Pottery Barn Advent Calendar Knock Off

by Shanna Gilbert

A few weeks ago, I received the Pottery Barn catalog in the mail, and like normal I was drooling over just about everything. One thing that really caught my eye was the Gilt Galvanized Advent Calendar. I loved the way it looked, but the price tag of $159 was not in my budget.

pottery barn advent calendar knock off, christmas decorations, crafts, seasonal holiday decor

I loved the way it looked, but the price tag of $159 was not in my budget.

I decided to make my own.

The first thing I needed was a frame. I didn’t want to go out and buy one, and I didn’t have time to make one. I went down to the basement to search through my hoard and found this old mirror that I had removed from an old dresser. It was already in good condition, and I didn’t even need to stain it. I just popped out the mirror and checked that box off.

Next, I cut out a piece of tempered hardboard (I normally have this around for my chalkboard my projects) to fit inside the mirror frame. I painted it brown using Plaster Paint in Espresso.

After that dried, Topher attached the board into the frame.

Next I needed the tiny buckets. I went all over town and couldn’t find any, and I didn’t have time to order any. I popped into Dollar Tree for one last-ditch effort, and I was shocked to find them in their wedding section.

I spray painted them with several coats of Rust-oleum Metallic Paint &Primer In One in Soft Iron and let them dry for an hour or two between coats.

Now they weren’t galvanized, but I liked the darker pewter color better, so I’m OK with that.

Topher then glued them onto the board with a hot glue gun after measuring off that they were spaced correctly.

Last came the labels. I couldn’t find any label paper that was that the brown-paper-bag color I wanted, so I decided to print the ovals with the numbers on brown scrapbook paper from Michael’s. The numbers were brown, and I wanted them to be white, so I used a Sharpie Paint Pen to fill them in. I had to go over them several times for the white to show up.

I then cut out my ovals and glued them onto my buckets with a glue stick.

I then added a few decorations from my Christmas stash as well as Michael’s dollar bins.

Here is the breakdown:

$9 at Dollar Tree for the buckets

The frame I already had

The piece of wood I already had (about $9 for a 4×8 sheet at Lowes)

$3 for Christmas decorations

$1.60 for scrapbook paper

$7.56 for the spray paint

Grand Total $21.16

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1 question

Marjorie on Dec 03, 2021

Approximately how big is it?

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Ramona Robnett Sprecco on Nov 15, 2017

Got my buckets.......ready to go! I love this idea. I've seen several versions but yours is so cute!

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Marjorie on Dec 03, 2021

Love it.

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