~repurposed old frame~

I have a new collage

in my bedroom.

Come on in ~

I’ll show you!

But first let me show you the original frame.

Picked this up at a garage sale for a mere couple of bucks. It actually was in worse shape before I took this photo. It was literally falling apart, but Cigar Man was able to tack and glue it back in one piece.

Next step was to paint it. I used Rust-oleum Universal Metallic spray paint in “oil rubbed bronze”.

I liked the new color but it was a little flat so I touched it up with FolkArt acrylic paint in Metallic Antique Copper.

My 60% off custom framing coupon from JoAnn’s came in handy. I took my $2 frame that I’d applied $6 paint and had a mat cut for my grandbabies pics.

Their photos were taken in our back gardens; so I love that the collage is hanging by the window with a view of just that.

Linking to Coastal Charm for Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays

and

Southern Hospitality’s Thrifty Treasures.

antique trunk redo

I've had this old trunk for years. I MEAN YEARS! I have ALWAYS loved antiques. Knowing that, hubby found this at an antique store the first year we were married and gave it to me for our 1st Christmas. I've used it in many rooms and many ways over the years, but for a number of recent years it has been stored in the attic. Lately, I was inspired to get it down and paint it to be used in our master bedroom.

I had ivory paint left from another project so instead of buying more I added a little taupe colored paint from the little craft paint jars that you can buy at Michaels or JoAnn's (you know what I mean) to my ivory paint till I got the color I wanted. It actually shows up a little "whiter" in this photo than it really is.

What'd you say? Yes, you're right - next I must do something about that blue lining!!

After that coat dried, I brushed a medium stain on the whole trunk - metal, wood and hardware. Meanwhile hubby is standing behind me saying, "Do you know what you're doing?" And I'm saying, "Not really. I'm just having fun with it!" Which, of course, made him feel really confident.....NOT!

Then I took a soft cloth (old t-shirt works well) and wiped it down.

You can see how bright gold the hardware was before...uh...not working for me.

This is how it looked after toning down with stain and a little metallic copper mixed with black and gold paint.

I rubbed some of the paint and stain of the hardware off so that some of the blue from before came through since my goal was not to make it look any newer. I'm excited to say since I used paints that I already had, I didn't spend one new dime on this project.

And here it is in our bedroom. I'm liking it! I might could have stained the oak slats a little darker to match my bed, but, hey, I think it will grow on me and the next project's awaiting me!

I'm sharing this project with Met. Monday, and DIY Day.

MAKE!

Can you believe it? I'm still working on my craft room! I believe a craft/sewing room can be one of the most difficult and time consuming rooms to redo or move. For one thing, it takes so much organization which is very time consuming and then there are so many pieces to work with which may be functional, but not too attractive. I've tried not to buy anything new for this room, but use what I already have.

My dad made this looooong pine shelf for me several years ago. We put it up, but it was just too dark for my red walls so I decided to paint it the color of the trim and bead board. You can see the big difference it made in the first photo. Even though I am always hesitant to paint wood (I love the patina of old woods.), I am very pleased that I painted this shelf.

I did buy these letters at JoAnns. They were on sale for $1.99 a letter. I covered them with fabrics that I already had to coordinate with my room colors. Then I hung baskets on my shelf pegs so they'd be handy for any need I might have.

This old lamp was in my attic just itching to be redone.

I painted the brass on the lamp the same grey-green on one wall of my room and the ceiling. The red shade and stem of the lamp goes well in my room so I left it, but I did add a bias strip around the top and bottom of the shade out of the same fabric I've put on the inside of my Larkin desk. You can see the the Larkin Desk a little closer here in the first post about my craft room move. If you'd like to see the second post, click here.

I needed a place to store all my gift wrap, etc. so I pulled this old coca cola cooler out of the attic to use for that purpose.

Thanks to Susan, Rhoda, Kim for hosting these parties to share our projects. Pay them a visit at Metamorphosis Monday, Thrifty Treasures, and Make Your Monday.

It started with bead board that really wasn't

As I mentioned in a past post, my daughter and her baby will be moving in with us soon since her husband will be leaving to serve the country in Iraq. This means we have to do some rearranging which is just the nudge I needed to get me to update and organize this room. I moved my craft room out of a bedroom to make a bedroom for my grandson. We moved my craft room into a loft area in our house that we used as an office and "what all".

This is what it looked like before. UGH! I can't even believe I'm showing you this photo!!!

This chair went to Habitat for Humanity.

