A bit of a pane

My mom was given this old farmhouse window and it was in pretty rough shape but perfect if you like the junque patina.

However, there was a bit more dirt on here than was really desired. I did do a bit of cleaning and I definitely cleaned the glass but I didn't want to do too much to this because I was pretty sure this was lead paint.

After giving it a mild cleaning I added two coats of oil-based varnish to keep the paint from continuing to flake off absolutely everywhere. It was an enormous pain of a pane to varnish because of all those strips between the pieces of glass. I felt like I was never going to be done.

It goes great above her fireplace....tv stand....mantel....whatever. She actually rested it on a couple of small pieces of that grippy stuff you buy in a roll and put in shelves. It doesn't slide and it solves the problem of, how do you hang something this big and heavy without ruining the window or ruining the wall?

I think it has great character and goes perfectly with her style.
Oh my gosh I just remembered she has a fireplace DVD - I totally should have put that on while I shot these photos! :)

The ugliest key holder in the world

I may be giving in to my dramatic side. Take a look for yourself:

The face on this thing! What the heck?

I removed the hideous golf boy insert, removed all the hardware, painted the entire piece in an off-white and painted the hooks, hinges and clasp with oil-rubbed bronze.
What I planned to use it for was not related to golf, ugly man-children or keys, but jewelry.

It works great for holding my jewelry or it works great at displaying my jewelry for sale.

Either way, it's better than how it started.

The painted door

Taking a page from Miss Mustard Seed's book I set out to beautify this chippy old door that came from a cousin's barn.

It has the old style hardware and has a large glass window at the top. The glass was plain and and after I saw [this] I thought maybe some paint would make it a little more interesting. But what to paint? I dug through my supplies and ran across these clear scrapbook sheets I found at a garage sale a couple summers ago.


It would make the perfect template! So I tape it to the wrong side of the door and grabbed my acrylic paint and brushes.


You can see I started just a corner of it here.

It wasn't easy to find a brush small enough to get nice and even lines. I considered buying a paint pen but wasn't sure how the paint would flow on something that wasn't down on a table or floor.


Also? It took several coats to make the front look good. If you try this, make sure to really load your brush and go slowly.

But the result?






I think it adds just the right touch.

And the door has finally been hung! It hides the mess creative explosion in the sewing room and laundry room and keeps the dog from wandering out of her bed at night too.
Why does a dog who has a pile of nice, fluffy blankets want to wander out and sleep on the kitchen linoleum? I don't know.

Linking to:

House of Grace

Domestically Speaking

The Shabby Chic Cottage

Miss Mustard Seed's Copy Me Challenge

Napkin bucket

When I saw this post at Mustard Seed Creations about painted pails I knew I needed one for the paper napkins in the kitchen. Where do you put things like this that doesn't look ridiculous, isn't in the way, or isn't falling everywhere? In a bucket, that's where.

Of course, calling it a bucket, not a pail, makes me think of this, lolz....

I found my little tin bucket at Goodwill for 99 cents.


Let me tell you I felt like Goldilocks because I kept looking at different ones and setting them down, then picking another up, then setting them down. This one's too tall, this one's too short, this one is too narrow... but this one was just right. :)

The Christmas-ification had to come off of course, but I was able to safely untwine it and I already have another project in mind for these little sprigs.

I gave the pail two rough, dry coats of white paint then applied a wash made with "burnt umber." I was trying to figure out how to distress the paint further but when I dabbed and wiped at the wash it peeled the paint for me. That was the first time I was ever glad for that!

The hook I made from some wire I use in jewelry making.

MMS used an oval chalkboard tag to label her pail and I, in the spirit of thrift and upcycling, used an acorn cookie cutter - it's autumn and I was feeling the acorn love - to cut the shape out of an empty cracker box. I painted it black, wrote the word "napkins" in pencil and painted over it with white paint.


It is the perfect little spot for holding the napkins and I'm so grateful to Marian for the idea!

I asked my brother if he thought I was weird for wanting to make things look old and worn out and he said, "No, that's just what you like." Yep, it sure is. :)

Linking to:

The Shabby Chic Cottage

House of Grace

George is getting a face-lift

Some makeover projects are bigger than you expect. Take George for example.

Long, long ago I introduced you all to George, my 1973 Chevy truck. I also sang the praises of Armor All in that post because WOW was this poor thing neglected and in need of care.

The interior was dusty and dirty, cracked and ripped and best of all...full of that 70's faux woodgrain.

But I removed that and used a gray door panel from the parts truck and painted it black with vinyl paint (that vinyl paint is magic!!)

That little strip of faux wood is growing on me I have to admit. Not sure I want to completely obliterate the 70's from this truck.

The carpet was ripped and filthy and made the truck smell. I didn't waste any time in ripping it out. I found some really interesting stuff under the seat too. Credit card receipts from the 70's and about $1.38 in change! :)

Some rust spots were under the carpet where it looked like moisture had got in and never taken care of. I scraped and vacuumed out what I scraped. Rust can continue to spread if you don't take care of it properly.

When I'd vacuumed it out I applied some Rust-Oleum as a spot treatment.


Then I applied this next:

With sponge brushes. This stuff is INSANELY smelly so be sure to wear a mask. Also, be sure to really mix it well because it's pretty thick and if you don't mix it properly you won't get the "grippy" stuff in your paint.


This should work until I can afford a carpet kit!

Next was the poor cracked and faded dash in this "lovely" butterscotch.


A few screws undone and it pops right out.


I took this opportunity to really clean under the dashpad and as far as I could reach in the vents.

I took the black dashpad out of the parts truck because it only has the crack you see the in the background of the next photo and really, you can't see it when sitting in the truck and these things are $$$.

I cleaned it up with Armor All.


And also replaced my woodgrain gauge cover with the parts truck's black one. Better? :)


With all the interior (and some exterior) cleaning you know what my two favorite tools were?

An old toothbrush.


And these.Now that my interior is back together


I guess I need to start work on the exterior!






Linking to:

The Shabby Chic Cottage

Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party

Getting a handle on my crazy idea

So apparently the only show anyone is ever interested in watching anymore (on a certain home improvement network) is a show about people making inane comments while looking at and buying houses. Not exactly my kind of interesting. So I've been watching a certain other show about preparing houses for sale for a very small budget. I don't plan on selling anything but I like the small budget part and how some of their fixes are total genius. In that vein, it makes me want to change ugly stuff for little money. Thus this semi-insane project was born.

Exhibit A: my closet door handle. My peach of a neighbor (that was not being facetious) replaced all the handles in the house to the lever kind which is perfect when you have your hands/arms full of stuff. However...
Oh. So. Shiny. I like brass...in steampunk context and pretty much nothing else.

So an idea came to me...how about some spray paint? I've almost literally spray painted everything else I own - so why not? Next problem? Do I really want to undo my door handle to paint it outside? Umm.....

Nope! I don't. My closet looked like this for a month while I waited for a day nice enough to open all my windows. A month! Luckily no one sees this. "Niiiiice improvements you've made Molly." *eyeroll*

So, make sure if you are going to do something INSANE like spray painting indoors that there won't be too much humidity and that you can open every single window you can. And probably don't do anything bigger than a door handle. You may also need an overspray shield because you have to go at it from so many angles. I used an old catalog.

The first coat I put on quite thin - you can still see most of the brass. I also didn't worry about covering every single bit in the first shot. Do it in steps and then you won't have drips. Also, don't wait too long between coats. I waited a minute, maybe two between each of the four times I sprayed.

This is much better! It looks like it came that way. And it barely took any paint so it didn't even cost me the price of a can of Oil Rubbed Bronze.

It looks great next to that huge candle....thingy (what do you call that?) my brother bought me at a garage sale.

Of course the door is still super ugly but I have plans for it as well. And when I say I have plans, imagine me rubbing my hands together and doing this:

Linking to:

The Shabby Chic Cottage

Domestically Speaking

The Thrifty Home

I should clarify that I don't think spray painting a door handle is all that crazy - it's the painting INdoors that I think is insane. So please if you try this, be extra careful of your things (overspray will ruin everything) and your lungs (wear a mask and open all your windows).