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.
Kate (Bread & Chocolate) says
Good work, Young House Lovers! I used to work for Habitat for Humanity, and the ReStore is such an important revenue stream. All the proceeds go back to help build new homes for families in need.
Speaking of little budget, big impact projects…I finally tried painting fabric. It really is as easy as it looks. Custom curtains for pennies!
http://bread-n-chocolate.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-to-chevron-curtains.html
YoungHouseLove says
What an awesome project! Love it!
xo,
s
rachael says
great find!!can’t wait to see the end result guys!!
Maya says
WOW, what a find!
Hmm, my best $6 purchase lately might have been several yards of remainder fabric at Ikea… so far I’ve made a pregnancy pillow, fridge covering (long story), and the high-contrast black-and-white centers of flowers on our baby mobile out of it. And I still have some left over!
Anne @strawberryjampackedlife says
I was really confused as to what a mom Cat was.
“While there, Elsa’s mom Cat”
Oh, Elsa’s mom, Cat!!
What a great find!! Those look pretty freaking awesome. We should look into going to thrift stores, etc!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- it’s amazing how commas can help! Off to add one.
xo,
s
Michelle says
Awesome! BTW, I just ordered those exact pulls (well, at least similar) from Home Depot online for less than 5 bucks a piece, if you happen to be looking for more. Martha Stewart finial pulls!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much for the tip!
xo,
s
Maureen@This (Kinda) Old House says
WOW! I am in shock over this, and very jealous. :) Awesome find! I just found out that I have a Re-Store by me, it’s not in a great neighborhood, but I am going to check it out anyway. I am itching to find some great deals. Can’t wait to see how these work out for you guys!!!
susan says
Unbelievable find! I can’t wait to see the finished, pun intended, cabinets. susan
Emily says
Awesome buy. I once bought 6 brand new books for 6c, 1c a pop and because we don’t have 1c pieces it was rounded to 5c.
Rebecca @ the lil house that could says
Seriously? You guys are unbelievable. How do you manage to find these things!!! Can’t wait to see it all completed!
YoungHouseLove says
I know? Don’t you want to punch us? Haha. We’re usually not this lucky at all – and lots of commenters usually drop in to tell us they found something similar for much cheaper than we spent. Like when we searched for two secondhand filing cabinets for months and then caved and bought an Ikea system for $150 (we couldn’t turn any up that were the same height/functional). Whew, but we definitely looked into a ton of other options, so we’ll be back with that info soon!
xo,
s
JennyB says
SCORE!! And the hardware looks good, too! Can’t wait to see the finished product.
Just this weekend, I found a hanging light fixture at the Habitat Restore for only $7. It’s very much like the one that Katie B. recently ORB’d and featured on her blog. I’m in the process of ORBing mine as well. I’m such a copycat. Sorry. You guys have been such an inspiration to me!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I loved that Katie project! Good luck with yours!
xo,
s
Richard says
WHat a great find! WHat do you think about adding some type of leg to the TOP of each cabinet, and then adding your work surface, so that you get some open areas right under your work top?
YoungHouseLove says
That could definitely work although the top of each cabinet isn’t finished (some nails are poking through) so we might have to top them with wood, then add some very strong legs that could support the cabinet- but it’s definitely another possibility!
xo,
s
Amp says
I had a similar idea to Richard’s. I thought if you left a space at the top open, you could find some baskets or something and it would be really cute.
YoungHouseLove says
Definitely could be fun!
xo,
s
Erin G. says
Love all the band-aids on Elsa’s legs. So cute!
YoungHouseLove says
The funny thing? She didn’t even have any boo boos, she just likes Band-Aids. Haha. They’re like stickers for your body.
xo,
s
Stephanie says
My daughter used to also put band-aids all over her when she was that age, she LOVED them! Everyone would always look at me like, “You DO supervise your child, right?!”
Jocelyn Wittig says
$10 for six-month old ikea floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that were originally $200 off ebay classifieds. Was feeling pretty good about it until I saw those cabinets. U Gotta be freaking kinding me!
Kristen @ Popcorn on the Stove says
What an amazing find! I can’t wait to see what you end up doing with them!
Jessica says
Not sure how it would look, but perhaps you could mount small legs onto the bottom of each cabinet in order to reach the desired height.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s definitely another thing we’re considering! We’re not sure what we’ll end up with!
xo,
s
Kindra Taylor says
Lucky find! I actually went to a pet store 5 years ago with my mom and sister hoping to purchase a dog for my dad for Christmas. 5 years later and the pet-salesman turned police officer and I just bought our first house together, and my parents are still dog-less. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Cuuute! That’s one of those made-for-TV-movie plots!
xo,
s
Brianne Franklin says
Hella score! They are perfect!
