So first, my thrift store find:
A little 99 cent mirror that I picked up at Goodwill. I actually bought two of these little guys and I'm really happy I did because I love how cute the first one turned out! Here's what I turned it into...
What do you think? I love how it turned out! I'm really loving the nautical stuff right now, especially because it's summertime, so I decided to put a little nautical flair on this one. I think it would be just perfect in a cottage or beach house, or even in a little boy's nautical themed nursery!
This was really easy to transform. Here's how I did it :)
First, I sanded down the wooden framing around the mirror so that the paint would adhere to it better. Depending on what kind of paint you use, this may or may not be necessary. I was using some latex paint that I got on clearance at Lowes for the base coat, so I decided to give it a light sanding first. I then used painters tape to cover the mirror so that the paint did not leak onto the mirror surface. Here's a picture of it all taped off.
I don't have pictures of the rest of the process, but it was very easy. I first painted the whole frame using the pale blue color that I picked up from Lowes earlier this week, putting a couple of coats on to get good coverage. Then I actually let it dry overnight. This isn't necessary, but I didn't have navy paint last night when I started working on it, so I had to wait. And let me tell you, I hate waiting. I had such a vision for this little mirror and at 9:30 on a Thursday night, there wasn't much I could do until the next day without that navy paint! Major bummer. Anyways...
After I finally had a chance to purchase some navy blue paint this afternoon, I taped off some stripes on the frame using the same blue painters tape that I used before on the mirror. I eyeballed it but you can measure too obviously if you want to make sure your stripes are exactly even. Then I painted the exposed stripes with navy paint over top of the pale blue base color. I let that dry for a bit, then peeled off all my tape and viola! I ended up with the cutest little striped frame you've ever seen :)
I had also purchased a little unfinished wood anchor from Michael's last week sometime (not knowing what I was going to do with it at the time) and decided it would be the perfect finishing touch. I painted it grey, roughed it up a little with some sandpaper after it had dried, and used Gorilla Glue to glue it in the corner of the frame. After everything was all dried and the anchor was stuck on there nice and tight (Gorilla Glue takes a little while to dry), I used sandpaper to rough the whole thing up a little more. I'm pretty excited about how it turned out!
Alrighty, now on to my Craigslist find. I am ecstatic about this one. Seriously. You have no idea.
For a while now, I have been searching for a 6-pane old barn window. I have seen so many cute decorating ideas with old windows on Pinterest, and they really match the rustic/shabby chic style that I have planned for our new house. I've seen a few around, but most of them have been quite pricy so I've been holding off, hoping to find one for a better deal.
And then all my dreams came true the other day when I was searching through Craigslist. A lady from Grand Rapids had 3, THREE, 6-pane windows for sale... and for a fraction of the price that I have seen others selling for. There was only one small issue: she had painted on them to decorate for the different seasons. One had flowers, one fall leaves, and the other snowflakes. At first glance, I was a little hesitant because I wasn't quite sure if I could get the paint off but after debating for a few seconds, I decided it was worth a try! I figured that a little scraping with a razor blade would probably do the trick... and I was right!
So I picked them up today, rummaged through my dad's junk drawer and found a few razor blades, and got to work! I also recruited my little bro, who complained about his sore thumb after about 2.2 seconds of scraping. But he was a good sport and cut the scraping time in half - thanks Parks! :)
He also stuck around to help me with the final project I want to share with you today, my garage sale bargain find. Here he is modeling the finished product. Lol I was cracking up while taking this photo. He's a goofball!
This little kid's chair is just one of the awesome garage sale finds that I picked up today. It was already painted this nice light blue color and all it needed was a little sandpaper love :) So I grabbed a couple pieces of rough grit sandpaper, handed one off to my brother and we shabbied it up a little. We focused on the edges, like I usually do when I distress wood pieces so that it gives it a natural worn look.
Because I had the razor blades out from scraping the windows, I also used one to scrape off a few spots on the seat of the chair. I have never used this technique before, but I think it makes it easier to take off larger spots of paint without having to sand like crazy.
And there you have it! I think it looks so cute now! And I barely had to put any effort into it because it was already painted when I bought it! :)
So there you have it friends - my thrifting, Craigslisting, and garage saling adventures from this week have paid off! And this is only 3 of the many things I picked up! Stay tuned for more blog posts - I have lots left to redo so there will be lots to share with you!
Have you gotten any bargains lately? Leave a comment and let me know what you've been thrifting this summer!
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