Tall Mom has been on a travel hiatus (primarily due to exhaustion) and so I’ve been taking on lots of projects around the house. My schedule is nothing short of grueling year-round but I find that there are certain seasons when I need to find a way to incorporate a bit of creativity in my world. I’ve also been decluttering and reminding myself that more needs to leave the house than enter!
We have been living in our home for about eighteen years and though one of our doors has a house number sign (nothing pretty, really just in case of an emergency) I have never found just the right fit for the door that faces the street. I have passively been on the lookout for a sign that I could install and wanted something different – creative and colorful. I came up short. Everything looked straight out of the home improvement store and overwhelmingly boring.
A few weeks ago the cabinet of Tall Family’s dog had some problems. This cabinet is important to our gigantic ball of fluff because it’s where important goods such as leashes and canned dog foods are stored. We quickly replaced her “closet” to alleviate her stress.
Getting rid of P’s closet left us with a cabinet that couldn’t be used any longer (door would no longer hang) and so Tall Dad took it apart and the shelves and other pieces moved to one of our outdoor porches while we figured out how we were going to dispose of it all. At some point during the night I awakened and realized it was a shame that the rain had fallen on the particle board because perhaps I could have come up with a project – a house number sign even – if I had kept the boards dry.
The next morning I was able to salvage a few boards from the bottom of the pile. I talked with Tall Dad about painting a board and he quickly shot down the idea reminding me that the particle board would be a mess if painted and wouldn’t withstand the weather outdoors. He can be such a joy killer. I temporarily abandoned the plan conceding Tall Dad’s correctness.
But alas! As Tall Family visited Walmart just a little later I happened upon the Duck tape in a variety of colors and realized I had found the solution. I coated a particle board in horizontal stripes of the tape to seal the board. It turned out much better than anticipated!
Next, for the numbers. I found the lightweight particle board numbers at the local hobby store and spray painted them my favorite shade of blue. (I avoided more attractive but heavier weight numbers as I wasn’t sure how they would hold to the board. After hot gluing the numbers I added on a few “mosaic tiles” to bedazzle the sign a bit. And after my first attempt at hanging the sign with vinyl siding hangers failed, Tall Dad agreed to contribute some hooks for hanging. I attached a piece of twine to his small hooks.
And presto magico! It’s the sign I had been meaning to get around to for nearly twenty years. Putting it together was easy peasy and the time investment was low (about $10 for supplies).
I know my sign won’t last forever but I prefer it to an expensive version that I may have to adhere to the siding and that I would feel badly about getting rid of in a few years of it when I grow tired.
Don’t throw away that particle board! Tall Dad’s not a fan of the material but for crafting, I’d give the versatile board an “A”.
Show off your “A+” particle board projects in the comments!
Tall Mom Travels 