Last weekend we journeyed two hours north to Arlington, Virginia so Clara could have some quality time with her cousin Elsa (and apparently so my cousin Travis and I could rock some daddy-plaid, shorts, flip flops, and matching Kettler bikes together (the latter of which were both his, found for a huge deal on craigslist).
While there, Elsa’s mom, Cat (who is Sherry’s BFF that we introduced to my cousin back in 2007 – and now they’re married with two kids) took us to this cool shop in Old Town, Alexandra called Red Barn Mercantile. It had tons of beautiful stuff, but what caught our eye most was this bowl of vintage printing press letters.
Six bucks later we snagged a “C” so that Clara can be now represented amongst our original collection of letters and numbers (7, J, S, L, O, V, E). The first three were purchased at a NYC flea market just weeks after we started dating on 7/7/05 (which explains our love of the number 7) and the last four came from a flea market in DC a few years later. We also looked for a “B” for Burger, but they only had lowercase ones (which just look like a “d” instead, since they’re backwards). Sorry Burgs! The search for an uppercase B continues…
But that’s admittedly not that amazing as $6 purchases go. It was actually our other $6 find on that trip that we’re still pinching ourselves about. You ready for this jelly?
Six dollars got us more than just this cabinet hardware…
…it even got us more than this whole cabinet…
…it actually got us SIX CABINETS. All for just six measly dollars. Not each. Total.
If you’re in as much disbelief as I was when Sherry first told me about her find (Clara was napping in the car, so I stayed outside with her and Sherry went in and called me with the details), here’s some proof:
We found them at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Alexandria (sooooo glad we decided to swing by there while visiting the area) and they truly were just selling them for a dollar each. Apparently they were once nightstands at a hotel. The hotel donated a truckload of them and the ReStore had finally gotten rid of them all (priced at $15 each)… until some overzealous purchaser brought back a bunch that he had leftover. So the ReStore guy told us they priced them at just $1 to get rid of them quickly (they already made their money we assume, since they have a No Refund policy).
Oh and for anyone worried about bedbugs, I’m an obsessed checker-outer due to a life-changing encounter with them back in NYC, so I frantically looked over every inch of them like a paranoid weirdo before taking them home (and then did another thorough check once at home, just to be sure). You can read about that harrowing NY experience here. When it comes to what I look for, I’ve learned that bed bugs are visible to the naked eye, so you should be able to see them and their droppings if you look everything over and check cracks & crevices. They also don’t like slick surfaces like glossy cabinets or plastic bags and prefer softer things like mattresses and upholstery where they can more easily walk, along with dark crevices where they can lurk/hide/ruin your life. So when buying something with more places to hide than cabinets (like an upholstered armchair) you’ll want to be extra careful – but you should still see some evidence of them in the form of small little stains on the upholstery, usually along the seams – which are (shudder) their droppings. You can also leave things in a holding area like a garage or sunroom for a day or two and recheck them again before bringing them inside.
And speaking of getting them home, miraculously we could fit two into our Altima – even with all of our travel gear like a pack & play, a dog crate, a baby in a big ol’ carseat, a husband, a wife, etc (one cabinet fit in the trunk and the other sat in the front seat while Sherry rode in the back with the Burger, the bean, the pack & play, and the folded up dog crate). The ReStore held the others since my dad was serendipitously going to be in the same area for a meeting (he drives a Honda Pilot so the remaining four fit nicely inside). We’re usually the suckers without any means to get big things anywhere (especially when we’re so far away from home), so it was a nice change of pace. I guess these $6 cabinets were just meant to be ours…
Well, as evidenced above, they actually cost us $6.30 with tax. So I guess it was the best six dollars and thirty cents that we ever spent.
They certainly don’t feel like shoddy $1 cabinets. I mean, just check out the interior fittings on them. Hellooooo slide-out shelves!
If you didn’t already connect the dots, they’re meant for our built-in office workstation that we talked about in this post and we hope to set them up like this: two cabinets against the left wall, open space for a chair, two cabinets in the middle, open space for a chair, two cabinets against the right wall to create built-ins that we discussed right here in this floor planning post…
With that arrangement we’ll have exactly 30″ for each of our chair openings, which is perfect since our chairs are 24″ wide (and six inches of wiggle room is a lot more than we have in our current small-homemade-desk-made-from-a-door situation). Of course our new cabinet friends do need a bit of work before they’re ready to move in permanently. For starters, they need a coat of primer and some glossy white paint (they appear to be 100% solid wood, so they should be great when it comes to adhesion and durability like traditional painted cabinets). Oh but we’re not going to paint the inside of them (lots of white built-ins actually have wood interiors – which hide marks and smudges a little more, too). All of the new white KraftMaid drawers from our first kitchen were wood on the inside, and we really loved it. But don’t worry, we’ll share all the painting details as we go.
