Teach me Tuesday: Putting Thrifty Finds to Good Use

If you would like to be featured in an upcoming edition of Teach Me Tuesday, please email me at LivingWithLindsay@gmail.com and we’ll chat!

This week’s edition of Teach Me Tuesday features Monica of Monica Wants It. Monica is one of those special people that you randomly meet (and by meet I mean find online somewhere) who quickly becomes one of your favorite people to chat with.

I follow her on Twitter (she’s @MonicaBenavidez) and she’s always tweeting about some new thrift store purchase, Craigslist find, or great pieces she finds on sale elsewhere. When I discovered that she was a fellow Texan (squeal!) AND a fellow Longhorn (double squeal!), our friendship was sealed.

Aside from her being a rockin’ Texas gal, she’s also a newlywed who is working to build a home for herself and her sweet husband. He seems to be a good sport, running around town with her on the weekends for all of her crafty exploits. Maybe even he can recognize her trash to treasure genius. Take, for instance, her transformation of an outdated gold shelf into a gorgeous paint and ribbon organizer. I think it’s an important lesson to learn – taking something that you could use for one purpose (to display knick knacks) and turn it into something with a purpose.

Monica tells us how:

I am proud of my tacky gold shelf. Take a good look at it, it shall never look this way ever again. Never ever.

When I saw this at the garage sale last month, I immediately knew what to use it for. The lady at the garage sale said she thinks I should paint it silver and use it for Christmas figurines. Um, no. Sorry. So, I smiled, handed her the $5.00 and shook my head a little and giggled. She waved as I drove off, and little does she know her tacky gold shelf is destined for something much more than cheesy looking Christmas figurines.

The shelf itself is textured a bit and it’s made of plastic. As you can see in the picture, the background of the shelves is an almost damask like print (score…love me some damask!!) and the sides are a hammered finish and the top/corners are scrolly and ornate…it’s a hot mess. We are soul mates.

My first task was to figure out how to drill holes into the sides. You’ll see why later, hang in there. I googled and googled some more, and I came up with some crazy results. Nothing I read online really seemed like I, 24-year-old newlywed with no power tool experience, could do. I wanted to cry. My idea would never come to life. Sad day.

But no, I am not easily discouraged at all, so I decided to ask my lovely Knottie pals from The Knot how to drill a hole into plastic. Anna was kind enough to give me my magical answer- use a regular drill bit, go slow, be done, have a margarita. Okay, she didn’t say to have a margarita, I added that in there. We have a drill, we had like no drill bits (don’t ask, I don’t know how this stuff happens), so off we go to Home Depot. I end up buying a 75-piece drill bit set for about $14, and I figure it’s a good investment. I needed a hole about 3/8” in size, so I needed a BIG drill bit.

And here we go!

A few days later I decided it to give my new drill bit a whirl and prayed for the best. I put my tacky gold shelf on the kitchen floor and scrubbed the heck out of it again with soap and water.

Then I grabbed a dry erase marker and tape measure. In this step, I was basically measuring where I wanted my hole(s) to be. I planned to drill holes in the left and right hand sides of the top shelf only.

Here is my hole mark:

Next, I get my drill bit ready for it’s first use.

And here’s basically what happened, but I don’t have any pictures of this part. I grab our drill from under the sink, dust it off (can you tell how much we use it?), and try to yank the drill bit out. It’s not coming out. I am looking all over for a magical “release drill bit” button, no such luck. I stretch a bit, and again try yanking it out.

Hhhmmm.

Then I go to Google and type, “How do I switch out a drill bit?”

And it shows me some funky shaped tool. I don’t think we have such a tool. I cry. Ok, not cry, but literally throw a tantrum. I wanna finish this shelf NOW! NOW, I said!

Daniel walks in, and he says we DO have the little tool. He removes the drill bit for me and inserts the new one I bought. YAY!! All is well again.

So, I grab the drill in my right hand, put my shiny, new black drill bit right on the hole I marked, and I go for it. About 45 seconds later I have a beautiful hole.

Repeat on the other side. Now, the moment of truth. Does my dowel fit through these holes? Are the holes straight/even with each other?

It does fit and it is straight! Hooray! I then proceed to clean-up my area, put away the tools/marker/tape measure and go to bed. Whew.

Then this past Friday I got my shelf ready for it’s glorious finish- Krylon’s Ivory Gloss Spray Paint. Maybe I should have primed it first, but this shelf took almost the entire can of spray paint.

I love the glossy, creamy look that the Krylon Ivory spray paint gave to my shelf. I didn’t want stark white since the walls in the office/apartment are stark white, so this was a good pick for me.

Inserted the dowel along with all my ribbon. I lurve me some purdy ribbon! After I did this, I mounted it on the wall (all by myself with my level from Home Depot…GIRL POWER!). Then I added all my craft paint to the bottom shelf:

Ta-Da! What do you think?! I LOVE it, and I am super
proud of myself.

And in case you’re still NOT impressed, check out the before and after:

I love it so much! I know I would have passed up that gold shelf had I seen it in a thrift shop or garage sale, but she made it looks so great.

This is also a great example of thinking outside of the box. By using something as simple as a drill and a dowel, Monica was able to transform that shelf into something useful other than just a place to display (what was it?) Christmas figurines? Well done, Monica!

P.S. Monica also has a darling little Etsy store that I’d love for you to check out. Please visit her at Damask Diva!