THRIFT & FLIP WITH ME! ✨ vintage desk makeover + fully thrifted gallery wall

Well, good morning, my lovelies. What a fun, actually springing morning it is. Okay, it's not officially spring, but this is like the first day in so long that we actually have some warm weather again, which is good because with everything I have in store today, we're going to be doing quite a bit outside. So to celebrate the nice warm occasion, let me make myself a nice cold green matcha to go because we got our first Facebook Marketplace person waiting and we don't want to keep them waiting too long. It's been so long since I've had, and this is my sign to start making them more. But hey babes, what is up, it's Haley and welcome back to my channel. Listen, I got to keep the chitchat to a minimum because like I said, we got Facebook Marketplace seller waiting for me right now. But welcome to today's vlog, you guys. I am so excited to take you on along with continuing our little office makeover journey. Specifically today though, I'm actually planning on taking you along and doing some really fun thrift flips. It has been so long since I put like my creative hands to thrifted pieces and totally upgraded them into something beautiful and aesthetic and Pinterest worthy. And today we are going to be doing that. In my last video, I told you that I'm actually picking up a Facebook Marketplace find for my office, which is the most gorgeous desk ever. This is what it looks like, the bones and the structure of it, it's perfect. It's solid wood. But this seller, as grateful as I am for them posting this, how could they possibly take a paintbrush to this and paint over it? This piece, seeing it truly, it broke my heart, but it got me excited all in one because there's nothing I love to do more than to take a piece like this and restore it to its true form. So I'm gonna head on my way right now to pick up that desk and bring it on home so that we can get to restoring it to its natural beauty because I just know that this will be the perfect finishing touch to the room I'm putting together for myself. There's a ton of items that I thrifted for the space as well. And a couple more Facebook finds that I'm hoping to pick up for it too. So if you're into all things thrifty, fun, decorating and homey, this is the cozy, creative vlog for you. So with that being said, let's not keep them awaiting and let's head on our way. Hey Siri, take me to my Facebook Marketplace pickup. All right, you guys, I made it back home and I'm so sad. My camera battery literally died right before I made it to make my pickup. I got a new battery in here. I got to bring the desk in and oh my goodness, it's so beautiful. I mean, the potential of it is beautiful. Please tell me why anybody thought that it would be a good idea to do a whitewash on this. Like you could even see, if I'm to take you underneath, you can see that it's solid wood under and like a beautiful neutral solid wood too. I'm measuring out where I want the desk. I think the perfect place for it to go is right over here. A lot of you guys ask why I wouldn't put it in front of the window, but it's because when I'm filming, I'm actually filming in this direction and I do need to have a mirror right across me when I'm filming so that you guys can get this angle whenever I'm doing my try-on hauls. Plus I really wanted that whenever I go take photos over here, you can actually see my entire vanity in the corner there. So I do think that spot will be perfect. And on top of that, you can already see a lot of the items that I thrifted on my last thrift trip to help me just bring spring into this house, including this office too. Something else that I most definitely want to add into this room is a whole lot of color, specifically spring color. And as you could see by a couple of the cardigans and pieces that I pulled here that I've thrifted before, I am loving two things right now. Neutrals such as this, along with really girly and feminine pastels. I have a couple items up here already ready to go for my next styling video and you can totally tell that I am so into like the spring and pastel colors right now. Everything light and feminine, which is for sure going to be a decor aspect I want to add into this room in general. And just take a look at how beautiful the clothing rack turned out. I mean, if you guys missed the last video, this actually used to be black. I went ahead and painted it myself into this gorgeous vintage, slightly distressed gold. And it turned out so pretty. Now I have a beautiful place to display my clothes along with a really perfect rack here to hold my shoes as well. And speaking of shoes, as you guys know, even though I am a stay-at-home mom, I am literally always on my feet. Whether I am out and about filming, doing DIYs around the house, together with Eran taking care of our kids, or even just running out to take a quick errand. The most important thing for me is that my shoes are comfortable. And let me just say that I discovered a brand called Bombayah that makes sustainable, beautifully styled shoes that are also unbelievably comfortable. I mean, just take a look at these. They have been my obsession. You know how much I've been loving that liqueur right now. They're called the Christina Sneakeria and they actually come in multiple different colors. They have this gorgeous satin-like ribbon detail for the laces and an elastic backing here so you could literally slip your shoes on and off. And with how much I'm wearing these, the best part is that you don't even have to worry about getting them dirty because these are machine washable. You can literally toss them into the wash because they are so flexible that it is so easy to keep them clean. I know