From Waterbed Drawer to Shabby Chic Shelf!

Time to "upcycle" again! This shelf/bulletin board used to be a drawer under a waterbed. Really! Isn't it adorable? I think this one is going to go live with a young lady I know, but there are five more drawers in my garage, lots of fabric in my scrap room, and still about 40 election signs waiting for their chance to live a purposeful life!

Let me show you what I did. Even if you don't have any old drawers lying around, or you don't have any interest in making a bulletin board shelf, maybe something I do will trigger a different idea for you. 

I started with the drawer, some acrylic paints, fabric, quilt batting, ribbon, some brads that very conveniently resemble upholstery tacks, the hot glue gun, and an election sign.

Maybe you remember what waterbed drawers look like. Pretty plain. Very 80's. I slopped on some nearly neon green acrylic paint, added a layer of crackle medium, and topped it off with a little white here, a little cream there, all kind of smooshed together. This is definitely NOT a project where neatness counts. 

The whole point of using something like a crackle medium is to make the piece look used and worn, and old paint doesn't crack evenly across the entire surface. Some areas will be smooth while some will have tiny checks and others will have huge cracks. So don't stress out trying to make it look "perfect!"

I sanded a little around the edges of the drawer where paint would naturally wear away then used some old acrylic antiquing gel that I watered down a bit and swiped across the surface just to bring out the cracks and bare wood a little more.

Now on to the inside....

I cut the sign just a bit smaller than the inside of the drawer and covered it with quilt batting, using hot glue to secure the edges.

Next, I wrapped the fabric over the batting, pulled it snug, and hot glued the edges. I divided the left and right sides into halves and the top and bottom into thirds to determine where to start and end the ribbon. 

The back of this will never show, so don't worry about mitering corners or making the edges even. You can even leave all the hot glue stringies all over the back!

These brads were all different colors when I started. I pushed them into a piece of foam and brushed on a coat of Vintage White acrylic paint. 

When that dried, I very lightly brushed the tops and edges with some shimmery pink puff paint. That's what I had on hand. I love to wear pink, but to be honest, with two boys, I've never had a lot of use for pink paint of any kind!

I pierced a hole through all the layers at each ribbon intersection and pushed the brads through. Then I squirted some hot glue on the back of the sign and pushed it down to the bottom of the drawer. With all the fabric and batting it was pretty snug. Now it's ready to load.

There you go! It can hang on the wall or sit just about anywhere. 

I can't wait to see my friend's reaction! Then I'll have to get busy and put together a few more to sell at the flea market!

So.... Did inspiration pay a visit? What did it say?

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!