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.

Kathleen Hackett is the former executive book editor for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. She has written for both the Pottery Barn Style series and Budget Livingbooks, as well as various other publications, including Elle Décor. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and son.

Mary Ann Young is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Decorating Your Home and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Needlework. She has contributed to Martha Stewart Living,Better Homes and Gardens, and Country Living magazines. Mary Ann and her husband are founders of Camden Harbor Company, a design/build firm in Rockport, Maine, where they live with their two children.