chippy shutter centerpiece

Hi friends!  I just wanted to quickly show you a new centerpiece I was inspired to create.

It’s not a novel idea nor is it a new shutter but it’s a fresh piece for my home.

I’ve had this old shutter kicking around for awhile now.  Like in years and years kicking around for awhile now.  I used it as a back drop in my old booths and actually sold a few, but once I stopped consigning my vintage-wares I kept a few pieces to use eventually…like now.

I actually picked these shutters up off the curb from a house up the hill from me.  😱🤫🙈  My girlfriend was with me and she took some too; since when there’s a partner in crime you don’t feel as much as a derelict. {she’s the one who actually told me about them btw}  

I just want to point out these were going to the waste company and not to a charity donation pick-up.  I know, I know, not everyone sees the value in old shutters.  So my feeling was I was keeping them out of the landfill.  Not sure why I needed a justification but apparently I did.  I actually wanted to take them all but there were so, SO many.

Fast forward a few months after I picked up the shutters, Mr. M tells me he met a new friend who invited us to his house.  What house?  You guessed it!  The shutter house.  😱😱

Anyway, I told our new friend how I foraged his old shutters.  And now seeing the house I understood.  The house sits back off the road so you can’t really see it and it has so many, many windows all around.   One of the first things he did when he moved in was to remove all the shutters in order to have an unobstructed view of all the nature around his house.  I don’t blame him.  He had beautiful trees surrounding the house so it’s almost like living in a giant tree house looking out all those windows.

Back to this shutter though….  I was planning on painting it blackish | graphite until I saw all the chippy goodness.  {it had sat outside for awhile & the elements had done their job.}

I wanted to keep the chippiness but A} I plan to use it on my kitchen table so I did not want it to flake where we eat and be hazardous in any way and B} I still wanted to inject some of the graphite color palette.

I ended up sanding it to remove the flakiness and giving it a graphite wash.  A sanding after the paint wash exposed some of the raw wood.  Also a new knob gave it more personality.

It’s currently styled for Fall with my cast iron trio and the moss pumpkins I DIYed from dollar tree pumpkins a few years ago.

This is today’s mood but get ready to see this shutter quite a bit around here as I move them around, used in different ways.

“The only time I feel alive is when I am painting.”

~ Vincent van Gogh ~