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Creative Decorating With Bargain Finds

Yard sales offer a terrific opportunity to find some real treasures from other people's discards. Sometimes finding the unusual can dictate a decorating direction.

Chinaware
It's easy to find chinaware at yard sales. This might encourage you to create an interesting table with mismatched items. Finding one piece can lead to a collection of others. I always look for white dishes.

One-Of-A-Kind Finds
Approach the yard sales with an open mind. You never know what you'll find. I didn't know I needed the cute little rosebud teapot until I saw it, or the Roseville planter that was a real bargain, even if it was in pieces. (I was able to glue it together and it looks great in my garden.) Was I looking for such an item? Not on your life! But that's the fun of bargain decorating...to be able to spot a gem and, if need be, evaluate, on the spot, how fixable it is.

Getting Just What You Want
A friend of mine was looking for a round table to comfortably accommodate four with enough room to seat six when needed. Sometimes you have to be creative to achieve the goal. For example, at one sale we came upon a wonderful plant pedestal. At another we found a small, round, metal table, large enough for four, but never six. Either of these items could do the trick with a little ingenuity. For the first, a plywood top could be cut to the desired size and mounted onto the plant pedestal. The plywood could be covered with a floor length tablecloth.

The smaller table needed a coat of paint. Easy enough. The size however, would never accommodate six people. This is an easy problem to solve with a table extender, which is a thin, but sturdy board made of composition material that is placed on top of the table. It comes in a round size, large enough for six and folds in the center for easy storage. It's a common item sold through mail order catalogs and home accessory stores. A table covering is needed, but what a simple way to solve this particular problem.

Copyright Leslie Linsley, author
Reprinted with permission, HouseNet, Inc.

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