Sunday, March 1, 2009

Re-Vamped Bullitin Board

Part of What I do On Etsy is "Give new life to vintage finds" This means that An Older item that has been sitting in the basement, Garage, Or my favorite someones yard sale can be given new life.



A lot of the time I actually change the use of the item. Like turning an interior door from a turn-of-the-century home in Maine, into a beautiful coffee Table



I have realized that this effect matches my Wife's style quite well, and so I am frequently tasked with Distressing something the make it look older. Kinda the opposite effect of what a typical celebrity would be going for.





And So begins the progression of a distressed bulletin board. It was in relatively good shape, but just had no personality, and looked lame on the wall.

The first step is obviously to tape off the portions that I don't want painted. (I am not that good with a paint brush, so I go through a lot of Tape)

I actually used a steak knife to make sure the tape was tucked neatly into the creases and covering all desired parts. The next part is very simple. Just paint it. You will not have to worry about accuracy because you just took the time to tape it off.. haha well hopefully you did anyway.


Because I will be distressing it, I put the paint on heavy. I want to make sure there is plenty there to sand off later.

Once several coats of the paint are dry I start the distressing. Its a matter of finding just the right amount or pressure while sanding.

It will scrape the paint off and make it look naturally distressed. Once that's done I wipe it down with a damp cloth to get all the dust off.

It was still missing something though, perhaps a little embellishment. I found these faucets at the local hardware store a few years ago and they had been sitting on a shelf in the garage ever since.




Combined with a light screw they added the perfect look to finish the piece.
So there you have it the progression of a bulletin board.




~Mitch

6 comments:

  1. That looks so much better than my boting old bullentine board. I love repurposed and distressed furnishings.

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  2. For such a simple change, it makes a huge difference. The finished bulletin board looks great

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  3. Looks good! I have done that to my bulletin board too. Looks so much better when it's not so plain and bland.

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  4. Hi Mitch -- nice to meet you. I love this bulletin board! I would have never guessed those were faucets! Simply genius!

    You should add the Blog Followers widget to your blog so that I, and others, can easily follow your blog. I'd love to come back and visit again, but with all of the blogs I visit, a reminder to do so would be a good thing.

    I've also had the thread below running for quite awhile, so if you see it in the forums, post and I will visit. http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5836046

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  5. What a great idea...that would make leaving notes fun.

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