IKEA Bed Slats Turned Indoor Shutters

We are so thrilled to be welcoming our friend Candace from Vintage News Junkie here today! She has an awesome project to share with you all and we know you are going to be as inspired by her as we are!

Hey there, friends! So nice to meet you here At the Picket Fence! My name is Candace and I blog over at Vintage News Junkie. I am a former news gal who traded in my Emmy Award for a couple of paint brushes, an antique or two, and lots of junkie treasures!

I’m a burlap lover, a mason jar picker, an auction go-er, a rusty relic finder, a chippy furniture painter… and an avid upcycler!! (Yup, I love JUNK!) So when Heather and Vanessa invited me to share a project with you lovelies, I knew exactly what to share!

A while back, the hubs and I were at one of our favorite thrift stores poking around, when we saw that they had a FREE section… you know the really junky junk, that nobody wants! I thought, hey, I’m not too good. Let’s go diggin’! We uncovered a stash of IKEA bed slats that appeared to be brand new! I’m thinking whoever tossed them in the FREE pile really didn’t know what they were! I didn’t know what I would make with them, but I knew this pile of wood was coming home with me! Load ‘er up!

A few months passed… and we dug out our ‘lil stack of wood. We were makin’ shutters!!

For the full step-by-step tutorial click here. But here’s the basic gist…

We started by measuring the window where we’re putting these shutters, right over the kitchen sink. The sun is just blinding in the evening as I am slaving away microwaving leftover takeout, so we definitely needed some shade. Once we had our measurements, it was time to prep the wood. No fancy tools, just a screwdriver and a pair of pliers. Now, remove the strips. Watch your thumb! Those bad boys are in there good!

Then you’re gonna build your shutter! You can do this several different ways… we opted for a brace across the back and a simple hammer and nails approach! This was before the days of my Ryobi Nailer! This would be ten times easier now, with a nail gun! Alas, it’s starting to look like a shutter… right?!? (And I must point out those fingernails… LOVE ♥… who says a DIY gal can’t have cute nails!)

Another brace on the bottom and here she is!

Now for the finish! This is where things got sticky. Reeeeally sticky!! I started by staining the shutters dark brown, I wanted the darker color to shine through when I distressed them.

From there it was a mess! I thought I wanted yellow. But, it wasn’t quite the mustard-crust-on-the-rim-of-the-jar look I was going for. So I slept on it… woke up the next morning and painted them again.. this time blue. Nope. Still not what I wanted. This journey went on for days… believe me!!

While the shutters were blue, I decided to go ahead and install them to see what they looked like… and what d’ya know? Disaster strikes again!! I had mis-measured!! Yup… they didn’t even meet in the middle!! Seriously!?!

So I stopped yet again… and the next day got serious! We rebuilt the shutters and finally… I decided on white!!

A light distressing, just on the edges, revealed just enough of the blue and the dark stain to give them the slightly worn and aged look that I wanted. (Note: Several days later… new manicure!!)

We opted to do something a little funky with the handles. Instead of the traditional vertical layout, we decided to attach them horizontally. And after many loooooong days… our kitchen shutters were FIN.A.LLY. done! It was quite the journey… but in the end… anything worth having is worth waiting for!

I am quite smitten with how they turned out and they still remain one of my favorite things in our house!! I can’t wait to make more for some of our other windows!!

So what’s next? A new light above the sink? Would a small chandlier be too much? And what about those builder grade cabinets and laminate counter tops?! Big things are in store this year at the Vintage News Junkie house! Won’t you join us??

Oh! You like those little Topiary Centerpieces, I made them in 30 seconds! See how here!

And if you want to see all the mishaps and disasters of these little shutters as they unfolded… you can check out:

Shutter Tutorial Part One | Shutter Tutorial Part Two | Victory Over My Shutters

Until next time… thank you for having me Heather and Vanessa! And I look forward to meeting many of you again soon, here At the Picket Fence!

Vintage News Junkie

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