Well, Mid-Winter break is long over and it's been back to work for us for a few weeks now. Oh how I loved spending that time with my little family!!
Before our break began, I was driving through the neighborhood near the school where I teach and I saw a large pile of white boards neatly stacked close to the road. At first glance it appeared that they were old shutters. I thought to myself...I'll stop by and get them after school. After school came and I drove back by the house. I was fully prepared to stop but there was heavy after school traffic. There was NO WAY I was going to dodge school buses to dig in someones trash!! It was then that I realized that the pile was not of shutters but of cabinet doors!!
On my way home my mind went into overdrive thinking of all of the things that I could do with those doors. I could NOT sleep that night!! Yeah I'm crazy like that! I even woke my husband up to tell him about them...he wasn't as enthused as I would have liked! Morning came and I grabbed a cup of coffee and the keys to the truck. Being that it was Saturday morning, I didn't have school traffic to worry about.
I was very relieved when I saw the nice stack of doors still there...In my mind people were fighting over those doors while I tossed and turned in my bed that night and I just knew they would not be there when I went back in the morning! LOL I told you that I was crazy...crazy for DIY projects that is! Anyway, I located the pile and slowed down to a crawl to analyze it. I chickened out and drove off!! For some reason, I can not take things without asking...even if they are clearly in the trash! There was no possible way I was going home empty handed so, I circled the neighborhood and came back around. I noticed a nice man cleaning out his truck so I rolled my window down and asked.."Do you mind if I take these off of your hands?" Of course he said "Yeah sure! Help yourself." What did I think he was going to say..."Umm No I'd rather the garbage truck haul them off thanks though!" Once I got the OK I hopped out and started loading them up and boy were they HEAVY!!
I got them home and that's when the fun began.....
I wiped the doors off with a wet cloth and dried them well.
I applied painters tape around the molding.
Working on the molding only, I layered several colors of Annie Sloan Chalkpaint. Once it was completely dry, I distressed the edges and applied a layer of dark and clear wax. Afterwards, I removed the painters tape.
I applied chalkboard paint to the inner part of the cabinet door. As you can tell by the picture, I had to apply a few layers of paint....three layers total.
I allowed the paint to dry overnight.
The next morning I "seasoned" the chalkboard....rubbed chalk over the entire piece and erased. It is very important that you do this step! If you don't season your board, whatever you write on it for the first time will stay on the board and will be very hard to remove.
I also replaced the old knobs with ones that had a little more character!
And this is the finished product..... from trash to treasure!!
(This picture does not do it justice. It looks much better in person...I promise!!)
Some very special people in my life will receive one of these treasures and I sure hope it brings them much joy!
What have you saved from going to the dump lately?
~Amanda~
