{swap it like it's hot} From Thrift Store to Champagne & Diamonds

Are your ready to Swap It Like It’s Hot?! Here’s how it works… bloggers sign up on a list, and then each goes shopping at local thrift stores to purchase one or several items {with a max budget of $10-15} to mail to the person below them on the list {that’s the SWAP part}. Each blogger is then challenged to come up with creative ways to repurpose whatever treasures she receives in the mail {that’s the HOT part}.

This slightly crazy but super fun, twice-annual event is hosted by Charlotte, from Ciburbanity {aka City Suburb Sanity}. I participated for the first time last fall, and I was thrilled to be invited back for this round. If you’ve just hopped over from Confetti Style, welcome! Let me begin by showing you the thrifted items that Shelly sent me:

When I ripped open the box, I was pretty excited to see how much potential these items had! I wanted to makeover all of them, but for today, I picked just two – the metal planter and the bamboo utensil tray. But I’ve already started working on that recipe box, so keep an out for it on the blog in the coming months.

Honestly, the red metal planter is that one that had me totally stumped from the outset.

But then, as I was working on transforming a printer stand into a bar cart as part of my Drab to Fab project for the Denver Home Show, I realized that I was going to need some items to stage the top of the bar cart. That’s when I remembered seeing a really adorable Kate Spade champagne bucket and knew the metal planter would make a perfect for recreating that look!

Come back on Friday for the DIY tutorial for this champagne bucket, as well as several other simple Kate Spade inspired bar cart items.

Unlike the planter, which took me a while to figure out, I had the opposite problem when it came to the bamboo tray. I had SO many different things I wanted to do with it that it was hard to narrow it down and settle on just one idea.

With Mother’s Day coming up soon, I finally decided to turn the bamboo tray into a jewelry display. I started by painting the tray gold {although I realize that in these photos it looks similar color to the bamboo, it’s actually a gorgeous metallic gold. Then I added some of my boys’ artwork, as well as a recent photo of them. And an elephant, because elephants are always a good idea!

I mean, really, what mom or grandma wouldn’t want to receive this from her kiddos? It’s the perfect place to put your jewelry at the end of the day.

I’ll share the how-to on this glam and sentimental jewelry display in the coming weeks. You might want to sign up for my email list {at the bottom of this email} so that you don’t miss a post!

Now that you’ve seen how I transformed these items from thrift store bargains to champagne and diamonds, it’s time to see what everyone else did with their treasures.

Here’s a little sneak peek at what I mailed to Melissa of Polished Habitat. Melissa has a talent for creating beautiful organizing solutions, so I kept that in mind when shopping for items with the potential for both style and function.

I’m headed over to Polished Habitat to see what Melissa did with these items… join me there!

And make sure you don’t miss any of the other stops along the Swap It Like It’s Hot blog hop! Eight bloggers shared their swaps yesterday, and eight more today. I’ll update this post to include the links for the Wednesday-Friday participants as the week goes on!