The Mission – Turning Wood into Metal?

The Mission – Change Wood into Metal but hey, what are the army men for?

 

Why would I need Army men to change wood into metal? I don’t but, they look interesting so, why not? Ok, not completely truthful. I made a lamp and I will show it to you after I get done changing wood into metal. Satisfied?

 

Alright, I found another one of those outdated pine pieces that were so popular in the late 80’s and this one has the ever popular heart motif too. Can’t get better than that, right? I love these pieces. They are built very solid (no wobbles) and they are perfect for repurposing/updating.

With further ado let’s get started. Here is the little beauty

How could you not love this? Friendship, what could be any better

The first thing I did was pull out the insert. Yes, I kept it. I will shred it and use it for ties for my price tags. Show you that on another day.

Looks better already

Next step. I gave it a coat of white paint. One thing I love about these pieces is there is not usually any heavy stain to bleed through which makes it much easier to paint.

then I painted it with silver metallic spray paint

See what looks like speckles in the paint? I sprinkled it with water before I sprayed the paint this gives it a corrosive pitted look to the “metal”

I decide to push some thumbtacks into the corners for “metal brads”

After I added the thumbtacks I sprayed again

see the thumbtacks

The next step was to paint black acrylic on the piece to give the metal an “aged” look.

Just slap it on

After you get the black painted on wait a few minutes, do something else don’t stand around watching paint dry 🙂 Once it sets a few 5-10 minutes get a damp paper towel and wipe some of the black paint back off

See I wiped most of it back off. The black tones down that super shiny look

I decided to add a black board to fill the space where I took out the “Friendship Girls.” You could insert a cork board, string wires across, or just leave empty.  I happen to have a piece of board to use for the chalkboard insert.

I am going to have to cut the board to fit.  Mr. Understanding is going to have to cut the board to fit. He doesn’t know that yet so, let’s see what can I fix him for dinner that he would really like? Just saying. Got to grease the wheel. Did I tell you, he is so understanding and a carpenter too.

Ok, once I get the board cut to fit,  I will be done. Here it is before the board gets cut – by you know who.

Not bad.

Now that I am looking at it, I might slap on some raw sienna acrylic to give it a little bit of a rusty look. Once I get the aged look finished I will give it a clear coat and it will be ready to go up to Southern Crossing.

Oh yeah, I did mention a lamp with Army men didn’t I.

My customers love these lamps and so do I

Fun. great for anyone who loves army men

I couldn’t resist staging this thing

Hope you enjoyed this repurpose project. Don’t throw that old stuff out, update it.