One of my BEST $10 purchases was this roll up placemat for mydaughter to eat on when she was a baby. it was rubbery and had suction cups and a crumdb catcher. We used that thing ALL the time when she was in the fingerfood stage because there was no plate to sling onto the floor. Genius product.
MelissaG says
The beginning of your post made me think of this…have you ever seen it?
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, love that so much.
xo,
s
Helene says
I recently build a window seat out of cabinets and built it up higher using a frame underneath it. This not only raised the cabinets up but also gave me a means of literally creating a “built-in” by nailing the frame to the wall and the cabinets to the frame. You could then cover the rough edge of the bottom of the cabinets with a kickstep painted white. Easy-peasy.
In your inspiration photo you can see the frame underneath the cabinets.
YoungHouseLove says
Another great idea!
xo,
s
Melanie @ Mailbox Journey says
Nice Score!
cafenoHut says
that’s incredible. It is very difficult to find like these things in Turkey… You are very lucky:) An of course I can’t wait to see the final product.
Mollie says
holy bananas!! i live in alexandria and just love love love red barn mercantile. sofas (maybe someday) and rugs are to die for!!
Amanda @ Our Humble A{Bowe}d says
Wow, what a perfect find! If you wanted to get a look a little more similar to the inspiration pic, you could try to remove the cabinet doors from the center two cabinets. Because they already have the pull outs, you could easily make drawer fronts using 1/2 inch wood and attach 1/4 inch thick by 2 1/2 (or whatever width the cabinet door frames are).. Then, caulk, fill, prime and paint for drawers. That’s how my hubby made me office drawers and they’ve held up wonderfully, and they’re super simple to make: http://ourhumbleabowed.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/office-progress-2/ On the two cabinet ends, you could make dummy fronts for the top, but you could make another drawer at the top of the center set.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s a fun idea! Thanks for the tip!
xo,
s
John says
Nice find! If you’re looking for height on those cabinets, you may just want to rest them on a plywood box kinda like a toe kick board on kitchen cabinets. It may blend better than adding the height to the top of the cabinets.
But if you do add some lift to the top, you could also just build a three sided box for the top and leave the front open for papers, or easy access office supplies…
Good Luck!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the suggestions! Definitely two more possibilities!
xo,
s
Cara D says
What a deal! They look like really nice cabinets. I love the Habitat reStore. I’ve gotten two great reupholstery projects from there.
Caitlin says
Ha, the Alexandria ReStore is near my house! We spent a lot of time there when we moved in a few years ago… And I’ve been past that store in Old Town, but never been in- I think I need to check it out soon.
Kara says
so jealous! what a great find!
Melanie says
Love finding steals like that! Nice work. I think my best-under-$10-purchase was actually last Thursday. Swung by Target on my lunch break and found some heels for work for $6.37! Wearing them proudly today :) Looking forward to see your desk/cabinet project!
Steph says
Seriously??? You guys have a knack for stealing deals! Congrats on the find, and can’t wait to see what the finished product!
threadbndr says
I’m crazy jealous of your thrifting luck!
If it were me, I’d make an open fronted box to fix on top of each cabinet. Paint and use with slide out shallow baskets for all the ‘office supply’ type junk in lieu of drawers. I use the pencil tray under my workstation all the time and those shallow bins would be the same. Lots of storage right at hand. You only need a couple of inches of depth for this, so your 4 inches to add would be perfect.
YoungHouseLove says
Another fun idea!
xo,
s
Rachel says
yay for habitat restores!!! i love that place and had a great $6 purchase there too!
http://accessorizeandorganize.blogspot.com/2011/07/oh-places-youll-go.html
YoungHouseLove says
So awesome!
xo,
s
Kristin D says
I live right near that store – I go pining for the deals, but with living in a condo, I have no need for the finds. Can’t believe you snagged those for cheap!!
Nichole@40daysof says
What a find! And even the hardware seems nice (at least it does on my computer) which is unusual.
LauraC says
Amazing! Wow, that has got to be the best deal I’ve ever heard. Definitely can’t match it! What I was also impressed with was Clara on that bike; could she pedal it?! Did her legs reach the pedals?! Just wondering because our little 16 month guy loves to sit on tricycles, but Mommy or Daddy still have to do the pushing. Congrats on the GREAT deal.
YoungHouseLove says
She mostly hung on and rang the bell and the pedals stayed in the same position while John pushed her from the back with that big handle. She loved it though!
xo,
s
Christie says
Oh my gosh! I have been wanting to go to a Restore and your story has given me just the push I needed. I didn’t realize there was one in Alexandria. I live close by so I’m going to check it out this week! Hopefully I will have a great story like yours. :)
Staci @ My Friend Staci says
Incredible find. I’m sure whatever you do, your new desk will be fab.
The best $10 I ever spent was this: http://myfriendstaci.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/just-like-it-should-be/ What was once a sad, lost, dry looking coffee table is now one of my favorite pieces of furniture!
