Thrift Store Dining Table Makeover

Patrick and I have a great group of friends that we have been close with for almost ten years.  We met in college and still see each other often.  Once a week, I make supper for the group at my place.  Every week I have an excuse (and a set of willing lab rats) to experiment with new recipes and things I’ve never tried to make from scratch.  You already know how well I cook, so you know that these are good friends if they keep coming back.  With people eating over so often, it only makes sense to have another set of dishes, right?  And how can we try new foods with out the right dishes to serve them in?  There was nothing else I could do; it was time for a mini dining make over.  Well, new to me, anyway…

One of my favorite thrift stores is World Mission Thrift.  They seem to have a good selection of weird stuff.  I especially like places with unusual things I wouldn't be able to buy in normal stores.  They ALSO have a half-off sale the last Tuesday of every month, so that's the day I stopped by to check things out.  Apparently, this is a well known sale because almost every parking spot was taken and entire families were filling shopping carts with clothing.  It was as crowded and chaotic as a Walmart, something I'm not used to at resale shops.  I shouldered my was in and was elated to find an entire isle of mismatched dishes! After rummaging through the stacks for nearly thirty minutes, I had a set of solid white dinner plates and six beautiful eclectic salad dishes.  I also discovered a simple white table cloth, a pretty silver serving dish and a beautiful milk glass serving bowl.  A collection of delicate glass punch glasses will hold individual desserts, unfortunately, the matching punch bowl was nowhere to be found.  I guess thats why they were donated in the first place.  I picked up a few books from my list and tossed a set of crab forks into my cart (for some undetermined future project) before checking out.  All of this rang up a little under ten dollars!

Using RIT dye, I tried to dye the table cloth a cool gray. The dye was called Pearl Gray, but my cloth came out a grayish-light blue.  I was hoping for the color to be a little bit darker, but with the white dishes, it still works nicely. 

I can’t wait until Sunday night dinner.  I’m ready to sit down and eat at this table right now!  I busted out the cow creamer I received for Christmas from my in-laws and a white fish salt shaker that I bought from Target forever ago.  The glass Kate Spade bowl with polka dots was a wedding gift.  Its about time this bowl gets some use; its been hiding safely in its box for years because I'm afraid of dropping it. To add some soothing mood lighting, I lit tea lights inside ceramic cups from a children’s tea set.  Bon appetit!