Opa's Magazine Rack

Sometime within the past year, my Opa gave Gary 2 old wooden magazine racks/holders and said "If you can fix these, they're yours". Get this: Opa made the magazine racks in the 8th grade!!! They were his very first woodworking project (as all of his family and friends know, just the first of MANY woodworking projects over his lifetime, most of which became gifts for us and others such as this garbage can:

I painted and distressed this to match better in my kitchen, being very careful to leave his personal stamp from the inside of the lid).

But back to the magazine racks.....

Gary and his handy self was able to fix the magazine racks to make them as good as new. We gave one to my parents and the other one we kept:

The wood was chipped from storage and some of the original stain was coming off (I mean, it was made and stained in 1943 or 1944 so I'd say it held up pretty well!) so I painted it with white oil-based Kilz and then white spray paint and added my own personal touch with ribbons to the handle. I could not be happier with it:

Isn't it adorable?? 

It looks perfect in the girl's upstairs bathroom with their fun blues and pinks! Here are more pics from their bathroom:

Opa also made the blow-dryer/straightener (back when everyone had curling irons for our bangs rather than straighteners, oh yes...) hanging on the wall and I painted and polka-dotted it to match. The lamp was $3 on clearance at Kirklands.

I bought this vanity from a high school friend, Dana Owens Smith, for $25 and took the broken mirror off the top part and painted and distressed it. The knobs are from Hobby Lobby. The polka dot shower curtains and towels, etc. are all from Target. But I pulled another of the same exact shower curtain out of a trash heap on the curb this morning while going to yard sales so I'll probably use it to cover a cute stool for the vanity if I ever find one.

So here is Opa's magazine rack, updated to get plenty of use by my sweet daughters in their bathroom! I wrote a few notes on the bottom with a Sharpie so years from now, when someone is trying to figure out why the heck I painted everything and made it different, they will know it is special because it came from him. 

More to come!