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    Home » DIY Crafts » Thrift Store Crafts

    A Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Lamp Makeover #12MonthsofDIY

    Published: Apr 20, 2016 · Modified: Apr 26, 2020 by Christina Dennis · This post may contain affiliate links · This blog generates income via ads · 24 Comments

    Doesn't it feel good to make someone else's trash into your own treasure? I love upcycling projects. There's something so rewarding about reusing items and breathing new life into them. Not only are you being kind to our earth by saving things from the dumpster, but you're able to get really creative by imagining a new use and look for something! This month, I was able to find a collection of items at our local Value Village that were begging for a makeover and turned them into a pretty shabby chic gallery wall for Little C's room! I also gave a lovely lamp I found a bit of a feminine makeover, and it also looks really gorgeous in Little C's room. Let me show you how, and make sure you visit all of the other bloggers at the end of this post to see what they made from their Value Village finds!

    Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Ruffled Lamp in Blush Pink, White and Gold #12MonthsofDIY

    Did you know: North Americans alone throw away more than 81 pounds of clothing and textiles per person, per year? That is an astonishingly HUGE amount of waste! Earth Day is coming up this Friday, so now's a great time to start thinking about ways that we can do our part to reduce this waste. Since buying second-hand items is one of the easiest ways to go green, we were thrilled to make this month’s #12MonthsofDIY challenge consist of thrifted finds from Value Village. There are always a ton of treasures there ready to be upcycled!

    When searching Value Village for treasures, you need to put on your creative thinking cap. Look for beautiful shapes and details. Colours of home decor items don't matter so much, because those are easily changed with a little paint and creativity!

    Here's what I found at our local Value Village:

    Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Ruffled Lamp in Blush Pink, White and Gold #12MonthsofDIY

    Can you believe all of these things cost me only $24.50 CDN?! I loved the shape of this brass and white lamp, and I even liked the colour of the base for Little C's gold, white and blush pink room makeover. I also found a variety of frames, a gorgeous little round mirror with a ton of detail, and this large key wall sculpture. The dark brassy, black and bronze colours of the wall art doesn't work for Little C's shabby chic room, but I knew a quick application of paint and some distressing would get just the look I wanted for these items.

    Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Ruffled Lamp in Blush Pink, White and Gold #12MonthsofDIY

    The first thing I did was clean the items, and then I applied some petroleum jelly to the parts of the wall art and frames that I wanted to look distressed. I think this distressed, aged look is such a big part of shabby chic decor, and I wanted these items to have that appeal.

    Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Ruffled Lamp in Blush Pink, White and Gold #12MonthsofDIY

    Next, I painted all of the wall items with chalk style paint in a nice, warm white. I made mine myself with this recipe, but any sort of chalk style paint will work! The fabulous thing about chalk style paint is that it's thick, sticks well, and distresses like a dream - perfect for my project!

    Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Ruffled Lamp in Blush Pink, White and Gold #12MonthsofDIY

    I also painted the lamp shade with white chalk style paint! That way, the original floral pattern didn't show through the treatment I gave to the shade later.

    Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Ruffled Lamp in Blush Pink, White and Gold #12MonthsofDIY

    After my picture frames, my key and my mirror were painted and dried, I sanded them with a sanding sponge. The parts where I put the petroleum jelly flaked right off to give me that old and distressed look I wanted for Little C's gallery wall.

    Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Ruffled Lamp in Blush Pink, White and Gold #12MonthsofDIY

    To beautify the lamp shade, I used the shade to trace out a "U" shape on some ruffle fabric I had in my stash.

    Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Ruffled Lamp in Blush Pink, White and Gold #12MonthsofDIY

    I simply rolled the shade along the fabric, marked where the top and bottom of the shade fell and added about ½" on each side for folding over.

    Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Ruffled Lamp in Blush Pink, White and Gold #12MonthsofDIY

    I wrapped the fabric around the shade, and glued it over the top and bottom of the lamp shade with my trusty ol' glue gun.

    Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Ruffled Lamp in Blush Pink, White and Gold #12MonthsofDIY

    I think the final result is just so sweet and pretty! I kept the lamp base as-is because it was in such great condition and matched so well with Little C's new room colour scheme.

    Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Ruffled Lamp in Blush Pink, White and Gold #12MonthsofDIY

    To finish off the shabby chic gallery wall, I made a little canvas art with a small canvas, some ribbon and my glue gun. I wrapped and glued some ribbon on the canvas into a rose shape. I also painted a wooden letter "C" with some gold acrylic paint to fill in the last spot of the gallery wall (and then I decided to paint one of my Value Village picture frames gold as well to tie in the gold colour).

    Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Ruffled Lamp in Blush Pink, White and Gold #12MonthsofDIY

    I arranged the gallery wall on my coffee table first, fiddle around with it a little, and then attached it to Little C's wall with some picture hanging strips. To finish off the wall, I made a fabric and lace banner using this method. I always love to add a variety of textures and shapes to a gallery wall!

