Sunday, March 6, 2011

'old' window tutorial

I've been looking for an old barn window for ages now, it is almost impossible to find one since most houses dont have windows with wooden frames in Switzerland. I went to thrift stores, ask farmers if they had anything lying around, I even went to a company who makes windows just because someone told me to ask there...oh and I checked the local dump....but no luck. I'm not exactly a patient person so I came up with an idea to make a window myself:) I like how it turned out but I especially love that it only cost me 3 dollars to make!

What you'll need is a frame the size that you want your window to be, I was lucky to have a frame just the right size, I was using it as our planner/grocery list so after the window project I had to come up with a new planner (I'll be posting about that later). You'll also need long thin pieces of wood from your local hobby store (or thick depending on the effect you're looking for). Mine where triangle shaped but I'd also bought some flat ones which I ended up using for another window I made later. Then you'll need paint, I used dark brown for the base coat and my favorite off white for the top coat. You'll also need some strong glue and sand paper.
To start decide what you want your window to look like, so where you want to place your sticks. Then just cut them with a hand saw, I also used my miter box which made things a lot easier. So the main part is just a lot of measuring and sawing. Oh and I just did a straight cut, I didn't cut anything at an angle.


My frame was already dark brown so I just went and put the top coat on it making sure to paint the back, the front and the inside of the frame!!
Then I gave my sticks a dark brown base coat, I didn't worry about painting anything very well since I was going to sand everything down later. In some places I even left big blotches of paint so when I sanded over it it just came all off and gave it a nice old look.
Once all my coats of paint were dry...painting took most of the day, I sanded ALL the edges of the frame and the sticks....this took a bit of time as well.
Once the sanding was over I glued the mirror to the inside of the frame and after about an hour (just to make sure it was properly dry and wouldn't pop out as soon as I applied pressure) I glued all my sticks to the front of the mirror.
And you're done! I think it looks pretty authentic, but that's just my opinion.


I could have sanded it even more but my arms where in pain and quite honestly I love distressing but not when it's too much.
I had dried a few of the roses that my husband got me for valentine's day and I thought they looked better upside down than right side up so I attached them to the back of my window (frame) with some push pins. I hope you enjoyed this project!!


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I love naptime
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19 comments:

  1. Još jedna super ideja, okvir izgleda prekrasno tako ukrašen ružama.
    Pozdrav.

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  2. Thanks Melanzana, glad you like it!

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  3. You are one crafty talented lady!! :D I love looking at your blog and all the stuff you make and I just want to copy all of it. Beautiful stuff!!!

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  4. This turned out great. How resourceful!

    megan
    craftycpa.blogspot.com

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  5. Thanks guys, you're welcome to copy anything you see on this blog and if you do I'd love to see pictures of the finished product!!

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  6. Emily, I've been wanting an old window too...I just haven't had time to look very hard. Maybe I'll just make one instead, what a great idea (and looks pretty easy too).

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  7. Thanks Robyn, yes with two kids who dont particularly like to sit in the car going on the hunt can be a bit tiring especially when it isn't fruitful. You should give it a try, you dont need power tools for this project and if you take your time it can even be fun (when I get an idea I get so caught up that I have to get it done as soon as possible at the expense of being exhausted at the end...
    send me pictures if you make one!!

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  8. LOVE, love, LOVE this! GREAT tute chica. BTW...that candlestick looks familiar?!? Did you use my tute for that?

    Jessica

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  9. thanks Jessica! Yes I did use your tutorial, I still need to post about that, I'm just not sure of the color I painted it yet and I have yet to make the second candlestick. dont worry I'll make sure you get the credit for it;)

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  10. Wow, you're so productive and creative!!

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  11. Another adorable tutorial. I love it! Thanks for your sweet comment on my blog at Humble Homemaking. How fun that we are both LDS and that you also lived in Germany! I love it here too. I think I am stuck here for life (my Hubby will be best of staying here for work) but I am happy with it. I do miss home sometimes though! Your location says you are in switzerland. That is awesome. I haven't made it across the border to Switzerland yet but hopefully soon! Take care.
    Humble Homemaking
    p.s. feel free to hook up to my Weekend Review Party this weekend. (fri-mon)

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  12. what a wonderful tutorial, thank you so much for sharing it.

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  13. Fabulous tutorial.. I love how it turned out. Your flowers look great hanging over it. You said you used a mirror. Did you mean just a piece of glass? I can see how easy this could be done with any size.

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  14. Thanks Tess, I didn't use a mirror, it was just an old picture frame I had lying around and yes you can use any size you want, I made a few more from smaller frames after this project if you look at my post 'New calendar'!

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  15. Thats so wonderful! I am a new follower of yours, so Hi!

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  16. Thanks for following my blog Tess, glad you like the window!

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  17. I love it! It's like my mom's take on making a quilt from old skirts and then making a skirt from a quilt.

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  18. Thanks! I think it's great when you can do a cool project just by using things you already have on hand:)

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