4th of July Re-purposed Shutter

Re-purposing an old shutter is an easy way to decorate for the 4th of July. Add a recycled shutter to your front door or entryway.

Happy 4th of July!! I hope that you are enjoying your holiday and have a break from work or at least the regular routine. I happen to love the 4th of July! And I especially love the American flag. Whenever I have traveled abroad I find great relief in seeing the red, white and blue when landing. So I didn’t want this day to pass without sharing a little red, white and blue love.

If you knew me back in high school, you may remember that I was very interested in government and politics. So I decided it would be a good idea to paint my entire ceiling into an American flag! It took me six months working after school and work. But I did it! Here’s a picture I was able to find.

It was a little crazy but I guess you can see how much I loved the red, white and blue.

Well now that I have two kiddos and a household to run, I really don’t have six months to work on painting something for the 4th. So instead I did something much simpler.

I re-purposed a white plantation shutter into an old looking American flag. I really wanted it to be old looking because if something is going to be re-purposed on a shutter, to me an antiquated look is more appropriate. Here’s the shutter before I painted it. It was really a beautiful new looking shutter, but not for long. 🙂

I started by painting the navy, maroon and white parts of the shutter. Then I painted the stars on the navy. It looked very new looking at this point.

Next I painted the frame of the shutter a gray color. (If I was doing this again I would recommend painting the frame first.) But since I didn’t have a very clear plan when starting this project I painted it after the rest of the shutter was complete.

At this point the shutter was still looking new. So I decided to dry brush the navy, maroon and white areas with gray paint. I also painted the stars with a wash of navy and wiped it off before it dried.

I sanded all areas of the shutter one more time. Since I still was quite getting the look I wanted. I decided it was time to get serious about making the shutter look aged. I took dark wax and smeared it all over the shutter. This was the secret.

Voila! It completed the shutter and gave me just the look I wanted. It’s kinda funny sometimes how taking something new and making it old again can be fun. But I was happy to give a newer shutter an older look to celebrate our country today!

What are you doing to celebrate the fourth? Have you ever painted your ceiling like an American flag?

I hope not!

But if your son or daughter wants to do that one day..maybe give them the benefit of the doubt! They might still turn out OK.

But Happy 4th to you either way!