Thrift Store Finds To Upcycle: 80’s Magazine Rack
Upcycle Thrift Store Finds
With a little imagination, and a little paint, you can upcycle thrift store finds like this magazine rack and give it a new purpose! Let’s chat about this great idea and give this piece a whole new look and new life!
Secondhand Items With A Repurposed Life
When you are at your local thrift store, you are probably going to see several magazine racks. People are getting rid of them because so many people are not subscribing to magazines anymore. Magazine racks are common thrift store finds and are such an easy project to makeover!
Magazine racks can come in several different designs. Almost all of them have handles so they can be easily moved from one room to the next.
Here are some magazine rack examples that I have found at my local second-hand store: flat wood sides that are angled, a magazine storage area below a tabletop, individual sections to hold magazines, and spindle-designed magazine racks like the one I brought home this past year. Yep, I’ve had this piece for a year!
Step One: Clean The Piece
The first step to upcycle a thrift store find is to clean it. This magazine rack was in good condition and didn't have any missing pieces, but it was dirty. They are almost always dusty, but they could also have a build-up of years of furniture polish and oils from hands that used the piece.
A solution of hot soapy water usually does the trick. If you think the piece has extra oil and grime, especially near the handle, here is a post to show you step-by-step how to prepare a piece for MilkPaint™.
Step Two: Decide On The Paint Color And Finish
Now it’s time to decide if you will want your piece to have a chippy MilkPaint™ finish or if you want complete coverage without chipping. Most times, I prefer the chippy paint finish. That’s what I decided for this 80’s magazine rack. There was no need to add any MilkGrip™ Indoor Bonding Agent to the MilkPaint™ since I wasn’t worried about chipping. If you want a chip-free paint finish, use MilkGrip™.
I chose the color Mustard Seed Yellow for this piece as a nod to the back-to-school season coming up - you know, the color of a school bus! I’ll tell you why I am thinking back to school later in this post when we chat about the repurpose idea I have for this magazine rack.
Step Three: Mix The MilkPaint™ And Paint The Piece!
Mixing MilkPaint™ is so easy! Use equal parts of tepid water and dry milk paint powder. I like to use a small mason jar with a lid. The paint can be stored in the fridge if your project takes more than one day to complete.
Paint the piece with the number of coats that will cover the piece. Keep in mind dark finishes with a light color of paint can take up to four coats. On rare occasions, more coats of paint might be needed depending on how dark the original finish is.
For this magazine rack that was made up of lots of spindles, I used a small artist's paintbrush that I purchased at my local box store. The small paintbrush made easy work of painting the spindles.
Step Four: Allow The MilkPaint™ To Chip Naturally
Depending on the original finish of the piece, the MilkPaint™ will start to chip. Let me explain: if the original finish is shiny, the paint is more likely to chip. Also, if the piece wasn’t thoroughly cleaned and there is still residue from furniture polish or oils, the paint will chip in those places. And one last point to make about MilkPaint™ chipping - sometimes it just chips wherever it wants! That's part of the fun of using MilkPaint™!
With that said, my magazine rack didn’t chip as much as I would have liked, so I had to help it along a bit. I used an old knife to gently scrape and chip the paint in areas it might naturally chip after the piece has been used for a while.
Step Five: Seal The MilkPaint™
There are several ways to seal MilkPaint™. It can be waxed, oiled with hemp oil, or coated in a clear top coat. I used MilkCoat™ in a Matte finish. It has a thick consistency and is so easy to use!
I applied the MilkCoat™ with a small chip brush. One coat did the trick! MilkCoat™ dries really fast. If you think your piece needs a second coat, you won’t have to wait long for the first coat to dry before painting the second coat!
Repurposed Thrift Store Makeovers
Now that the thrift store 1980’s magazine rack is finished let’s think of a new purpose for it! This is where my back-to-school idea comes into play.
Here’s the thing, many of us don’t subscribe to magazines as we did in the 80’s and 90’s. In fact, the couple of magazines I subscribe to are on my coffee table! So instead of tossing these pieces in the trash, use them as electronic device charging centers.
Laptops, iPads, Chrome Books, and Kindles are just about the size of magazines! And kids these days use devices like this for school work. Many of them come home in book bags and need a place to charge!
Using a magazine rack for a device charger (just lay a power strip under the magazine rack!) also means that all of the devices will be in one location, helping you to get your family out of the door on school mornings.
Having the devices gathered and charged the night before is a great way to help your kids get to the school bus on time! I am also sharing more back-to-school tips on the YouTube video that accompanies this blog post. Be sure to watch it!
One of the best things about upcycling this magazine rack with milk paint is that it goes with my other vintage-style home decor items! If you find a fun project like this sweet little vintage piece the next time you are at a local garage sale or your local thrift shop, grab it! A fresh coat of paint can make these little furniture pieces a lovely decorative element for your home!
Video Tutorial
If you’re a visual learner, I know you’re going to enjoy this video tutorial that I created for you!
More Thrift Store Items To Upcycle
Just for fun, I thought I would give you a couple of other ideas for thrift flipping with a back-to-school purpose in mind.
● Wicker baskets are very useful when trying to organize school supplies the kiddos might need, like pencils, glue sticks, crayons, erasers, and sharpeners.... The list could go on and on!
● Vintage frames can be turned into little chalkboards that kids can use to practice math skills like addition, subtraction, and multiplication. They would love to have their own little chalkboards!
● An old cabinet door can also be painted with Typewriter milk paint and then used as a chalkboard.
● You can find a bulletin board at local garage sales as well as thrift stores. Attach a piece of cork, and the kids can use it to show off their artwork from school!
● Find an old sign at the thrift store, paint it with milk paint and change the words to words of encouragement (use a Cricut machine) the kids can see each morning as they leave for the day.
That's it for today! Did you enjoy this thrifted item with a different purpose than it originally started with? This was one of my best thrift store makeovers.
Finding thrift store DIY projects like old magazine racks and then giving them different purposes than their original intention is one of the great things about my job! Sharing those upcycle projects with you, well, that just makes my day!
