Frugal Decoration Ideas | Farmhouse Display Shelf Makeover

Does anyone have an old and outdated display or knick-knack shelf laying around?  If not – head to a local thrift store, and I bet it wouldn’t be too hard to find one for a dirt-cheap price!

I had the one pictured above sitting in a pile in the storage area of my basement.  This was one of those “hand-me-down’s” that my mother-in-law gave us.  I never had a good place for it, but I didn’t want to throw it out either since it was real wood and not just particleboard.

After watching numerous episodes of Fixer Upper and falling in love with Joanna Gaines (I mean who hasn’t, right?) – I gave this display shelf a farmhouse makeover that now hangs above the bed in our guest room.

I’ve been working on a whole series of projects for our guest room that I put together in this “How to Re-decorate a Bedroom on a Budget.” 

Here is the dusty display shelf before I got out my husband’s Dremel Multi-Max Oscillating Tool Kit Sanding Attachment to sand it. After you use a tool like this, you will vow to never hand sand another project ever again!

Here it is sanded just a bit.  

I wanted most of the varnish to be off so that the paint would stick.  But I knew I didn’t have to be nitty-gritty perfect on the sanding since I was going to “distress” it after I painted it anyway.  

I used 80-grain sandpaper on the Dremel sanding tool.

I then grabbed a can of Rust Oleum 280719 American Accents Ultra Cover 2X Spray Paint, Satin Heirloom White spray paint that I purchased off of Amazon.  It is not s super bright white tone – it has a bit of cream color to it – perfect for the antique white “distressed” look.  

I got out the Dremel multi-tool again – this time with 120 grain sandpaper and distressed the shelf with the sanding tool.  

It is way fun when you are using the Dremel – so be careful to not over-sand 😉  I went over all of the edges with the sander and made a few nicks and scrapes just enough to make it look old and antique.

On the guest bed, I have a this throw pillow cover.  I wanted an exact matching color and fabric for my display shelf make-over, so I just bought a second throw pillow cover and cut it so I could use the fabric.

I measured out each of the 4 rectangles in the center of the display shelf and cut out a piece of card stock to fit in the holes.  I then wrapped the fabric and hot glued it to the card stock.

I also have some beloved hydrangeas next to my garage.  I few of the blossoms have just turned green – the time when you know you can cut them and dry them and they won’t wilt!

I cut all that I could and brought them inside as an accent color for the guest room.  I love the color combo of the hydrangea green and the teal in the fabric!  I hot glued on the dried hydrangea onto each covered rectangle.

I just slid those into the rectangles – no gluing or officially attaching.  They just neatly fit into the 4 largest rectangle shelves.

I hung it at an angle for even more change – and now I have a shabby chick distressed display shelf over the bed that looks nothing like it did originally!  

Next to it, I also distressed some dollar store frames and framed some matching scrapbook paper.  I’ll have the full instructions on that project coming soon as well.

 

There is my matching pillow!  I also painted the bed and distressed it to match!  See all of my guest room before and after projects over here!

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