Aging and Stenciling a Shutter

Once upon a time.... I found a shutter at a garage sale for one dollar.

It was actually part of a closet door.

I knew it was perfect for a makeover and was so excited at what a great bargain I scored!

The shutter had a very poor stain job when I bought it.

Last Christmas I wanted to use it as a background piece for some of my photos so I quickly slapped on some white paint.

I did a really sloppy job hoping it made the piece look old and vintage.

This is how it looked.

I was never happy with it and have been mulling over what to do with the piece ever since.

I decided to try an experiment.

First I painted the shutter solid white, using Pure White chalk paint.

After the white paint dried I applied furniture wax to the piece.

Once the wax dried, I painted French Linen chalk paint on top and let that dry.

Finally I used sand paper to take a lot of the gray paint off, showing the white paint underneath.

In the past when I have tried to layer chalk paint colors and then used sand paper, my sanding would end up going all the way down to the wood and the under layer of paint wouldn't show through.

But using the wax in between coats did the trick and gave the piece the look I was going for.

Finally I thought it would be fun the stencil the top and bottom of the shutter so that it could stand as a piece of art all on it's own.

I used the French Linen color for the stencil.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

But let me warn you it was a lot of work standing off all the gray paint!

My wrist was sore for days!

With the layers of paint I think the shutter truly mimics a vintage shutter.

My oleander bush needed a huge trimming so I decided to bring some of the flowers inside and filled up my olive basket.

The olive baskets are pretty big and normally it would cost a fortune to fill it with flowers.

But Oleander bushes grow like weeds so you can trim them very heavily and they will grow back.

It was fun to have my pot overflowing with flowers for one day.

I wish the lighting on these photos was a little better, but we were actually having a rare cooler day (which I loved!) and the room was darker than it normally is.

I find when I try to lighten photos on Picmonkey to much they get kind of grainy.

The ikat pillow is one of a pair that normally sit on my kubu chairs in the family room.

One of these days I'll photograph them for you, but first I need to hang some

 botanical prints on the walls.

There is always a never ending list of stuff to do around my home

 and I'm sure it is the same at your place too!

Linking Up To:
Before & After @ Thrifty Decor Chic

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage
Furniture & Paint Party @ Start At Home

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Write by: AN - Thursday, October 10, 2013