Thrift Store Revamp

I love going to thrift stores or rummage sales to see what kinds of new things you can make out of "old" things. I really needed a way to organize our mail and various papers that seem to pile up as well as a key holder (because my husband likes to place his on the kitchen table which drives me crazy). Lo and behold I found a paper organizer/key holder at a local thrift store. Now that's killing two birds with one stone.



As you can see it was in really good condition when I purchased it. And it was only $1.99! I wanted to spice it up a bit with some color and a design of some sort.



It already had a sort of glossy finish to it so I primed the surface to get it paint ready. To achieve this I covered the surface with a tiny bit brown pigment and some white gesso. I wasn't digging the color of the hooks so I thought I might as well paint those too.



I put about 3 coats of a softer version of a dark umber on the entire surface of the piece. You can already see a huge difference by simply painting over the natural wood color. I ended up putting on another coat to even out the color in some areas after this picture was taken.




My next step is to add a design. I love birds so I wanted to incorporate a bird theme. I used what I like to call a nice "woody green" color. It's just a nice earthy green that is subtle and a nice compliment to the brown hue.



I painted in some brown and green foliage and voilà! Now I have a stylish new paper organizer/key hook. I love it! =)


Before

Revamped!