couple of months now.

Finally, right before Christmas, when we were expecting house guests and I was trying to get things just a smidgeon organized, I went out and cleaned it up and decided to finally hang it on the wall like I'd intended to do since finding it. Its purpose: to hold cleaning supplies and the kitchen fire extinguisher.

I don't know what purpose it served in its previous life, though it looks to be from the first half of the 20th century. I thought at first it might be a flammable liquids storage box, except the vent on the front (or top, depending on how it originally sat) wouldn't make much sense.

My sister-in-law suggested that it might have been a bread box, which would make sense. Maybe one that stored inside a drawer or something? The sliding lid could still have functioned that way.

At any rate, there were no holes or hangers on the back, and a note (written in marker on bright pink paper) attached to the side (with masking tape) read, "curtains to mend". Not that those two clues narrow it down much.

I admit it: I drilled holes in the back and tried hanging it with picture hangers, but that was just a temporary fix and was really unstable; it needed to be hung with drywall anchors, screws, and washers. I'd normally woman-up and do it myself, but I didn't want to brave the shed right now to find the drill. When the mister offered to take care of it for me, I let him.

I always like the character that beat-up old things add to the house. And it inspired me to put in a little more time priming the kitchen walls, so hey, double points for me!

So: what fun old stuff are you bringing into the house these days? Anyone getting any eye rolls? The mister is a master of hiding his, if he's rolling them at all. He's a good guy.

Thanks for reading!


Updated to add: Yup! Bread box for a cabinet drawer!

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thrift store finds: book storage

As previously mentioned, we keep a lot of books around. Our collection of kids' books is especially large, since I've been collecting continuously since I was a kid myself. The seven years I spent in bookstores increased this collection exponentially, and now that there's an actual child in the house, the need for book storage has gotten critical.

There's a bright red magazine/book rack in the living room; this one (formerly a magazine rack, found at Goodwill on 1/2-price day for $3) will be indigo-colored soon.

Martha Stewart Living gave me the idea for this solution, a wooden cd crate we attached to the side of the changing table. Wooden cd and tape crates at the thrift stores run between $2 and $4, depending on condition. Single-bottle wine crates also work well for this.

Of course, since we moved the changing table out a couple of weeks back, the crate isn't currently in use, but I have a future home in mind for it.

In fact, I have a couple more ideas up my sleeve, so I'll be visiting this topic again. In the meantime, though, I have a pretty awesome recent thrifty find to share with you.

This book rack, formerly from a classroom or library, has the benefit of face-forward book display space, as well as a couple of traditional bottom shelves for more toys and books.

I also love the way it leans back to prevent tipping.

The kiddo and I picked it up for $30 at BRING, and then I measured and marked it for the Mister. He cut about eight inches off the bottom so that the height would be better for the chosen location.

I can't tell you how much I love it. We all do!

Hey, bonus thrifty finds: many of the books on the shelf are thrifted! Alice in Wonderland ran me $2.99 at the Village; Goodnight Moon and The Bremen Town Musicians were 49 cents each at Goodwill. There are tons more on the shelf that I picked up second-hand, but those three you can actually see in the above photos. Goodwill is a great source for us, as their kids' books are all 49 cents. That's less than I'd pay for late library book fines (I promise you, it's true).

Okay. There are a few of my thrifty book storage finds; you can check out some more over on my Book Storage Pinterest Board.

My thrift store obsessions are kids' books and storage; what are you always on the hunt for?

Thanks for reading!


p.s. You can make these photos larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that.


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I'm Crafty!
Mop it Up Mondays

bright red book racks go faster

We have a bit of a book storage issue around these parts. Not only do I still have some of my childhood books hanging around, but I've collected illustrated kids books since my late teens . . . and things went from bad to worse when I started working in bookstores when I was twenty-one (a bookstore discount is a dangerous thing). And then, when you add in the kiddo's books and my husband's collection, the place has been pretty packed.

I actually have culled things down quite a bit in the past year or so, getting rid of between 10 and 20 percent of my own book collection (not counting the illustrated books, which I've passed on to the little dude). But still. Books everywhere. Which I like, but I've been searching for new solutions. Pinterest abounds with ideas on book storage, and I've tried a few different ones (which I'll share in different posts coming up). Today, though, I want to share this one with you.

First, I found a beat up old magazine rack on 1/2-off day at St. Vincent dePaul's (actually, I found two. I'll share the second with you in another post).

I sanded it lightly and then wiped it down with a little deglosser.

I hit the bottom with some cherry red spray paint, the after it dried, put three light coats on the top and sides.

Because it was raining or humid all week, I left it outside to de-fume for three days, then brought it inside to cure for another three days before finally filling it with books.

Now it's prettier, and, as everyone knows, anything red is automatically faster. It also handily wrangles a dozen often-requested books face out, so they're easy to find.

Thanks for stopping in! If you've seen some other awesome book storage ideas, you can post them in the comments section and I'll add them to my book storage pin board.

(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)


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