Frugal Finds - Library Card Catalog

I've been yearning for a library card catalog since I saw this beauty in the living room on Big Bang Theory:

They look lovely and can store so many things.  

A local vintage shop was selling a recently made catalog for $620 - Jeepers!

Here's an amazing example, reassembled from two broken down ones and rebuilt - on line for $1,000:
Card Catalog Redo

Each time I see one, I am transported back to the East Hartford Public Library - Wickham Branch. Located just two blocks away, I could walk there from my grandmother's house.  Looking down, I can almost see my little feet in red Keds trudging along, making sure to not to step on the sidewalk cracks and break my mother's back.

There was always that "library smell," hard to describe, but redolent of book pages, paste, and age. Eau d'library. I still feel a thrill when I see a big ole pile of books at a library, a junk store, or a yard sale. The entire world opens up through reading.

My neighbor, Bob, had a yard sale.  He's a carpenter.  I noticed a shelf of drawers that stacked and excitedly talked to Bruce about how I had found the little pulls on line for $3 a piece.

Bob heard me and brought out those very pulls out from his garage, giving them to me for free.  I paid him $25 for the drawers.

And this is the cobbled-together result in my front hall:

Bruce added the drawer pulls and created the labels:

I think I like my $25 version better than the $1,000 one!  I get a kick out of doing things on the cheap. My library card catalog makes me think of kind Bob Sauls and my wonderful Bruce every time I use it.

Anyone can spend a lot of money to make a house look special. 

Here's to all those bloggy girls like...

• Judy       Anybody Home
• Debra   As I See it Now
• Brenda Cozy Little House
• Kim       Imagery by Kimberly
• Vicky    Vintage Vixen 

...and countless other creative women who cast household magic from items discarded by others.

Library Card Catalog - $1000