Christmas Decor – Barn Door (Frame) Update!
BARN DOOR FRAME
I just love reusing items and giving them new life! While looking for some Christmas decorations to jazz up my front porch table, I came across this old country blue barn door frame. It was just collecting dust in my garage and would be perfect for what I had in mind for Christmas. However, the country blue had to go!
I checked the stash of paints I had on hand and grabbed a red, tan and dark brown to do the job. Before painting, I quickly brushed the frame with a wire brush to get any loose paint off of it. At first, I thought about painting it red, but when I started with a coat of tan, I changed my mind. I liked the natural wood look it was taking on and decided to go with that look for the frame.
Normally, I am not much on prep work (taping anything up), but I loved the patina on the metal hinges and did not want to paint over them. So I ripped off some paper from the edge of the sheet (I had placed on the ground to keep from spray painting a big brown patch in the grass) and then taped across the top of the hinge to help protect it.
When spraying, I kept about 8 inches from the frame and evenly coated the entire thing with the tan paint. It gave better coverage and was not soaking into the wood and disappearing like the dark brown (this had more to do with the type of paint (two different brands) that I was using, rather than color related).
Then, I used the dark brown on top of the tan coat and sprayed more tan to give it that weathered wood look. I did not let it dry between coats…just sprayed until it looked pleasing to the eye (more gradual variation in color than blotchy patches of color!)
PAINTED LEAVES
I gathered up some leaves and placed them in a box…since it was getting a little windy outside. Plus, it helps to keep the overspray from the paint contained to the box (I did place some paper in the box, but that was only because I wanted to keep the box for something else).
I gave one side a quick coat of gold (again, just a gold color I had on hand). I did let this dry before turning it over to the other side as to not make any marks/blemishes on the leaves. However, I did not worry about whether the leaves were saturated with color. I just wanted to give them a little gold shimmer so they did not look like autumn and had a festive Christmas appeal. In addition, I added a little gold to some twigs, etc.
BALSAM BOUGHS
My husband had collected some balsam branches for me and I used those to add some greenery around the barn door frame. I arranged pieces to fan out from the left and right and attached it together in the middle with green wire. I made two arrangements like this and then attached it to opposite corners of the frame with the more green wire. For a little red color, I added an old berry vine (I bought off a clearance rack from season’s past).
FINISHING TOUCHES
I placed the barn door frame on my front porch table and leaned it against my house. With burlap ribbon, I made some bows and attached them with wire at each corner that had the greenery. I arranged some more greenery on the table and placed a manger scene and a lantern on top of the balsam. Next, I tucked in the gold leaves and twigs throughout the greenery on the table.
