Sorry to disappoint any of you looking for my usual Whimsical Wednesday art update…I’ve been so busy working on projects around the house that I haven’t had a chance to work on new artwork lately, but I plan on having something new next week 
Meantime, I want to share with you one of our latest projects! Last year I found a beautiful chippy paint antique door on Craigslist. I just adored the shabby chic/french farmhouse look of it and the couple remodeling their 1920′s bungalow was anxious to get rid of it. They were selling it with another heavy door for only $40 total (which is a steal as most antique doors sell for $100 each). So I scooped it up not really quite sure what to do with that 2nd heavy door. It sat downstairs for the past year until inspiration struck and it finally did last week.
We’ve never had a headboard and the solid ones we were always drawn to cost several hundreds of dollars – not worth the money in my book so we just went without. But I always felt that the bed looked so “college-esque” without that anchoring of a headboard. Not to mention that we’d often lose our pillows in that gap between wall and bed frame and would even get sap on our pillows from our sometimes still-leaking logs.
So here’s how our project went down:
The door had a green hue to it...
So David sanded it down (poor guy, it took hours to do and a mid-way trip to the local hardware store to pick up a heavier 60 grit sandpaper for our sander, this thing was so shellacked!)
I was able to save lots of cool hardware - yay, vintage metal knobs!
And I painted the previous brassy hinges an oil-rubbed bronze color
We had leftover stain from previous projects so David applied a coat of Dark Walnut and a coat of Bombay Mahogany
We lined things up (and rested this 75lb door on wooden blocks for extra support)
And added this cool finial I found at an antique store for an extra touch of detail
And voila…I think it really anchors the bed
Couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out!
I just love it when you can take something in your home (or a Craiglist find, in this case) and turn it into something much greater than it’s original use (the definition of upcycling) and on the cheap too! DIY projects take time and a lot of sweat equity but are soooo satisfying when complete!
What’s your favorite upcycled/DIY project?
*Linking to Miss Mustard Seed*
LOVE IT!!!
Pretty!! My favorite “upcycle” project actually didn’t require any upcycling at all — a friend of mine bought a chipped, shabby dresser at a salvage place, stuck it in her dining room as a hutch, and it looks phenomenal!
Ugh, what a great find! I LOVE chippy paint anything! I actually just picked up a pair of chippy paint windows last weekend and all I’m going to do is seal the paint (as it’s certain to have lead in it) and that’s it – instant display!