Well do I have a story for you today! In April, I saw some shutter dividers at HL for $300. I thought they were pretty, but I wasn’t going to shovel out that kind of money, and besides I really didn’t have a use for them. Months later though, I was still thinking about them. Every time I went to the store I went and admired them. Yep, still there & I still love ‘em. One time when I was looking at them in June, I noticed that one of them was scratch. Some of the paint was chipping and the wood had been damaged.
JACKPOT!
I tracked the store manager down and ask him if I could have the divider at a reduced price. He quickly said sure, and asked me for how much.
Thinking that my offer was ludicrous, I squinted & whispered up at him, “$50?”.
“Sure!”
Man do I wish I had said $25! lol But still, $50 is waaaaay less than $300. And since I planned on demolishing the dividers on my own anyways, I didn’t care that it came with a few dents.
So I purchased it and brought my new divider home. Boy, was this thing heavy! I wish I had been one of my neighbors watching me try to maneuver up the stairs with this thing. I bet I looked hilarious.
I used a screw driver to separate the panels into the three partitions. Using gray primer, I spray painted both sides twice. I used a gray primer because I am lazy & cheap didn’t want to be painting my life away. I wanted the shutter to be gray so I just used gray primer and then I wouldn’t need any extra coats of paint. Easy enough, right?!
Once it was dry, I went back with my trusty sandpaper and distressed the panel. There was no method to my madness here. I just wanted the shutter to look old.
Then I painted some clothes pins white and had pictures of Phil and I printed in sepia tones. I attached the pictures to the shutter with the clothespins. I figured with the shutters being distressed and the sepia photographs, I could get the romantic antiqued look I was after.
The former room divider is now a shutter holding pictures of me and the Mr behind our reading chair. 
What do you think?