We also need to do something about their height, because they’re only about 26″ tall and our chairs are 27″ (so the arms wouldn’t even slide under them if we added a countertop at this point).
Ideally we’d like our desk to be about 30″ tall, so I’m thinking I’ll build just a simple box on top of each cabinet pairing that I can paint along with the cabinets so they look seamless. Haven’t decided if it’s worth building it as a little open shelf up there or just fronting it with a solid piece of wood (kinda like those dummy drawers in front of kitchen sinks). Or we could build them up from the bottom. Not sure yet, but we’ll definitely keep you posted.
It was not only amazing to find $1 cabinets, but to realize that they weren’t too tall like 99.9% of the base cabinets out there (which are 35″ and hard to cut down since they’re one solid piece that includes the kickstep) was such a relief. Plus they were still deep enough for a desk (upper cabinets were the right height but only 12″ deep, which would make for a very very skinny desk or all need to be built out from the back with a lot more lumber than building these up a few inches). So yeah, we’re psyched. After some pretty thorough searching, the cabinet gods were good to us. Which was especially nice after the file cabinet gods weren’t as sweet (we searched for eight months for secondhand file cabinets for the office and ended up giving up and spending $150 on this system from Ikea). You win some, you lose some I guess.
Anyway, since not everyone can stumble upon the cabinet equivalent of The Dollar Store, we thought you might appreciate hearing the other places that we looked and the other solutions that we considered (of which there were maaaany). So we’ll be back to fill you in on all of that research / legwork / consideration in a few hours. Hopefully sharing a few other options that we considered may help someone else who can’t find secondhand cabinets that work for their project. In the meantime, what’s the best under-ten-dollar purchase that you’ve made? Was it clothing? House related? Did you buy a movie ticket and meet the man of your dreams there? Someone out there has to have one of those should-be-made-into-a-movie stories.
Shani says
Rather than adding legs to the bottom, add a box-like support as in your inspiration photo. Clean and stylish, and no place for dust bunnies/baby & dog toys to hide.
YoungHouseLove says
Definitely another possibility out there!
xo,
s
simplyblythe says
so, S…what did your face look like the moment before you called J? is there a hidden camera in that Restore so we can all enjoy the dance that ensued? amazing find! you two are a thrill.
YoungHouseLove says
I honestly thought it was a mistake at first so I had to ask someone if they were really $1. I thought some kid put the wrong tags on them or something. It was awesome. And I called John and told him all the details (the measurements, the interior fittings, solid wood, etc) and he said “ok, how much are they, I can tell they’re expensive…” and I got to say “one dolllllllaaarrrr!!!!” and I kind of screamed it so everyone in the store looked at me. Haha. So not slick.
xo,
s
Allyn says
Love it!
I especially love the printing press letters. A friend gave me an A (for Allyn) that she found from an old pharmacy. My husband wired it for lights and now it hangs illuminated from the wall in our office, all glorious 3 feet tall of it.
Now we’re on the market for some sort of giant letter J (for Josh). It has not be an easy task, but I do love a challenge. And the A is pretty badass, so it’ll be worth it.
YoungHouseLove says
That sounds amazing!
xo,
s
Melissa says
Awesome finds! I actually live about 3 blocks from Red Barn and love wandering over to that store (as well as the Restoration Hardware, Random Harvest, etc). :) Love the picture of the plaid, shorts and flip flops, but you were missing the brown flip flops. It’s Arlington, you know (check out the Arlington rap: http://youtu.be/4T1RMuoQnKo )
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- hilarious!
xo,
s
Paige says
We have a Restore store here on Long Island…and I so wanna go! That is a great find! Can’t wait to see the outcome.
Kristen W says
What a great find! I love shopping at Buffalo Reuse – and bought this table there for $5 –
http://mycoveredbridge.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-little-black-table.html
I love it!
YoungHouseLove says
Pretty! Love the lines!
xo,
s
MrsB says
I love ReStore – my new kitchen floor is 18 x 18 poreclain tile – 18 sq feet – $17 a box. WHEE! ReStore is going to get my gas range, over range microwave and electric oven (yes, a kitchen with two ovens – all in 100 sq ft).
