Skip to main content

My Shutter Project

I have been a little busy these past few days. Attempting to update one of the bedrooms in our rental house.

You see, someone way back when put decorative mirrors up on the wall. You know the kind, square mirrors speckled with gold. They scream 1972!!  They are glued to the wall, so removing them has felt like a daunting task.  A needed task, as a few years ago when we sided the house one of the panes of glass broke.

I set about updating this look this week. I found a great buy of used shutters on Craigslist! I got 12 of them for $30.00! So much cheaper than Home Depot!!

Removing the old glass mirrors proved to be just as difficult as I thought it would be. I literally had to chisel away pieces of mirror with a hammer and screw driver piece by piece. It seems like it took me hours but in reality it only took a few. Of course I do a super woman welcome to my friend LeAnn, who came over to smash glass with me one afternoon.   With LeAnn's help, I believe I put a total of two hours into smashing glass.

I had glass everywhere! All those cute curls I know have, well they did a great job of keeping that glass caught in my hair. Even LeAnn had glass particles everywhere. We were such a site!



Then came the clean up! I had put down a drop cloth but that glass was flying everywhere and went in places there was no drop cloth. My husband and I spent about half an hour just vacuuming up the carpet. Looking for shiny pieces of glass. I even took tape and ran it across parts of the carpet just to make sure it was all clear!

Once we had enough of the mirrors removed, we found the nails that held this piece of plywood up to the wall. With relative ease, we were able to pry it lose and remove it. I had strongly suspected that this part of the house had originally had a window that had been sided over. I was not wrong in my suspicions. There is was, a completely empty old frame for a window.

We made a quick stop at Lowes to buy some cheap white paneling. We cut it to size and covered the hole with it. Next, I prepped the shutters by removing the hinges and taking three of them apart. We measured the space and hung the shutters in place with screws.

The end result, a faux window.

In my opinion, a vast improvement over the 1970's gold speckled mirrors! My only disappointment, it is in a rental house and not my house. So, I won't get to see it everyday.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Weekend Project: A PVC Camping Lamp Post and Flag Holder

I have seen a few of these around campsites and I knew I would like to have one. The only problem that I had is The Husband. He already thinks we drag too much stuff with us when we go camping and if I had told him my desire to have a PVC Camping Light Pole he would have shut it down quickly! So, that leaves a girl with only one choice: Figure out how to do it by herself. I did some internet searching and found a few road maps on RV forums. They seemed easy enough! I visited the local hardware store for the supplies: An exterior post lantern light 2 inch PVC pipe (I used 5 feet but had to purchase a 10 foot piece) A 3 inch toilet flange A 3 inch to 2 inch Reducer PVC Glue A 12 foot electric cord kit 2 - 3/4 inch PVC Caps I also used a few supplies we already had on hand: White Spray Paint 3 1/2 foot - 3/4 inch PVC Pipe Drill Bits (1 inch and 1/2 inch) Tent Stakes The first step was preparing the lantern light. I could only find black i...

Tour of Missouri: Montauk State Park and The Ozark National Scenic Riverway

August has become our summer vacation month. Summer activities have usually wound down and we like to get one last hooray in before school starts.  This summer we decided to travel our own state and visit a few places we have been dreaming of visiting but were a little too far for a weekend road trip. Despite last minute vacation glitches we managed to pull out of Kansas City around 9:00 in the morning headed to Montauk State Park just outside of Licking, Missouri.  Montauk State Park is one of three state parks where you can trout fish in Missouri. We are frequent visitors of  Bennett Springs  State Park but not Montauk, just because of the travel distance from our house. (Bennett Springs is about 3 hours and Montauk is double that.) Setting up and settling in was relatively easy. We took a tour of the park and hiked around exploring the spring that feeds into the river. The Park stocks this river each night with trout. The fishermen like this river be...

Liver Cheese: A Family Tradition

Today is an anniversary date. One of those dates you wish you did not have to remember but there is no way you can forget.  Fifteen years ago today,two days after his birthday, my father died of lung cancer. He was a lifelong smoker and his cancer was aggressive. His battle was short. He fought for six short months after his diagnosis. He knew the chemo was not working and that his time was limited. When he came to this realization he became the best dad in the world.                                                In the days before my father's passing, my family shared some memorable moments. One of those moments centers around the deli meat: Liver Cheese.I would not be surprised if you have never heard of it, or even never tasted it. But I was raised on it as it was one of my Dad's favorite things.  What is it? Well, it is a German food that is...