Oh no !! Now you gone and done it :) I love your finds. How does the chest look now ???? You have to show the after !

It is amazing to me what others throw out. So here is newest to oldest ...mostly.

This is THE LADDER ..yes the one that DH so recently had an event with . I saved it and nailed it back together. It will be in the garden and hold nothing more than plants ...I promise . It says Carolina Ladder Co. on it, South Carolina. Can't find any info on that. We found it on the curb in Lexington. Of course now we know why someone threw it out :(

This is made from wood that I stopped and picked up off of the curb in Auburn. DH was so exasperated with me but he helped me nail this table together.It is in the garden and I really use it all the time for potting.

This floor lamp and 2 others were all from my neighbor . I bought the shades . He said no one would ever buy them as they needed to be re-wired. It was easy with DH's help. They all have mogul bulbs in them. I did pay $7 for one of them but can't remember which:) Oh well the other two he gave me. I cleaned them all with Pam spray and then washed the rust off and touched them up with paint. This one has a marble base and a light in the base.

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here is another one..this one has butterscotch colored swirled marble on the base

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here is the pretty base :

base of #3 lamp..don't have a full pic of it..this one lights up also :

base of #1 lamp.

my neighbor gave me this glider too..said no one would buy it like this ..ha...I had it sandblasted and painted it lavender. I love it.

here she is painted lavender :

the purple rockers..again from my neighbor. He finds these things and brings them home and they sit in the bed of his trailer or pickup for days. I finally ask him what he is going to do with them and he says..I dunno..do you want ***..and I almost always say YES !!

Yes I painted them purple :) they were a very pale yellow cream and it was the original paint but it was too pale for me :)

old white metal pantry cabinet. Again from my neighbor. It was a mess and rusted. Took me hours of scrubbing and sanding and then spray painted it. I should have used a brush and will never again get spray paint.

and my sweet "new " bookcase from Roland...my sweet neighbor. It was so dirty !! He had had it in a trailer for ages and I just missed seeing it. I am so glad I got it and he is glad to be rid of it. Oh and no I rarely show him what I have done with the treasures. I don't want him to stop giving them to me !

Great thread arlosmom..and I can hardly wait to see other great stuff that folks have found. I know there are some real treasures out there. c

My then boyfriends Mom had this in her garage. She was going to toss it. It was just the chair frame. No color, no guts. I wish I had taken a pic in its previous state. I rescued it and refinished and upholstered it.

Wow we just came back from a church yard sale and found a new Holmes humidfier in the box, retails for 69.00 and we paid five.

I have many finds from yard sales which were real bargains but not too many actual "free" items. Since I live in a rural area there is only trash pick-up in town so people don't put out free things much. They just stick 'em in the shed or barn and occasionally may have a yard sale!

However I have been fortunate to find a few freebies at yard sales and will post one.

This grill is part of a very dilapidated wrought iron gate DH found in the free pile at a yard sale. It was falling to pieces, the original white paint was peeling, and the rest was rust. He took apart the various pieces, wire brushed the rust off, and bolted two pieces together. He then spray painted it black. I treasure it because it's a complete original that DH made for me. I love unique things. Stove pipe in the background.

Another free item from a yard sale was a Wagner cast iron frypan. Had to ask the woman if she meant it to be in the free box as I couldn't believe someone would throw out a good cast iron frypan. Of course it was thickly coated with grunge so I put it in the oven's cleaning cycle and it came out perfectly clean. After seasoning it was better than new. I have lots of good cast iron, much of it from yard sales.

