I love collecting globes for my son’s room. They come in all shapes and sizes, colors and forms. They are educational and are the perfect accesory for a kid’s room.
I was browsing the Goodwill Outlet on Freedom Drive one day, and came across this figurine.
Dated, for sure. In fact, I picked it up and put it back. But one of the keys to thrifting is being able to see a diamond in the rough. As I walked by it for a second time, it struck me I could turn this into a globe for my son’s growing collection in his bookcase.
The first step was to remove the wire appendages. I was able to do this simple by bending them with pliers until they snapped off.
Next, I had to tackle the spackles. There were these textured spots all over the sphere.
Although once painted, they may look like land formations, it wasn’t quite the look I was going for. So I pulled out my sander and smoothed them down.
This took come of the paint off in the process but that was fine, as I intended on painting it anyways.
Once the sphere was smoothed out, I taped off the base and cracked open my Annie Sloan chalk paint in graphite, perfect chalkboard color.
A little hint, every color of chalk paint can be used as chalkboard paint as well!
After drying I took a chalk pen (which can be found at most craft stores) and painted my version of a map onto my new globe.
Here it is at home with the entire collection. The largest globe to the right was a Goodwill score as well. Ironically, my son had just asked for a similar globe and that Saturday, we ran across one and snatched it up.
– Kim
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