Have you ever received a gift from someone who was so thoughtful but just not, well, your style?  Do you hide it and bring it out when the giver is on their way to your house?  Do you donate the item and hope they do not look for it when they come over?  Do you display the item anyway? Or do you hang the hand painted picture you received for your wedding in the garage?

( True story, we received a very thoughtful, hand painted picture for our wedding.  However, we just could not make the Aztec inspired fluorescent orange, yellow, green and purple colors piece work with our decor. So we have hung it in the garage. At least we still have it, right?)

I always feel guilty when someone has been thoughtful enough to buy or make something for me and I, well, um, uh…am just not too fond of the piece.  And as you can imagine, living in a small house, I just do not have that many hiding places to display everything .

Sooo, when I received a thoughtful gift recently from Mr. Cabana’s Aunt, I was again pressed with “where am I going to put this?!?” anxiety.  The piece itself was cute, though I did not care for the colors.  I could have left it as is and put it in the garden by the playhouse.  But I am just not too fond of having stuff around “just for the sake of having it around”.

So what is a girl to do when faced with a gift that just does not “speak” to her?

Spray paint it!

Yup!  I got out my trusty cream spray paint and sprayed the piece!

{I recommend gloves when spray painting so you do not spend more time on clean up than actually painting.}

I wanted to bring out the details of the piece so I mixed brown acrylic paint with a little water, brushed the “glaze” onto the piece and wiped off the excess with a paper towel.

It has more of a “shabby chic” look .  I may go back and add a bit more brown glaze to “My Garden”.   But for now, I like the piece a lot more than before. And it will look cute in the little planter underneath the playhouse window.

Have you ever come up with a clever way to “re-purpose” a thoughtful gift?  I would love to hear what you did!

Until next time,

Butterscotch Lady