Barn Doors & Mercury Glass

She’s baaack! Karianne from Thistlewood Farm that is! She stopped by a few weeks ago to share all about this lovely vintage pennant flags & today she is a here with a great post about barn doors + a project involving Spray Paint. Yep, stop right there… don’t be in fear. If you’ve never spray painted before, I wrote this great post on how to do it without fear. Read through Karianne’s post and my link is at the bottom!!

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Hello Fancy Little Things Readers!

I’m karianne from Thistlewood Farm and I am so excited to be here today with a little fall inspiration. Here’s an easy inexpensive tutorial on how to create a mercury glass pumpkins!

I really think that when I look back on my life…..I will decide that yesterday was the perfect day in the country.

It was crisp and cool with just a hint of fall in the air.

The swirling leaves hinted at their incredible autumn colors.

The clouds drifted lazily overhead and the sun beams danced across the back pasture.

It was truly beautiful.

So beautiful that I decided to overlook the fact that cows are my next-door-neighbors and there is not a drive-through fountain diet coke or a stop light in the entire county and or a Target within 75 miles…..and instead…..

……rejoice that I live in the country.

 

 

You see…..in the country we have cows and sheep and goats and hay and barns.

Old, abandonded barns.

Barns that used to have horses.

Barns with stable doors.

 

They are perfection.

Those stable doors in those old abandoned barns.

Just like this one.

So if you live in the country and wake up and smell the crisp cool country air and decide that you want to decorate your fall mantel with a stable door…..well….

…..you can.

After all….you live in the country.

Where drive-through diet cokes and Targets are scarce.

But stable doors still attached in an old abandoned barn…..those are a dime a dozen.

 

 

So yesterday……we drove the old pick-up truck to one of those abandoned buildings a friend owned and pried off our stable door.

It is magnificent.

I almost asked my barn-owner friend for a feed-trough, too.

But I hesitated because…..somehow…..I thought there might be rules about that in the old-abandoned-barn-stable-door handbook.

Only one abandoned item per customer.

So instead of a feed trough on my fall mantel…..I added faux mercury glass pumpkins.

Not abandoned.

Not rustic.

Not even found in a barn.

But easy and fun and “cinchy” to make on a perfect day in the country

 

Mercury Glass Pumpkin Project

Supplies:

Glass pumpkin

Looking Glass Spray Paint

Spray bottle with water

painters tape

plastic bag

Step 1: Purchase a glass pumpkin.

It MUST be clear glass.

Not orange glass or red glass or brown glass.

And definitely not styrofoam.

Do not buy a pumpkin from the dollar store and attempt to turn it into mercury glass pumpkin when it is really just orange styrofoam.

This will not work.

You will have an orange bubbly remotely silver pumpkin with little bits of styrofoam peeking through.

Not that you or I would ever do that.

We would know better.

 

 

Step 2: Tape the outside of the pumpkin with a plastic bag and painter’s tape

You don’t want the looking glass spray paint getting on the outside of the pumpkin.

Completely cover the exterior of the pumpkin.

Mist the inside of the pumpkin with water.

Lightly mist.

Not too much water.

 

 

Step 3: Shake the spray paint can for 3 to 5 minutes

Seriously.

3 to 5 minutes.

It works so much better if you shake it up for a long time.

Then spray the looking glass paint inside the pumpkin in short little bursts.

The paint mixes with the water creating a really runny consistency.

This is good.

Pick up the pumpkin and roll it around so the water/paint mixture spreads out all over the inside of the pumpkin until it creates the “faux mercury” effect you want.

Shake out any excess.

 

4. Repeat process with top

Make sure you coat the entire inside of the top with the runny water/spray paint mixture.

Let both pieces dry according to the directions on the spray paint.

Replace the lid and pat yourself on the back.

Your pumpkin is now ready for it’s curtain call.

 

Step 5: Move to the country and make friends with a barn/stable door owner

Decide you don’t really need a fountain diet coke and that Target and stop lights are a little overrated and you like the sound a cow makes when it moos.

And that a cool crisp autumn day excursion to an old abandoned barn for a stable door turned mantel decoration…..

……is the stuff dreams are made of

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Do not fear Spray Paint!! <<—- this article might be for you!!

KariAnne writes the lifestyle blog, Thistlewood Farm from the back porch of her turn-of-the-century farmhouse in the beautiful rolling hills of Kentucky.  She lives with her husband, four children, two dogs, three cats, a giant tortoise, rabbits, deer and a family of turkeys.  KariAnne loves to paint mismatched chairs, listen to the crickets singing in the back pasture, walk hand-in-hand with her knight-in-shining armor as the sun sets over the river and drink sweet tea with lime during a thunderstorm.

 

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