Thrifting Thursday - Margaret Gets a Makeover

I saw this piece one Friday at a thrift shop and thought it was interesting, but just couldn't visualize what I would do with it, so I passed it up. But all weekend I couldn't stop thinking about it. Not that I thought it was a once in a lifetime treasure that I would regret getting, but more that I was upset that I passed up a challenge. I know it had some sort of potential, I just didn't know what it was. So on monday I called to see if it was still there (like someone was seriously going to snatch it up) and it was, so I took it home for a whopping $17.

And then I let it sit in the garage while I figured out what to do with it. I knew I wanted to keep it as a peg board station, but definitely brighten it up and make it a statement piece for the playroom.

This is obviously a piece that was used in a classroom or pre-school, so it was pretty dirty. So first I cleaned all the gunk off it with goof-off and soap and water, and then sanded it down (except for the peg board area which would get ruined if I sanded it.) I primed it with spray primer, and then did a coat of oil based white paint over all the sections except the peg board and the bottom shelf. I then put two coats of Very Berry by Glidden ($3 paint sample) on the bottom shelf and then let everything dry.

I then moved the project inside so I could be with my family while doing the last part. Luckily my kids are old enough now that I don't have to worry about them getting into my project stuff, usually anyway. I pulled out my acrylic paint stash and picked out ten different colors, using various hues from the playroom color palate, so that part was free. I found the horizontal and vertical center and put tape down to help me keep track of the center and then took of the tape once I had a few of the lines painted. And then I just started painting lines, making sure that the lines were dry before I started a new line. As you can see in the picture, I jumped around the board to allow other parts of the board to dry. And because it is acrylic and I was doing really thin coats, they dried in a matter or minutes. I also reused the pieces of tape and threw them away once they got too painted over, which helped conserve tape.

Once it was dry I put a coat of polyurethane over the peg board to help it be a little more durable, and added baskets below and put it in its new home!

Here are the material costs for this project:

pegboard station - $17
paint (I already had everything but the Glidden sample) - $3
Tape - already owned
2 Baskets (50% off at Hobby lobby) -  $15

Total Spent: $35


This takes a lot of time and patience, and might result in a migraine once you are done, but the end result is so worth it!