Thrifty Thursday: One Man's Trash is SHE Design's Treasure!

So the 2nd or 3rd day I was in Florida my Aunt and I came across a back alley dumpster find chest of gold! Metaphorically speaking. 

We had just picked up a few pounds of shrimp for that evenings dinner at a small local market and left through the back alley only to come across (thanks to my Aunt's sharp eye) a huge beautiful framed mirror sitting next to the garbage cans! 

Say WHAT!? So we stopped and I got out to investigate. The mirror was clearly broken but I was focused on the frame. Was it solid wood or partical board... it was wood. Was it knicked up or in good condition... considering its location, it was in good condition. So we loaded it into the back of my Aunt's little Prius (thank you Jesus that is just barely fit!) and saved it from a doomed existence in a pile of garbage at the dump! 

This picture really makes it looks small.. it is not.. the frame is a good 4 x 3 1/2 feet. 

The great thing I discoved while investigating in the alley was that the mirror while cracked, had some kind of heavy duty plastic backing which is why it was still holding together. So we took the whole thing not wanting to leave a jagged mess for someone else to clean up in a back alley and layed it on a tarp in the driveway to deal with the mirror. 

 My Aunt and I put some tape across the front of the mirror just to be safe... 

And then we pulled out all the staples around the back of the frame. After that we were able to just lay it down gently and the mirror fell out the back in one piece! (I failed to snag a picture of that)

 So then we just folded the mirror over a few times and threw it in some heavy duty trash bags and into the trash!

 And what was left is this awesome frame!

 I'm 5'11 so as you can see.. this frame is pretty big! Pardon the horrible shot.. I was snapping the picture with my remote shutter release at the same time I was holding the frame up!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet... there are just so many possibilities! So for now I think it will become one of my photo props but in the future when I get my own place I'm thinking I'll hang it up and put a bunch of smaller framed and un framed photos and paintings inside of it!