Repurposing an Old Window

Happy New Year everyone!! I'm hoping to share many craft ideas with you this year! There may be a small delay as I broke my finger on Monday :( I was hiking with my dogs when their leashes wrapped around my fingers as I was pulling them away from another dog. They were very excited and pulled the other way and well, I have my first broken bone at 28. Not the best way to start the New Year, but I'm thankful that nothing worse happened! And, I'm now learning how to do everything with my left hand. Luckily, I finished the project below on Monday before the incident!

I bought two windows at an event called "Junk Day" held in the parking lot of an antique store near me. The guy sold me the windows- both for $10. Below is the before and after of one window.

Before:

After:

I decided to wipe it off using vinegar and dish soap. Once I started cleaning it, some of the old paint started chipping off and the calk started coming out of the frame. At this point, I thought it was best to go ahead and remove all of the calk and take the glass panes out.

Cleaning the window.

Removing the calk. 

The calk came out easy for the most part. When it did not come straight out, I used the a paint scraper tool (pictured below) to brake it and scrape it out. Note: Be careful and use gloves for the project in case the glass breaks.

I was then able to pull the glass panes out of the window. This made the rest of the project (sanding, painting, etc.) much easier and meant no painters tape!!! (Great for me since I am terrible at taping straight lines)

Once I pulled all of the panes out, I wiped them down with soapy water and scraped the paint off of them with my amazing scraper tool.

Tip: If you are struggling to scrape the paint off, lay a wet wash cloth over that area for 5-10 min and the paint/calk will soften and it will be much easier to scrape off. Also, please use gloves and glasses here- the edges of the panes shatter very easily.

Before and after cleaning and scraping.

I set the glass panes aside and got back to the frame of the window.

Bare frame.

I scraped off all the old paint that I could. 

When I was done scraping the paint and cleaning the frame, I had this:

Which was a HUGE improvement from this:

Next, it was time to paint! I sifted through all of the paint samples that I have and found this color that I love:

Using a 1" brush, I painted the entire frame:

Then, to give a distressed look, I lightly brushed on a cream colored paint.

Lastly, I calked the around the panes and placed the glass back into the frame. Then, calked the over the edge again.

Calked prior to setting glass in.

Put the glass back in place.

And, calked the outer edge.

Giving me this! This is the backside of the window which I decided not to paint.

And once again, the final project:

I have not decided exactly what I am going to do with it. Thinking about putting pictures in the panes and hanging it in our house. I will definitely show you what I decide to do!