My father in law works at our local museum, so he’s around some pretty neat stuff on the daily. He managed to rescue a bunch of old frames & a window that were headed to the burn bin and I lucked out when they ended up in my garage! I’m so glad they did as I was starting to think about changing my windows altogether to some styles that were more modern to the ones I had. I had even started looking at this website called https://gracelandwindows.com/ that my friend had recommended to me a couple of weeks ago. But then my search ended when these frames and windows found their way into my garage. All but one were missing the panes and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I LOVE old windows and love finding ways to display them in the house.
I’ve been toying with the idea of putting shelving up in our living room to display photo’s and such for a while now, so it seemed only natural to make this window in a shelf!
The window has a solid layer of dirt and grime on both sides of it, nothing some elbow grease and windex couldn’t help though. Once it was cleaned up, it sat there in all it’s chipped paint glory and I was a touch sad that I was going to get rid of all that chippiness. Do you know the time, paint, and tools it takes a person to get the perfect chipped paint effect? More time then it took to sand it down, I can guarantee that! It was almost too far gone though, and I wasn’t really aiming for that super chippy look. A couple of the panes were cracked, one straight across the middle and the second in a corner. I busted out the pane cracked across the middle and opted to leave it empty for the time being. The pane cracked in the corner is hardly noticeable so I just left it as is.
I wanted a classic clean look to the frame so I used Rustoleum’s new line of Chalk Paint in Linen White. I’ve worked with a few different brands of chalk paint and this one is definitely one of the thicker, chalkier textured ones. More on that later though. I gave the whole frame 2 coats of paint and then moved on to making my shelf.
I cut a 1×8 that I had on hand down to the length I needed and then ripped it down to 5″ wide instead of 8″. This gave me a nice ledge that was wide enough for small pots if I wanted. I sanded down the end and edges until they were nice and smooth and there were no little splinters anywhere.
In order to attach the shelf to the window I flipped by window around and on the bottom of the frame, measured 1″ up from the base. This was where I wanted the top of the shelf to line up. I then measured and marked 3″ from either end and 11″ from either end. This left me with 4 marks that were evenly spaced along the bottom ledge. Using a countersink drill bit I pre-drilled my holes so that I wouldn’t split the frame while trying to attach the shelf.
I flipped the frame back around so that the front was facing me and marked off 1″ from the base again. I lined up my shelf along the bottom and used clamps to keep it in place.
I put the drill bit through the hole from behind and pressed it into the shelf so that it left a mark. Once I have all 4 spots marked, I unclamped the shelf and using my drill bit drilled shallow holes where I had marked. Finally, I put a bead of wood glue across the back of the shelf and again placed it on the front of the window clamping it into place. I used 4 screws in my pre-drilled spots to attach the shelf from behind. As the picture below shows, using the countersink allowed the heads of the screws to sit flush with the back of the frame. Pretty sweet hey?
I painted 2 coats of the Linen White on the shelf and once it was dried gave it a seal with some clear wax I had on hand. 2 d-ring hooks on either side of the back of the frame were all I needed in order to hang it on the wall.
I can’t get over the difference some glass cleaner and paint made for window frame! It goes perfectly on the wall in our living room and really helps give it a more homey and cozy farmhouse feel.
I love the cleanliness of the white on white and it will be so easy to change up the decor and add some color when I want to. What do you think? What would you do with an old frame?