getting a light sneaker, the idea of it is really scary, but these ones I love, you can also throw into the wash. They are my go-to mommy sneaker if I'm taking the girls to the park, if I'm doing a Facebook marketplace pickup, like whatever it is, if I know I'm going to be on my feet for a long time. These slip-on mesh sneakers are what I'm reaching for. They are also so breathable too. You can literally see the mesh lining, which for hot days in Florida, if I'm spending time outside, I think these are perfect for that. And then my newest addition that I actually got to add to my already favorites, I mentioned to you guys when I went thrifting that I didn't have a classic shoe that will kind of go with everything. I fell in love with these because of the shape of the toe. The fact that it has a slanted square toe along with this deep feet just slims your feet and makes your legs look so much longer. And you know what it is? It's that cushion, that cushion feel on the bottom. You see it right over here? This is made to arch and hug your foot. And truly, they are going to be the ultimate stable for me styling my spring and summer outfits. So stay tuned to see me style these even more with all the spring outfits I have coming up. I'm so glad to be able to add them to my rack. And because their collections are so popular, they actually tend to run out of stock pretty quickly. So I'm going to leave these down below. You guys can hopefully check them out while they're still available. And a big thank you to Babaya for partnering with me on today's video. They are shoes that are stylish enough to complete an outfit, but comfortable enough for everyday, realistic mom life. So I have no idea how this is going to go. This is actually a really, really light weight wood. I haven't worked with one like this before. So I'm curious how it's going to strip. But something that got me the most excited is that they even painted over the brass handles. And yes, they are genuine brass. I'm not actually able to take them out because I have this piece of wood blocking it. So I'm going to have to strip it all at once. But I have a feeling that once we uncover what's underneath, this is going to be gorgeous. I've already got all my supplies prepped right here. We're actually going to be using my favorite citrus strip to get this paint and varnish off. You just layer this on with a brush, cover with some foil, and you're going to let it sit as it strips. And then once that's done, we can go into the next step and turn this into the beautiful desk of my dreams. Truly, that already worked up an appetite. So I'm going to go ahead and make myself lunch right now. I am just hoping and praying that while I'm eating, the stripping is actually going to work because like I said, it's been kind of cold these last few days and you do genuinely need like warmer weather to help strip off that paint. So here's hoping. In the meantime, I'm going to make myself a quick lunch from our weekend leftovers. And I'm craving some kind of a salad, but of course we need some protein. So a Caesar salad with warm salmon and homemade croutons sounds delicious. So I'm telling you, one of the biggest game changers has actually been being able to meal prep like early on in the week and then making meals throughout the day is just so much easier because all you have to do is assemble. So here, for example, I have some pre-washed lettuce, which I just wash a big batch of it earlier in the week. So then when it's time to make a salad, you don't have to wash any of your veggies. They are ready to go. How cool, by the way, this is a little reusable natural wax food wrap. It's not incredible, but it's great. You know, if you want to try to reduce your waste a little bit, you can warm this up with your fingers and then kind of mold it to the food that you want to preserve. For my homemade Caesar salad dressing, I actually use mayo, but I tend to go for avocado mayo because it's a little bit cleaner than the regular. I make a huge batch of this and both me and Aaron eat it throughout the week. Speaking of Aaron, he's actually having his lunch break too. So we're going to get to eat together. And then my final topper is my homemade croutons. I make a big batch of this as well. This is actually a batch that I slightly burned because I forgot to set a timer in the oven. Type B mom, it just happens. But Aaron told me he's going to eat it. So he said to keep it. So that's his batch. The perfectly baked ones. I am almost through. If you are curious to know my homemade Caesar dressing recipe and my homemade crouton recipe, I actually post most of my recipes on Instagram, but I'm also going to write down the recipes down below in case you want to try it out for yourself. But we've got everything we need and now let's assemble. Come on! I've actually been graced with the presence of my husband. I feel like me and you are barely able to line up our meals at the same time. So like when it does happen, privilege. I'm having a salad and he's actually having leftover burgers that he made for himself. See the difference in lunch? All right, I need more calories and I work out more than you. Okay, let's not expose that yet, okay? Probably going to start today. I've been saying that. God will. Caesar salad is genuinely amazing and the best part is that you can honestly add whatever protein you want and it will taste completely different. So for lunch, I would do salmon. Sometimes I'll do chicken. If we have like leftover like chicken thighs that we grilled or chicken breast too. I'm telling you, having this ready and meal prepped makes assembling lunch so much easier. And if you guys are curious to do kind of like a meal prep with me, let me know down