MAKING WHAT IS NEW OLD!

This blog post is about taking either an old hat box or a new Papier-mâché one from the craft store and covering it with vintage (from the 40's) wallpaper and lining the inside and the bottom with vintage newspaper from that same era.

POST SCRIPT - WHAT WAS I THINKING?  HERE IS A PHOTO OF ONE OF THE FINISHED HAT BOXES - IF ONE GOES TO THE TROUBLE TO GET NEWSPAPER AND BEAUTIFUL WALLPAPER FROM CIRCA 1940 THE ENTIRE BOX NEEDS TO BE COVERED - UNDER THE LID, ON THE BOTTOM AND THE INSIDES - VINTAGE NEWSPAPER - VINTAGE WALLPAPER ON ALL THE VISIBLE SURFACES. jd - 4/18/2015

 Oh so much better than leaving the old rim!!!

We are making some small modifications to our mudroom and hubby actually stores some hats in these boxes and they looked great at the old house but not so much at our current home.  I remembered several years ago when I was working out-of-state visiting a lovely store on the square in Harlan, Iowa.  The owner of the store covered band boxes with vintage wallpaper and lined the boxes with newspaper from the 40's.  I could not remember the name of the shop just that it was on the square in Harlan, IA.

I went to Etsy and started looking for vintage wallpaper and found this perfect pattern (the bench in the mudroom has some pillows and a covered pad in an Ikak pattern by Waverly). When completing my order I realized it was HER, her shop had been called Hannah's Treasures and that is the name of her Etsy shop.

Flying by the seat of my pants here - first tried Annie Sloan's decoupage but it dried too fast so then I watered down some Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive and brushed it on as an adhesive and when it dried then went over it with the decoupage.  Both the paper and the newspaper are brittle so they may break but when you glue them on, if it tears, just push it together and it will be fine. I laid the lid on the wallpaper and scored around the wallpaper rather than using a pencil or pen - made it easier to cut out the wallpaper.

I used this product to put a finishing coat on the vintage wallpaper but NOT on the newspaper. You could also use Mod Podge.

The vintage newspaper I had was the NY Times, Sunday, May 7, 1944.  Right in the middle of WWII so it was very interesting to sit and read the paper - the war news and to see the prices of things in 1944.

Using spray glue - lightly sprayed onto the hat box worked great for the newspaper.  The newspaper lines the inside of the box, the top and the bottom. As with the wallpaper I scored around the box rather that draw on the paper - made it easier to cut out - cut out and attach the sides then apply the large round piece.

Just be careful with this product - I spread out newspaper (current paper not my old paper) because no matter how careful you will have some over-spray.

I am going to live with the look for awhile before I decide if I am going to cover the dark rim of the hat boxes.

I might just wait until we do the couple of things we are doing to the mudroom before and set the hat boxes in place and decide if I need to go back and cover the dark edges.

Resource

Adhesives and Mod Podge, glue, craft stores
Annie Sloan, specialty stores
Hat Boxes, craft stores
Vintage 1940's Wallpaper, Link

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