Making Do! (from the Mrs.)

 This post is from Mrs. "Am I nuts!"
Sometimes we think we need to make a purchase
and then realize that we already have something that
work will work just fine...with a little creativity!
Here are two examples.

First the door. On the left is the old bathroom door.
It had never been painted and was so unsightly that
I could only find a partial picture of it. We REALLY
thought we would need to replace this door. Then
Richard came up with a great idea of using some of
our left over wallpaper to dress up the panels. I primed
painted and after it completely dried added some
paintable wallpaper using wallpaper paste. Caulked
the edges to give a sealed look and then added
two coats of paint to the wallpaper and caulk.

This is now my favorite door.

Next we have the clock! I searched and searched for a clock to put in our newly finished bathroom downstairs but nothing seemed to fit into the decor and color scheme we had used. Then I realized I could remake one of our old plastic clocks circa 1985. It's been a great clock all of these years but kinda modern looking for an 1892 Victorian.

I found directions online for how to do this. I had never done it before but had always wanted to try.
I removed the battery and carefully lifted off the
hands being sure to keep them in the proper order.
Next came the paint. I chose a copper hammered enamel, that we already had, because I wanted the
finished look to have some texture to it.

This look might be the stopping point for some but I wanted it to compliment the rest of the theme in our bathroom so I added some satin black paint, which I already had from the range cabinet Richard made for the kitchen. I used this black paint sparingly wiping the brush onto newspaper before touching it to the hammered copper.

Below is the clock after lightly brushing on the black satin paint.

 Now I needed a face for the clock. I found some I liked online. The bathroom this clock is going into has some Asian Toile fabric draperies that have an elephant in the scheme. I really like the elephant. I was able
to use some photoshop magic to create an elephant to place onto the face of the clock. Printed it on card-stock and cut it out. Of course there was some trial and error with this. I did the first few on draft quality to conserve ink. I also found the yellow face of the clock too bright and wanted to age it a bit. After several experiments found that our grandchildren's watercolors worked the best. I ironed it dry, yes I ironed it. Water going into paper can make it swell and distort. The dry ironing helped to counter act that. I cut it, used some glue, lined up the new face with the old and rubbed it into place for a few minutes. And here it is...before a great 1985 clock and after an aged clock for an older home.

Below is the clock hanging on the bathroom wall.