Friday, April 9, 2010

Farm Window Re Do

Years ago, I ordered an old farm window off of ebay. Since then it's served many purposes and has been in many places of the old house that we lived in. It came painted white and I put old photographs in it. Then I painted it brown and put it on the plant ledges we had in our old house. I decided the brown looked like doo doo brown and so I painted it black and hung it in the foyer near our front door and put a picture of Dale and I on it. It also looked great for Halloween.
Then we moved to the house we are in now. Poor thing had to go upstairs because I couldn't find a spot for it downstairs. I hung it in a hallway that leads from the loft to my office and there it has hung sad, lonely, and sorely neglected.

You will have to excuse my horrible pictures. I left my "nice" camera at my parent's house and so I used my pocket digital. Not the same.
I tried hanging a sign on it to cheer it up but it still looked bleak and boring.

So I began thinking of what the heck I could do to it to spruce it up and I thought of numbers on the panes. Apparently, putting numbers on things is hot right now and I decided to participate in the trend.

Visually, I think putting numbers on things looks really pretty but if I really think about it I say to myself, "Do I really need the number of window panes that I have counted out for me?" Then I decided I don't care because it looks cute.
You may notice the lack of number 7. It's because the window came without that pane. It's vintage and authentic, you know. Either that or the seller busted it and claimed it was found that way. Whatever, I think it gives it charm. I think to fill in that gap, I will find something cool and hang it in that spot.

Anyway, if you have a desire to put numbers on something in your home that you could easily count out yourself but want to add visual enhancement to it here's how I did it:

First I printed each number in the size I wanted it to be on the panes.
Then I put carbonite paper with the carbonite side facing the glass under each number.
And I taped the paper to the glass to keep it from moving around and I traced the outline of the number onto the glass using a stylus.
The carbonite paper left on the glas what I had traced and I then filled the numbers in with black acrylic paint using itty bitty paintbrushes.
It took awhile using these brushes but if you use bigger ones, you won't be able to paint very detailed numbers. It was kind of painstaking and I had to do a couple of coats but I think the result was worth it.
I'll post another picture when I find something cool for that empty spot.
I realize I could have ordered vinyl numbers but that would have cost money and I had the paint, paintbrushes, and carbonite paper left over from another project. Free is much better.

I think numbers would also look great on plates, on picture frames, above doors, bins for organizing, etc.

Anyone else have any fun ideas for numbers?

2 comments:

brooke romney said...

You are constantly amazing. Is there anything you cannot do?

McDougal Family said...

You are so creative! Very cute idea!