DIYs When NOT To Makeover a Yard Sale Find

Yesterday I was cleaning up the family room that’s located in the back of the house.

It’s kind of hard to explain, but there are two sections this room. One you’ve seen a zillion times with tufted couches and a coffee table and chairs that swivel and the prettiest khaki and white rug.

But there’s another area of the family room that never gets a starring role on the blog.

It’s tucked back into the corner of the room in front of the french doors in front of the hutch with all the houses on it.

I set it up for all the puzzlers and game players in this house.

We are all about a good card game or board game like Catan or a 500-piece puzzle featuring cupcakes with sprinkles.

I never really photograph this area.

It’s usually covered in puzzle pieces.

Or crumbs from a late-night snack.

But mostly? I don’t photograph it because it has one of the most imperfect yard sale finds I’ve ever brought home in the back of my car.

A couple of years ago I found a set of 4 of these chairs at a yard sale.

And in amazing news?

They showed up just like this.

Chippy and wonderful and distressed and oddly sturdy (which is the best of juxtapositions that ever was).

Have you ever seen a finish so beautiful?

It’s like they have my name all over them.

They were $20 a piece.

But wait. Before you get too excited. Before you say, Texas has the best yard sales (which actually we do).

These chairs came with a challenge.

Because those four chairs had a challenge.

There were three white ones and one that was oddly turquoise.

At the time? I didn’t hesitate—all I saw was $20 and sturdy and distressed and those lines.

So I brought them home and reupholstered them. You can see how I reupholstered the chair seats here.

And told myself that I would paint the turquoise chair white.

Except.

Except that was almost two years ago.

And for almost two years, I’ve puzzled and played games and asked if spades were trump and if I could buy Reading Railroad for $200 in a TURQUOISE CHAIR that didn’t match anything else in the entire room.

Sigh.

You’ve never seen this super imperfect chair because I edited it away.

Or I didn’t photograph the space.

Or I pulled it out so all the chairs matched.

But somewhere along the way–I think it was this holiday when 2023 turned into 2024.

I decided I LIKED IT.

I know, random, right? I lived life with that chair and I found something oddly endearing about the courage it took to be different from everything else. To not match. To stand out. To be different. To be unique.

There is such a life lesson there.

Truly.

Sometimes we are so busy focusing on all the perfection and the matching and the decor we wish we could change.

That we miss the beauty that is already there.

We let that imperfection steal our joy.