shelf

Shabbychick

My housekeeper and I traded services this week. She had brought me an old shelf she wanted me to paint up for her granddaughter, and she cleaned my house for free in return. When i got the shelf it had old greenish/black paint except where someone had tried to cover it with white. It looked like they'd slapped house paint on the back of it, let great drips of it drip down, and dry in globs. It took forever to strip and sand off the paint that I could, but it was still in rough shape just because it was impossible to get to some places. I finally had to stop sanding because I was afraid I was going to just sand away the wood. I ended up refinishing both the front and the back. I can't resize the pictures on my ipad, so I'll try to post them one at a time...the front and then the back. The only directions she gave me were that she'd like it to be pink and that she'd like the granddaughter's name on it. Anything else was up to me. I combined stenciling (and paint pens where a huge help here) and decoupage. I used chalk paint with a soft touch chalk paint varnish. I'm pleased with the way it turned out. I also painted up a metal letter and made a tassel with some little beads on it to hang from the ends of the rod. It was a fun project but sure took a long time.