A Tale of Two Rack Makeovers (2024)

Sweet friends, today I am sharing a tale of two racks! Left in my pile of thrift store treasures, was a magazine rack and a spice rack. Both pieces were only $1.98 each, and since they are simple items, both of those pieces are getting a makeover today!

Let’s start with the magazine rack, shall we?

Here is a reminder of how it started:

Magazine racks are all over the thrift stores these days. With everyone having cell phones, it seems no one needs reading material for the bathroom any more! Kind of gross, but true, right? Every once in a while though I spy one that is a pretty shape like this one and I want to bring it home and play with it. I’ve included a few affiliate links so you can find the products I love.

Here is how this one turned out:

Of course white paint fixes just about anything in my book, but I didn’t want to just paint it white and call it a day. So when I was deciding what else I could do with it, I remembered these pretty napkins I picked up at HomeGoods a while back:

My talented friend Jen at Girl in the Garage has done several projects using napkins and I always remember this stack I bought whenever she posts a new project using them, and then of course I forget about them again!

They were just what this project needed to dress up the sides:

I actually used spray paint for this magazine rack this time. I started with a coat of spray primer, followed by two coats of Rustoleum Satin White spray paint. It is just so much easier to spray all those spindles. And as you can see, even spray painted projects can be shabbied up a bit with a little sandpaper and a light hand…

To add the napkin to either end, I followed Jen’s tutorial which you can find HERE. Only the top layer of this three-layer napkin was used for this application.

These napkins were perfect with their white background since my piece was painted white also. I actually placed this one on the diagonal so the napkin would cover the entire side:

I let it dry completely and sanded very lightly with 220 grit sandpaper across the surface and along the edges. Then I sealed each end with Annie Sloan’s clear soft wax.

Such a fun addition, don’t you think? With all the pretty napkins out there the possibilities are endless.

Next up is the spice rack! It started out like this:

A little Gray Morning DIY chalk paint and now it looks like this:

I shared a couple of these little spice racks in my Painting the Smalls posts HERE and HERE and staged them both as nail polish storage. Here I had fun with some of my ironstone, turning this one into a place to hold all those cosmetic sponges, q-tips, etc. You could stack all your makeup on the top shelf. Of course you could still use it for spices as well.

To redo this one, I spray primed first so that there would be some white peeking through in the end. I was working on this one while I was also working on the silver tray I shared on Tuesday:

Yep I have not one, but TWO small HomeRight spray shelters! They are only around $30 or so, and such a great tool when spray painting. My first one was getting pretty crusty, so I bought a second one, and then decided I just couldn’t throw the first one away…so sometimes I use both! I also have a medium sized one and a large one!

After giving this little rack a good coat of Behr’s Gray Morning made into DIY chalk paint (recipe HERE), I used my silhouette(I have this one HERE.) to added a number to the top:

No significance in the number two; I just happen to think it is a pretty looking number in this Bodidly font. 🙂

A little sanding with 220 grit sandpaper all over and a topcoat of Dixie Belle’s Satin Clear Coat and this little rack was done!

And there you have it, a tale of two racks…makeovers that is!

And that completes this round:

Or does it? You might have noticed that I have yet to tackle the two smaller drawers. I’m saving those for a project I have in mind for the Spring!

If you missed any of the previous redos from this thrift store haul, you can find them all linked below:

$10 Thrift Store Wall Cabinet

80’s Towel Bar Shelf Repurposed

Weird Tote Makeover

Pretty Thrift Store Mirror Makeover

$2 Thrift Store Drawer Upcycle

Drop-Leaf Table Makeover

Thrift Store Picture Repurposed

Drawer Upcycle #2

Silver Tray Makeover

I really enjoyed working through this pile piece by piece and it seems y’all did too!

I’ve been shopping and have a new pile of goodies to start sharing with you soon.

I’ll meet y’all back here for Trash-to-Treasure Tuesday. I’m sharing what I did with the other leftover drop leaf:

UPDATE!! No need to come back…see what I did with this leftover drop leaf piece HERE now!

Have a fantastic weekend!!

XO,

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