Welcome to Margo's Project of the week archive

I will be archiving some of these projects soon. If you don't see what you are looking for it's been moved to an appropriate page. Nothing disappears, so It's here somewhere.

I saw this project on the HGTV message board posted by KG in CA. She gladly agreed to let me share it with you. She started out with an old sewing machine cabinet that had seen better days. She Writes, "My sister brought this setup to me knowing liked old Singers. Someone had done a horrible whitewash with gold paint splotched on the drawers, but I loved the iron base."

"Later I needed a computer desk so I left the chippy whitewash, cut a board with rounded corners to sit on the top two drawers. I've grown to like the shabby look of it."

Now It's a computer Desk. What a great re-purpose KG.

2 for 1 this week

First we start with another project by Lani, And the exciting thing about this project, is that it was picked by Ki Nassauer in a contest, to be featured in her column in the September Issue of Country Home. You can see Ki's version of this great project on page 49 of the September Issue, out now.

Lani's Blog here
I took a baby bed spring and I put it on an easel. I added more black and white photos of him from a baby 'til now, cut them with pinking shears and clipped them on it with office clips. Also added some scrapbooking accent pieces from Michaels.

I used this idea when I built this item.
Cottage Display Piece-by Margo

After I had finished the door/desk project I had a big empty hole, I looked around my barn for ideas of something unusual to fill it. I had this old crib spring and it fit right in the space. Makes a great place to display items I have for sale.

Fellow Junker Lani, made this great photo display for her Son's graduation party, Lani Writes: "For one of his photo boards I took an old window divider. I copied some of his graduation pictures into black and white, used some old photo corners to add them to the windows, plus added some black letters with encouraging words from Michaels."

This is a window greenhouse that I saw when I was out shopping recently. It's different than the other's I've seen and thought you might like to see this design. It looks like it only uses 2 windows and some old wood siding. The lid appears to be on hinges and lifts up. What a great way to keep your plants warm in the winter.

mcnaughton from the HGTV T2T message board shares this great project

She writes "I brought home 4 boxes of free frame samples from a garage sale. I loved the textures. So...I covered a piece of masonite with damask and attached the frame pieces ( the sucker is heavy!) I'm still thinkin' on what I could display on the pieces. My neighbor whose bedroom window is less than 20' from the piece told me she had seen it and admired it. To hang it we attached the top of the piece to a 1 x 4. I wanted to move it to another wall, but hubby said "not for a GOOD while"."

Sandy Writes: "I found this old cast iron ashtray at a flea market and saw a birdbath right away! I checked my stash and found an old aluminum tray with a handle that fit perfectly in the top, so sprayed them both and sanded so the iron would show thru. I had this cute little china bird which is really an old salt shaker and epoxyed him to the handle."

Linda from Garden web made this great plant marker out of old license plates. I'm cutting them with plain old tin snips. Most plates are aluminum and easy to cut. Some are steel and a little harder. I've scored and bent them back and forth in a vice and they break off pretty straight. They can also be cut with a jigsaw with a metal blade. Safety glasses and gloves are a good idea. They can be sharp. I use any drill bit to drill them. Ditto on the safety equipment while drilling them. They tend to spin. Read more and see more pictures on the post here

"Now I'm on the search for more vintage suitcases! Picked this one up for $5.00, cleaned it up, painted the leather trim and decoupaged old seed packets and lace on it. The legs are from an old footstool I bought this summer. I cut a piece of MDF for the bottom and screwed thru from inside to attach the legs. Great for magazine storage!!"
Thanks Sandy for a great project.

I saw his project in an antique store last week. I am always wondering what to do with old piano rolls. Well they've taken it and added a graphic of an old player piano, placed the piano roll behind and framed it. What a neat project for that music room.

From Reader Doris Stratton:

"The potting benches are made from old doors. I saw this idea in a Country Sampler magazine a few years back. The sunflower next to one of the benches is made from an old hog feeder pan, an old metal fence stake and old garden hose."

I love looking for and finding those small items that are great for embellishment of other projects. I've managed to assemble quite a collection of the "small" junk. When I saw this wind chime in a magazine I just had to copy it. This piece uses lots of bits and pieces right out of my junk pile, All put together with wire (fishing line could also be used). Look around your stash of stuff and see what you have to make this project.

Sandysez Made this great birdhouse with some old shutters. She said she was inspired by my Shutter ideas page, but I think she surpassed my bird-house project. Love this one Sandy.

Sandy's Comments:
I like to add old wood gingerbread and an occasional plate. You may recoginze this as part of an old dressser cheval mirror frame.