below if you want to see that. But a lot of you really liked seeing my Shabbat prep last time. If you want to see my like weekly, everyday kind of healthy eating prep, let me know down below for that too. So I'm going to eat this up before getting to my DIY stuff to clean up the leftover food that I just made. Me and Aaron constantly have that argument. I am so much somebody who likes to eat my food first and then clean up later and he can't. He's like, babe, why don't you just put it away before you start eating? And I say, because I like eating my food fresh. I know, but then after you eat, you're already full. Exactly. You're too lazy to put stuff away. You're good. You're satisfied. Then you can do the cleaning. No, I don't have the motivation to eat. I don't have the same motivation to clean. And then I eat right away. Because the worst thing for me is if you make yourself your food and then it's piping hot, but you have to wait to clean up. And then by the time you sit down to eat, it's cold. There's nothing worse than that. Right? But the salmon is warm. And in order to stay warm. Yeah, these burgers also need to be warm. I think we'll just agree to disagree for the rest of our life when it comes to this. I think I'll just eat and then you can clean up for both of us. Or you can clean up. Before we start eating, that's also good. My husband devours his food so quickly. So Liana woke up and I sent him to go get her. So freaking cute. We finally got her out of the swaddle, which has been so good. She's been sleeping in the Merlin sleep sack and it's been amazing. So he's going to keep an eye on her right now as I go in and probably face her towards me in the backyard so that she can watch her mama do the next step in this surf lift. Oh my God. This is so satisfying. So I just checked on the table. It is still developing. Like I said, because it's not so hot outside today, I guess it just needs a little bit more time to sit. But I think it's actually perfect because there is one more Facebook marketplace find that I want to go pick up. So I might as well just do it now and not waste any more time. So it is a little bit of a drive, but 30 minutes away, I found this incredible shelf, which actually has those heart details, which I think is so cottagecore. But the thing that's most nuts is that the shelf is six feet long. So it's going to stretch over so much of my wall, which is exactly what I wanted, but it will give us so much space to play with fun decor. So Liana, be good with daddy, okay? Okay, Siri, time to pick up our second marketplace find of the day. There's nothing called time to pick up our second marketplace on your calendar. Okay, I didn't ask her for actual directions, but it's for the effect, okay? Let's head on our way. Truly, is there anything better than a van? It fits absolutely everything, even a six foot shelf. And here it is. It's huge. Oh my goodness. Okay, listen, it is so pretty. And I'm in like a battle of whether I should stain it or whether I should leave it this kind of like cottagecore woody color. Part of me wants to give it like a slight chocolatey, like light chocolate tone, but I was thinking to hang this over here somewhere, like in the center of the wall. Let me hold it up. I'm going to check the camera to see what that looks like. But I thought in the meantime, the table is actually doing its second round of developing. So I have some time to waste. So I actually think it would be really fun to head on over to the thrift store because I actually have to run and take an updated passport photo also when the thrift store is right next to it. So I thought that I might pop in and we'll actually look for some stuff to help us fill this shelf for the room. I already have one or two pieces of artwork from a previous thrift trip that I for sure know I'm going to add to the space, but there's a lot of shelf space here that I need to fill. So heading to the thrift store, I'm going to wear my little sneakeria flats. I want to wear these because at the thrift store, I tend to run into a lot of you. And of course, when I see you, I need to look my best and my cutest. These are so perfect for that because they're still comfortable, but cutesy too. So let's go. Oh guys, look at this. I actually feel like this will be so perfect for the vibe of my room. This is technically a vase. It's a shell vase. So pretty. I love the flower details. Got a few touches of the blue and the yellow, which will match my rug. But I actually think this will be really great for me to even put in some pencils as like a pencil holder. That could be so pretty. Well, let's just say that this trip ended up being very in and out. I didn't really find much, but if you guys watched my previous video, you would have known I already found so many things that I've curated from the office that I've collected. Like this mirror to go on top of the desk, I think would look beautiful if I stain it too. We got some organization stuff, some things to hang on the wall and stay tuned for later in this video where we're going to actually start decorating with some. Say hello to my little friend. So of course you guys, like I often do, I underestimated just how long this project was going to take me. I had to do maybe two coats of the stripper to get it down to like it's raw wood. It's not perfect. There's still some like areas where I do have to sand down the white that is visible, but we can pretty much see what we're getting to. And oh wow, this is the point that the table is at right now. Can we please just appreciate this gorgeous, gorgeous brass? I absolutely love it so much. It's even put in with pins rather than screws, which is how you know that this is like a true vintage piece. It