Oh I love that metal grill !! and the fact that your DH had such a hand in making it yours is really special.

kitch that chair is gorgeous..I wish you had a before too :) I forgot to post my trash pile chair...it is calling out to you for a fix up :) c

Trailrunner, you have a wonderful neighbor. He must bring things home with you in mind. I especially like the lamp with the marble base. And the glider. I think I'd spend a lot of time in that glider, just looking at the gardens. You know, I think a lot of people must not know how easy it is to rewire lighting. We've gotten a LOT of lamps and sconces curbside that are (to us at least) pretty great. If you shop antique lighting on ebay, you can get un-rewired stuff affordably, but the rewired fixtures tend to be very pricey.

kitch4me, I need to learn to re-upholster. Your chair is lovely. It looks comfortable too!

luckygal, love your wrought iron piece and that your husband made it from found treasure. Good score on the cast iron pan too. I have my 3 or 4 of my grandmother's old Wagner skillets. She was getting ready to throw them out because "nobody wants to cook on that old stuff anymore." I scooped them right up.

I have a wall cabinet in my bathroom that is a curb rescue once-removed. Friends of ours pulled it from their neighborhood bulk trash and had it in their bathroom for a few years until they found an even better one. We helped them unscrew this from their bathroom wall andthen came home and screwed it to ours.

Not attractive, but oh so functional, at 2 different times, we found metal shelving on the side of the road. With a little tightening and reinforcing these have become our best friends...up in the attic where I store all the accumulated dishes and plates and such from all of the households that have been combined into ours as family has passed away. Seriously, our attic looks like a good will store!

As I turned down a side street one day I saw this beauty sitting on the curb outside a restored Victorian home that was used a doctor's office. I was by myself (thank goodness, because DH would never have allowed us to stop!). It had rained the night before and the sofa was soaking wet. I took the cushions off, but it was still so heavy I couldn't figure out how to lift it into my van. I backed the van up as close as I could and gradually inched the thing in. I don't have an after shot because I'm the midst of a remodel and the restored sofa is in storage, but I had the missing leg replaced, changed the two cushions to one with down wrapped foam and reupholstered it in a white damask. It is gorgeous and I smile every time I think of the work it took to bring it home

Everyone's finds are so great!

Trailrunner - I have to ask you about your lamps. I have 3, just like that, that I fished out of someone's trash. They are rusty and I haven't tried to clean them up. You said you used PAM spray -- like the cooking spray??? How did you clean them?

I was actually thinking just yesterday of putting them back out at the curb because they seemed beyond fixing plus I have no idea where to get the mogul bulbs, but seeing your lamps is making me reconsider.

I almost never see anything by the curb. I think our township has an ordinance against leaving things too large for the trash truck by the curb. However, there used to be miles of woods behind my street and one particular house was owned by a well-known architect. His property had several outbuildings. He had a kind of trash pile behind one. I used to hike a lot back there and found several interesting tiles which I brought home.I am sure they were used as some sort of architectural detail, I don't know where though. The name on the back is Batchelder. I have two propped up in the eaves of my porch and another in the garden. Here's one of them:

Here is a link that might be useful: Batchelder tiles

Loved seeing everyones finds!

Arlo...that cabinet is perfect in your bathroom!
WMA89...that sofa rocks!
Trailrunner...I think I came across your chairs cousin a few years back, its not one of my favs, but the price was right :)
before...

I gave this to a friend, it was more suited to her style.
after...

Great finds everyone! I've found only a couple of curbside goodies, although I've often seen things when I didn't have time to stop--by the return trip they were gone.

On my way home from work one day, I stopped at a home day care that was having a 'going out of business' yard sale, and paid $20 for a Jenny Lind style baby bed. My daughter was pregnant, and I thought it would be nice to have an extra bed at our house.

The next day the sale was over, and as I drove by I noticed the matching changing table in the trash beside the road. I knocked on the door and asked permission to take it, then loaded it in the back of my van. It just fit!

They had painted it in dark primary colors, so I primed and painted it my signature cream, to match a chest of drawers we already owned. The spindles were missing from the top back--we cut dowel rods to fit, and I used large wooden beads that I painted in pastel colors, to disguise the dowels. The beads came from a roller foot massage thing that I found at Goodwill for 89 cents.

