Thrift Store Transformation: A Christmas Deer & Sideboard

This season I’m enjoying mixing rustic and shiny with fresh greens on our burlap and silver mantel and our metallic tree with a burlap ribbon. I had a lot of fun creating this sideboard vignette to coordinate using these items plus apothecary jars, a cake stand, and a cute white deer that started out like this:

It was a super quick and easy thrift store transformation (I’ll show you what I did with the garland tomorrow: update – go here to see what I did). I found these two items the other day at a local Goodwill – a paper mache deer and a brand new tinsel garland. If you’re looking for Christmas items, don’t forget to look at the thrift stores – they often have the same things that are in the stores, but of course a lot cheaper. The deer above was .99 and the garland (with a $6.99 original price tag!) was only .49.

What cracked me up is that the paper mache deer had been decorated at one time around it’s neck – evidenced by some leftover glue and stray green garland pieces – and still carried a hand-penciled price tag of …drum roll…$15. Um, do you think someone thrifted it when no one bought it for that price, or after having paid that?

These little guys are popping up everywhere in holiday vignettes and they are usually white, so I broke out my trusty Rustoleum “heirloom white” spray paint on a day that was above 50 degrees and quickly sprayed about three light coats. After removing any glue/garland residue, that is.

Ta da! He’s so much more dignified now, don’t you think? And for .99 if I grow tired of him, well he might find his way back to the thrift store. Or I may paint him purple – you never know what will be in style in the future, do you?

Okay, I’m kidding about the purple. If that ever comes into style somewhere, I still wouldn’t do it. Gotta draw a line somewhere and I guess a purple deer is my line.

However, I do like the white version in my sideboard vignette. He blends nicely with the natural greens, pinecones, and other white elements. I added burlap here on the sideboard with the greenery to tie it in, but kept the shiny elements limited to a few vintage ornaments from my grandma. This is the first year I’ve used rosemary along with the traditional cypress, fir, and pine boughs. I saw Tricia use it in some of her decorations at Simplicity in The South and a light bulb went off – I have two good sized bushes in my herb garden. And they actually needed to be pruned. The smell is nice, too.

Have you found any thrift items you’re using to decorate for the holidays?

PS – Wondering about the garland? I didn’t just use it as is – I copied an ornament from one of my favorite places for finding inspiration – Anthropologie!