Some thrift-store DIY (Do-Vember 11)

Do-Vember

Pinterest roundup posts often take you through a mess of active and broken links, posts on original websites, and re-posts in different languages. Sometimes the important thing is not so much tracking down the original set of instructions, as just catching inspiration.

Case in point: "21 Thrift Store DIY's That Make Frugal Fabulous."  This is a roundup of home ideas, with links which might or might not be helpful. I like the first one, "Stencil some old plates for a cool wall hanging," not because I want to have plates on my wall spelling out "E-A-T" (like a neon sign?), but because the plates used for the photo are unusually pretty, and because I can think of other three-letter words (or four-letter, if you have four plates) that would work. Maybe J-O-Y? You wouldn't want to use your heirloom dishes for a project like that, but if you found three or four plates you liked at a yard sale or thrift store, it might be fun to try. Or you could paint letters on other objects, like jars.

#4: Painting an upholstered couch? Apparently (I'm very ignorant on these things) you combine the paint with a "fabric medium," and that keeps it from turning into a hard, crunchy mess. And according to the comments on the original post, painting upholstery is a "thing." I had no idea. We actually went through two inherited French Provincial couches much like the one in the photo, but I'm not sure that painting them would have been worth it.

#7 and #8: Anything turned into wind chimes or a glittery vase is the stale end of the recycling loaf, in my opinion. 

I'm halfway through the article, still hoping for something I'd seriously Do. (It's Do-Vember, remember?) Here is #15: Decoupage part of an old purse with a funky fabric panel. That looks fun and somewhat useful, assuming you have the purse and the fabric. Would I actually do it? Yes, if I saw a piece of fabric that I liked. Put that one away for a rainy/snowy day.

Finally, #21: improve a wooden tray with paint and a new covering. That idea is as old as wind chimes and glittery vases, but trays, unlike wind chimes, are very useful and uncluttery. You can use them indoors and outdoors. You can use them as memory pieces if you decoupage photos on them, or collect signatures. You can serve food on them, you can arrange gifts on them. I'm in.

So, no couches or wind chimes, but I'm going to think about stenciling letters and upcycling purses.