A Goodwill Find from Our DIY Road Trip Gets a New Job
Sometimes the best upcycles begin with something you pick up without knowing exactly how you’ll use it. A little shelf I found on a DIY road trip to upstate New York eventually became the perfect display for my IOD resin casting samples in Booth D4.
Sometimes the Adventure Starts at Goodwill
Last month, my friend Linda and I took a road trip to upstate New York for a weekend filled with DIY inspiration. We met some of the talented people I’ve followed online, shopped, talked DIY—and, naturally, managed to squeeze in a stop at Goodwill!
I spotted this simple wooden shelf lined with black cup hooks and brought it home with me. I didn’t have an elaborate makeover planned. I honestly didn't know what I was going to do with it. But at a minimum, I would have 21 black cup hooks -- and they would come in handy one day for sure. That was certainly reason enough for it to come home with me!
A Little IOD Connection
One of the highlights of our trip was spending time around so many creative people, including Sally Griswold, co-founder of Iron Orchid Designs. That makes what eventually happened to my Goodwill shelf especially fitting: it ended up becoming a display for samples I created using IOD moulds!
The Shelf Didn't Need a Big Makeover
Once I decided to use the shelf in Booth D4, I realized I actually liked it pretty much the way it was. The natural wood worked with my booth, and the row of black cup hooks was exactly what made the piece useful.
Sometimes upcycling means knowing when not to change something.
There was just one little problem.
Because I planned to hang the shelf fairly high on my pegboard wall, the unfinished underside was going to be much more visible than it would have been in its original use.
A quick coat of DIY Paint’s Dark & Decrepit Liquid Patina on the underside was an easy fix. It gave that previously unfinished surface a dark, finished appearance without changing the character of the shelf itself.
Trying It Out on My Pegboard
Before taking anything to the booth, I tried out the display on my pegboard at home.
The shelf itself worked beautifully for hanging my angel resin castings, but I wanted a black background behind them so all those details and different finishes would stand out.
My first thought was black foam core.
Visually? I liked it.
Practically? Not so much.
The foam core looked great, but its thickness pushed the shelf farther away from the pegboard and caused the whole arrangement to tilt. It was one of those little DIY moments when an idea looks perfectly reasonable in your head—and then reality has other plans.
Fortunately, this one had a very simple solution.
Sometimes Lighter Really Is Better
I replaced the foam core with a piece of black 80 lb. textured cardstock.
That did the trick!
I still got the dark background I wanted behind the resin castings, but without the extra thickness that was pushing the shelf away from the pegboard and making the shelf less stable.
It's a small detail, but one worth remembering: when you're adding a decorative backing to a hanging display, heavier isn't necessarily better. Sometimes paper really is all you need.
From a New York Goodwill to Booth D4
Once everything was working properly at home, the shelf made its way to Booth D4 at Cottage Antiques & Crafts.
And this is where that random little Goodwill find finally found its purpose.
The cup hooks are perfect for displaying the angel samples I made in several different finishes. Hanging them against the black background makes it easy to compare the possibilities while keeping the display compact enough to fit above the other IOD mould offerings.
I love that I didn't have to completely transform this piece to give it a new life.
I simply saw a different possibility for it.
A little wooden shelf traveled home from an upstate New York adventure with Linda, received one small finishing touch, survived a foam-core experiment that didn't quite work—and ultimately became exactly the display I needed.
And there's something especially fun about knowing that the Goodwill find from our DIY weekend is now displaying pieces made from the IOD moulds that inspired part of that very same trip.
Sometimes the best thrift-store finds are the ones you don't have a plan for yet.
Happy upcycling!
Amy