Drop Leaf Repurposed (2024)

Welcome back, beautiful friends!! Today is one of my very favorite days of the month: Trash-to-Treasure Tuesday!! Not only do I have a trashy makeover for you, so do four of my favorite blogger friends! That’s FIVE makeovers in all. You’ll find links to their projects at the bottom!

I had finished just about every piece from my last day of thrifting, but there was still this extra drop leaf I removed from this table I shared a couple of weeks back:

I thought it was the perfect candidate for a trash-to-treasure kind of makeover, so I was determined to use it up.

I already shared what I did with the other drop leaf. I used it to build the box for this thrift store drawer:

You can see more of that project HERE.

But this one got an entirely different repurpose.

How about as a brand new shelf for our living room?

Yes??

It seems y’all really enjoyed seeing me work through my last thrift store lot, and it helped me stay focused as well. So I am starting a new load of goodies! How does that sound?

Friends, meet my new thrift store haul:

This is three days of hard core thrifting! There still wasn’t much in the way of larger furniture pieces out there, but I did find a few smaller pieces. I’ve included a few affiliate links so you can find the products I love.

When I was deciding what I wanted to do with that extra leftover drop leaf, these corbels I just picked up (right in the center of that photo above) gave me the idea to turn it into a shelf:

I rarely pass up a set of corbels and these were only $4.25 for both!!

What a steal, even if I had no earthly idea what I was going to use them for. I knew they would eventually find a purpose.

After measuring the drop leaf, these were the perfect size to help turn it into a unique shelf.

I cut 7″ off the side with the rounded edge to create my shelf, using my mini circular saw:

This is one of my favorite saws because it is small so it’s easy to handle, and if I use a straight edge to run it along (Here I used a 1 X 6 I had and two clamps to secure it to the leaf and the cabinet below it.), I get nice straight cuts.

Here I did a test fit and it was just right…

I decided it would be easier to paint everything separately and then assemble the shelf. I used my favorite white, Bit of Sugar by Behr, made into DIY chalk paint. (Recipe HERE.) It took three coats.

Then I used Dixie Belle’s Satin Clear Coatto seal. When Country Chic Paint sent me some products a few months back, they included a sealer of their own and at the bottom of the box was a sponge applicator to apply it. I just found it as I was cleaning out my garage this weekend. I used it to apply the Dixie Belle Clear Coat and can I say game changer?? It made applying the sealer SO easy and quick! Update: I now use this one…it’s even better! 🙂

Before painting the corbels white, I gave them a quick coat of brown first so that when I sanded, brown would show through the white paint instead of gold:

I used Rustoleum clear spray sealer to seal these since it was easier with all those details.

I used my miniKreg Jig to help attach the shelf to the top of the other piece. The Kreg Jig helps create pocket holes which makes attaching things at a 90º angle so much easier and super sturdy. All you need to use it is a drill:

This drill by Black and Decker is my favorite. Again it is small, so it’s easy to handle. Combining it with the Kreg Jig leaves behind perfect pocket holes:

I used wood glue and then the drill bit and screws that were included with my Kreg Jig to secure the two pieces together:

I’m keeping this shelf for our living room so I cheated and left the back unpainted. Shhhh.

I attached the corbels with wood glue and my nail gun:

I added D-ring hanging hardware to the back to hang it.

This mamma jamma is heavy! I used mystud finder to find a stud to screw one side into, and I used a heavy duty wall anchor on the other side. (If I were smart, I would have spaced the hanging hardware the same distance as the studs and I could have secured both sides into studs!)

You can see in that photo above that I didn’t even trim the bottom edge where it was originally attached to the table. I left it as is. I like that you can still see that it was part of a drop leaf table at one time.

This set of three hooks already painted white with a little bit of shabby was a HomeGoods find for $7.99:

I considered adding a stencil to the bottom piece where the hooks are, or my favorite…stripes. But in the end I opted to keep it a simple white. Who knows what I thought I was going to hang on those hooks in my living room, but the wreath is working it just fine.

I moved this chair I redid last year (See the UGLY before HERE.) to this corner for photos, but this is the wall in our living room behind my hubby’s recliner. I had yet to hang anything on this wall and this was just perfect in here.

Since the drop leaf was a leftover piece, which means it was basically FREE (my favorite!), I only spent $12 before tax on this pretty shelf. Not too shabby for $12, eh?

Don’t forget my girls have trashy makeovers to share with you today as well!

1. Artsy Chicks Rule

2. Girl in the Garage

3. Prodigal Pieces

4. Bless’er House

You can visit all my Trash-to-Treasure Tuesday makeovers in one place HERE.

That’s one project down from this haul!

Several more to go! I’ll meet y’all back here on Thursday as I continue to work my way through this new pile-o-treasures with this suitcase:

UPDATE: See how this suitcase got a brand new look HERE now!

See ya then!

XO,

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