This great project was made by fellow junker csudderth
She writes "This is the mailbox that I made for my sister. She wanted something unique so I think this definitely qualifies, especially since my sister is a bona fide junker like me. I doubt anyone has one like it anywhere! Her body is made from the blower that my sister's kids used to use to dry their show animals for FFA. Her head is an old kerosene flare that used to mark road construction, her arms and legs are old pipe, her hair is old fence wire, and her shoes are old hinges. Her skirt is rusty old tin and her hat is thingamajig that came off of an old car--don' know the proper name. She was a lot of fun to make and hopefully brings a smile to the mailman's face every day! Now, if I could just figure out a way to make her make bills disappear!!!!!"

These wire cloches were made with chicken Wire. First I made a tube, then I cut the top sections about every 3". This was done so I could bend them in to make the dome. Then I used the wire ends and bent them back on themselves to tighten everything down. I added an old wooden knob to the top and then added some thicker guage wire down the sides to give it some strength. All done by bending and crimping wires, No glue on this project. Then I spray painted them. That's all there is to it.

This project was adapted from one I saw on the HGTV T2T message board, posted by Sharon. I took an old luggage pocket, and an old Frame and some scrap wood. Mounted the pocket onto the wood and then added various embelishments. It makes a great place to display old photo's, cards, mail etc. You could also mount the pocket on an old drawer front, or even a shutter.

Becky of beyond the picket fence did this great project with an old shoe form. She Writes: "I found an old board that the shoe form fit on nicely. I used E6000 glue and glued it in place first. When that was dry, I screwed a screw from the bottom of the board up into the back part of the shoe form. I could not screw into the front part of the shoe form because it was so narrow or thin, but it was secure with the glue. I screwed the memo clip into the back part of the form. You need to use a washer because the clip handle hole is big. And then I coated the whole thing with some polyacrylic ( the picture I have was taken before I coated it, so it looked a little better afterwards). If the shoe from didn't have holes in the front for pens and pencils, I am sure you could drill holes for that purpose."

This week's project was inspired by something I recently saw on an Historic Home tour. The homeowner had a shelf on the wall that was made from a coffee table, that had been cut. I set on the mission to find a suitable table. I found one that was smaller yet taller than a coffee table this week. I thought It might work, and for only a buck I had nothing to loose. I cut the table just behind the legs. This piece did not have the depth that I would like for a shelf, so I added a piece of wood on top, painted it and hung it on the wall. With the legs on the sides as they are, it frames an area below for even more treasures to be placed. Family Photos, certificates, or other T2T projects.

here's a before pic

This organizer was made from some grain scoops that I picked up at a flea market. I spray painted them white an then rubbed them with fine sand paper to give them that aged look. Then I simply screwed them onto an old piece of wood and added hooks. This makes a great by-the-door catch all for keys, change, etc. And I'm sure you could think of many other uses for it.

To dress up any old table just add some old ceiling tin.
You might need to trim it a bit, use tin snips for this, and be sure to wear gloves. To limit chipping of paint, seal it with a polyurethane that won't yellow.

here are 2 examples of cheap garage sale tables that I've dressed up with old Ceiling tin.

After the table was painted I just glued and nailed the tin in place.

I think she took an old light fixture, glued old clear glass punch cups to it (for candles), added beads and prisms and painted the whole thing pink.

What a great idea, thanks Shirley for letting me share

Gayle Writes: "Here is a project my husband made me for a Christmas gift. I had gathered all the supplies and planned to make it for myself, but then was injured in an ATV accident, so I couldn't get it done. It's a clothes hamper for the bathroom. The back panel is made of smooth pegboard so between that and the shutter front there is plenty of ventilation. The lid is hinged for easy access. Gayle in UT"

I took a mantle clock that didn't work. I removed the clock parts, painted it, attached a pretty plate to the hole, turned it upsidedown and made a shelf. this is a fairly simple project.

Or you could take it to the next level, like my friend Linda Smith of Linda's Blue Gate and mosiac the whole thing.

Here's another version of the same project.

This was the front of an old radio. I painted it, added a shelf, and put an old piece of ceiling tin behind it. I was stumped for awhile as to what to put behind it. I thought of stained glass, but couldn't decide on what color, then I thought of lace, or velum. I finally decided on the tin and I think it's perfect.

This old chair was very cute, but also very broken. I cut back the seat, added 1/2 spindles to the raw edge and made it into a shelf. If can sit either on a table or be hung on the wall. It took me about 15mins to do and there was no painting involved since the chair was a great red color to start with.

Joan from the HGTV Board tells the story behind this project.

"I found this telescope case in the crawlspace under a rental house my Dad has. The top was in bad shape, I covered it with the brown bag technique. Hubby built a frame for it I think it makes a pretty good entry table. I am trying to decorate out family room in a more male friendly way. Hubby thinks the rest of the house is kind of girly"

It turned out great Joan, thanks for sharing.

Nancy is a fellow dealer at the Antique Mall where I have my booth. She covered this, less than perfect, violin case and made it, oh so romantic. Great project Nancy, thanks for letting me share.

