DIY: Repurposed Shutter Headboard

Well, since we have moved into our new home, I can certainly say that the DIY bug bit me.....  You can ask my ever-so-crafty-and-creative mom, and she will vouch that I don't usually have a creative flair.  However, I've been inspired by some pinteresting things (that's a word, right?), some color courage and even a regular ol' trip to Lowe's to do some fun projects lately.  My ideas really shine when my handy hubby lends his woodworking and construction skills to the project.  These ingredients recently came together to make a great DIY recipe!  After posting pictures of our finished bed, several folks commented that I needed to post it on Pinterest, so I am attempting to learn to do just that tonight.....  I bring you, our DIY king bed with custom shutter headboard:

1. First, I wanted to find some re-purposed wooden shutters.  Thanks to my friend Jenni, I headed over to an awesome outlet for all things repurposed: The Habitat for Humanity Re-Store in Downtown Austin.  This place is great and definitely a place I'll visit again in the future! They have everything from cabinets to bathtubs, doors, flooring, fixtures, mirrors, fans and even shutters!  These beauties were only $8 for the set:

2. I brought the shutters home and after the kids were in bed, I got a washcloth and cleaned these puppies up.  After cleaning them with a wet washcloth (with only water), Travis sawed the shutters into two pieces each for a total of four pieces. Then, I got out my special crackle glaze from Lowe's.  This is really the secret ingredient to the project, truly giving it the weathered or rustic look.

3. I applied a thin coat of the glaze onto the shutters and waited one hour for them to dry. The hot weather helped speed up the drying process, so it didn't even take a full hour to completely dry.  After they were glazed, I applied ONE coat of my Valspar Lowe's flat turquoise paint and watched the glaze work its magic.  Right away, I could see the weathered look appearing!









4.  As the paint dried (even faster than it took the glaze to dry), Travis constructed a base for the shutters to sit in behind the mattress of our bed. We attached some brackets to the back of the shutters to hold them together and for support and voila, we have a headboard.

5.  Lastly, we placed the headboard in the constructed base (which was made out of two 8' 2x4s and two 9" 2x4 pieces and some nails) behind the bed in our room and the end result was better than I even imagined!  In less than three hours, here was our finished product:

If I can do this project successfully, YOU can certainly do something like this!  Give it a try, you might surprise yourself, I know I did!