Junk Beautiful

If your style is best described as a mix between flea market and tag sale chic this is the book for you. Junk Beautiful, authors Sue Whitney and Ki Nassauer, will inspire and help give your home a little more polish and panache.

You'll learn how to transform those junky finds into useful items with a little paint, fabric, wooden embellishments and elbow grease. The book is not only about re-doing, it's also about re-purposing items on hand and using new finds in different ways.

There have been numerous articles and books on thrift shop and garage sale decorating, the problem is most of the finished stuff looks like it still belongs in a garage sale! Not so with this book, the ideas and projects presented range from cute to cool and are far removed from their humble beginnings.

Every time I pick up this book I see something new that was missed before, something that makes my mind start spinning on how can we do that or where can we find a similar object. The entire book is filled with ideas and projects on using stuff that might be found at a flea market, tag sale, junk yard or hopefully in the family attic.

Many times books will be filled with ideas that are not practical for the amateur decorator or DIYer, not so with Junk Beautiful. There are loads of ideas and projects for every skill level.

The book ranges from simple ideas such as using a tambourine as a tortilla chip server to as complicated using an industrial hospital gurney as a bathroom vanity, complete with a bowl sink.

Other ideas include

• An entire bathroom transformed from 1980s floral to a campy woodsy style using everything from snowshoes, antlers, game pieces and a wooden cupboard.
• A teen's bedroom takes on a grown-up eclectic look with a wooden salvage elements, along with grandma's crocheted bedspread.
• An outdated kitchen turned into a fun yellow and red room, filled with fun, quirky touches that will encourage everyone to hang around and help with the dishes!

Instructions are not included for everything shown, but the whole idea is to inspire and this is one book that does just that.

• Publisher: The Taunton Press
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Published: 2008
• ISBN: 978-1-56158-981-4