Jennifer G. sends in this project:
It is a valentines stitchery that she made with an old frame that was repainted and stained and she added an old key, to make it really special. Thanks Jennifer for the Great Valentines Idea.

The Raggedy Princess submits this shutter project.

For this project I took an old shutter that was missing it's insert, I added some old ceiling tin in behind it, and some old trim for a top shelf. I painted it all to match and then distressed it with some sanding. Then I added some recycled hooks to finish it off.

I'm always picking up wooden frames at garage sales, because there is so much you can do with them. For this project, I painted the frame white, then distressed it with sandpaper to show off the carving it had. Then I attached old shutter slats to the back to resemble bead board. I attached an old bottle using wire and there you have it. A framed bottle vase.

This project isn't very hard. Take some old wood molding. You can even make your own by stacking different wood trims and them paint it all the same. Add some door hardware and a couple of hooks and you are done. A Great place to hang your hat, or whatever.

One old chair, Many projects

Sher aka Grinnin gramma made these 3 great projects from 1 old chair

What a great use of an old chair, Good Job Sher
Read Grinnin Gramma's blog here for lots of great ideas

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Old Typewriter Key jewelry

We've all seen these before, but they are so expensive. So here is how to do it yourself. First find an old typewriter at a GS or ES. Then remove the keys. I simply turned the typewriter on it's side, and grabbed the key with needle-nose plyers and twisted away from the arm that is holding the key. They popped right off. I covered the plyers with tape to protect the keys.

Then I used supplies from the Hobby store and glued metal brackets to the back of each one with E6000 glue (in the jewelry making department). I've made earrings, some bracelets and even tacks.

A little bit of paint can go a long way. Take a took at these 2 projects, Before and After. The desk had seen better days. Although you can't tell from the picture, the wood was in horrible condition. I painted it, distressed it and added 1/2 cut spindles to some of the damaged areas and to add interest.

To make these I used lamp bases but you could use anything that is round that has a little bit of height Get some heavy gauge wire at the craft store and bend it so that you've made a circle on the end. That will form the clip. Then insert the wires into the hole in the base. You may need to wrap some wire around the base of the group of clips to give it some strength.
For the second one, I was able to purchase photo clips from a Garage sale, removed them from their base and inserted them into my home made base. This is really a pretty simple project.

Both of these shelves were made from architectural leftovers. Pieces of an old bed, wood planks from a remodel etc.

Framed Shelf This is a really easy project. Take an old frame, glue various spindles around the edges with Liquid nails (you could use real nails or hot glue if you'd like) Take any kind of thin wood, bead board, shutter slats or even paint stirers, cut to size, and glue them to the back of the frame. Add a small piece of wood to the slats with nails, and (optional) another piece of scrap underneath to give it the look of stability. (hint, paint shelf pieces before mounting). Add any object on the shelf and you have a great dimensional wall piece, that you can change at will.

Supplies needed, Saw, glue, nails, paint.

As with all my projects, I encourage you to use items you already have or have gathered from Garage Sales/Flea markets. Paint, wood scraps etc. That's what makes it truly Trash to Treasure.

Strange & Unusual Archive

Barbie parts Jewelry
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Past Artists

Trash People

Boris Bally

Strange and Unusual

Read about the Tunnel House here

Robert Merchant

Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry

Linda Smith

Steve Baran

Folk Art house

Shirra Wall

Connie Verrusio

Mitch & Susie Levin

John Carter

sign art

Malen Pierson

Aaron Foster

Malen Pierson

Dorothy Spencer

Mark Brown

Larry Henke

Fred Conlin

Jim Shores

Liz Mamorsky, Functional and Dystunctional art

These 3 books are my favorites and they are full of inspiration and ideas

Curbsdide Archeology

She prowls in duty in the night,
In snow, or rain or when it's dry.
And curbside trash if she can find,
she wrestles from the garbage fly.
Thus humbled to this curbside waste
She grabs it, then departs in haste.

One can the more, one bag the less
Had half impared hat shameless grace
That searches deep within each sack
The smell of refuse on her face.
But odors can not drive her back
Unless a skunk be in that place.

And now my dear the night's no more
Your fingernails are cracked and wore
The smell of skunk is on our clothes
But you found one legged panty hose
And even though your treasure's tore
You'ved had success, now you want more.

She searches darkness for the lost
Redeeming from a certain fate
That which was useles and cast off
To revive its sorry state.
Thus washed and cleansed at her own cost
Saving before it is too late.

As Jesus hearkens to the lost
Redeeming us from certain fate
when God to us seemed so far off
Christ restored us to His Gates.
Thus washed and cleansed at His own cost,
saving before it was too late.

Jerry Edwin Jeans

Main Projects Page

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