I’ve been following Gail’s Blog, My Repurposed Life, for about a month now and it is one awesome blog full of tons of creative inspiration especially for repurposing furniture. Seriously, an old door repurposed into a toddler bed? HOW COOL! Gail says that her favorite thing to do DIY wise is to repurpose every day items that are headed for the garbage/landfill.
Some of you know I like to do the same thing, take this old window I purchased at Tiede’s (my favorite junk store) for about $7.
After a coat of paint and adding some wreaths and ribbon, it looks perfect on my bedroom wall!
Or this old thing, I think it’s half of an old wood screen door. Whatever it is, I thought it was cool and it was only $4 at Tiede’s so I painted it white and then painted some red flower shapes on the screens. Also looks perfect on my bedroom wall! And I know you CAN NOT purchase wall art that large for only $4!!!
Or this cute little shutter I purchased at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for like $3 I think. Painted it black and now it’s super cute wall art in my kitchen.
Okay, I think you get my point!!
I had purchased these incredibly inexpensive cabinet doors at the ReStore about a year ago knowing there would be something cool to do with them but not knowing what exactly that would be! Then Gail inspired me! These made the PERFECT Christmas gifts for my Mom and my sister and I can’t wait to make more. I wanted to do a step-by-step post but got so into creating these I forgot to take photos!! So here is one step and the final products!
Gail taught me this little trick – always check out the OOPS section at Lowes! I picked up this mistint for $0.50 and it worked perfect. After sanding the cabinets and taping off the inside, I painted the “frame” with some old laytex paint I had from painting my kitchen. It took a few coats. I let it dry, then sanded the edges and such to create a weathered and worn look. Then I painted on the stain and let it dry for a few seconds then wiped it off.
It worked well because it warmed up the bright yellow paint while darkening the sanded areas to really accentuate that weathered and worn look. After this I took off the blue tape and painted the inside with chalkboard paint. Okay, there’s the one step, now on to the fun stuff!
I gave this one to my Mom. She has a very huge creative space that has tons of fun wall art and repurposed furniture. She sews amazing quilts and fun little pillows so I wanted to add a tad of that sewing inspiration idea into this piece, even making a holder for the chalk at the end of each ribbon tail! I’m loving my sewing machine.
I had some fun with rick rack, some ribbon I had around, as well as vintage buttons. My Mom was really surprised and loves it so that was the best part of giving her this gift!
This is the one I gave to my little sister Kate (minus the photos, those are mine, I just wanted you to be able to see how this would be used). I seriously LOVE giving gifts to my sister because she gets so excited even at 25 years old and her reactions are priceless!! I used the same process for this chalkboard wall art but decorated it so she could hang photos.
I had some really big old wooden buttons that I painted black, then hot-glued to mini clothes pins. Those got painted as well. I added some color with the red vintage buttons and then hot glued it to the edge of the cabinet door. Pretty easy, very cute! That is my beautiful sister and myself in the photo on the left and us with our Aunt (our Martha Stewart) and Uncle in the photo of the right.
Kate absolutely loved this and I chose colors that are perfect for her living room. Thanks to Gail at My Repurposed Life for the inspiration for these fun Christmas Gifts!
Did you get a DIY or handmade gift this year? I would love to hear about it.
Smiles,
Megan
