Sunflower Garden Decor - A Repurposed Project

8 Materials
$15.00
2 Hours
Easy
I love a great thrift store find. But what I REALLY love is laying my eyes on something and immediately seeing what it can become! That's exactly what happened when I saw this outdated wall clock and envisioned a sunny decor piece for the garden. Visit with me for a few minutes and I'll show you what I found, and how I gave it a bright new face for the garden!
Once upon a time (1962, to be exact) I suppose this was lovely. I found it at a local thrift store last month for just $3, and although it's current charm was lost on me, I immediately thought of one thing - a sunflower. Don't you see that?
First, I had to get rid of that brash face, as well as the mechanism that was on the back (which, by the way, was where I found the date stamped in perfect Roman numerals).
I gave it a good scuff job with 220 grit sandpaper to remove the sheen. Don't be fooled though - it's NOT made of wood. It's actually plastic, which is perfect because it's not terribly heavy for its 23" size.
After 3 coats of paint, it was really beginning to look better. And I could see it's sunflower potential shining through. I used a combination of three paints for the petals. Visit the blog for the details on the paint technique I used to create highlights and shadows.
I gave the clock face a single coat of brown paint just to create a consistent background to attach the "seeds" to. For the seeds, I hot-glued various-shaped tiger-eyed beads and filled in the center portion, from the outer edge to the center. For the mechanism holes, I taped two small pieces of cardboard to the back, then gave them a coating of paint.
Finally, I reattached the hanger, gave it a coat of poly to protect it from the weather, and hung it on the wall on our deck. Forget the winter - I'm celebrating summertime with my bright and bold sunflower!
Don't you think that's a better face?
Suggested materials:
  • Wall clock   (thrift store)
  • Deco Art Americana Paint - School Bus   (Hobby Lobby)
  • Deco Art Americana Paint - Pumpkin Patch   (Hobby Lobby)
See all materials
To Work With My Hands
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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4 of 46 comments
  • Janis Janis on Feb 20, 2019

    Nope

  • Linda Abate Linda Abate on Feb 05, 2020

    This is such a cool way of adding some pizzaz to your fench or sheshed wall. Love the color variations. This would also make a great bird feeder if you filled the center with wild bird seed to see what type of birds this would attract. Awesome job.

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