DIY Diva in Training--Something Out of Nothing

It's time for another DIY Diva in Training post!  If you read my first post, I attended a 26 mile yard sale in my hometown and made out like a bandit!  As a result, my garage is full of furniture pieces that are just waiting for a redo.  Some of the bigger pieces, I'm struggling with.  I want to paint them and do something fun and interesting, but I don't want to screw them up and make them look silly.  After all, they are going in my house and need to match with my decor.  So, in the meantime, I started on something easy.....or so I thought.  Do you ever have a project that you have something completely in mind and the materials you're working with don't want to cooperate AT ALL?  This is mine:

One of my yard sale finds was this thing:

I have NO idea what this is.  It's a heavy paper-like material (almost reminds me of cardboard), but moves and is lightweight.  Your guess is as good as mine.  I was just drawn to the funky geometric pattern.  And, it was a whole $1.  My sister said I could use it as a stencil, but I had something different in mind.  Something that, of course, involved spray paint!

I picked up a can of Krylon Gloss spray paint in "Bright Ideas."  I started spraying.....

The piece had spills on it that reminded me of grease or oil.  Whatever it was, it wasn't allowing the paint to stick to the material.  I sanded it down and then tried again.  MUCH better.  It took two cans of spray paint and a very heavy hand, but it finally got covered.

My original idea with this was just to paint it and hang in on the wall as a focal piece.  Just something fun, like a canvas or a picture.  But after working with it a little while, I had more "bulletin board-like" hopes for it.  First, I tried putting nails directly into it. But they didn't want to puncture through (I mean, seriously...what IS this thing??).  So my next thought was command strips.


Things like this prove that you don't have to find big furniture pieces or expensive art at a yard sale to create something fun for your home.  Be on the lookout for the unique!  The funky!  Don't look at things as they currently are, but as what they COULD be.  And always have those creative juices flowing! :)