What You Make of It – Repurposed Wooden Box with Brittni of Paper n Stitch

October 29, 2008

I am so excited to be able to do a guest tutorial today for
all the Vintage Indie readers! When I started thinking about what I could do
for this post, I walked around the house a couple of times to gather up some
goodies, and all I seemed to find was some house paint and an old, wooden
toothbrush holder. I really didn't like the way the container looked, so I
thought I would give it a little makeover. Here's what I started out with…

I decided to turn it in to a modern vase, since I really
didn't need a fancy toothbrush holder (seriously what was I thinking when I
bought that thing). You can make one yourself too, with just a few supplies:
wooden container, house paint, sandpaper, paint brush, and small glass.

So how
do you make it?

Step 1: Give the wooden container a good
rub down with some sandpaper and then wipe clean. Once that is finished, you
are ready to start painting. I painted the entire piece (inside and out) white.

Step 2: Once the first coat is dry, apply
one more coat to the entire surface. If your paint job is looking a little
clumpy, hit it with a little more sandpaper and then move on to another coat of
paint.

Step 3: Once that is finished, you are now
ready to select a contrasting color for the detail areas. If your wooden container
doesn't have any engraved details, you can paint a leaf or flower motif on it
to achieve the same look. I would do a couple coats of this.

Step 4: We're almost done,but since we are
creating a vase and wood is porous, it doesn't exactly make a great vase
by itself. So, it is now time to find a small glass that you can stick
inside the opening. I happen to have a vintage juice glass that fits perfectly!
Slip it in the opening, fill with water, and you are ready for some flowers.