New Uses for Old Shutters

As you guys know, my husband and I live in an old Craftsman style bungalow that was built in the 1950s. When the house was remodeled in 2007, the old shutters were taken down from the windows and placed in the back of the detached garage. One day, after we moved in, my husband was cleaning out the garage and was finding all kinds of crazy things... including a fossilized opossum! Well, that we threw out after a few screams and laughs and yes, the obligatory iPhone photo,  but we kept the old shutters because they were so cool and I knew we could do something awesome with them.

First we were thinking they would make a great headboard for our bed, so we got some 1x4 planks and screwed five of the shutters together. It looks really great all put together, but there are a few problems. First, the shutters are still painted black which I thought would work in our bedroom, but as it turns out kinda makes our bedroom morph into a black hole. Second, the shutters need a little lift from the floor. When they are just sitting on the floor they look a little too short to go behind the bed.

So...long story short, before we do any permanent fixes like with paint or mounting them to the wall, I thought I would search the web for some ideas and share them with you while I'm at it.

So here are some of my favorite uses of old shutters:

*Update! Our headboard is finally finished! You can see it and more uses for old shutters here.