already looks so nice, but the table is wet right now. Once it dries down, I'm basically going to have to go in and just sand off all of this leftover little paint that is showing, but power washing it was such a great idea because as you can see, all of these like little nooks that would have been so impossible to get the paint out of, like right on over here, they are all fully clear. And like I said, at this point, all I really need to do is sand it down and this is where I really, really need your help, you guys. Do keep in mind that it's a little bit wet. Once it dries, this table is going to get slightly lighter. What I want to know from you is just taking a look at this table and obviously seeing the office that I've showed you before. Do you actually think that what we should do is sand it down and keep it this raw wood color? Maybe just add like a top coat on it? Or do you think that I should slightly, slightly still stain it? Possibly a little bit darker. I was thinking close to the color of my kitchen breakfast nook, if you remember. It's like a nice chocolatey brown color. I don't know. Part of me is really liking the look of the light wood table. I feel like it may go really well in that room, but I'm not sure. I really want your opinion. So comment down below. Should we keep it this raw wood color or should I still stain it slightly darker? Closer to like a light chocolatey brown. You guys always give me the best opinions and advice. So comment down below what you think will be best for the office. And I guess you, the majority, can possibly convince me on what to do because I am really stuck. I have no idea. And guys, we just really need to take a second to appreciate this wood grain. This is something that you only get in real solid wood pieces. So pretty. It's already pretty even though it's light. I don't know. I feel like staining it darker could make it look a bit more rich, but I really don't know. This is very coastal right now. Do we want it coastal or do we want it cottagecore? What do you think? Comment below. In the meantime, the sun is actually currently setting Aaliyah's already been home with me, but Erin is going to bring Naomi home soon. We're going to go on and have dinner together. And I thought in the meantime, we should still do some decorating in the room. I'm going to show you all of the thrift finds that I have so far. And together we can start actually putting things on the wall. But definitely a success so far today, even though we didn't finish it. My dream desk is definitely getting there. Well, hello. It's later at night. And I'm talking much later. No, really, like 10.30pm at night later. And well, you know, there's people who like to curl up at night and read a book to help them wind down before bed. I instead like to wind down with projects. Don't get me wrong. I'm tired. I need a shower. Now all my babies are officially sleeping. And this is when I officially enter me time. For you guys watching, comment down below if you're a morning person or a night owl, because I am totally a night owl when it comes to like setting my mind to something. I get the most done at night. It's like when everybody in the house is sleeping. I'm just like left in this peaceful bliss to do whatever I need to do with nobody needing me. Don't get me wrong. I love feeling needed. But this me time to do some stuff I love, like decorating with thrifted items. There's nothing better than that. So that's exactly what we're going to be doing together. I am actually looking to fill up this wall right behind me. Now that we officially did our stamped wallpaper and it looks so good, I am not scared to put holes in this wall anymore. Which yes, this would be a good time to tell you that I kind of changed my mind about the shelf. I actually really, really love it. But the more I was thinking about it, I asked my husband for his opinion too. I feel like adding this, it's going to make the space too busy. We already have a bead board. We already have a stamped wallpaper and we're going to have a desk, a clothing rack, like so much stuff in the room already that I really think this will be just too much. I'm actually going to save this for my bedroom. This is the perfect size to go above our king bed. If you guys remember, we have a huge blank wall there that I never knew what to do with. It's still blank. Once I get to the bedroom makeover, you guys will see that. So we are going to save this baby for a different space. And instead we are going to be creating a gallery wall right over here. So what I have in front of me is just a bunch of stuff that I thrifted, little artwork that I got on recent thrift trips that I actually feel like have elements that will tie in so well with this room. This frame was just $3.99. I love the little touches of pink and I think the blue will go so well with that stamped wallpaper. So I for sure want to include this one. I have this gorgeous frame as well, which has some blue irises. I find it so beautiful too. Seriously, forget home goods. The thrift store has the best artwork. $4.99 for this print. And then this huge frame, I definitely want to be the hero piece. How gorgeous is this frame that I thrifted? I love the pink matting. This is actually a vintage frame because it is signed and dated right there. It says 1987. How freaking cool. I already told you that a goal for this room is cottagecore, so I think this will be perfect for that. Then I got a bunch of other little frames that we can potentially use. Again, things that I've thrifted over time that have pulled my eye either for the color, for the shape, for the texture or the style. And then finally, slowly but surely, you guys know that I've been making a collection of plates