Trash to Treasure - New Scrapbooking Paper Organizer

A few weeks ago my hubby and I went down to the local flea market looking for some items for our new house. While walking around at the flea market, I spotted this really old and ugly wooden paper sorter or mail rack sitting underneath a table. (above photo shows it in an ugly puke green color)

The seller told me that it was 50 years old and that it was once used in an office to sort mail and papers. I measured the slots (cubby holes) and they are the perfect size to hold sheets of 8 1/2" by 11" scrapbooking paper. The wooden piece is really solid but had a lot of scratches and was painted an ugly puke green color.

The seller was asking $10.00 for it but I talked him down to $4.00 and brought it home. I knew it would be perfect once painted for my scrapbooking and craft room to hold all of my scrapbooking paper. Ewwwww! Look at that ugly green color! Photo above shows it before I hit it with the sander and paint!

The photo above shows it drying after I hit it with the white paint & the clear acrylic sealer. Much better looking now!

Once we got it home, we cleaned it and sanded it with a palm sander to remove the old paint finish and scratches. We then sprayed it with a white primer and left it dry overnight. The next day, I painted it with matte white paint and left it dry overnight again. The following day I sprayed it down with a clear acrylic sealer to seal the paint.

Once it was all done, I had hubby hang it up in my craft & sewing room so that I could store all of my smaller sized scrapbooking papers in it. It's nice to have them all sorted by color hue, types of print, etc. Makes finding the right paper a lot easier now when I sit down to scrapbook!

This entire project took me 3 days to complete and for a total cost of $9.89. I love Trash to Treasure bargains like this one! Yay! Now to hit that flea market again next week :)

Happy Crafting!