Hideous Horses Before/After

My fellow blogger Gail at Little Beach Designs recently blogged about being embarrassed when she buys certain items from thrift stores with the plan to renovate them into something beautiful.  I couldn't agree with her more.  I do this often.  There's A LOT of ugly stuff out there that can be transformed into something quite lovely if you have a little imagination. . .and in my case, a can or two of  spray paint.

I found these ceramic horse bookends at a thrift store for just a couple dollars each.  I cleaned them up, gave them each a coat of Espresso spray paint, then a coat of Heirloom White spray paint.  I roughed them up a bit and applied some dark brown wood stain to give them an aged look. . .voila!  They sold quickly in my shop for 5 times what I paid for them.  The buyer was in another country and liked them so much she didn't mind paying the $30 it cost for shipping.  I took that as a huge compliment.



After (SOLD)