If you were to visit our house, you’d probably notice one of our hobbies right away – a collection of bones, oddities, and offbeat antiques that have found their way into our lives. Our relationship began with my husband and I discovering our mutual interest in old, creepy things when we first met, turning many dates into fun visits to some of the the many antique stores in our region. Our shelves have transformed over the years into a display of skulls and specimens, each with its own story.
Most of our treasures are currently confined to an antique cabinet in our dining room and a few floating shelves and frames here and there. I am excited to add this thrifted shelf to the mix and it makes a perfect DIY Halloween decor project by infusing it with a creepy paint job, in addition to providing additional space for our collection of oddities and bones from the wild. Before we dive into the crafty transformation, let’s immerse ourselves in the haunting wonders of the Walters gallery in Baltimore – the perfect place to visit for anyone interested in natural history.
I’ve had this small shelf sitting around for at least a year; one of those projects that kept getting put off and put off as we prepped for our wedding. Now that wedding crafting is over, I knew I had to finally work on this patiently waiting piece. I usually try to avoid mixing stereotypically gothy decor in with our oddities collection, because these items and their origins are of genuine interest to us as artifacts from the natural world. However, the Halloween spirit is strong with me and I had to go with Halloween green and black.
I used this Krylon chalkboard paint on the outside of the shelf unit because I love the matte look of it (the option to doodle is a nice bonus!). I painted the inside with two layers of Craft Smart green acrylic paint, a thick, even layer of Americana Weathered Wood Crackle Medium, and finished with a thin layer of metallic black acrylic paint.
I just love the crackle effect product – this is the second time I’ve used it and it works so well! This came out exactly as I envisioned and I was very excited to choose a few items from our larger cabinet to settle in their new home.
Kitty loaf!


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