Pottery Barn Inspired Message Center

One thing (out of many!) that I love about Pottery Barn’s designs is how they combine historic charm with everyday practicality. As I was dreaming up ideas for the kitchen office area, that’s the “feel” I wanted to go for.

After the dresser was painted from black to white, I needed to find something to hang above it. I’ve always loved old windows, so I thought I’d start with one of those. This one came from my friend (Thanks, Melissa!), and was just perfect! It was already the right color and distressed to perfection…

My husband cut out old pieces of plywood to fit each opening. I then started dreaming up what to put in each space. This is what we came up with:

The lower middle one was painted with black acrylic paint. The purpose was to try to disguise the telephone – it’s not very “vintage” looking! (I think this would have worked great with chalkboard paint, too.)
I tore apart an old, cheap cork board I’d gotten from Ikea. I cut it to fit with a ruler and x-acto knife. It was just a tad too short, so I patched the bottom together and then hid the seam with vintage letters (see number 5).
The largest opening I covered with some painter’s drop cloth. I just stapled it on the backside of the plywood piece.
I covered a big cardboard “H” with black scrapbook paper.
These vintage letters was given to me by a dear 93-year-old gentleman. He learned to read with them! I was happy to be able to incorporate them into this project. (If you don’t have any vintage letters kicking around, scrabble tiles would also work…or an old wooden ruler.)
I pounded in two as-rusty-as-I-could-find nails and strung a piece of jute up to them. Then I dug out my oldest, grayest clothespins and attached some old recipe cards (from Grandma’s recipe box) on them. It’s my favourite part!

Here’s what it looked before (sort of “during the reno” process):