And so did this sofa minus the sofa cover that was on it. I'm expecting one of you to buy either piece for $10 or so and make something beautiful out of them and tell us all about it at one of our future blogging parties! :=)

Okay. Here comes the good part. Remember the post Rhoda at Southern Hospitality did on bead board wallpaper? Well, as soon as I read it, I knew that's what I wanted to do in this room. If you think this looks good, just wait! We don't have the chair rail and trim up yet!

Here's a close up with the chair rail. I just love it! It is so much more economical and time saving than real bead board. I covered the light switch plate with cardstock.

We even found a fan with bead board blades! Installing this fan was MUCH more trouble than putting up the wallpaper!

I'm still working on parts of the room, but come on in! I can show you a few things. Stay tuned; I'll share more as I complete it. This is our old table we use as a desk. We bought it when we were first married. It was an antique even then. HA! It's first service to us was as a dining table, but it's had lots of functions through the years. I would never part with it.

To the left is an old oak filing cabinet that I picked up years ago in an old warehouse of a company going out of business. Above the cabinet is an old buoy, we picked up on a trip to Maine.

To the right, is an old Larkin desk and above it is a wooden printer's tray that I'm using to store my rubber stamps.

We've had the Larkin desk for many years too, but I just covered the back with fabric to compliment my room. The desk stores various cardmaking supplies. One of my Longaberger baskets serves well to hold more rubber stamps.

An old Planters Peanut jar holds stamp letters on top of the shelves.

And an old wooden crayon box holds more crafting supplies.

On top of the other bookcase is another basket and an old Daisy butter churn. Not sure what this little jewel will hold, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

Canning jars hold buttons that I've sorted by color for easy use.

This old poplar cupboard was a companion to the old table you saw earlier. We've had it since we first married also. Again, I've used it for lots of purposes in the past several years. Can't part with it either. All of the items I've showed you I've had for several years and were bought at a bargain for one reason or another. We've never had a lot of money to waste. I've always loved vintage or antique pieces and have tried to buy wisely and bought pieces that I loved. I've found if you do this, you will not get tired of them and be able to use them over and over again.

The basket on top of the cupboard holds my projects that are waiting on me.

They will have to wait a little longer since I'll be visiting all the other posts on Metamorphosis Monday, Thrifty Treasures and Make your Monday right now! Want to join me? Let's go!

Knock and the door will be opened

Well blogger friends, these are our materials for the project today. Gold frames bought at a garage sale for $2, burlap leftover from a previous project, postcards from San Juan Puerto Rico, and parchment paper.


I've had the postcards since our trip to San Juan a couple of years ago and I just haven't known what to do with them. I didn't like the idea of just putting them in a frame; that's way to simple. (wink)

I began by cutting the burlap the size of my frame opening.

Then I glued the burlap pieces to cardboard which I also cut the size of the frame openings. I used spray adhesive for this.

The postcards were too white and crisp for my taste so I aged them by brushing coffee
on the postcards with a sponge stick. You can see the difference it makes in the photo above.
My frame was too bright gold for my project so I used a sponge stick to apply stain and then wiped the excess stain off. This toned down the bright gold and gave me the desired finish.

I used the parchment paper to back my postcards and I also printed a verse to go along with my door theme. (You might have noticed all my postcards have a unique door found off the streets of San Juan. They all have such character. I was really drawn to the colorful old houses with ornate doors.) So back to the project, I also tore the edges of the parchment paper and inked them by rubbing the edges across a brown ink pad to give them an even more aged look.

You can see the finished project in the photo above and below. (Sorry about the glare of the glass.) The verse in the first photo reads, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find..." The verse, found in Matthew 7:7, is continued in the second frame, knock and the door will be opened to you."

I had another postcard from a visit to Paris several years ago of yet another door. I guess I really am drawn to doors! (I usually pick up painting, drawings, etc. on postcards when I travel since after spending the moolah for the trip who can afford anything but a postcard.) HA! I decided to add it to my other postcards so I aged it also like the others and framed it with parchment paper and burlap.

Since I have a grouping of doors, I thought some vintage keys and an old porcelain door knob would compliment them so I placed them in a vintage bowl edged with brown transferware and put them on my old desk below the frames.

One end of my table needed a little height so I found this reddish candle holder around the house. Reddish didn't work, so there was nothing to do but paint it brown and rub it down with a gold glaze.

And here is the final view of my old desk in my foyer including frames, candle holder, and an old dish filled with keys and a door knob. What do you think?

More work than if I went out and bought a couple of prints somewhere, but much more rewarding and I have an one of a kind display in my home. This project was also very thrifty and I knew Rhoda at Today's Thrifty Treasures and Susan at Metamorphosis Monday would be proud of me for that!