I am on a mission these days more than ever, to be a good steward of the money my husband brings home. I want his heart to safely trust me in this area and I consider it part of my calling as his helper to find creative ways to save money. Gifts are a great area to exercise that stewardship, so we’re thinking hard about Christmas.
In addition to the chalkboard/memo boards I made from re-purposed cabinet doors, I did a few others I thought I’d share for your inspiration. These cost me nothing but my computer ink (which I buy dirt cheap) so the thrill of making them was all the better.
Before…
I think I’ll use baling twine to hang this one.
I used Picnik’s collage feature for this one. I simply printed it off on photo paper (which I got as a sample in the mail!) and attached it with double-sided tape. The ribbons serve as hooks to hang it. I drilled the holes myself…ahem, after I made 2 calls to my husband to figure out a. how to charge the drill battery and b. how to get the drill bit to stay in. I am a work in progress.
I also did a music theme with one that I didn’t get a picture of that turned out really well. Still thinking of hooks on the others, maybe…they’re just really fun!
How I distressed these:
These were so easy to distress because the cabinets are already slick so the paint lets the wood show through and you don’t have to be particular when painting. After the flat paint dried, I sanded the edges a bit then wiped on a little stain (you can’t really see this effect in the picture) and wiped it off until I liked the look. Super easy!
19 comments
Love these! So creative and easy to do…hmmmm, I think I’ll steal this idea for some of my own Christmas gifts! Thank you for sharing.
Ooooh, I love this idea! Definitely filing it away for decor and Christmas ideas…
Those are amazing, Kelly….Those would make beautiful gifts. I love pieces like that for childrens art work because it’s easy to change with the right adhesive, and they’re great for kids rooms because there’s no glass to break if it gets “accidentally” hit by a flying ball or swinging light saber. I also like old drawer fronts w/the hardware still in place for similar projects. Sometimes the charity stores will have pieces too far gone to sell and often they’ll let me salvage for next to nothing if not free. Thanks for sharing another great idea!
Very cute! So, how do you get your ink dirt cheap?? 🙂
Sarah
I just google for the cheapest remanufactured cartridges. For the life of me, I can’t remember the name of the last company I bought from! But the color cartridge didn’t work and they sent me not only a replacement for that one but another black one as well!
Love these! For Christmas, my in-laws gave us a wall hanging made from an old cabinet door. Someone had used a router or some other woodworking tool to carve a scripture verse on it. We love it! I love the pictures on them. What an awesome idea! I think that I’m gonna be looking for some old cabinet doors. Just curious…do you have to have the premium subscription on picnik to get the collage feature?
Thanks for sharing!
Stephenie,
No you don’t; after you click “get started” if you’ll look across the top of the page it gives you the option of “Upload, collage, print or show”. Click collage!
I love these! What a creative idea. I agree with cottage child ~ they would make beautiful gifts! 🙂 You are so artistic and talented!
Blessings,
Luci
These are great! They have me thinking. My husband is a glass man and I’m trying to figure out a way to turn cabinet doors into picture frames (I could get the glass for free! We have a pile of cabinets out in the barn I could use.
Click on the “chalkboard link” in this post and watch the video in my other post…she makes frames from cabinet doors with some adorable ideas!
I saw a couple projects like this and thought of you 🙂 One was a wall hanging with 3 hooks at the bottom. So simple and pretty. The other was to install cabinet pulls on the ends to make a simple tray.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Thanks for all the great info. I wanted to share how we used some old
cabinet doors we bought at a Habitat for Humanity store. We bought
the entire pallet load for $10.00 not knowing exactly what we would do
with them but they were solid wood. We ended up with 33 doors most of
them quite large. We used them as “wainscoting” in our bedroom. We
removed all the hardware and painted them.
We were in the middle of building a metal barn to use for our house
and these worked great. We love using things for their non-intended
purpose.
We have also bought reject solid pine flooring and use it on our
family room/kitchen walls. Then we used the short scrap pieces for
our kitchen counters and bathroom counters. Tried not to waste any
of it. : ) Thanks for your website. You are my homepage!
“We love using things for their non-intendedpurpose.”
You are speaking my language! I would LOVE to see pictures of the walls–that sounds so cool. I’ve thought of using old doors as “dividers” in a room…I think my husband saw this done in a unique gift shop.
Oh how cute, Kelly. Thank you for posting… great job.
And I was thinking the same thing about Lisa sharing pictures of her walls and counters!
These are terrific Kelly! When I get to where I can handle the smell of paint without gagging, I am planning to make one of these for a gift for my husband for our 6th anniversary later this year. I want to stencil/paint “What God hath joined together, let no man put assunder” and then our names and wedding date below. Thanks for sharing 🙂
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I just bought cabinet doors today that I am going to be turning into a head board for my bedroom. Still trying to figure out the configuration. I bought 6 doors for 6 dollars, I have black paint for the frames of the doors and planned on doing some fabric backing on the centers of 2 or 3 and then a verse in one and then modge podge some pics on the others. These are lovely! I hope mine turns out this good.
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