Why not build a base for the cabinets – like under kitchen cabinets – with a toe kick?
And a place to use another color of paint – to coordinate with room perhaps?
YoungHouseLove says
Building up a base beneath the cabinets is definitely another option we’re toying with! We’ll keep you posted!
xo,
s
Annabelvita says
Those are stunning! I love the drawers.
My best bargain furniture find was free! An iron and brass king size extra long (7ft!) bed from freecycle. I was thrilled with it.
My friend had a six foot 8 friend at the time. She always joked that we should go out as I already had the bed. Well, two years later he and I share that bed every night. I joke that I got my boyfriend on freecycle :).
You can see the bed here http://annabelvita.com/vintage-french-schoolroom-map-above-the-bed i do still love it (even more now!) but as it looks like I’ll be keeping it a really long time I’d like to paint it and get new knobs (that’s what she said).
So excited to see what you come up with for the desk. It’s going to look great. My vote for adding height is to leave the area above the two middle ones open (for chargers and the other stuff you have in open storage under your desk right now and put false fronts on the two sets of two against the walls.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s another awesome idea! Love your pretty bed too- and your boyfriend from freecycle. Haha.
xo,
s
kathy says
omg. I finally live within a half hour of a Re-Store and I LOVE. IT.
A recent purchase included two vintage (late 60’s, early 70’s) coffee vessels that worked (!) for a coffe-shop themed bridal shower I hosted a few weeks ago. They were $5 each and were the perfect capacity!
Daisy says
I am jealous! I see things but hardly ever, I find the deals you guys get. Fantastic, congratulations.
Corinne says
Talk about a great purchase! Great timing! My ReStore is kind of on the scary side and in a not-so-good neighborhood, but I always think about checking it out every once in awhile. Last time I was there, they had 40 tables and booths that came from a seafood restaurant, so the upholstery pattern was of lobsters and smelled nice and fishy too!
I think my best cheapo score was a set of two drawer knobs from Hobby Lobby a couple weeks ago. They were on clearance, so I got two for $2. They were originally $5 each! Not very exciting I know….
holly says
what a find! i can’t wait to see what you do with them. i had a great experience over the weekend as well. i scored two of these … http://www.ballarddesigns.com/ball-finial-outdoor-rod-set/panels-draperies/drapery-hardware/42812 … for $1.99 each. they were marked down from $45 each to $15.99, and when i got to the counter i learned they were an additional 90% off. yay!
ps—i love that clara matches her bike and elsa matches hers, too. planned??
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- totally unplanned. Didn’t notice til now. Haha. As for your score- congrats! That’s an awesome price!
xo,
s
Caity says
Score! That’s amazeballs.
Side note: Last night, I watched your Dallas Roatrip video and laughed for about 4 minutes when you said “I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly.” And then you said it again today. Oh the fantastically hilarious $herdog irony!
Whitney says
Oh my goodness. This is crazy! What an amazing find! I can’t wait to see what you do with them. You guys blow my mind. :D
Shary says
What a great find! For the box you build for the top, instead of a dummy front could you hinge it so it will fold down? That way you have usable space but still hides what’s in there.
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh that’s another awesome idea!
xo,
s
Keri says
What a score! I’m so jealous! You guys have really inspired me to makeover craigslist and thrift store finds. It’s satisfying and guilt free like frozen yogurt. Thank you.
I think my best find ever was a brand new, in the box, 7 feet tall, 5 feet wide, artificial Spruce. It was ….$4! Prior to Christmas, that tree was selling for $120.
I wish I could score something I “need” like kitchen cabinets or new flooring. :)
Megan GK says
Holysmokes! Y’all are my heroes, for serious. I can’t wait to these puppies in action!
julianna says
You could add tilt-out trays at the top (like would be on a sink) to hold pens and pencils. Or you could buy Ikea kitchen cabinet drawers — the kitchen cabinets are all modular, so you can buy just the drawer slides and the actual drawer, not the front (and then make your own front). Their shallow drawers are 4″ tall and either 9″ deep or 20-ish” deep and come in a variety of widths. Open storage would be nice, too, of course — personally, I’d do a mix of open and closed (open would be the perfect spot for Clara’s drawing paper/coloring books/crayons).