YoungHouseLove says
Awesome!
xo,
s
my honest answer says
They were really were meant to be! Perfect in every way. Especially that they weren’t already white; we’re due another cabinet painting tutorial!
Amy L. says
Wow! Great find! Can’t wait to see what you do with them. :)
Jill says
ooooh – we go to that Habitat ReStore semi-regularly and I love it! Last year we managed to score a Christmas tree stand for $2 and a bunch of outdoor icicle lights for $1 (and they even tested them for us to make sure all the lights still worked). Congrats on the awesome find!
Stephanie says
That is a great score!! I like the idea of leaving the front open when you raise it so you can slide papers in there (under the table top) and keep the desktop nice and clean :)
Erica says
Nice score! My huby and I are moving soon and you guys have given us so many resources for cheap furniture!
On another note, I usually read the blog in google reader and haven’t actually been to the site in awhile, but I LOVE your header right now. The house looks great with the yellow door! I’m inspired!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Erica!
xo,
s
Kate says
Definitely not as good as your find (SCORE!), but our coffee table was $5 off Craigslist. The top was laminate in not-so-great shape, but the rest was unscathed real wood (with a drawer and a shelf!) in a finish that matches other furniture we have. Repainted the top and now we have a very happy coffee table!
Jos says
this post could not have come at a better time. i live in arlington and have been unable to find a good consignment store for furniture. will definitely be checking this store out this weekend! thanks for finding me something in my own neighborhood! :)
Jessica D says
I live in Alexandria and have been to that Restore and have NEVER found anything that good! I’m jealous, but happy for you about the awesome score.
Gavin S. says
Woohoo! Look at you go! I’m actually headed to Alexandria this weekend so I will be sure to check out the ReStore and Red Barn Mercantile. I’m also stopping in Richmond for business on the way, so I was going to check out Trash to Treasure, Clover, and Clementine. Any other recommendations? Wasn’t there a friend of yours that had a shop featuring lots of different jewelry designers and artists?
YoungHouseLove says
Here’s a post of all our favorite places: https://www.younghouselove.com/five-richmond-top-fives/
xo,
s
Ashleigh says
I’m so impatient. After reading this post, I got very excited for you guys, and now I can’t wait to see the office completed. My husband has been threatening to block your blog though because since I started reading a year ago, I have been more in house update mode (I got burned out for awhile after removing popcorn ceiling from every square inch of my house). Thanks for the frequent posts…they are much appreciated.
Emily says
LOATHE popcorn ceiling…we got it out of 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. Just the rest of the house to go! The people who built the house were incredibly thorough, it’s even inside all the closets!
Hmmm, best $10 I’ve spent? Can’t think of anything off the top of my head. I did get a microfiber living room set for $65 at an estate sale once! Couch, loveseat, recliner, and ottoman!
I love Habitat! :) Found a corner jetted tub for $90 and BEGGED my husband to let us take it home and leave it in the garage til we’re ready to renovate the master bath. He said no. Meany :(
Sarah says
Really…? $1 cabbys…? Total jelly belly right now!!
Bee says
Your inspiration picture seems to have a smaller base under each cabinet about 3 inches high, probably to give your toes some room so you don’t kick the sides of the cabinet when you shift in and out of the chairs. I bet this would take just as much time to build the base “riser” as it would something for the top of the cabinet.
Great find on those cabinets by the way. I’m in the process of furnishing our 3rd floor loft office now and love that inspiration photo you have too!
YoungHouseLove says
We also love that idea! The cabinets already have bottom leg-ish things, so we’re not sure how it’ll look to add a secong base, but we’re definitely considering it!
xo,
s
Samma says
I thought the same thing as Bee — might even remove/replace the legs? Or have you thought about the ‘fauxdenza’ look and wall mounting instead?
I’m trying to figure out a 2 person desk for our place as well, but it’s complicated by needing to be an L and by a window. Looking forward to seeing how yours comes together!
YoungHouseLove says
Other great possibilities!
xo,
s
Erin says
$6? Are you kidding me? That is awesome. That is like the best find ever. I am sitting here trying to think if I have had one of those moments, but right now, nothing seems to even come close to $1 cabinets. Congrats on the good find.
Erin says
PS – Clara and Elsa are super cute. I love how Elsa has the summer look going on – lots of bandaids all over the legs.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, Elsa is so cute. She didn’t even have cuts under them, just loves to put on Band-aids! Haha.
xo,
s
Amy says
Well, I did spend $7 on some ’70s-style clothes to wear to a party. A party I had been excited about, then not so much after a hard day at work. My friend, also named Amy, convinced me to go, saying “You never know, maybe you’ll meet your future husband.” Ha! Yeah right, I thought.
Well, I did meet a nice boy named Paul. We went on our first date a week later and have been together ever since. We were married Sept. 11, 1999. :)