Window Dressing (and Dressing Up Like a Breaking Bad Character)

The barn windows are officially finished! They look pretty good, if I do say so myself. To refresh your memory here is what the windows looked like when I got them:

Pretty standard barn windows--old, chipping and a dirty. I cleaned them off first and then gave them a quick lead test, which is always a good idea with anything you think has been painted pre-1970s. All except for one tested positive for trace amounts of lead, which meant that as a precaution I got to dress like this when I went to strip the windows*:

It took me a couple of days to strip the paint off, because 1) there were several layers of paint to get through, and 2) it was really freakin' hot outside, so I would put on all my garb to put the stripping gel on a window, then take it all off to go sit in the air-conditioned house while I waited the 30 minutes for the gel to do its magic, then put it all back on to scrap the window clean--I'm sure that I dropped a weight class the days that I worked on these guys. 

After they were all cleaned, I sanded them a bit, put some painter's tape on the window to keep from getting paint on it and put some wood glue on the two that had broken spots. 

Then I painted and distressed them. I used some white and yellow Behr paints that I had on hand and also got a couple of samples--red and purple--to use on the bigger windows. 

For the bigger windows and one of the single-pane windows I had some luan plywood cut and chalkboard painted them. Here are the results!

The Traditional Ones

I decided to keep two of the windows traditional and just gave them a couple of coats of white Behr paint, distressed them and actually applied a couple of coats of light furniture wax, which yellows white paint a bit and builds up in the corners and crevices of the windows. Both of the windows have a ledge feature on the exterior side that would make a great picture stand.

The Bright Ones

I wanted the other two single-pane windows to be brighter and real focal pieces. I just painted and distressed them. The yellow one was missing the glass when I got it, so I put a piece of luan plywood that I had chalk painted in that space to make it a more functional piece.

The Functional Ones

Because these were larger windows and each was missing at least one pane of glass, I decided to add chalkboard pieces to each and a pin board to the purple one. (I took one of my handy pieces of plywood, layered on a piece of foam and covered it all with some home decor fabric from Joann's.) The red one looked so nice on both sides that I covered the back of the chalkboard piece with a Toile pattern fabric that I also found at Joann's. Toile is a French country pattern, so it is part rustic and all refinement. 

The Extra One

This one wasn't in the first batch of windows. I picked it up on a trip through Missouri last week. (See previous post.) There was no paint on it, just a lot of dirt and some remnants of wasp or mud-dauber nests. I spent about 45 minutes cleaning it with a Trisodium Phosphate Substitute solution and it looks perfect. The wood grain is visible and check out the hardware on this thing: 

I should note, just in case you can't tell, this is just a window frame. There are no glass panes in this piece. 

That's it for this post, folks. Be good and have fun this weekend. 

                                                                                                                          

*I'm told I look like a Breaking Bad character in this picture. Having never seen Breaking Bad, I can't really say that was my intention.