YoungHouseLove says
That would be awesome!
xo,
s
Barb says
I bought a $20 loveseat. It was a quality lazyboy from the 80s. It had a pullout bed too that wasn’t too uncomfortable. It was an super ugly yellow and brown pattern, nothing a slipcover couldn’t handle. It last through college and my first apartment. Finally gave it away last summer for free on craigslist. No one else wanted to pay money for it so I didn’t make my money back but still got plenty of use. Best deal ever!
Reenie says
Great find! Cute pic….the guys should switch shorts!! HA! Clara and Elsa look so serious :)
Lauren says
I just realized from following the link to your bed bug story that that’s the first post I ever read of ya’ll’s! Wow! I always thought I just picked up on your blog from Apartment Therapy… Now I remember reading a long forums post about bed bugs and someone linking to this post, and I was hooked from there.
I tip my hat to you, bed bugs!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- too funny. I loved the visual of you tipping your hat to bed bugs most of all.
xo,
s
Dawn K. says
SO JEALOUS! We’re attempting to DIY a 130″ desk for our office space. We’ve finally settled on a top similar to the desk you pinned the other day (with the walnut stain and Besta cabinets) due to the length, but we’re having trouble with cabinets. We have some contenders on IKEA, but the nearest store is 9 hours away so I hate to pull the trigger without seeing them. I’m super excited for your later post. I’m hoping you can solve all our problems! :)
Sarah B says
I’m a little sick to my stomach I’m so jealous. You guys are like the Bounty Hunters of good deals. Not only do you have the whole family involved, much like “Dog” the Bounty Hunter but you literally had your dog with! OK, that was a stretch. But still jealous.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, we don’t always get the best deals! Sometimes we end up spending $150 on a double filing cabinet like the one we just got from Ikea and then tons of folks comment that they got the same-ish thing for $7! Haha. You win some and you lose some I think, but hitting up a bunch of places all weekend long doesn’t hurt!
xo,
s
Jeni says
Amazing find! When you find something that good, the joy sticks with you a long time. When I was in high school (in Virginia!), I bought an incredible vintage shawl to wear to my homecoming dance. Calling it a shawl makes it sound very granny–it is a massive 12-yard length of glorious, hot pink silk satin that you can wrap around you and swag over one arm. We’re talking movie star fabulous, way better than than any high school girl in a podunk town should have. It cost $7.50! I have made a grand entrance in that thing many times and still love it dearly.
May you enjoy your cabinets well into the future!
Kim S says
What a find! I actually just bought some wall-hanging cabinets off Craiglist so that we can replace the ugly wire shelving above our washer and dryer with some concealed storage. Our laundry room is right off our carport, and that’s the door that we (along with all our friends and family) always come in, so I think this little project is actually going to have a huge impact since it’s the first thing everyone sees when they walk through the door! I started priming and painting this weekend, but we picked a really dark color and I think it’s going to take at least another coat…or two (hopefully not!). Anyway, good luck with your cabinet remodeling, and congrats on that good deal!
Tamra S says
Incredible find!
Here’s my amazing under $10 deal . . . I saw a gorgeous new kitchen faucet (regularly $200) at Home Depot on clearance for $45. I was excited . . . but at the checkout it rang up for 1 cent! I couldn’t believe it!
The clerk did some quick research and discovered it was a discontinued model that they were supposed to send back to the manufacturer . . . but had been forgotten. Boy was I thrilled! (yes, I was in disbelief and had to check with two other clerks to make sure I wasn’t ripping them off!–apparently it was store policy that since I found it they had to sell it to me).
Best penny ever spent! Writing this I still can’t believe it :)
YoungHouseLove says
HOLY COW. Best deal ever!
xo,
s
Keri says
Wow that was an amazing find! I can’t wait to see the final result. I’m going to have to start checking out my Habitat store more often.
Brittany says
That really is amazing! I cannot wait to see the finished product!!
Emily says
Serious awesome-sauce. I love the drawers within!
Roberta says
Awesome deal and I think it will work out wonderfully with them set up on a 2×3 base or have you thought about toekicks? btw…you’ve got me scratchin’ after the bed bug story…yikes!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s definitely another possibility! We’ll keep you guys posted!
xo,
s
patrice says
Hi guys, what a great find!! I was thinking that since you need added height it might be easier (and look pretty nice) to add casters to them and a little piece of trim in front at the bottom to hide the edge that comes down…but you also have the whole building thing down so I’m sure that would look awesome too :)
YoungHouseLove says
We’ve definitely thought about building them up from the bottom, so we’ll have to share all the details when we decide what to go with!
xo,
s
Jen @ The Decor Scene says
What an awesome find. I love restore. We bought a screen door for $13, I know that wasn’t something under $10, but it’s under $20 for a screen door, so that is an awesome deal in my book. ;)
Can’t wait to see how this project turns out. I love that inspiration picture.
