when a door is closed, a window is opened (or something, something)

hallelujah, praise jeebus and everything in between. DIY project #1 of “turn old window into wall decor” is done, and for a mere $50.  (she still needs her hanging apparatus, but this is progress, friends.)

here’s how it all went down.

step 1:

met carey of corks and caftans at reruns in our transplanted city of ‘toga where i procured this old, cobwebby window at the going rate of $18.

before the cleaning, stripping and scraping

step 2:

cleaned cobwebs. unscrewed and pried off old hardware. scraped away paint from glass. filled in old holes. gave the glass a final wipe down.

leo, the apprentice, caught sleepin' on the job

sidestep:

bothered everyone within earshot of my indecision: what color? how should i do it? what about this? or that? my buddy donna knows me too well and was kind enough to supply me with test wood. whew.

step 3:

taped her up. (cracked open beer #1.)

all taped up

step 4:

primed with primer. allowed time to dry.*

(no pictures needed here. i mean, it just looked white again.)

step 5:

applied single coat of gentle blue (originally a valspar color from lowe’s that our local hardware store, allerdice, matched for me using an acrylic latex from pittsburgh paints). allowed time to dry.*

(legitimately forgot to take pictures here. oops.)

step 6:

(beer #2.) sanded down the blue here and there to create the vintage look and feel of old vintage-y things. i waffled back and forth between just sanding or applying an aging glaze, but worried the glaze would look too brown or overwhelming. i like this result.

i'm done. beer me.

here it rests next to my new favorite pillow, courtesy of le hizzle

close up artsy-fartsy shot

i’m now on the hunt for some groovy industrial-type hardware (brackets? a chain?) for hanging this beauty. until then, i’ll revel in a project well done, aka a project completed.

p.s. i only sustained 1 tiny injury. applying tape too quickly, my finger ran across a splintered piece of wood. ouchy.

*i’m impatient and thus broke out the hair dryer to speed up the drying process.