I have to tell you, I’m really excited about this one… it all started when I began following Joan, Scavenger Chic. This woman has a collection of shutters that she regularly up-cycles, and writes step by step instructions on how to make creative and decorative items out of shutters! So when I came across these old beauties, I got really excited:

With spring just around the corner, my eye was leaning towards an old white chippy look, with moss growing across them.

Here we go!

There was a layer of wax on these, so I took some sand paper to them, and got most of it off. There were some spots which were very difficult to sand, so I just left the wax on there, and figured I want the piece to look old and antiqued, so if the paint doesn’t stick, oh well!

To make them look chippy, I followed the steps in my post: How to Make Your Paint Crackle or “Chip”

I left the gold on for the base coat, so I started pouring on the glue over parts of the shutters:

I took a chippy paint brush (which we have found is the cheapest to purchase at Harbor Freight for under $1 a piece) and smoothed our the glue:

It’s important to note that whichever direction you paint the glue, is the direction that your cracks will form.

I painted the glue on both shutters:

Then came the top layer of paint:

I let the glue dry up more than I should have before painting, and you can see where areas have gummed up, and these guys gave me some bleed through:

Its a good thing I’m kinda going for this look!

After overnight drying… I’m in love!!

Now for the mossy look. I had salvaged some fake moss from a fake palm tree in which I up-cycled the planter container. I thought this moss would be a good addition.

I dry brushed some areas I wanted the moss to be:

I painted glue over the green and started applying the fake moss. It looked horrible! I was so panicked that I missed taking a picture of it, and ran over to the sink to wash the paint and glue off the shutters. And what I got was even better!

You can see the where the glue was over the green; when I washed it off, it took some green paint off with it!

Next, I rubbed on some Dixie Belle Grunge Glaze:

What do you think?

With Love, Erika Nora

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