frugal me

For under $10.00 I made my hall way a little more girly. I bought a pint of paint for $5.99 at Canadian Tire, along with 2 pipe clamps that combined were under $2.00. Here's how I did it!




I had some extra shelves from a wooden ikea dvd shelf. So I grabbed 3 and sanded them down. I used a 120 grit sanding block and sanded away the top layer of the self. I'm pretty sure a 60 grit would have been way better, but I had 120 at home and wanted to do this as cheap as I could.


These shelves aren't the best, they are filled with shaved wood. I didn't want to sand down to deep because I feel like it will fall apart. They do the trick though. So when I had the top layer sanded down I spray painted with them with krylon smoke gray for the base


Once that dried, I took a tea candle and rubbed the edges of the shelf. I also added some wax in the middle of the shelf. Once I finished that I used my cabana coral paint to do the top coat. I applied two coats of the coral color. I'm no pro by any means at painting and what not. So I'm sure something I did is not the "right" way. But it works for me!

I used a really fine bristle paint brush for the top coat. I wanted it to be a kind of rougher looking and a few streaks showing up.


I let those coats dry really, really well. Now here is where the wax helps. Using a 220 grit or so sand paper, lightly file down the edges and a bit in the middle. Frugal me, I didn't want to buy more sandpaper so I used a new 220/240 grit nail file I had in one of my work kits. And it totally worked for me! Lightly sanding the edges down exposed the gray spray paint base to give it a bit of a withered look. I love mine!

Before you start putting our hooks and what not on the front make sure you nail in the picture hangers on the back first. I did not do that on one of them. It wasn't fun. I used a vase and mason jar I had on my balcony already and hung them with pipe claps. Getting the screw through the pipe clamp was fun. In the end I used scissors to stretch one of the existing notches. If I had a place to hammer properly, I probably would have smacked a nail right through it to stretch it. So the scissors were the next best thing.

On the last one I put hooks on it so I can hang my keys, purse, and jacket! For the longest time I had a golden wire rack holding my keys and what not. This is much better, much more room! The mason jar I have can only fit 2 pairs of sunglasses. I'm addicted to rounded black ray bans anyway. So for me that's more than enough room!





Finished product!

Although, I do think I'm going to spray paint the blue vase a solid white, because I seem to be addicted now to painting all glass objects white!

Any input? Should I keep it blue, or go with the white?