DIY Windmill Decor

Hey everyone. I just wanted to share how I made this windmill decor because I love the way it turned out and it was so easy!

                A little back-story… Earlier this year my husband and I set out to make ourselves a little garden out of as many recycled materials as possible. A work friend gave us some old and rusty roofing tin that was so perfect for the job. The last touch I added to the garden was the sign above the entrance that read “Martin Family Farm, Welcome to the Garden” with a chicken and a windmill decal that I cut out of vinyl with my Cricut. I love that thing.

                I liked the rustic, farmhouse look of the garden, and I liked the windmill decal, and I had an empty space on the wall in our short-term rental home. It was one of those “The stars just aligned” scenarios.

                I made a fan blade-shaped stencil out of printer paper and traced it onto the scrapes of tin with a Sharpie. My husband let me use his neutral-direction metal shears to cut out the shapes. Four blisters, two puncture wounds, and one tetanus scare later, I had 12 blades and two tail pieces in front of me. I just eye-balled the shape of the tail pieces.

                A month or so prior, our neighbor asked if we could use a massive metal spool of sorts for scrap metal and my husband can’t turn down anything free… He cut off the round end piece and let me use it for the windmill. I cut a slit into each blade and fit them all evenly around the circle. Then I attached the tail pieces to the frame with handy wire.

                If I remember correctly, I took a break around this time to wrap my wounds and get a cold beer to hold against my aching hands. See! I’m getting double uses out of all sorts of materials today! #goinggreen

                Lastly, I used a hammer and nail to make a hole in the middle of the narrow ends of the blades. Then I laced handy wire through the holes and when I made it back around to the first blade, I twisted the ends of the wire together and tucked the twist out of sight.

                Boom! I had myself a damn good-looking piece of art, straight from the farm, to fill the empty space on the wall.

                We hung it up high, out of reach of children and with a shit ton 3-inch screws because the sharp edges would be like a guillotine if it fell onto an unsuspecting person or pet. We can’t have that!

As you can see we still have a few items to cross off our to-do list: crown molding above pantry, paint touch-up above the stairs, dry wall.

Thanks for reading. I hope it has inspired you to build something beautiful with recycled materials. Share your ideas below!

One last thing! Should I write a post about building the garden?

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Farmhouse-Style Window Frame Picture Frame

Is that title a mouthful, or what?! Follow along to see how I created this country/farm-style work of art!

 About a month ago my husband and I came across a whole bedroom set and a couch at a yard sale. It was exactly what we had been looking for to furnish our short-term rental house; modern, can be disassembled, yet inexpensive. We really scored with this bundle!

We get home and begin hauling everything up the stairs to the apartment above our shop. This space was a messy construction zone for a year and a half, so it was truly a shock when we got the couch reassembled and freshly laundered covers put on. Our view of the place completely transformed. We took off our shoes for the first time up there and sprawled on the couch in amazement!

                Now it was officially time to decorate the place and ideas had been floating around my mind for a while now. The first project I tackled was this vintage, window-framed barn college.

Our wedding was just over a year ago, and I know it’s hard to believe but I DIYed and thrifted the entire event. Another yard sale find that I got at the time were two white, dirty, flaking paint, window frames for $50 bucks total… I realize now that I $50 seems like a lot for these but NO REGRETS… I wasn’t able to find a picture of the frames when I picked them up, but they didn’t change much from the pictures you see below except for the glass wasn’t shiny and there were a lot of webs across them.

At the wedding we used them for signs and enjoyed the rustic vibes they gave (see above). After the wedding I decluttered as much as I could and found myself faced with these windows and the ideas started flowing. The first project was this hinge-lid coffee table that still needs painted. Color ideas? We just toss all of our travel tickets and memorabilia under the glass and it effortlessly creates something interesting for guests to look at. It wasn’t until many months later, when the apartment started to come together, that I pulled the second window out of storage and cleaned the glass. 

I am obsessed with old barns and there were several photographs on my Instagram of the old barns that I came across as I began traveling Montana for a living. These photos were all taken as a drive-by photoshoot; driving with my knee and holding my phone out the window, while snapping as many pictures as possible in two seconds. It’s also worth mentioning that my phone is one of those extremely outdated, free-gift-when-you-sign-up-for-a-phone-plan, off brand phones with a horrible camera. 

To make matters worse, I no longer had the originals on my phone and had no idea when the next time I would get to drive by these barns again to stop and get a quality photo with my camera. So, through trial an error I ended up pulling my Instagram up on my laptop and used the Snipping Tool to save the pictures on to my computer. I used Photoshop to change the photo from 50-some dpi to 300 dpi. I applied a grey-scale filter and a little bit of “noise” to complete the vintage look. Then I was able to order 8”x10” prints from Walmart. I chose 8”x10” because each windoszpane measure 9 1/2”x15” and I thought that would leave just enough of a glass border around the photos.

                That day I learned that my Walmart photo center becomes overwhelmed and goes out of commission during tourist season every summer. I ended up waiting a few days for the photos to be ready but once I got them the art piece came together quickly. After using a Clorox wipe to freshen up the frame one more time, I just used very small pieces of extra clear office tape to tack the corner of each picture to the middle of each windoszpane. 

The last step to completing this piece was to add these brackets to the back. I know that this is frame is heavy and should be anchored into the studs. In this house the studs are 16” apart. The frame measures 19 3/4” across the top so I divided that by 2 and found the center point to be 9 7/8”. From the center point, I measured 8 inches on either side. I then measured the width of the top frame; 2″. I made a mark 1″ down. “X marks the spot” to center the brackets over and nail them on. Next, I used a stud finder and marked two adjacent studs, just above eye-level.Then used a level to make sure the marks were straight. Lastly, I hammered a 2″ long finish nail into each mark.

                The picture frame sits level on the nails, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the final result. What do you guys think? Should I freshen the paint, and replace the photos with sharper, clearer, possibly even colored ones? Or do you like the farm-style, vintage look?