I really want to start spring cleaning, so I committed last week that I would either repurpose all the salvaged wood and supplies that have been cluttering up my entryway, or I would carry them out to my workshop. I’m happy to report that I was able to use most of them in new projects, and very few needed to be returned to the workshop.
I plan to limit the number of projects I work on at a time, so my house doesn’t get overrun again. With the clutter gone, it will be so much easier to start the cleaning this week.
One of the projects I finished was turning a salvaged drawer front into a sign.
You may recall that my cousin lost her home in a tornado, and I brought home a lot of salvaged wood that was littered about her yard. One of those pieces was the front of a dresser drawer. My cousin had many beautiful antique pieces, and it’s so sad that this drawer front was the only part of a whole dresser that survived. Who knows where the rest of the dresser ended up. Tornadoes are such bizarre forces of nature.
One of the knobs was broken off, the wood was split on one side, and it was scratched up all over, but none of the dovetail joints got cracked when the rest of the drawer came off. I glued and clamped the crack together, and allowed it to dry. I had just finished painting another project red (more on that later), so while I had the paint out, I did the drawer front at the same time.
Once it dried, I used painters tape to mark off the edge, and painted it white.
You’ll notice I didn’t bother to fill the holes left by the drawer pulls, because I would be covering them up anyway.
Lately I’ve been choosing stencil fonts, instead of using fancier letters when I make vinyl stencils, because I think they look more like the type of lettering you’d see on handmade farm signs – they are “old school” style. This font is called Stardos Stencil, found here. The bonus is they are much easier to use as well.
I attached a few coat hooks, so jars or pitchers can be hung to hold fresh flower bundles, but of course, it could be used as wall hooks also.
With all the projects finished and the clutter gone, my entryway is cleaner than it’s been in months. I don’t want to see it get messed up again, so I’ll have to police myself carefully, and only bring in supplies needed for one project at a time. That will be a challenge, because I’ve always been a 5 project at a time kind of person!
It’s available in my online shop HERE.
See many more of my signs HERE.
Oh I think your cousin would love it! A piece redone from her home. It is really sweet!
Love the red and I am with you regarding the old school looking stencils!
It’s nice to see the drawer repurposed in such a great way.
Have a nice week.
Denise
Thanks so much, Denise!
Me encanta y en rojo y blanco no podría haber quedado mejor
Besos
Thanks so much! I love red and white too!
Love what you did with the draw front. Looks very nice in red. I wish I could be more disciplined in my projects, and finish one before I start on another. But I always have several going at a time too. I have projects on my craft table waiting to be finished cluttering up the space so I have to drag one at a time to breakfast bar to finishing working on them. (-;
I love your work and would like to be able to do some of it myself for my home but I look at a font and I don’t know how to use it Do your print out the whole alphabet and then cut letters out individually and paste them on stencil material and cut the stencil?
Thanks for any hints.
Evie, I create stencils on vinyl with my Silhouette machine, but you can also create your lettering with Picmonkey, or a Word program, print it out, and using tracing paper to trace the letters onto wood, then paint them.
That red really brighten’s up the winter! Wish I could get a Silhouette … but not in the master plan. I’ve never tried any type of transfer paper though. A lot of people seem to use some type of that for graphics transfers. Am going to the “big town” tomorrow, so plan to hit all my favorites stores; Michael’s, Restore, GW, Big Lots and etc. I’ll check that out at M’s. Fun post … as always.
Like your sign,you are really good at knowing what to do with salvage pieces. Thanks.
I love what you did!
This is just absolutely adorable…and so lively and fresh…the jars of flowers on each end really kick it up a notch and also make this sign very unique! This is a very lovely red, too…reminds me of Coca-Cola red, especially alongside the white! And you are right about the font, too…it suits the look you were going for and looks ultra-smart!
Oh dear, your poor cousin…I hope she and her family recovered alright afterward…I just can’t imagine anything more devastating than a tornado ripping through your beloved home! My prayers go out to her and her family!
And look at you knocking out all of these projects, girl…I don’t know how you do it…they’re all of such high quality and always so unique! Whatever it is you’ve got that helps you do this, I wish you could bottle it and sell it…I’d be first in line for a bottle of that! 🙂