'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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