We've all heard the saying, "one man's trash is another man's treasure". No one knows this better than Patricia Hamm, who bases her boutique, Whimseys, on this principle. She shared with us her tried and true tactics for making junk look good using more imagination than money.
1. Make collections out of anything that comes in multiples: dominoes, playing cards, marbles, silverware, keys, buttons, mirrors, toys cars or cupcake toppers. In our favorite example, Patricia made a bouquet of old artists brushes by sticking them in a garden urn and surrounding them with black-eyed peas. Brilliant!
2. Frame anything to make it stand out as art. In Patricia's home, she mounted an old paint palette on the wall and highlighted it with a vintage frame found in the trash.
3. Paint inexpensive old furniture a fun color. Brown wood furniture is boring, especially if it is low quality. A coat of white or black paint makes anything fresh again, but a color like orange makes it pop.
4. Group similar colors when setting up a vignette. Objects can be totally unrelated but if the colors are the same the grouping makes sense visually.
5. Nothing is precious. Interesting flea market and garage sale finds can come and go with your whims. Experiment with unusual pieces and repurpose ordinary items. When those treasures loose their luster, back to the trash they go for the next person to discover.
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The paint brushes are great, not that I would ever have enough to pull something like that off.
I got a few really nice candles, the over priced kind that come in gorgeous little vases, so after they melted away I soaked them and cleaned out the vases and use them for my make up brushes and paint brushes. They're beautiful, and didn't cost me a dime! lol
Love the brushes! Most of my favorite things were either found on the side of the road or hiding in an antique store.
Just found 2 beautiful hand-loomed wool rugs, they were filthy at the shop, but cleaned up beautifully.
I love the brushes too.
Number 4 really works. Most any kind of junk looks good when grouped by color.
no, the best stuff is in my parents' basement!
The brushes are beautiful. I just cannot pull off making junk look good, its in my DNA to keep things simple. I have a friend that should do this as a profession. Her place is full of things she found on the street, thrifted, handed down and her place is so fun to visit and has that feel of you want to linger all day with a cuppa and good book.
I have a jar of tiny light bulbs, mostly burnt out leftovers, but some from dad's garage of mostly useless wonders. I put a tag on it that reads "ideas, asstd."
I would say: get rid of the junk, lol.
The paint brushes look good though...
I love crazy interesting junk.
Oy, all that dusting.