The Pallet Craze has taken over the crafting world. You can see pallets being transformed into everything from outdoor rustic furniture to a chic farmhouse style bed. I’ve always loved anything rusty, vintage and loved, that’s why I enjoy garage sales so much. It could also be because I spent many Saturdays riding around with my grandparents going from sale to sale. It helped that I was always rewarded by a visit to Grandpa’s favorite BBQ joint where they knew him by name and had his tall glass of sweet tea on his table noless than 2 minutes after sitting down.
My sister and Mom generally have not bought into the vintage is better idea, until recently when my sister began decorating the lake house. She has embraced the vintage design style that I so love and has filled that place with so much awesome style that I can’t help but be jealous!
In the bathroom I noticed a fantabulous medicine style cabinet made from an old window. I loved it immediately and asked her where she got it. She said it came from a crafter’s marketplace type of store close to where she lives.
Ah-ha! Light bulb goes on over my head because I remember that I have three or four vintage windows that I picked up somewhere that have been waiting to be transformed.
This is how my Vintage Window Medicine Cabinet was born. I also had a few pallets lying around, I mean what crafter doesn’t right? I took the two critical components with me to my parents house and begged my Dad to help me with the building part. It didn’t take any begging at all really, he’s retired so I think he enjoys helping me out with projects, right Dad?? 😉
The first step is to get those rustic slats off the pallet. I knew from previous experience that prying them off with a crowbar and hammer is extremely hard work. So, this time I used a circular saw to just cut off the ends where they are attached. Yes, you lose a little bit of the wood, but I didn’t really need long pieces anyway. We built the frame of the medicine cabinet with the pallet pieces to match the size of the window and used a piece of sanded plywood for the back.
A trip to Lowes to buy the hinges and handle was all it took to complete the building part of the project.
After the medicine cabinet was completely put together it was time to paint. I used a creamy white color of paint that I’ve had forever, and then did a dry brush technique with some grey stain to bring out the character.
For the plywood back, I had originally planned to stencil a design on it, or add some pretty patterned paper. But, it would have been easier to do that before I attached it to the frame, so I was lazy and decided to just paint it with a dark gray color and then dry brush some brown stain here and there.
I made this rustic beauty for my own bathroom that I’ve been planning a re-model for. But, I am not quite ready to tackle that project as it will entail ripping out the shower and reconfiguring it.
So, I sadly put the medicine cabinet in my booth at University Pickers and it was snatched up within a week.
I’m sure it looks incredible in someone else’s bathroom!
