As the quest to decorate our new home continues, I find myself wanting more and more to be cheap resourceful by re-purposing old things. This weekend my decorating project was to upcycle a hideous old console from the 1970’s that my father in law was going to throw out.

Like, the inside cabinet smelled so musty that I think it might not have even been cleaned since the days of shag carpeting and mutton chops.

But I digress! Here’s my tutorial for this quaint little shabby chic gem. 

Here’s a before photo of the disco era relic:

My first step was to give it a thorough wipe down to get rid of all the dust. Blech.

Next I painted two coats of white chalk paint on it, allowing each coat to dry before applying the next.

While I waited for paint to dry, I unscrewed the knobs and removed them to paint them silver.

Once the white paint had dried, I applied one layer of grey chalk paint, but making sure to leave bits of white or even dark wood exposed around the corners. I wanted a distressed look, after all.

The finishing touch was to screw the freshly silver knobs back in.

Now, all I had to do was decide on some decor for the top of the console. In quite the chalk painting mood, I slathered on a few coats of paint on some mason jars, wove an old piece of burlap through the slits in a basket I had laying around, and stuffed the mason jars with peachy pink roses.

And, voila!

Tell me, what’s your favorite DIY or upcycling project you’ve ever done?