A Special Birthday Gift

My crazy talented blog buddy created an amazing work of art for Mr. FT's birthday.

Being a "special" birthday, I wanted something that

would be unique and memorable.

Heather from The Beating Hearth

to the rescue. 

I ran a few personalized ideas by her and she did the rest...EVERYTHING, PERFECTLY!

Hollow Core Door Hangers

A hanger for a hollow door can be a real challenge.  You can buy the "hang over the door" models which scratch the bejeebers out of your finish, or you can risk a cup hook screwed into a thin veneer, and store your flyswatter on it.

  In my master bedroom makeover, I have two doors.  A new door and an old door.  Not wanting to rip the old door out and replace it with a new one, I decided to put moldings on it to mimic the new one.

After two more coats of paint,

 I was still left with a flimsy hollow core door. 

 Note the two holes drilled in the door in the above picture.

They go right through to the other side of the door.

I went to my old stash of wood and after a few slivers, scrounged these.

 I drilled some clearance holes in the barn board for nuts and washers so the heads would be below the surface.  Some white molding was added to the top and bottom of the barn board to mimic my door and window trims.

  Hooks were attached to the barn board.  I used a scrap piece of molding to set the hooks at the same height from the top.

 I placed a barn board hook assembly on each side of the door.  A bolt with a washer was put through both and secured with a washer and nut on the other side of the door.  The above door picture is the bolt side and the below picture is the nut side Note only one side of the door has molding on it.  The other side is my closet/ laundry room. 

Now to cover the unsightly bolt heads and nuts....

 I scrounged some old wooden door knobs and cut off the necks,

 put them in a box to spray them

silver!  A few coats were needed.

 Pulled out my trusty glue gun and hot glued those babies right over the fasteners.

I now have a place for all those designer work clothes to hang!

Cheers!

Old Shutters Become a New Vanity Mirror

Living on an old farmstead has its advantages!   Falling down barns, turn into clothes hangers or vanity mirrors.

The clothes hanger is for another day, but the vanity mirror I will share today.
Warning:  This post is full of many mistakes, pictures and hot air and I posted all of it!

I happened to be at a garage sale a few years back and in the free pile were these!

With great hope and eagerness, 

I greedily tossed them into my truck,  and with much excitement sped home to bury them in the shed for nearly eight years. 

Seeing all the fantastic projects using shutters, I knew they would get a second chance.  I wanted to build a couple of shelves like this one!

Julie from Follow Your Heart Woodworking created this beauty. 

 So gorgeous

Sherry from Thrift My House created this little gem!

Unfortunately, I couldn't fit them into my bedroom scheme as first planned. I am holding out for that Smart 60" flat screen TV.  You know, the ones that are so smart, all you have to do is press a button and gourmet food is delivered to your bedside table. 

I had a mirror that my Mom gave me many years ago, but was unable to fasten it to the wall because of a window that's in the way.

 I decided that I needed to make the mirror free standing, so that brings us back to the shutters.

The mirror.
  Disassembled, sanded, and a quick coat of white paint to create a whitewashed look.

Filled the old hinge holes with glue and toothpicks as I needed to put the hinges in the same place.

Attached first shutter with hinges.

Both shutters hinged to mirror.

Place Mistake Here......

Mistake #1: Trying to use rough exterior  plywood for the top.

Mistake #2  Trying to make it look pretty with some dollar store jewels and paint :(

What was I thinking?? And who cut that out?  Were they drunk?

What a goof up!

Luckily it didn't fit!!!!!

After my big blunder, I cut six pieces of plywood, three for each shutter and cut a dado into each piece.  This will secure a piece of 1/4" mdf to create a bottom.

I used a leftover piece of barn board for a molding to cover the exposed plywood edge.  I guess I forgot to show you how I glued the bottoms into the dado, but that's what I did!

As you can tell from the bats in the mirror, this post was originally drafted last fall.    Anyways, with the magic of blogland, I created this new top while you weren't looking. 

The boxes were attached with screws from the back of the shutters.  This will create a bit of storage for brushes, etc.

Dollar store coat hooks were steadied on some styrofoam....

...and sprayed with a shiny coat of white paint.

Hooks for everything!!  

A hanger for the blowdryer!

A fancy pearl edge around each box.

At this point you would hope the post would be over.

 until I saw how tacky that K looked!  It's gotta  go :( 

Check out that twenty dollar girly light.  It's a darker purple grey color.  Love at first light!!!

(This post was written last year....another post sitting in my draft box)

You can see the light and the deal I got on it HERE.

Back to the drawing board.

 A whitewash coat of paint was applied to the barn board to help mute the dark tones.

I had a wall talk decal from the dollar store that I cut into three quotes.  "Laugh Often" was my pick from the three.

This didn't work out too well.  It wouldn't stick to the old wood, and when I applied spray adhesive to the letters, they stuck together and tore.

 I carefully coated the barn board with spray adhesive and applied the second verse to it...

Voila!!!  It worked and stuck firmly in place.

A piece of fabric covers the mirror as I am still in my very stained pajamas!

Oops here I am.  I guess I forgot to edit myself out of the post.
 source.

This beauty was marked down to $36.00 so guess who gets to dust and shine up that chrome base?  Go me!!

A nice grainy glimpse of her.  I even shined up her bottom and you can't tell.

The shutter even holds some old cards dear to my heart!

 The mirror now sits in my  closet/laundry room, still in front of an old aluminum window which is on the hit list.

Stay tuned while I shop for my new Smart TV and build a deck!

Cheers.

I party at