    (You can also see a sneak peek of how Little C's new wall colour looks here for our One Room Challenge - we LOVE it!)

    Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Ruffled Lamp in Blush Pink, White and Gold #12MonthsofDIY

    The artwork inside the frames was simply printed on my home printer - score! You can find the top left vintage Paris art right here, and I made the floral monogram artwork with Photoshop.

    Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Ruffled Lamp in Blush Pink, White and Gold #12MonthsofDIY

    The "have courage and be kind" artwork can be found right here. I loved that it was gold and that it's from the movie Cinderella - one of Little C's favourites!

    All-in-all, I'm incredibly happy with how this gallery wall and lamp upcycle turned out, and Little C loves them too! It also feels SO good to know that these were thrifted items that have been given new life.

    Pin me:

    Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Ruffled Lamp in Blush Pink, White and Gold #12MonthsofDIY

    Now it's time to see the rest of the DIY thrifted project ideas from my Canadian blogging friends!

    12 Excellent DIY Project Ideas to make from Thrifted finds!

    From the top left, they are:

    Upcycling Wood Bowls from Fresh Crush

    Paint Dipped Brass Candle Holders from Life is a Party

    Upcycling a thrift store leather coat into a DIY handbag from Sustain My Craft Habit

    Pottery Barn Inspired Burlap Lamp Shade & Owl Bookends from Woman in Real Life

    Thrifted DIY Jewelry Holder from Brooklyn Berry Designs

    Upcycled Thrifted Mirror from New House New Home

    Gold Wooden Treasure Box from Mommyzoid

    DIY Roll-N-Go Travel Bag from Vin'yet Etc.

    Scarf Throw Pillows from PMQ for Two

    DIY Industrial Pendant Light from Love Create Celebrate

    A Thrifted Shabby Chic Gallery Wall and Lamp Makeover from The DIY Mommy

    Thrift Store Patio Table Tray Makeover from Time With Thea

    Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Value Village. As always, all of the opinions here are my own. I only recommend companies that I use and love myself.

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. amy

      April 20, 2016 at 8:45 am

      Gorgeous! It's amazing what a fresh coat of white paint can do to anything!

      Reply
      • Christina Dennis

        April 20, 2016 at 9:41 pm

        Thanks, Amy! That is so true!

        Reply
    2. Larissa

      April 20, 2016 at 3:04 pm

      Adorable! I love me an all (or almost all) white gallery wall. And I love to the power of a million upcycling projects. It is just astonishing how much you can change something with a little creativity and paint! And I totally agree about being kind to the planet by reusing. Why do we need so much new stuff when there is already so much cool, old stuff floating around waiting to be appreciated again? Can't wait to see what the rest of the room looks like...

      Reply
      • Christina Dennis

        April 20, 2016 at 9:41 pm

        Thanks, Larissa! That is so true. Paint is simply one of my favourite DIY tools to make things look suddenly fabulous.

        Reply
    3. Thea

      April 20, 2016 at 9:29 pm

      Wow Christina! I am impressed with what you were able to buy for under $25.00 dollars and what you were able to do with them to take them to a whole new decor level. I have to admit the key is my favourite. Your shabby chic gallery wall looks absolutely fabulous! Gosh you have creative ideas!

      Reply
      • Christina Dennis

        April 20, 2016 at 9:41 pm

        Thanks so much, Thea! I love that key too - the detail is so beautiful and all it needed was a little paint to give it a shabby chic spin!

        Reply
    4. Joann @ Woman In Real Life

      April 21, 2016 at 6:46 am

      It's all so beautiful! I love how the pretty colour scheme pulls all your finds together. I also love how you dressed up the lamp shade.

      Reply
    5. Laurie @ Vin'yet Etc.

      April 21, 2016 at 4:31 pm

      It's all so perfectly adorable, very feminine and beautiful! My favourite is the rose on that burlap canvas, so cute and easy to make... I'm going to have to try that! I'm off to check out the rest of your ORC, can't wait to see all of the details. 🙂

      Reply
    6. Ariel

      April 22, 2016 at 12:25 pm

      Looks great Christina! I love your thrifted finds, and how fortunate they all came together so nicely!

      As always, beautifully done.

      Reply
    7. Sonja @ SustainMyCraftHabit

      April 22, 2016 at 1:57 pm

      I love how absolutely pretty and pink this is! Perfectly fit for a little princess. Amazing job giving all those thrift store pieces a new life. And your ribbon banner is super sweet!

      Reply
    8. Dannyelle @ www.lifeisaparty.ca

      April 23, 2016 at 6:37 pm

      So, so pretty! Love your gallery wall, and can't wait to see the whole room. Great project.

      Reply
    9. Jen @ Fresh Crush

      April 23, 2016 at 7:03 pm

      So pretty! I love how you brought together all these mismatched items, and now they totally belong together! Looks great!

      Reply

    Trackbacks

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    5. Easy DIY Kids’ Art Display (+ Little C’s Bedroom Makeover Progress for the ORC) | The DIY Mommy says:
      April 21, 2016 at 6:48 am

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