Modernizing an Old Clock (DIY + Adventure)

by Rosie - 2:00 PM

New experiences include experimentation and stepping outside your comfort zone. Deconstructing this clock to turn it into something new -- without a guide other than my intuition -- was definitely a new experience for me.

What I used:

Old clock
Paint - I used wall paint in the color Scottish Green by Dutch Boy
Paint brushes
Screwdriver
Scrapbook paper
X-acto knife

How I did it:

First, I took the whole thing apart. You can see in one of the following pictures, the glass -- which I totally got fingerprints all over -- and the ring around the clock that I removed.
Next, I painted the outer plastic ring the color I wanted -- mint green. I let it dry then painted on another coat to make it truly opaque.
The next thing I did was take the clock hands off the body of the clock. This led to the discovery that the numbers on the inside of the clock were printed on to a sheet of paper. The original plan had been to paint it, but instead, I ripped it out as carefully as I could and traced around it on a sheet of scrapbook paper I wanted to use as my new background. Then I cut it out, making sure to poke a hole in the middle for the clock hands to go through.
Next, I searched the Internet for inspiration. I settled on putting just the quarter hours (12, 3, 6 and 9) on the clock. So I printed out a sheet of numbers to stick onto the background I cut out, but when I went to cut them out, the colors I had chosen didn't quite give me that "this is right" feeling. I experimented with coloring over them with metallic Sharpie and that looked great. I loved it. The problem? I got Sharpie on my scrapbook paper! Eek! I tried to play it off and make it look like it was sprayed on, but that only made things worse. So I chose some new paper, used the stencil to cut it out and started over. This time, with no Sharpie.
On some grey textured scrapbook paper, I stenciled numbers. My mother cut them out with an x-acto knife (a long, tedious process) and I used glue dots to stick them in place.
Once I was happy with how everything looked, I put the clock back together.

This is how it turned out...

Before:

After:

All in all, I am really happy with how my clock turned out. It took me a lot longer than originally intended, but that's the way projects go sometimes. You just have to take things as they come and adjust from there.