YoungHouseLove says
Definitely an awesome deal!
xo,
s
Pip says
Fantastic find! Nice one! Love Clara’s matching yellow bike/outfit combo. I have a yearning for letterpress now :)
Kelley says
SERIOUSLY, WOW. Serendipitous indeed! FATE! Meant to be!
Gwenalyn says
It must have been the weekend for deals! I thought I hit the jackpot when I snagged a wooden futon at a barn sale for $10. But you guys win! ;) I’ve never gone to a ReStore, but I’m going to make time to now!
rachel says
What a lucky snag! I need to find a similarly priced desk for my husbands home office. we are in the midst of transforming our guest bedroom into his office.
Rachel Tatem says
That’s amazing! $6!!!!!! How?? Awesome
Lisa Riley says
What a lucky find!! I can not wait to see what your office looks like once you are done!! You are both so creative, and because of that my house is looking much more chic and on a dime. Thank you so much for sharing all your tips!
Kate says
great idea! If you are ever near their locations, Green Demolitions is a great place to check out!!! Same idea…lots of fun things.
http://greendemolitions.com/homedecorhdale.html
love the blog…very inspiring!
Katie
YoungHouseLove says
Never heard of them! Thanks for the heads up!
xo,
s
Mandy says
How I need to go check out my local Habitat store!! What an awesome find! :)
Seriously Sassy Mama says
My neighbors gave us two all wood dressers, and a mirror. They are awesome and I cannot wait to redo them. Bonus, they were FREE! I have been shopping on Craigslist like forever, and bam got some for free from the neighbor!
El says
What an awesome find!! Can’t wait to see it all finished.
As for the bottom leggish things. You could add on to that by just covering up the front with 1/8″ plywood and it wouldn’t be as visible on the bottom as adding something on the top.
YoungHouseLove says
Great idea! Love it!
xo,
s
Elisa @ What the Vita says
W-H-O-A, what a find!!! And I was so proud of the three upper cabinets (with 5 doors) that we found at our Restore for “only” $55… and the hardware is fab on top of it!
I’ve been to the Restore only once and I think I’m addicted already. Actually, I want to go right now after seeing your latest find!
Rachel says
Totally awesome deal! The best $1 I ever spent was at our company’s annual charity hot-dog eating contest. I went to it because I was hungry and they were selling hot dogs for $1. I not only got a cheap meal but I also met my husband there! Guess it was meant to be…we both love a good bargain. :)
Jordan G @ The Happy Homebodies says
My best under-$10 purchase was this $5 vintage chair at an estate sale in the tiny town of Stephenville, Texas. It looked exactly like one I had just seen on the cover of Domino, and I nearly died when I was the only one who bid on it. I recently had two slipcovers made for it!
http://thehappyhomebodies.blogspot.com/2010/11/chair.html
We also came home from that estate sale with a $25 Brunswick pool table. Luckily my husband was a college football player at the time, so we just called over the O-line to come help us lift that 3-ton beast!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, love The Chair!
xo,
s
Ami says
Awesome score. Just one of those handles is that much for the Martha Stewart line of cabinet hardware at Home Depot! We had some really tall friends who didn’t like their low bathroom cabinets and added bases to the bottoms to raise them up. They put block-type pieces of wood under the set back toe kicks on the bottom. Looked seamless. Good luck and canNOT wait to see them all white and gorgeous.
Stacy says
I have never read that bed-bug story before and now I say, “You deserve that cabinet deal after going through that mess!” No jealousy here on that one!
Of course, now my skin is itching…
tracy b says
I snagged an awesome dresser (like this one: http://pinterest.com/pin/124314649/ ) for $10 at a garage sale recently. Perfect condition, just needed new paint!
YoungHouseLove says
Woah- that’s going to be gorgeous!
xo,
s
kate says
WOW! Talk about being in the right place at the right time – I am insanely jealous of your amazing find. You guys deserve it…can’t wait to see it when it’s all said and done.
Sherry F says
That’s CRAZY!! Great find you guys! Can’t wait to see the finished product. Damn, I’m going to the ReStore tomorrow.