The Shelf Project

Okay, so maybe this doesn't fall into the "vintage" category but it's still neat. Plus, our walls are bare and I thought it would be fun to refinish.

Check it out, this shelf was not cute before I got my hands on it.

 Who ever put this thing together did not know what they were doing.

And they chipped the wood in the process.

As soon as I saw this shelf I just knew it needed a little TLC. So I brought it home, took it apart, and got started!

Oooh aaah! Stripped and sanded!

I'm so glad that Jody didn't mind me painting in the house. It was soooo flipping hot outside and I already spent enough time sweating my face off. Jody somehow found that cute. I did not. Sweat=gross!

Do you remember that odd backing to the shelf that was also painted black and had a little screw stuck through it? It didn't really match the rest of the wood and was pointless to strip or sand so I tossed it and replaced it with beadboard. 

Thanks to another fun blog I came across which gave me a cool idea for how to frame pictures to hang from my fancy new window mirror, I had some beadboard handy. I suppose you'll see a another post on picture frames in the near future.

Here's what it looked like after I painted and attached the beadboard.

Isn't it pretty?!?!

Look, no more chipping wood.

No more ugly screws that were improperly placed.

 Distressed just a tad to give it an old feel.

 These cute little birdies and keys are what I found at Atelier in Buffalo.

Now it's finished and ready to hang. I just need to figure out where.

And now back to vegging on the couch. I caught someone's nasty cold this weekend and have been at home all day trying not to sneeze and staying awake long enough to post this blog. I'm so bummed too because I really wanted to get started on my next window mirror. Time to rest so I can work on it when I'm all better.

The Window Mirror Project

This is an awesome idea I came across when I was trying to figure out what to do with all the windows I’ve collected. It's an old basement window from a house in Hopkins that was built in 1922. Old things are so cool!

Here’s what it used to look like:

Since it was sitting outside for quite some time and had a bit of a funny smell to it, I decided it would be best to strip it and repaint it. (If I were to pinpoint the smell I'd say it was dog pee but I don't know for sure. For piece of mind, we'll say it just smelled old and maybe the owners were hippies.)

After removing the putty from around each pane I popped out the remaining pane of glass and pulled out all the little glazier points that held the original panes of glass in place. 

From there I stripped it the best I could only find that the wood was black. I'm not sure why that was. Maybe someone with a little more knowledge of old wood would be able to explain it for me. 

Eww!

I figured this was the best it was going to get so I crossed my fingers and hoped a nice sanding would do the trick.

 I said I hoped a nice sanding would do the trick. Eh, good enough.

At this point it was ready for paint and as you can see in the next picture I chose white.

 

This part was fun.

<Insert sarcasm here>

After beginning to distress the window by sanding it, the paint started to rub off like an eraser on paper. No bueno. I had used primer and paint in one and figured that was a bad idea and since it looked like crap I scrapped it and started over. 

I did not take another picture after stripping, sanding, priming and painting it again because that would have been pointless. The window was just white again. 

But here's what it looked like after another good sanding:

 Ooh pretty!

All it needed at this point were some mirrors and hooks. I'm so glad there's a locally owned hardware store near my house that custom cuts mirrors and glass. Three mirrors that were about 10 x 12 inches cost less than $20. Score!

And here's the final product again:

 Hi tiny girl! (My kitty)

Sorry the photos aren't spectacular. I had used my iPhone for most of them so that I could post them to Facebook for all my friends to see.

So what do you think? Would you want this in your entry way? Let's hope so because I'm making five more of them to sell. I have a few more paint colors that I found in the "Oops Paint" section at Home Depot that I plan to try out. I just know you're going to love hot pink, neon green and poop brown.

Just kidding!! 

I found a neat light green-ish color, an interesting purple-ish color that I'm not quite sure about and a pretty light blue. To be safe, I'll just start with white again. Everyone loves white, right?

Bye for now. 

Oh, and just for fun, I have another fun project that I just finished today. Let's just say it's not a window but I think you'll still like it. Especially since it looks WAY better than it first looked when I bought it from a chick through craigslist for $12.

Welcome!

I just wanted to take a moment to welcome you to my blog. I've never really blogged before so I'm not sure how this will turn out yet. The idea is that I'll post whatever I feel like posting but also post things I've made with the hopes to sell them.

Here's my sitch...

I moved from California to Minnesota a little over a year ago to live with my boyfriend. Because all I do is work and until now didn't have a hobby, I've become miserably bored and miss home but I can't afford to fly back as often as I would like. I recently stumbled upon the idea of making things with vintage windows and after showing them to my friends they said I should sell them. So here we go! I'll be posting pictures and listing prices as soon as I complete each window or other fun projects I come up with. I'm open to custom orders so let me know if there's something you like and I'll see if I can make it for you.

Just a side note: Please keep in mind, these may not all be my original ideas. Everyone draws inspiration from various places but I guarantee these are all stripped, sanded, painted and distressed by me and no one else. I really hope they do well and if you have any fun ideas to share, feedback, comments or whatever, feel free to send them along. Thanks!