A quick window shelf

Hello there!  I hope your Christmas and New Year's were both wonderful.  I was so swamped with burlap stocking orders on Etsy that this is the first chance I've had to write a blog post since back in September!  Whew, I was busy!  I made well over 200 stockings from Sept-Dec.

Anyway, today I'm showing you a fun, super quick project I worked on back in the fall.  It's styled for springtime in these pictures, though!  I just can't wait until real springtime to put up my spring stuff.  This is Florida after all, so I think I'm entitled to a little early decorating (no matter how much it makes my husband roll his eyes, thank you very much).

To make this shelf I just used an old window I found at our Habitat ReStore and attached a piece of 1x4 with a couple metal brackets from Lowes (I think they're something like $3 for a 4 pack).  The wood came from a neighbor's scrap pile and I think the window cost $10, so this project cost about $11.50 total, since I'll be able to use the other pair of brackets for something else.  On a side note, $10 is more than I'd usually pay for an old window, but this one was in really nice shape and had a pretty little piece of original hardware so I just couldn't resist.  Here's the finished product:

How cute is that?  The thing that actually took the longest was the whitewash I did on the window itself.  It was unpainted wood when I bought it, and it was in pretty sad shape, so I gave it a quick wash with some white primer (I like the chalkiness that gives the finish), and that was that.  The board is painted Annie Sloan's Pure White and I didn't seal it all, just gave it a quick sanding with some fine sandpaper to smooth it.  Miraculously, the board was actually the exact size I needed, so I didn't even have to cut it!  Ha!  I just drilled pilot holes into the window frame and 1x4 and attached them using the brackets.  

If you decide to do this project yourself, I have 2 suggestions: be sure to put the bracket near the outside edge of the window frame in order to avoid drilling into (and breaking) the glass.  Also, I wanted my shelf to be as low as possible on the frame so I attached my brackets to the top of the shelf, rather than mounting them underneath.  This works just fine for my purposes, but if you do that be sure not to put anything too heavy on the shelf.  Gravity is not on your side when you mount them this way, so it's theoretically possible for the screws to strip out if too much weight was put on the shelf.  Mine's purely for display, though, so I'm not worried at all!  Here's a close-up of one of the brackets: 

You may notice that my little birdy has a new home in a nest in the teacup now.  I did that after taking the first batch of pictures.  Oh well!  He's a part of one of my favorite Etsy purchases ever.  Red Hot Pottery makes these precious birds in either this turquoise (which I adore) or in black, and they come in sets of 5.

Ok, I can't resist including a few more quick pictures!

That little frog is actually a vintage magnifying glass I found on Etsy (of course), and oh my goodness, I can't even tell you how much I love him!  He's just the cutest thing!  The book page ornaments hanging from the twigs are actually from my Christmas decorating, but I just couldn't bring myself to take them down.  They're not too Christmasy, right?

For the bunting I just looped little scraps of fabric over a piece of twine.  Ridiculously easy and so pretty!  I attached it to the top of the window with clear pushpins, which you can just see in this picture:

So there it is!  A super quick project that provides major charm and much needed decorating space.  Much needed for me, anyway, since I don't have a mantle!  I'm off to pick up my sweet Lily from school now.  Have a fabulous weekend!

**I'm linking this post up with Thrifty Decor Chick's February Before & After Party!