Pottery Barn Knockoff–Distressed Clock Decor

Ahhhhhh Pottery Barn.  The gorgeous pictures, the GIANT price tags.  If only we could re-create for less everything we see in that magazine.  Well today’s post will give that a try  – Pottery Barn for under $10.00.  Yep, that’s right, this next project cost me around 6 bucks. 

When I was at the thrift store I spotted this lonely round board.  It was almost 2 feet around, insanely heavy and covered in laminate but I thought hummmm……this has some CLOCK potential!  So I bought it for a whopping $1.50.
Here is the lovely BEFORE picture:

And here is the AFTER:

Now how I got there.

First I distressed the plastic and wood by sawing the edges, hammering the center, and quickly sanding the entire circle.  I didn’t spend a lot of time doing this because I had another idea to help with the distressing which you’ll see in the next few steps.

Next I spray painted the circle in a grey primer.  Yep – that is SNOW you see on the ground – can’t keep this crafty gal down!  (although it made the spray paint almost impossible to dry and I was absolutely freezing doing it!) Once it was dry I did a regular cream spray paint over it.

Next step was to figure out the best way for me to put on the Roman Numeral numbers.  I don’t own any fancy gadgets (like the silhouette or cricut) but I have a computer and free clip art so I just printed out on cardstock (thicker paper) a set of different sized numbers and placed them on the clock to see if I liked the look.  Yep, it looks just fine and NO, that is NOT a toilet seat that it is sitting on.  I am way too classy to do something like post a toilet on my blog.

So now I move on to my other idea of how to really achieve texture on this clock o’ mine. 
With Mod Podge (or a glue and water mixture) paint a thin layer on the clock surface and apply the crinkled tissue paper. Next I  “painted” the clock with the glue mixture over the tissue.

 

This is hard to see but it left little crinkled lines and indents throughout the piece.  Let dry completely. 

Next, spray another coat of cream spray paint over the top.  Let dry.  If this clock will be used on the wall, not just sitting on a mantle, this would be the time to screw in some nails and a wire for it to hang on.

Now for the fun part.   Create an espresso color glaze by mixing a standard brown paint with clear glaze – about a 1:4 ratio. (one part paint to four parts glaze) Spread over the entire clock and just dap off in spots.  It should just fill in the edges and make the crevices pop with brown aging color. I left a lot of the brown on around the edges.  I played around with some rusty browns and some other colors to really pull off the look I wanted.  Start with one layer and just keep adding more color and more layers till you have achieved the look you want.  When you use paint with the glaze it is easy. Spots you don’t like come off easily when you wipe them.

I had bought these rusty old screw tacks at a thrift store previously and had them laying around the house so I wanted to use them.  The only problem was I couldn’t just nail them in because whatever that board was made of (MDF?) just completely bent the nail!  I actually had to drill a hole in it first and then hammer the tacks in.  I am NOT good with power tools (see this bread box post) so this was quite an accomplishment.  You could also use furniture tacks, faux scrapbooking tacks/brads or even buttons if you are making this at home.  It’s all about the creativity – have fun with this project – nothing is “wrong!” 

Next I took a pencil and made sure I had the correct spots to put my numbers. I calculated the quarters and then took a pencil on a string to draw my perfect circle where all the bottom of the  numbers would line up. I just outlined my cardstock roman numerals with a pencil and made sure it was right before I painted them in with black paint.  (you could even just fill it in with a permanent marker too) 

Just for extra measures I did a clear top coat of polyurethane.  OK, I didn’t really do that – but you should

Am I done?  Sure, why not.   I think it looks just as good as the EXPENSIVE pottery barn clock décor, don’t you? 

Cost break down:

Circular piece of wood: 1.50
Cream paint: 3.25 (I had white on hand but wanted it creamier)
Glue: 0.34
Tacks: 0.25 (I paid about 1.00 for 30 of them)
I had all the other paints on hand from other miscellaneous projects.
So grand total I spent: $5.34

Remember, there is no wrong way to do this.   Even coping this idea on a square piece of wood (like the original Pottery Barn clock) would turn out awesome.  Just get those Creative Juices  going and have fun!


UPDATE: I just finished building my new Old World Tuscan House!  Click the link to be taken on a tour but I wanted to let you see where I put this clock in my new house, PLUS give you lots of tips and tricks how to decorate the top of your cabinets or hutches..... ENJOY!