I have this shoe rack.

I think James Stuart bought it for me 3 or 4 years ago when I did an IKEA run for him. This is its third apartment with me. Certainly, something made from soft pine is probably not worth repairing, but the idea of fixing it appeals to my thrifty nature and my need for projects involving craft paint.

It's dusty, a few of the slats are cracked, and well, my cat totally spat up food on it after eating too fast. (Don't worry, there will be no pictures of that.)

So I figured I need to Make It Work. I think I want some bright colors, to brighten up my kitchen. I'm thinking Mexican folk-art style bright colors, really. We'll see what happens.


It's pretty beat up. And it's also dusty, but I tried to knock off what I could.


I tried to capture the sloppiness of how I nailed the slats back together, but it was hard to capture without fuzziness. It seems to be a sturdy fix, but I think I still need to stop resting my foot on the rack to put my hiking boots on!



Update at the end of first session: I didn't think about how much surface area this damn thing has. Whoa. And how hard it is to paint a lot of SMALL surfaces evenly. When I'm tired. Oh well. I think if I make enough blocks of color, it'll still look okay. the point is that I fixed the breaks and that some paint will make the whole shebang hold up a little longer.



Later I put more colors of paint on the top rack, finished bewhitening the bottom rack, and started on the supports. I needed more of that satin cream color to finish the base coat, so while I was at the craft store, I bought myself a few wacky bright colors, since most of my craft paints are pretty plain primary colors.


Bewhitening isn't a word, you say? It is now!

And now, here's the finished product, before application of acrylic sealant. I thought my work looked awfully sloppy while it was in progress, but the finished product looks pretty good! Is it sloppy or is it just "primitive?" Eh, it looks kinda manic, but quite cheery. And that is good enough for me.




This is where the shoe rack belongs. I've missed it while it was gone.




The rack is actually sturdier now, and the cracked slats are now on the bottom.  Yes, that's Oz (the Great and Powerful) checking it out.  Hopefully he doesn't mess it up again, though it _is_ easier to clean now....



The paint makes it tougher, the pieces fit together tightly because of the paint, the color hides flaws, and the acrylic sealer gives it a shine that makes the sloppy corners look cute. And I only bought 3 79-cent bottles of craft paint; all the other supplies were already in my apartment. I don't relish the idea of taking this rack apart when I need to move it in the future (it's still modular, but the paint will get pretty scraped up if I take it apart again. But I'm gonna get more life out of this sorry old shoe rack now. Frugality + craftiness FTW!


Yay!