I sewed a pad for it, then we stocked the shelves with cradle linens, baby supplies, and a beautiful baby quilt I made, and tied the whole thing with a large yellow ribbon. It looked as if it had come from an expensive baby boutique!

Here is a link that might be useful: this style

This post was edited by mama_goose on Sun, Apr 14, 13 at 13:25

kitch...that is amazing...looks like a very close cousin to my chair..how far do you live from me ??? :) I will be right over.

mamagoose..hope you can post a pic of the crib...that sounds so sweet and how creative of you .

ded that tile is wonderful and I love the story behind it. The stories always make these more fun.

lk...I got the idea of the Pam and 0000 steel wool from a friend that was in the Merchant Marine in the Vietnam era. He said they clean the ships with WD 40 and steel wool. Well I hate the WD 40 and it is bad for you to breath. So I looked around and Pam was the next best thing. You could just use cooking oil from the bottle as well. Just keep changing out the steel wool and wiping with paper towels till all the rust is gone. Then clean with a degreaser...I like Awesome from Walmart. Then rinse and dry well and voila..you have a treasure. I got the Mogul bulbs at Lowes. You can order them online but they carried them a couple years ago. They last so far I haven't had to change them and we use the lamps all the time. If there is old wiring make sure and leave it intact and use it to pull the new wiring through...a trick I read and it works great. Let me know if you need more details.

arlosmom..that cabinet is wonderful !! And you are right is is so easy to do the lamps.

annie...when would be a convenient time for us ALL to come shopping in your attic :) ( I am sorta serous ...) haha.

WMA...that is a great story. As soon as you get that sofa back you post a pic. It is fantastic and I can hardly wait to see. c

Oh, trail, the 'baby' is now 5, the parents are divorced, the bed is dismantled. The changing table is in the storage room with some of my daughter's junk on it, but I ran up and took a pic:

And here's a shot of the sweet little quilt, which he still keeps at the foot of his 'big boy' bed. :)

Oh mamagoose...that is too sweet and sad too. I am sorry that the parents didn't make it together. It wasn't for want of a sweet environment for that little boy :) Thank you for the show and tell. c

Love that changing table. Love all these nifty finds!

My best find and most valued treasure (next to my kids of course) was a book. After my step grandpa passed away and his house sold we were cleaning the house for the new owners. I was told if there was anything left, to help myself because the remainder was going into the garbage.

In a box at the back of a closet, I found a book that was printed in 1787, called Philosophical and Miscellaneous Papers Lately written by Benjamin Franklin! I didn't realize what I had until I got home and looked it up online. Boy was I surprized!

Love seeing everyone's treasures!

not a curb find, but these chairs were in the free section on craigslist, as the owner was moving across country the next day and would throw them out.

The blankets are very strategically placed to cover up some cat claws, but they are so comfortable. I steamed cleaned them and the velvet is quite soft. They're 70's ethan allen chairs. I plan on slipcovering or reupholstering them someday, but I enjoy them for what they are, in their still lovely imperfect state, in the mean time.

Wow -- I so love this thread and everyone sharing their great finds and the stories behind them.

I was trying to refrain from posting but the "squatty" type chairs that several people have posted moved me to photograph mine. Picked the chair up curbside and it was falling apart, dark stained and covered in a gnarly, wooly plaid upholstery. Gave it a new but vintage girly look and was gonna give it away but everyone loves sitting in it !! This chair is super short (like for a kid) but super wide and very sturdy now (like for an adult). :)

Oh first of all the finds and the homes shown in this thread ooze with character! What special pieces! I love free and I love the idea that these interesting pieces filled with history continue to collect more stories.
Here is one of my curbside finds. It is in my sunroom/playroom and all it needed was a light sanding and a new coat of stain:).

No longer with me ... a Singer Featherweight that was sitting in a pile of junk in an alley in Phoenix.

It needed to have a switch re-wired and to be serviced, but that was easy,. then I sold it on eBay for $400 or so.