Decorative Faux Window (with vinyl): Before and After

A year ago (almost to the very day) I walked into our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore for the very first time and walked back out with the nastiest, dirtiest, thrift find that I've ever brought home!  I myself was even questioning my judgement.  (I'll show you just how gross it was in a sec.)  So what swayed me to buy it?  The price--only $1.00 for this coop door or window, or whatever it was, and the before and after projects of fellow bloggers that pushed me to try to look past the ugly to see something more.  Thank you craft blogs! 

A year is a long time to wait for inspiration to hit (ideas will come when they come), but I think it was worth the wait! 

I'm not sure that I want to know what this originally was, but if you have an idea let's hear it!  I can tell you that it's made with a plexiglass insert, was filthy, had holes drilled in both sides, and for some reason was only partially painted purple? 

It also came complete with it's very own spider sac!  Eww.  First thing when I got it home I put on some rubber gloves and got out the 409 and windex.  I typically don't clean wood with 409, but it made me feel better.

I still wasn't convinced it was clean, so I took my electric sander to it and sanded it down to nice bare wood.  This is how it stayed for an entire year.  At first I wanted to finish it with a quote just like this one, then I thought I'd add music staffs with notes and letters in vinyl and hang it by the piano to help the kids with note recognition, but that never happened either.  When the idea came to add birds and branches in vinyl and then make it into a paned window I couldn't wait to get started on it--that was it!   

I started by staining the frame with a dark walnut stain and then painting it white.  For directions on how to paint the frame and distress it follow the tutorial that I posted for my Decorative Door.

Then I cut some (previously used) wood trim to use to make it appear to have panes.  If you do this make sure you measure and measure again.  This window isn't perfectly square, so it was tricky to get it all lined up so it looked right.  In this picture I was lining it up, measuring, and marking it for placement.

The design for the vinyl came from the Silhouette store.  I picked this one because I liked how it filled the frame and would hide the scratches on the plexiglass.  I had to change it to make it work with the size of the window so the birds were in the center of a pane.  After I enlarged and cut it with the Silhouette, I cut it apart with scissors and placed the leaves and branches where they fit best.

 

Edited to add:  The image is called "Bird and Branch Background" by Hero Arts and it's Design ID #9127.  I had to size it quite large so I was only able to cut out 1/2 of the design at a time.  You can't tell when you look at it, but a couple of the branches are even seemed together. 

I love the idea of looking through the window panes to see the birds and branches, but it looks nice without them too.

 

I used wood putty to fill in the cracks, measured and marked the placement, and then hot glued the wood trim together.  For more directions on how to add the wood for the faux window panes you can follow the tutorial for my How to Make a Window from a Picture Frame post.

Use an x-acto knife or a scissor blade to score any overlapping vinyl on the edges of the frame.

This decorative faux window is hanging in my dining room and is part of a gallery wall that I'm still working on.  I'll show you the rest of the projects as I finish them.

I've always loved decorating around birds and nature so I couldn't be happier with the end result!

Today's Fabulous Find...Habitat for Humanity's ReStore

 (Check for a location near you, they have some great stuff!)

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