This oversized shutter farmhouse decor idea is a great way to fill a boring blank wall in your home, on your porch, or even in your garden!
Not to brag or anything, but I’m pretty proud of myself for this one. 🙂 A few years ago, I saw someone use a few big ol’ shutters in home decor and I thought it was a great look. I love using little shutters here and there to fill in blank spots on walls or on console table and I thought this giant shutter idea was just like that, but even better. The problem was that these particular shutters had been salvaged off of an old plantation-style house with giant windows and those kinds of houses just aren’t too easy to find here in Canada, and neither are the shutters that came with them. I found a solution though and I think it’s pretty clever. It’s also really easy to copy and super affordable!
I’ve teamed up with a few of my blogger friends to share some great, thrifty style ideas to get you moving on all of your DIY dreams today. If your reactions to some of my past posts are any indication, I think you’re going to like this group. 🙂 Just keep scrolling down when you get to the bottom of this post to visit all of the other bloggers and check out their fun thrifty style ideas as well!
Clever Oversized Shutter Decor
Of course, when I’m looking for something like this, our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore is always my first stop. Our store usually has quite a few small shutters to choose from, but of course that section of the store didn’t have any in the size that I was looking for. So I headed over to the doors!
And I found about 30 of exactly what I was looking for and they were $15 per door!
Bam! Outdated louvered closet doors, you now have a new lease on life!
How to Use Old Closet Doors as Decor
All I had to do to make these old doors look shuttery was to remove the little hinges that were holding them together and I ended up with two separate “shutters”.
I had a particular use in mind and these closet doors were a bit too tall so I had to cut one down a bit. This is actually a super easy task on a louvered door because you really only need to cut through the outer frame on each side, so it can even be done with a handsaw if you don’t have a big miter saw or table saw handy.
I was fine just leaving it like that, but Chris (being the perfectionist that he is) wanted to reassemble the bottom to make it look like a full shutter. So we cut a few of the louvers out and reattached the bottom part of the frame with some wood glue.
I painted the shutter using a dark grey outdoor paint and added a little dry brushing in on top to give it some age and character.
And here’s where it ended up!
I felt like our side porch was looking a bit sad during these bleak winter months, so I wanted to find something to give it a bit of life and character while we wait for the spring flowers.
I gathered some seed pods and some dried hydrangeas from the garden, which I thought was another pretty smart and thrifty little decorating move. 🙂
I stuck a command hook on the back of my new giant shutter to hang a little sign as well.
Now that I’ve cut this one down, I still have one larger shutter to work with somewhere else around the house. I’m off to find an empty wall somewhere that’s in need of some personality!
Make sure to visit all my friends listed below for more thrifty style inspiration!
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.