Dirty hands, Beautiful life: thrifty finds

Today I took my two year old to Monkey Joe's for the first time...after a couple of hours of that...this vintage mama needed a little salvaging...a reviving power nap inspired me to tell you about something I L-O-ve...

I L-O-ve architectural salvage! I love it best when I pull it out of the "curb appeal pile"(aka someone's trash pile), but I also enjoy watching for pieces at flea markets, antique shops, and anywhere else it may linger.

I think of the great effort and passion put into each curve and detail of building even when resources were so few, and I can't stand the thought of these 'leftovers' being crush, burned or left to rot...

>>>I am NOT a hoarder...in fact I'm anti-hoarder...so I do what I can one piece at a time:)

My special passion is windows as you probably noticed in my "God Opens a Window" post... There's just something about dreaming about what someone saw out the window 100 years ago that seems more serene to me than what I might see out my own window on any given day...

(although some of the windows in this house are likely 100 years old and to accent that we dress 'em up with that fine little winterizing plastic -- very classy!)

These are the first windows I ever purchased. There are actually three of them...you will see them used in more than one way over time...it's one of my favorite items to move...

And you've probably seen something like this before. This is a round floor vent that would have been used to let heat get through to an upper level...I think it's a great simple piece to give punch to an otherwise narrow boring place by the front door. I like to think that me buying this was the inspiration for every decor store in town to offer lightweight metal replicas...

This is not architectural salvage, but I bought it in a salvage store...can you tell what it is?

It's a drawer front from an old chest of drawers! The handles act as ready made hooks...fantastic by an entryway for bags or as a towel holder in the bathroom...

Now...drumroll...please...

This is a shelf that I designed from a pile that looked similar to this...

The long portion of the shelf is a wide door frame....It rests on corbels (I think thats what they are called??) I never could find a place for my family photos and this is going to work great because it's above a window which would otherwise be wasted space! I can't wait to play with the design of what sits on the shelf over and over again!