White Thrifted Shelf

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Thanks for all of your great comments on my Thrifty Re-Do Roundup a few weeks ago! (If you missed it, you can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.) I enjoyed looking back through the old projects so much that I jumped onto another.

I saw this shelf at the thrift store and thought it was pretty great alone, but with a little love it could be perfect.

I debated keeping the yellow color and just aging it with a little stain, but at the last minute I decided to go white instead, and I'm so glad that I did.

A whitewash, to be more specific. I got a small bit of white paint, added some water, and dry brushed it onto the shelf allowing some of the yellow and brown to peek through.

I then dry brushed some plain white paint on top so that there were some bright white streaks in the paint. I wanted it to look only slightly aged, so I very lightly ran a lightweight sandpaper along the edges.

One of my favorite parts of the shelf was this fun, knotty, bead board that was nailed to the back of the shelf. I layered on my white paint here as well, being sure to let some of it settle into the cracks, and brush some of it out to help the lines pop a bit more.

It was really pretty and clean looking, but it needed something else. (And you know where I'm going with this.) So I pulled out my trusty Silhouette, found a good font and made up a little number stencil.

I taped my stencil in place and used a dark black coat of acrylic to paint on "No. 4." Why 4? No good reason, other than I thought the 4 was the coolest looking number, so I went with it. If the shelf lands in the baby's room I'll say it's because she's the 4th member of our family, but if it lands somewhere else who knows?

It's pretty though, right?

I typically go for a much more aged look with lots of sanding and aging with a glaze, etc., but I'm loving this clean look for now. And my weary 3rd trimester body appreciates a few less steps as well.

What do you prefer in terms of aging your paint jobs, more or less? I'd love to see any new re-dos so feel free to link them up in the comments section!

In other fun news for this week, I'm so excited to be participating in a new series of Knock Offs this week over at KoJo Designs called The Sincerest Form of Flattery.

Everyone loves a great knock off, right?! I'm excited to see a few weeks worth of projects in this category and am so flattered to be guest posting alongside a list of incredible bloggers (check out the all-star line up here)!! Really, I'm dying to see just what everyone has come up with!! Also, Jess at Craftiness is Not Optional is co-hosting and will has a slew of guest bloggers contributing projects on her site as well, so there will be lots of great knock offs to choose from. Check out KoJo Designs on Thursday to see my project. (I actually like it even better than the original and it was way cheaper, how lucky is that?!)

As always, I'll be sharing my project this week with some great hosts, to please stop by these parties to see what everyone has been working on!