Tucked in the top of my kitchen cabinets, in one of several recipe books, I found recipes that my grandmother had written down that my mom gave me after she died. Somewhere around the same time, I had decided to purchase an old window off Facebook marketplace. I think I spent $10 on the window. It sat in the garage for months until I found these recipes and that’s when I decided it would be the perfect vessel for display said recipes. I went on the hunt for recipes written by other family members and it took on a life of it’s own. Take a quick look, then I’ll tell you how I did it.
First, I took the window and stripped off the old paint (sorry, no pictures, so you’ll have to trust me ;), used sand paper and sanded it down as best as I could. Years ago, I spray painted the light fixture in our dining room a sparkly, metallic charcoal color, so I took the same paint and sprayed the window. Let me stop here for a second…if you get an old window like I did, it is not going to be perfect and that’s part of the charm. I had to keep reminding my OCD self that, LOL! Once it was dry, I scraped off any paint with a razor blade. I finished it off with a little acetone to get off any residue, the cleaned with window cleaner.
Quite literally, to pull this off, in addition to the fabric and foam board, I only used a ruler, stapler, and tape. That’s it! I picked up three yards of green and two yards of purple fabric. It doesn’t take much, which is why this project is so affordable! I took foam board and cut it into rectangles that match the size of the frame openings. I wrapped it around and stapled the fabric to the back of the board and viola, I had a pretty insert.
I VERY carefully centered each recipe on the board and taped it on. I put the board in place, then used tape again, to hold the board into place. That is all I did. The window prep and paint took a few hours one day and the next day, I was able to assemble.
It is such a quick and easy project that can have a really big impact in your dining room or kitchen. And, it’s quite the show piece. Whether it’s friends and family or potential buyers, it is guaranteed to get people talking…in a good way!
If you decide to take on this project, I would love to see the finished results. Post them on our FACEBOOK PAGE!
