Headboard Coat Rack

I love Pinterest. Without it, I would have to come up with creative stuff all on my own. Which I could do, but half the time my ideas never turn out the way I picture them in my mind. That's where Pinterest really shines! You can look at the "after" photo of a project and decide if it's worth the time. That's how I discovered this idea to take an old twin bed headboard and turn it into a beautiful coat rack. 

The first step was to find a headboard that would work. Not all headboards are suitable for this. I really wanted something pretty with lots of mouldings and curves, but unfortunately our local thrift store didn't have any headboards like that. Instead, I bought a plain old wood headboard with hopes that I could pretty it up later.

I had Hubby cut off the legs, then I primed it with Zinsser primer--a favorite of mine. It means I don't have to sand a piece to get the paint to stick. Next, I did a few coats of satin Walmart brand country white interior latex paint. 

 

After it was all dry, I used a sanding block and wallpaper scraper to give the headboard a chippy, vintage feel. I love all things chippy! Finally, I brushed on some Minwax Walnut Stain/Sealer and wiped it off with one of Hubby's old shirts. It leaves just enough stain behind to give an antique finish while also adding a layer of sealant for protection.

The most inspired part of this makeover was embellishing the painted piece. I added a wood applique to the top (actually Hubby did, using a nail gun). I also decided to fill in the open space with a chalkboard (just a piece of cut wood and some chalkboard paint). Finally, I bought a few inexpensive hooks and BOOM! This pretty piece was done! Now, who's going to try this?

Make This Hotel Key Sign

 



Make This Hotel Key Sign
I get a little stir crazy in the wintertime. I miss working on my porch: scraping, sanding, painting. But while Old Man Winter hangs on in these last few days, I can still do a few smaller, indoor projects. Here is one I've been working on.

I freely admit I totally stole this idea from one I saw on Etsy/Pinterest. I just fell in love with the vintage look and the many, many hooks for hanging necklaces, bracelets, keys, scarves.


Of course, I had to give it my own unique touch. In this case, I added a hotel sign to the top of the board and a few tags for the little metal tag-plates.

The board itself was made from reclaimed pallet wood (thanks to the amazing HUBBY!). He cut the pallet wood and assembled it. Next, I lightly painted it a creamy latex white, leaving the wood grain to show through. Then I went over it with some watered down black acrylic paint for an old, gray tint.

I added the hooks and labels, pretty much eye-balling it (I'm not great with measuring/numbers/simple math.) But I did attempt to space it out evenly using my handy-dandy fabric tape measure. Hey, if I'm a little off... it just adds to the charm, right? :) I painted lightly over the hardware, letting some of the black show through for a chippy look.

The black tag plates/label/card holders were from Amazon. The hooks were from Walmart hardware section.

The brown tags were made from gluing brown mailing paper to cardstock. Then I wrote out some French words (Google
translator) and numbers, as in room numbers.

Tim Holtz idea-ology makes these cute little ceramic style number plaquettes, which would also work great on this sign. I used one on a key.

The "Hotel Paris" at the top was inspired by a design I saw on Pinterest. I painted a very thin board black, then colored on it with a wax Easter egg crayon. Any wax will do, though, I think, even a white crayon. Next, I painted over that with white and then used a scraper to scrape the edges. The wax keeps the top coat of white from sticking, so it can be scraped away, revealing the black paint beneath, giving the sign a cool, vintage look. I printed out the words, colored the back of the paper with willow charcoal (Walmart art section) and then traced the words onto the sign and filled them in with paint. When they were dry, I hand-sanded just a bit for a worn look.

Put it all together and ta-da! I have a pretty little French-ish hotel key sign! Lovely!

 

 

 

Next up, see how I transformed an old wooden bench!

 

 

 

Clock Shelf Makeover

So, technically for a makeover, I like to show "before" photos. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take any.

Suffice to say this awesome clock/shelf was plain brown wood. And the photo frames on the sides were empty. You can picture it... I KNOW you can!

I just added a few coats of satin country white paint, then sanded/chipped it to give it that old, worn, vintage, chippy paint look. I also painted the hooks. I've just recently discovered the awesomeness of painted metal hardware and am now officially addicted.

Next, I mixed black acrylic paint with water and brushed it on, then wiped it off so the paint wasn't so bright and shiny, but rather had a vintage, worn feel and voila!

For the photo frames, I cut out a muslin fabric, using the cardboard frame-backs as a template. Then I used my favorite transfer method (Citra Solv!) to transfer the French labels to the fabric and voila again!

The only real trouble I had was trying not to get paint on the glass clock face. It is rounded, convex glass and is glued inside, so I couldn't remove it. I got a little paint on it, but it wiped off easily. Also, I realized after I'd completely finished painting, glazing and chipping that I forgot to paint the clock piece (with the two little triangles on it). Oopsadaisy. Luckily, I was able to get those painted without too much fuss.

I LOVE how this turned out!