because I do want to do a gallery wall somewhere downstairs in my kitchen. But I brought some of these plates up because I do think there is potential for us to maybe add some of these into this room too because I mean a lot of them give off that cottagecore vibe as well and also have a lot of those like pastel colors that I've been loving. So I mixed a couple from my plate collection to add them in this room and I know that gallery walls can be super intimidating so I thought that it would be fun for us to do this together. Initial thing I'm going to do is pull a couple of hero pieces that I really want to display on here and try to make it as cohesive as possible. So as I'm taking a look at everything here, I'm going to start looking for similar characteristics. Things that can kind of harmonize and work together beautifully in the gallery wall because you don't want it to be too matchy but you do want it to be cohesive. Okay, so at this point I have my little gallery wall ready and I definitely could add more pieces as I thrift more. That's the beauty of a gallery wall. You can constantly add to it and make it bigger and then that way this gallery wall will be right above the desk which will be in the center of the room. And I know you're probably so intimidated. How are we going to get this perfectly in line here with the top? And I actually came up with my own little way to do it that is truly the best hack for hanging gallery walls for dummies because as somebody who absolutely hates to measure, this method is the easiest one to be able to hang up some wall art. So when it comes to this method, basically all you're going to want to be doing is to create a template of your actual photo collage. Ideally, I usually use like a big piece of poster board but I didn't have any so I had to put some papers together to get the right size of each piece of artwork. Once that's down, you're going to find the exact mounting hole and you're going to poke a hole right through it. That way when you put it on the wall, you know exactly where your nail is supposed to go. I personally want to center this gallery wall right in the middle of the room. So in order to do that, you're just going to grab the length of the room and divide it in half and that is where you're going to stick your first piece of artwork. Once you have that first piece of artwork down, that's where you can put in the rest of your templates to truly help you decide where you want the rest of your artwork to be. Hanging plates. I used to use command strips but your girl upgraded and got some plate hangers. These are super easy. They come in a bunch of different sizes to accommodate the size of your plate. This is definitely probably the smallest gallery wall ever but I can definitely add more to it as time goes on but I love the touch of whimsy it adds to the space. You guys, it is the next morning and I have to tell you, I had such a good sleep because there is no sleep better than a sleep that just feels satisfied. I went to bed being like, oh my gosh, I'm loving how my office is coming together and like you could already see all the little touches of color, all the pastels. They just bring me so much joy and it's coming together so well. This is what the photo collage is currently looking like and like I said, the best thing about this is that I can totally add to it over time as I find more similar pieces that suit the vibe. Since I can't have my desk in front of my window because I film in that direction, I instead have to have it against the wall but I love that now when I look up, I actually have some beautiful artwork to look at instead of just a boring blank wall and I mean, how insane is it that every single one of those pieces on the wall are thrifted? Even down to the little purse. When I saw that bag on thredUP, I got it and I was so obsessed even though it's like way too small and impractical to actually wear so I thought that adding it to the wall would be a perfect way to display how pretty it is and like always, this is the point where I'm gonna need your guys' help and your guys' advice. So taking a look at this room, knowing now exactly where the desk is gonna sit, seeing some of the colors that we have going on in the room, what are you thinking is our best bet for the color tone of the desk? If we're gonna go more for a light wood desk, it would look more like this. If we're gonna go more for a darker stain desk, I would most likely do it like this. So comment down below, leave it natural or stain the desk so then I can get an idea of what I should do in my next vlog. I'm actually already gonna start the next video today and I'm gonna start sanding it right now and as much as this wall is coming together, which is usually the wall that I'm gonna be taking photos in, I still need to creatively come up with something to do in this direction because whenever I'm filming my thrifting videos, the wall behind me is actually what you see. I was thinking it may be fun to maybe add a hanging plant there in the corner, possibly a pothos. So if you have any ideas on what else I could do on the wall behind me, let me know down below. And finally, if you guys are watching up to this point, you know that you're the real MVP. I love the ones that stick around all the way till the end. If you are watching up to this point, then comment down below, pastel paradise because truly, I absolutely love all the pastel colors in this room. This is the room that I wanna be lively with color and we're getting there, but we're not fully there yet. But I love you all so much. Look at where all your advice has gotten us and I cannot wait until this room is fully complete. Love you all and can't wait to see you in my next one.