Repurposing an Old Window Shutter into a Photo Display Shelf

I have been wanting to display the gorgeous pictures my husband takes in a creative way for a while and haven't gotten around to shopping for shelves yet. I had been painting our bedroom pale yellow, gray and this color I am in love with called "rainwater"-(by Martha Stewart)-a pale, watery aqua and remembered these old shutters we had that were really close to that color.


We bought the set of old shutters originally to use in our garden from this salvage warehouse in our area--a true goldmine for all things cool from old houses. (Whenever I go there I feel like I am exploring the attic of an old mansion--it even has a homey feel with the random cats you will find roaming around).

We had used this shutter as a headboard in the past, but this time I thought some of our photos printed on mat board would look so pretty sitting on it. I love the contrast of the antique shutter and the clean modern lines of the photos.

If you don't have access to a store like ours or old shutters and want to try this without prying them off of someone's house, I bet you could try the distressing techniques I have shown on earlier posts with a newer shutter along with some sandpaper and two different colors of paint.

By the way, this is the first of a few posts I will be doing on our bedroom redo-I can't wait to show you next how to color on your walls with a paint pen. But don't let your kids see you do it...hope you enjoyed this today!