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The Salvage Sisters': Guide To Finding Style In The Street And Inspiration In The Attic
Inspired by everyday objects, the Salvage Sisters rescue more than fifty common castoffs—orphaned drawers, a hobbled couch, a broken birdbath—and cleverly transform them into style statements loaded with ingenuity, wit, and humor.
Join intrepid hunters and gatherers Kathleen Hackett and MaryAnn Young in this step-by-step illustrated guide as they travel the country—down alleyways and side streets, to flea markets and yard sales, through the local garden store and their own closets—and learn how to transform a battered curbside couch into a fabulous and functional piece of furniture; raise discarded Sunday comics into an art form; customize a cookie-cutter set of drawers into an instant heirloom.
The Salvage Sisters show how to cleverly incorporate the tired but treasured family china, torn lampshades, and everything else tucked away in the attic into our modern life. The simplest utilitarian objects—a plant stand, some nautical rope, an old pair of jeans—are all ingeniously reinvented in these real-life sisters’ hands. Dozens of resourceful projects—ranging from a two-second slipcover or ten-minute chandelier or frumpy mirror facelift to a dapper dog sweater and soigné table skirt—plus helpful tips, alternative project ideas, and more than 125 detailed color photographs, make this a book for anyone yearning to inject beauty and whimsy into his or her life, Salvage Sister style.
Join intrepid hunters and gatherers Kathleen Hackett and MaryAnn Young in this step-by-step illustrated guide as they travel the country—down alleyways and side streets, to flea markets and yard sales, through the local garden store and their own closets—and learn how to transform a battered curbside couch into a fabulous and functional piece of furniture; raise discarded Sunday comics into an art form; customize a cookie-cutter set of drawers into an instant heirloom.
The Salvage Sisters show how to cleverly incorporate the tired but treasured family china, torn lampshades, and everything else tucked away in the attic into our modern life. The simplest utilitarian objects—a plant stand, some nautical rope, an old pair of jeans—are all ingeniously reinvented in these real-life sisters’ hands. Dozens of resourceful projects—ranging from a two-second slipcover or ten-minute chandelier or frumpy mirror facelift to a dapper dog sweater and soigné table skirt—plus helpful tips, alternative project ideas, and more than 125 detailed color photographs, make this a book for anyone yearning to inject beauty and whimsy into his or her life, Salvage Sister style.
- GenresNonfictionCraftsDesign
139 pages, Hardcover
First published April 15, 2005
2 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
January 16, 2008
Lots of outdoor/indoor re-purposing. If you're into that deer antler driftwood arranged fruit white paint kind of shit this was aite.
I really do respect the book for actually being "use the shit you find in the street and fix it for cheap or free" instead of "commission your interior designer to find shit out in the streets, but not your streets, since your streets are politely emptied and polished by careful hands bi-weekly, unless you're 'slumming it' by pioneering some unsuspecting Brooklyn neighborhood in which case you should still let your interior designer do it for you and then 'style it' at a cost equal or greater to buying something new." i.e. Dwell or Readymade, p.s. Fuck You Dwell and Readymade. Side note: when did my goodreads reviews become unmitigated class rage? Just putting that out there.
The most awesome ideas were making a bookcase out of odd salvaged drawers by turning them on their side vertically and fastening them together, and using wooden pallets instead of a boxspring/bedframe to raise a mattress off the floor, and repurposing rusty standing plant stands for little stuff indoors. There, I saved you half an hour.
I really do respect the book for actually being "use the shit you find in the street and fix it for cheap or free" instead of "commission your interior designer to find shit out in the streets, but not your streets, since your streets are politely emptied and polished by careful hands bi-weekly, unless you're 'slumming it' by pioneering some unsuspecting Brooklyn neighborhood in which case you should still let your interior designer do it for you and then 'style it' at a cost equal or greater to buying something new." i.e. Dwell or Readymade, p.s. Fuck You Dwell and Readymade. Side note: when did my goodreads reviews become unmitigated class rage? Just putting that out there.
The most awesome ideas were making a bookcase out of odd salvaged drawers by turning them on their side vertically and fastening them together, and using wooden pallets instead of a boxspring/bedframe to raise a mattress off the floor, and repurposing rusty standing plant stands for little stuff indoors. There, I saved you half an hour.
