Imagine the scene: a starkly lit room with broken and battered pieces of furniture looming over you as you scope out the low price tags and the most salvageable candidates. Scratched veneer, missing knobs, splintered edges, and chipping paint can be seen on nearly every piece. Those are the conditions in which each of the mid-century modern pieces below was discovered before someone with a opportunistic eye for DIY snatched them up, made them over, and got themselves some low-cost, classy furniture to add to their home decor. Read on to check out all of these modern makeover miracles and be inspired to use these techniques on your own thrift shop finds!


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Mini Modern Side Table

This cute and interesting accent piece was great before it was revamped, but looks even better with a two-toned paint job.

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Modern End Table

All it took was a color change to upgrade a piece like this and bring it into fashion while maintaining its original charm.

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Geometric Dresser

A geometric paint job is all it takes to turn a modern styled piece into a fit for your modern-day home. This is one eye-catching statement piece that won’t soon be forgotten.

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Chest of Drawers to Media Center

Sometimes, damage opens the way for new and better design capabilities. Taking out the damaged top drawers on this media center created some great shelf space!


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Vinyl Chair

This thrifted vinyl chair got a refreshing paint job, changing it from a minty green cast-off to a chic and bright piece of functional furniture.

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Shabby Upholstered Chair

This chair was in bad shape and covered in classic MCM orange fabric, so a good reupholstering was in order. Just look at the outcome!

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Vanity Dresser

The wood on this piece was upgraded with a darker, more current color, and the vanity mirror was replaced with a more modern convention – the TV!

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Drab to Fab Console

This revamp takes advantage of the long, low furniture style popular in mid-century modern design by rejuvenating it and using it as interesting display space.

Want to see more modern miracle makeovers? Check out Hometalk’s topic page on painted furniture!

This article was written by Hometalk Editor Tikva Morrow. Hometalk.com is the largest home and garden social network on the web. Millions of homeowners and professionals use Hometalk to share their knowledge and inspiration, ideas, and advice.