It’s A Shlaque!

A what?  A Shlaque!  A what?  A Shhllaaque!  Oh!  A shelf plaque.

 
That’s the only way I could think to describe this combo of shelf-and-plaque-in-one.  It used to hang in my grandparent’s “house in town” (that’s what we called their home while we resided on the farm) and once Christmas a couple of years ago, I spotted some decor potential in it and asked if I could have it.  I had some flowers painted on it but I had a different sort of paint job in mind, so I sanded them off right after I got it home.  And then it sat until the past week when I thought I’d hang it to the left of the off-center angel in the girls’ room:

And then I changed my mind, but not until after I took some tape and spray paint to it.  Here’s what I did:

I wanted the entire thing to be white, except an outline design close to the edge of the plaque.  So, I taped off the area I didn’t want painted: (Side note:  The shelf broke off in transport from Nebraska to here and so that’s why it’s missing some of these pictures.  A little Liquid Nail will come in handy to reattach it, which we still haven’t done.)

Then I drew a design mimicking the curves of the top and bottom of the plaque right over the tape:

Next I whipped out the craft knife I bought at Target this week ($5.50)…

…and cut around my penciled lines on each end.

Outside I went where I propped up my good ‘ole spray painting plywood, popped a nail in, and hung up the shlaque.  (I hung it because I’ve been getting annoyed with bugs jumping from grass to newly spray painted surfaces while my board is on the ground.  So, prop-and-hang equals no bugs, no sanding bugs off, and no post-bug touch-ups.)

I sprayed on one coat of white primer followed by three thin and even coats of white spray paint, doing the same thing to the unattached shelf. 

Then, after letting it sit outside for the remainder of the day lest it smell up my house, I carefully peeled off the tape and:

it went from old school to new and cool real quick like.

Except when I held it up next to the painted window it didn’t quite jive.  I’m not sure if it’s the color (maybe I should’ve gone a light coral or add a little distress or…) or adding more lines to an already striped wall but I’m not in love and so I’ve got another plan for that space.  For now, the shlaque is patiently waiting another wall home.

By the way, I’ve seen gobs of these things in thrift stores.  Go snatch up a shlaque for yourself and show me what you can do!

Have a great weekend!