March 8, 2011
Only in the glossy color pages of a book written by someone who used to work for Martha Stewart, does crap become beautiful. In anyone else's house, their ideas would look like you've thrown trash all over your house! Your friends would think you became a hoarder. What in the world are these chicks thinking? By far, the worst crafting/decorating book I've ever read. I found only 3 of their ideas remotely inspiring and worthwile (and I probably could have come up with those on my own). The rest was total garbage.
August 3, 2013
mostly cute practical ideas, with short tutorials. (not decor porn)
kind of a martha-stewart-upcycles-yard-sale-finds thing.
but scaled down to the middle class budget and more re-use friendly, which i liked.
kind of a martha-stewart-upcycles-yard-sale-finds thing.
but scaled down to the middle class budget and more re-use friendly, which i liked.
March 14, 2007
i want to BE the salvage sisters
great inspirational/idea book about making trash beautiful - this is where i got the idea to raise my pathetic mattress up on pallets. i love it.
great inspirational/idea book about making trash beautiful - this is where i got the idea to raise my pathetic mattress up on pallets. i love it.
July 15, 2008
I loved this book...lots of great ideas!
I really wish thesse girls would write another one!
I really wish thesse girls would write another one!
August 5, 2021
I’m going to start with something positive, they gave me a good idea on covering a chair.
Now the not so positive. They said to tack wire across your window frame and hang burlap from it. Maybe in a remote cabin but not a house.
They also suggested you should cut newspaper into strips and decorate your Christmas tree with it.
Now the not so positive. They said to tack wire across your window frame and hang burlap from it. Maybe in a remote cabin but not a house.
They also suggested you should cut newspaper into strips and decorate your Christmas tree with it.
June 5, 2018
this book was wonderfull. it gave me lots of ideas for my dream
January 13, 2020
This was a quick, fun and interesting read. Some cute ideas, but really just fun to read and look at.
December 26, 2012
4 is chiefly for the design, which was quite nice. 3 or 3.5 for the content. Some cute ideas, one or two to-die-for ideas (shredded silk curtain and dark wood armoires with hot pink brocade print, anyone?).
A very Martha Stewart, upper-class sensibility (not surprising given one of the sister's history at Martha Stewart Omnimedia) with some unusual whimsy thrown in (too much whimsy for my tastes... see: incredible armoires ruined with 'silliness').
A very Martha Stewart, upper-class sensibility (not surprising given one of the sister's history at Martha Stewart Omnimedia) with some unusual whimsy thrown in (too much whimsy for my tastes... see: incredible armoires ruined with 'silliness').
January 19, 2008
i agree with my pal on this; it is a book of strong ideas for reuse. Nothing too earth-shattering, though. Perhaps the strongest projects were the paper crafts made from used news papers. An elegant use of newsprint that hits pretty close to the heart of the authors' ideas on reuse: everything gets a second life, no just the pretty things, the antiques, or the furniture.
December 23, 2008
I liked the newsprint wreath and the drawers as shelves. However, things like "throw a blanket over an ugly chair" or "just use books to prop up a three-legged chair" are neither novel or good solutions.
Want to read
December 22, 2015745.5 HAC
April 16, 2008
Making things from junk! YES!
September 6, 2008
How fun, I had already read this! But it's a super book and has given me some new ideas!
October 23, 2008
Junk decor. It was okay and sort of fun but not one of my favorites.
September 13, 2009
It's really fun to see what some people can do with yardsale finds. They are very creative, but most of the things just aren't my style. I'm an appreciator though :)
June 5, 2010
Very cute book with lots of creative ideas. You can't help but like the authors, but as a Martha Stewart fan I must say, I've seen a lot of these ideas before.
August 7, 2012
Creative ideas abound in this book about repurposing trash.
November 11, 2012
Wonderful repurposing ideas... Complete with instructions and photos. This is a fun one!
September 9, 2013
This book was alright. There are some interesting ideas in here.
January 6, 2015
Picked this up at the library. Read through in one day. I would probably use about 20 percent of the ideas.
February 6, 2008
excellent ideas for salvaging--clothes, furniture, decorative arts, etc. A good one!
November 28, 2010
super cute stuff. Great ideas. upcycling is the way to go
January 30, 2011
Good for them, but not my thing.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews