Repurposed Vintage Projects

If you've been following Creating a Life for awhile, you know that repurposing, upcycling and reinventing is what we're all about over here.

DIY Garden Gate Decor

My friend Jeannetta is going to clobber me. 

About 12 years ago we went to a yard sale together. It was at a ridiculously charming vintage home here in town. The poor woman having the sale was going through a nasty divorce, and basically she wanted everything in the house to just go away. 

In the dining room area, we both spotted a cute handmade hutch-type shelf sitting on top of some sort of built in. Well, somehow I managed to get to it first {only a tiny bit of guilt :) } and it came home with me. 

I do recall, though, that we agreed when I didn't want it anymore that I would pass it on to her. No problem. Great! 

Here it is hanging on my dining room wall two Christmases ago. 


This thing has been with me through 3 homes now, and in every room it could fit in. It's been hung on walls, even used as a closet organizer. Since the bottom shelf is much wider than the upper shelves, it has served as a hutch-type piece on desks, tables and dressers. 

The thing is, it's really shallow and really not all that functional as a shelf. 

The other thing is, about 9 months ago I decided to take it apart and store the boards in my "possibility pile" in the garage. 

Sorry, Jeannetta! I didn't remember until it was too late. 




Remember a few weeks ago when I suddenly got the urge to redo my living room late at night? 

Well, I had been working on a plan to use these white boards to make an awesome (and huge) sign for the living room wall where my electric fireplace and vintage door mantel had been.  

I didn't remember to photograph it, but basically I used two pieces of old fence boards screwed to the back to hold all the boards together. 

I kept looking at it and thinking about it, and the shape was just off and I just wasn't 'feeling it'. I thought I'd try turning it the other way so the boards ran vertically, and removing the two shorter pieces from the ends and using them to create some sort of a barn door effect. 

I laid it on the floor with the main boards lined up tight together, and the shorter boards across the ends so I could see how much I would need to cut off of them. 

I decided to separate the boards to see how that would look, and all of a sudden this was looking like something completely different to me. It was starting to look like a gate, and I liked it! 

I wouldn't even need to cut anything- bonus! With the pieces on the floor face down, I screwed them together being careful to make sure the screws weren't too long : )

Have you ever accidentally screwed something to the floor? I haven't (yet), but I could see myself doing something like that.

I added a couple of antique hinges to the right side. These came off of a piece of an antique door that I literally stopped traffic to grab from the side of the road. 

It's a sickness. 

Some of you know what I'm talking about : ) 

On the left side I added a rusty latch that fell off of my old toolbox. You might be seeing that toolbox again in the finished living room. 

Just have to wait a bit and see. 

Okay, it's not a real gate, of course. But I love the way it hints at being a gate. And gardening. And Springtime!

What ever happened to the wider board that was the bottom shelf? 

I turned it into a sign for the dance floor at a friend's country wedding last summer. You might just be seeing this in the finished room this week, as well! 




From this...



...to this. 

I put another rustic wood piece in front of the gate and hung one of my grandparents' Currier and Ives prints on top. I like the warmer wood tones of the frame with the white painted piece, but not 100% sure if it will stay like this...

still tweaking things around a bit. 

*I'm so excited to be sharing the finished living room over at A Stroll Thru Life for Marty's "Pulling It All Together" series!* 

I would love it if you would stop over and take a look! 


Oh, by the way- my friend Jeannetta lives in Oregon now, so I couldn't really have given her the shelf anyway : )

Blessings to you!

Jeanette

Sharing at these fun places this week
The Inspiration Gallery at Craftberry Bush
Share Your Cup Thursday at Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson
Under $100 Party at Beyond the Picket Fence
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style
Blissful Whites Wednesday at Timewashed
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm
Make it Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House
Party Junk at Funky Junk Interiors
Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage
Thrifty Life Thursday at Revisionary Life
Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home
Be Inspired at Common Ground
The Scoop Mega Spring Party at Cedar Hill Farmhouse

Red Paper Heart Wreath

About this time last year, I shared with you a project where I made a heart shaped wreath out of recycled cardboard and brown paper packing material. 

It is still one of my most viewed posts!

{You can visit the original post here}

Then I figured out how to recreate the crinkled paper {sort of}, and shared another paper heart wreath I made with vintage sheet music. 

{You can visit that post here}

Recently, I've made some more paper heart wreaths for the shop using vintage sheet music and vintage dictionary pages. 

{Those are available here}

Awhile back, someone gave me some red paper gift bag filler, which is very similar to what I had used to make the other wreaths. 

I decided I was going to break out of my usual neutral theme and make a festive red heart wreath.

A little wild, huh? 

I added a vintage canvas hanging tie to it, and finished the back with vintage sheet music. 






This "wild and woolly" red heart Valentine wreath is available at the shop right now, and it really stands out : )

I hope you're having a good weekend, friends!

Jeanette



Sharing this week over at:
The Scoop at Worthing Court

Chalkboard Style Tags

I hope everyone has recovered from their July 4th festivities! 

For the second year in a row, our town could not do their fireworks show on the 4th because we are under a fire ban. Boo! Things are extremely dry around here, making for super high fire danger. At least the weather was lovely, and we had a good time spending the whole afternoon/evening with friends at a "Freedom Festival" that has been our tradition for over 10 years! 
I don't know about you, but I'm ready to start a new July week!

I have a fun little project to share today. A friend gave me an unopened package of these heavy cardboard coasters and I decided to create some fun chalkboard style tags with them.

They are a little over 4" across, and I liked the idea of an over-sized, writable tag that could also be strung together to create a banner for many occasions.

I punched a hole in each cardboard circle. This was a little difficult with my little hand punch, so I switched to a heavier punch and that made a big difference. I painted both sides with ordinary black acrylic craft paint.

 Did you know you can use ordinary black paint to create a chalkboard surface for many craft projects? I've done this on lots of small chalkboard projects, and it works great! Of course it's not a washable surface like "real" chalkboard paint, but it's fine for an application like this one.

I "seasoned" each circle by rubbing the side of a piece of chalk over each side and erasing with an ordinary felt chalkboard eraser. This gave a soft, almost zinc looking, appearance to each tag. 
I added a strip of heavy canvas scrap to each one. 

I used some letter stencils to test out how the chalk writing would look on the surface. 

I also tried some number stencils with chalk. Pretty cute, huh?
 

I really like this look!
 

The chalk erases easily from the surface making these ideal to re-use for many different occasions!

I have two sets of 10 listed over at The Penny and the Pearl today.

I'll be back soon to share some other projects I'm working on. Have a wonderful Monday, friends!

Jeanette

Come join the fun with me over at:

Inspiration Monday at twelveOeight 
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
Creative Bloggers Party at Homemaker on a Dime  
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm 
Make it Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House 
The Scoop
Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House 
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style
Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life 
Share Your Cup Thursday at Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson 
Tutorials Tips and Tidbits at StoneGable 
Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage
Fabulously Creative Friday at Jennifer Rizzo  

Vintage Trunk Coffee Table

If you've been following along with me for awhile you might remember a few weeks back when I decided to tackle a project I'd been putting off for some time.

You can see that post over here.
I promised to give you an update when it was finished, so here it is-




My vintage steamer trunk turned coffee table!

 Something you won't be surprised to hear if you've been following awhile: I wasn't going to spend any money on this project. 
If you're new here, welcome to Creating a Life, where this broke single mommy does nearly every project on a zero budget! It really is lots of fun : )

I used some white latex paint I already had to paint the outside of the trunk, including the metal latches and the scrap of leather handle still hanging on. I could have removed the leather piece, but I kind of liked the way it looked. 

I used metal legs from a stool I've had over 20 years (leftover from my retail furniture store days). It had been broken for a really long time, and I was happy to find a new use for the legs.

I used a couple of scrap boards left from my DIY Air Conditioner Screen on the inside of the trunk to give me a sturdy place to screw the legs into from underneath. I decoupaged them with vintage sheet music so they would blend in a bit better with the other papers on the inside of the trunk.

  
A sadly under used antique trunk now has a whole new life as a unique and useful piece of furniture with storage. I love that.

 

Later this week I'll show you a few more of the summer touches around the living room.

Thanks for reading!

Jeanette

Sharing this week at...

Blissful Whites Wednesday at Timewashed

Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style

Treasure Hunt Thursday at From My Front Porch to Yours

Tutorials Tips and Tidbits at StoneGable 

What's It Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants 

Share Your Cup Thursday at Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson 

Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home 

Be Inspired at Common Ground 

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Party Junk at Funky Junk Interiors 

Pretty Things at twelve O eight

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch  

Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill 

Creative Bloggers Party at Homemaker on a Dime 

Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life 

Make it Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House 

Knick of Time Tuesday  

The Scoop 

Junkin' Joe Upcycled Treasures at The Cottage Market 

Inspiration Monday at twelveOeight 

Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed

Junkers Unite at Knick of Time  

Party Junk {storage ideas} at Funky Junk 

 

A Little Junk Update

I want to say thank you for all of the encouraging messages I received after my last post!
I am touched more than I can say by the kindness shown toward me and my kids. I am truly grateful for each of you!

Tonight I was working on a little project with one of the items that was in that pile of "junk" in my van, and I just wanted to give you a tiny peek at what's going on over here.

One of the things I picked up was an old canvas beach chair. It is quite weathered and the wooden seat is in the garage waiting to be used for a different project. The canvas wasn't "cool old", it was just "ugly old", so I covered it with a couple of coats of white paint.

Then I decoupaged a vintage beach print, that I've had for many years, onto the canvas.

I added a couple of distressed white hooks. Now the vintage beach chair will become a vintage beach-inspired towel rack.

These photos aren't so great (taken in my poorly lit living room at night) It still needs a couple of tweaks, and some hangers on the back, but I'll be finished with it tomorrow.

Another thing I picked up was two old, large (approx. 24" x 30") heavy cotton bags from a linen supply company. The day I picked the items up it had recently snowed and everything was very wet. 

  
The bags had some metal items on top of them, and have some rust stains. I washed them twice (with bleach!).

What is it about a piece of heavy soft cotton with a frayed edge? Some girls like diamonds, I like tattered cotton. I know, I'm a silly girl : )

I'm going to try and see if I can use the good parts to cover the back of my little chair. It's been waiting to be finished up for months! I have a small feather pillow that I'm going to try and cover with this fabric also, to go with the chair. Then I'll have to let it go!

That's it for tonight. No "biggies", just a peak at what's happening with some of my junk finds. 

Thank you again for holding me up with your dear prayers and words of encouragement!

Jeanette 

Sharing over at:

Party Junk at Funky Junk Interiors 
Monday Funday at Finding Home 
Make it Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House 
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
Knick of Time Tuesday 
Pretty Things at twelveOeight 
The Scoop at Cedar Hill Ranch  
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm 
Budget Decorating at Creative Cain Cabin 
Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House 
Welcome Home Wednesday at Vintage on a Dime 
Treasure Hunt Thursday at From My Front Porch to Yours 
Creative Inspirations at Embracing Change