a new life for an old shelf...

Here's my latest garage sale find: a solid wood bookshelf for $18! Of course, it was quite dirty (bird poop and everything - gross!), so it involved a little bit of Murphy Oil Soap and Krud Kutter, and a lot of elbow grease, but I got rid of the grime. I sanded it down a bit, then brought it inside to paint. I forgot to take a "before" picture, but here it is after I started painting it - you can still see how it looked "before" on the lower part (minus the grime and bird poop).

Since it was only $18, I decided to do a little experimenting on it. I mixed several colors of blue, green, and brown craft paint in with Valspar's Clear Mixing Glaze (LOVE that stuff - it's what you use for many types of faux finishes, and it's the medium I use on all my murals). I wanted a streaky, weathered look....

I used a paper plate and added puddles of different aquas, a green, and burnt umber to it, along with a puddle of the clear glaze. I used a regular angled paintbrush, and just dabbed it in randomly in the different colors, followed by a dab of the mixing glaze. The glaze allows the paint more drying time, so you can work it around, streak it out, and blend it evenly. Not hard at all, and it gives such a cool, weathered effect. A friend came in while I was working on it and said that it looked like it was built with boards off of some old, weathered boat. Yes!

You can see how I mixed the paints on the bottom shelf. I purposefully missed some of the corners, so that it looks like the paint has worn off there. 



Here's the paint job finished.... I plan on removing the little peg legs once it's dry - not a big fan of those.... I think there must have once been sliding doors on the front, but they are long gone,which is fine with me. I love the look of open bookshelves....

I will post again when I have done the final coat of poly, removed the legs, and set it up in its new home. Not bad for $18, a little time and effort, and paints I already had in my studio! I can't wait to get it set up!

What great garage sale finds have you refinished? I'd love to see! Feel free to add a link to your project in the comments....

Hope you're having a lovely week!