Meet Shelley

Home decorators on a budget, handy people, and garage sale aficionados all have a friend in Shelley Kincaid, author of The Garage Sale Decorator's Bible. Whether it's furniture, appliances, accessories, computers, tools, chandeliers, or seasonal decorations, Kincaid's book tells how to find household treasures and fix them up.

"If you don't find a table you like, create one out of pieces from different tables or other furniture," says Kincaid, whose specialty is making over garage sale bargains into beautiful decorator items. Her book shows just how to do it. In fact, the book contains 77 "how to" step-by-step instructions, with illustrations for fixing or constructing household items, including:

• Tables, chairs, and ottomans
• Pillows, lampshades, and mirrors
• TVs, computers, and VCRs
• Canopies, picture frames, and candelabra

If it's broken, Kincaid tells how to fix it. If it's the wrong color, Kincaid shows how to change it, antique it, or even marbleize it. She learned over the years through trial and error. "I'm not a carpenter or cabinet maker," she says, "but I can easily unscrew legs or re-size frames and I'm great with a staple gun." She says her book will save others both time and money. "People can learn from my mistakes and discoveries. The computer chapter alone can save readers thousands of dollars."

Kincaid's house is furnished from top to bottom with garage sale fix-ups. "When people hear that, they expect a lot of tacky stuff," she says. Instead, they're pleasantly surprised to find elegantly decorated furniture, fine lamps and chandeliers, a bookcase full of leather-bound classics, beautiful throw pillows, computers, and 15 working televisions. "I know 15 TVs is a bit excessive," she admits, "but they were all so cheap and we converted them to cable-ready for pennies. Besides, what's wrong with watching the football game from the garage while you're working?"

Kincaid's basement is a warehouse of French legs, carved frames, pieces of mirror, glass hurricane globes, lamp bases, fabric, upholstery foam, cane, chandeliers, chain, lamp shades and much more. One of her favorite tricks is to combine a $2 garage sale chandelier with a 50¢ lamp base to make a gorgeous candelabrum. And, who would think to make a wrought iron patio table into a center island rack to hang pots and pans? That's exactly what hangs in Kincaid's kitchen, complete with garage-sale acquired copper pots and French skillets.