AFTER: Upcycled antique washboard for my new main floor laundry room.

You may remember my beginning of summer post with so many lofty goals I hoped to accomplish this summer. Although I have definitely fallen short on my scrapbooking goals. I did manage to plow through many of the items on my “to do list”.

I have to say that purging is what took up most of my time. I went through tubs and boxes and old toys and extra linens…..you name it, I purged it. I posted many items on Kijiji and although there are still lots of items that are up for sale, I have sold a ton and it feels so good to de-bulk. All that accumulated stuff just feels heavy and I must say it is so cleansing to rid your home of all of those things that are not essential and that you just don’t like. As with any great purge, I also came across several great items I forgot I even had. Such was the case with this old washboard that actually once belonged to my mom. (I’m not really sure where she got it, but I do know it once belonged to her and having lost her over 17 years ago – it was a great find and something I wanted to hang on to.)

Finding the old washboard during my summer purge was perfect time with the relocation of our laundry room to the main floor. The washboard was not in great shape and the words on the front plate were faded beyond recognition. I decided to upcycle the washboard to go into my new laundry space. This involved a simple coat of paint and application of the words I wanted on my washboard. I can’t say this was my idea, I saw it on Pinterest and copied the words verbatim. I used the same process when I created the homemade Rummoli board last Christmas. The tutorial I followed for both was from Little Bit Funky.

Letter Transfer:

1. Create the word art for your project using Word or Pages. To get the curved LAUNDRY word, I inserted a circle and stretched it into a large long oval shape. I used the top edge of the shape to place my letters in the desired shape. To do this you need to place each letter in its own text box and then rotate the box slightly to match the curve of the oval. (In Pages, you hold the command button while clicking a corner of the text box in order to rotate it. )
2. Carefully glue a piece of freezer paper (waxy side up) t0 a sheet of 8 1/2″ x 11″ cardstock. Make sure it is cut to exact size and glued down on all the corners.
3. Place the paper inside your printer. (If you don’t know if your ink lands on the top or bottom of your page, you may want to do a test run on a blank sheet of paper so you place it in correctly.) *I place my page with the waxy side facing down.
4. When you go to print the document, you need to choose: BEST quality on plain paper and FLIP HORIZONTALLY (mirror image). Once you choose this option, your print preview will display your image in mirror image. Press print.
5. Carefully place your image ink side down on the desired surface. You must be very careful not to smear the ink as it is just sitting, wet on top of the waxy surface. You can not adjust it once placed so do it right the first time.
6. Use the edge of a spoon to press/transfer the lettering/image to the surface.
7. Spray with a clear coat (urethane) to seal the image and prevent future smearing. Do not drag a brush over it.

I love how this method is not perfect ~ it gives a great vintage look! My laundry room is certainly not at the decorating stage, but I can’t wait to hang this up when it’s ready for the finishing touches.

1. 

   

   BEFORE: Antique washboard with original lettering faded and hardly visible.

   

   Washboard primed and painted out in Simply White by Benjamin Moore.

   

   AFTER: Upcycled antique washboard for my new main floor laundry room.