Spindles speak to days gone by… elaborate banisters in sweeping estates, the spokes of vintage carriage wheels, a punchy touch in old West saloons… Spindles are the essence of good old charm, so when I came across these twisted beauties, I decided to revive them for the young ones in our life. When December 1st hits the Advent countdown will be on!

It’s the second Wednesday of the month, and today is reveal day for our monthly Thrifty Chicks challenge. This month our theme is spindles and I’m excited to be back. I missed last month’s challenge so I can’t wait to see what the others have been up to. At the end of this post I’ll be sharing links to all of the projects so you can see what these creative gals have been up to as well.

Repurposed Spindles

When I was brainstorming the things I could make with old spindles I had a bunch of ideas, but when I tried to hunt my spindles down they were harder to find than I bargained on. Bargain is the key word here since being thrifty is what these challenges are all about.

Finally, on my last day left to go spindle hunting I came across this set of four twisted beauties. They weren’t at all what I had in mind, but when I saw them I knew they were the ones.

Finding Inspiration

The price was definitely right. I paid $8 for all four and two of them even had a few extra finishing pieces attached. Bonus! The only catch was I had to rethink my project. I wandered around Michaels to see what was going on in the crafting world, and that’s when I spied this little snowman. I kind of liked the way he looked, and my idea took off from there.

I have this roll of vintage upholstery webbing that just keeps on giving. It’s a huge roll that’s been a part of my life now for at least 6 or 7 year. It’s been hard to put a dent in, and no word of a lie, there’s been quite a few projects that have tried.

You might remember this magazine stand I made a few years ago, and I also made an Advent calendar. These are just two of the many projects this roll has indulged. Anyway, when I saw the little shabby chic snowman hanging out at Michaels, that’s when I decided to make another calendar, but this one with the new twist in the spindles!

Shabby Chic with Chalk Paint

The first step was to chalk paint the spindles. I wanted to give them the same chippy, shabby chic look of the snowman, and more of a wintery feel.

While the paint was drying I planned out the calendar. This time around I decided to work with just the webbing strips and sew them to create pockets. For this post I’m not going into the DIY steps to create the Advent calendar, I’ll do that in a separate tutorial and link back. Stay tuned.

What I’m really focusing on and featuring are the spindles. Once the paint was rubbed off, reapplied, rubbed off some more and buffed down to the look I wanted, I applied clear wax to protect it.

To my eye the chalk paint seems to have a bluer undertone to it compared to the snowman, and at first that wasn’t working for me. But when I compared the original spindles with the repurposed look, I knew I was overthinking the whole point of the challenge. Sometimes you just have know when to let go!

I know Halloween is just around the corner, but as the saying goes, Christmas is coming! For anyone wanting to DIY their own Advent calendar it’s nice to get a jump on it and have some time to work with. We all know how time flies in this quarter of the year.

And now I am sharing the rest of the Thrifty Chicks projects. Just click on the link beside each name to see the full post and reveal for each teaser spindle project in the image!

1. Tuula at Color Me Thrifty – DIY Clock From Repurposed Spindles
2. Linda at Itsy Bits and Pieces – A DIY Wood Spindle Pumpkin
3. Spindles and Snowman – that’s me!
4. Tania at Little Vintage Cottage – Repurposed Spindle Valance

I hope you are inspired to try your own project with spindles, and if you do I’d love to know what you make. Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Thanks for stopping by. I’m so glad you did!

Photographs © Audrey Would! Vintage Home unless otherwise indicated.