Please note that yes, I am holding the magnetic message board up with my hand. It's small. It's beat up. And the magnetic strips have completely loosed their hold, which sort of renders it useless. Our message board has since been migrating around the kitchen, spending time wherever there is counter space to prop it up. It even spent a few days on top of the pantry thanks to my husband but, as he would say, "You can't teach height" so I used my ladder to retrieve it. Also, yes, Isaac's appointment card is being held up with pants. It's not my fault. My children discovered that the magnetic doll clothes also stick to appliances, and we now find pants, dresses, even whole outfits strewn about the fridge. We occasionally make use of them because hey, they are magnets.
But this is not about how classy we are as parents of toddlers. It's about me taking trash and turning it into treasure! The essence of Pinterest! Yay!! So here's my $5 "trash" window. Clearly in dire need of stripping, sanding, and painting. One August day, I rolled up my sleeves (figuratively, because it was August and who wears sleeves in August) and got to work scraping the thing.
Five minutes into my scraping, it felt like too much work. I grabbed some sandpaper to see if that went any more easily. Meh. Another two minutes later, I headed inside to Google "how to remove chipped paint from an old window". Partially because there had to be a better method, and partially because I could feel myself starting to sweat and that means it's time for a break.
Fast forward to a delightful "after" shot of my beautifully finished white window:
Isn't it SO impressive? It hardly looks like the same window, does it?
Well I fooled you because it's TOTALLY NOT. The same window, that is. My hard-learned strategy for refinishing things? Let it sit for close to two months on the back porch and then purchase another, way better-looking used window for $5. Everybody wins!!
(Does anybody need an old chippy window? I know where you can find one cheap.)
My two windows next to each other for comparison, with toddler shown for scale:
I think my new window, in addition to requiring no work whatsoever, is a better size for the message board project because the panes are wider.
So all that was needed was to put something behind the glass in order not to showcase the bare wall behind it, and to make our dry erase writing clearly visible. I debated using the fabric from my curtain and menu board, but didn't want to get TOO matchy-matchy. This will hang next to the menu board and I didn't want it to be, you know, "Much".
Instead I chose a Polo Ralph Lauren queen-sized flat sheet that I bought for making cloth napkins. I roughly measured the size and sort of eyeballed it as I used my rotary cutter (seriously, LOVE that thing). At this point, I feel it should be known that I learned better than this. My father instilled in me a deep appreciation for the old "Measure twice, cut once" mantra of home improvement entrepreneurs everywhere. I think he mostly followed it himself, too. But I had plenty of fabric and it was going on the backside of my window so...it didn't have to be perfect. In an act of sheer over-achievement I even ironed my fabric. A little Elmer's glue later (I went all out on this one), it looked like this:
It's a little plain, but I hope that next to my menu board and the cast iron skillet I plan to hang with this, it will all look nice and slightly rustic together. I don't know if you can tell, but the paint on the window isn't perfect - it has some scuff marks on it - but it also isn't chipping. Perfect for a slightly-distressed, interesting look to the final project. OH, and the big groove in the long side of the window, previously used to make it go up and down in the window frame, is now on top and perfect for holding a few fat dry-erase markers! I need my man to help me hang it but watch for a final "after" picture sometime soon.
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