Friday's Favs…I'm lovin my newest trash to treasure creation

Look at my tres chic berry crate all the way from a berry market in France!

O.K., so maybe I didn't fool you, but I'm pretty happy with my little trash to treasure crate.

Here's the scoop...

I saw a real French berry crate on the beautiful blog, Dreamy Whites, and loved it.

Then, on my usual jog around the neighborhood, I saw something in the neighbor's "take me I'm free" pile by the curb.

It was a small wooden "cart" outdoor planter.

It was dark green, covered in moss, rotten in spots, with pieces totally broken off.

It was so pitiful that I didn't take a before photo.

I was pretty sure it was going to end up as firewood for our outdoor fire pit, but since it was free I decided to see if I could make my idea come to pass.

My idea was to make a homemade version of a French berry crate.

I took the little broken cart home.

I took it all apart.

I scrubbed it clean with soap, water and bleach.

I removed all the old nails.

I put just the body of the little cart back together using small finish nails and some liquid nails here and there.

Hey, it was beginning to look like a crate!

I painted the whole thing with some gray paint I already had around the house.

When that was dry I painted on the words.

"Marche baies" which means berry market and "10 livres" means 10 pounds.

When the words were dry, I put some dark wax here and there to make it look used.

My secret dark wax? The Hub's brown shoe polish.

Then I went over the whole think with paste wax and gave it a good buff.

Et voila!

I'm lovin' it!

It will be a handy container for holding items for a meal outdoors, as seen here.

Inside I may use it to hold magazines or throw blankets.

I wish I would have taken a before photo.

It really did look as if it was only fit for the burn pile.

There's something gratifying about taking trash and turning it into treasure.

Well, it's almost Friday.

Have a HAPPY, HAPPY Friday

and

a BLESSED weekend!

Elizabeth