December 7, 2011

DIY- Old Windows to Home Furnishings

Ok, I am super excited right now. When my husband bought our house he also received all the junk left with it. Our house was build in the 1940's so it had lots of doors that really had no purpose. There are three entry ways into our kitchen that used to have doors, not sure what the thought process was to actually have doors and not leave the walkway open... maybe it had to do with heating? I'm not sure, anyway, the previous owners figured that out and took off the doors while they lived there and stuck them in the basement. When I moved in I noticed these doors along with some old window shutters with wooden blinds and also two glass windows that were removed from who knows where. We don't have any windows missing so they could be from anywhere. :)

My original thoughts for these two windows was to build a cold frame for outside. A cold frame is a box with glass on the surface that attracts light to warm and grow plants in through out the cold seasons.

Cold Frame

Well, that idea was shot after I spent my first winter here in South Dakota. Why it wouldn't work:

#1 reason: It's way to flipping cold here. When it gets to -8 for the high during the day and -25 at night I sure as heck am not going to be going out to check if my plants are ok.

#2 reason: There is TOO much snow. I would have to go out and remove the snow from on top of the box everyday that it snows. (Again, too cold to WANT to do that)

Eventually I dream of having a house with a little more land so that I can have a small personal greenhouse of my own with cold frames outside of it.  Plants are one of my passions and I would love to dabble in that hobby more on my own. I miss my greenhouse from when I taught high school Horticulture. It was the best of all worlds.

Ok back to the old windows I found. If you haven't joined Pinterest.com yet you really should. It is a world of online magic. You get great ideas from others pins about holiday decor, food, fashion, DIY projects, and much more. While I was searching through home decor I came across this beauty!

 My Goal! 

Is it not fabulous! I just love the use of old objects into contemporary furnishings. After seeing this on Pinterest.com I just knew I needed to look at the window I have closely and come up with a plan up attack on this project.

Windows found in my basement

Here are my two old windows laid side by side. My measurements are 3' 1"wide x  2' 8" long. Originally I planned to remove the hinges on the windows and just attached the windows into one solid table top (as in above). After thinking it through I decided I'm going to rotate the windows so the hinges are on outside of the table. Then I can attach the hinges to the frame of the table leaving the table to accessible to being opened. My next steps are finding an older table as the base. There is a local antique shop here in town that has tons of old tables in their basement. I don't need to to be pretty since I'll just be using it as my frame and body for the table top. I just need to find one that I can adjust into my measurements. From then I will have to build a frame on top of the old table for storage, attach the windows, Sand, and paint! It seems easy but I'm sure I will hit some bumps!

I'm still at the beginning of this project so I will be sure to keep you up to date on the progress. If you have any projects you're working on please share. :)


1 comment:

  1. everydaywiththemays@blogspot.comAugust 8, 2012 at 5:57 AM

    I am attempting to do one of these with old windows, too! Did you ever finish your project? If you did would you post some pictures I would love to see! Thanks!
    Ashley

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to hear from you... Please comment!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...