Turning Trash into Treasure

Growing Up My Family Didn’t Have a Lot of Money. We Relied on Thrift Shops, and Second Hand Clothing, or ‘Hand Me Downs’ for The Things We Needed.
For That Experience I am Grateful Today, Because Rather Than Having Some Kind of Stigma against Having Anything Previously Used or Thrown Out, I Take That Item and Turn it Into Opportunity. I Love Taking ‘Orphan’ Furniture or Used Up Thrown Out Materials and Breathing New Life into Them.

Here’s an Amazing Example of How Someone Else’s Trash Became My Treasure

These Rather Plain and Claimed ‘Useless’ Shutters I Found at a Garage Sale. Paying a Mere… Wait For it…. 0.75 Cents!!!
When I Bought Them I Didn’t Know at the Time What I Was Planning on Doing With Them But I Knew That They Were Indeed a Treasure.
I Often Wait For Such Purchases to Offer Me a ‘Light Bulb’ Moment and Although They Sat in My Garage for 6 Months after Purchase, That Moment Came.
Shutter Shelves! Simple, Rustic, Farmhouse Look and Best of All 1 of a Kind!

Time to Work a Quick Rough Sanding, Wet Wash Cloth to Remove Debris and Some Paint.

I Actually Used Spray Paint Straight Up White for Ease of Not Dealing With All of the Slats. Best of All I Didn’t Have to Be Picky and Perfect, Only Careful Not to Have Any Drip Lines Because I Knew I’d Be Distressing This Project to Make it Perfectly Imperfect.
Once I Had 2 Coats of Spray Paint on and Allowed 24hours to Completely Cure I Took Some Sand Paper to Make These Pretty New Shutters Look Old Again.
Once I Was Satisfied With the Level of ‘Distressing’ I Wiped Them Clean of Debris Again and Got Out the Stain.
Using Dark Walnut Stain I Worked With a ‘Wax on, Wax off’ Method. Apply the Stain to the Exposed Wood and Wipe Away Almost Immediately, Allowing Small Amounts of Staining to Touch the Paint Gave an Additional Antiqued Look Also.

Lastly to Fasten to the Wall I Purchased ( Brand New ) Brackets for Hanging Outdoor Planters. Once the Shutter was Folded at 90* it Fit Together Perfectly and was Ready to Hang!

Second Hand or Thrift Shops are Not Anything Close to What I Experienced Growing Up. We All Know that Disgusting “Salvation Army Smell”!
But Today it is a “Throw Away World” Seasons Change, Styles Change and the Majority of the Population Takes Their Wardrobe and Donates it to Make Room for the Latest Fashions. So To This Day I Buy My Clothes Second Hand and I’ve Furnished and Decorated Nearly My Entire Home With Garage Sales, Thrift Shops and Online Auctions :O Reuse, Repurpose, Refinish…
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