We Left, But Our Corners Didn't!

Hello Ladies. Welcome to the mansion this evening.

Have you ever arrived at your new "mansion" and found that several of your pieces of furniture lost their corners along the way? Somehow that bookcase lost a complete edge or corner....Somehow your mantle lost a big wooden hunk.... This happened to us a few months ago. Luckily we did not need to use those pieces of furniture here at the rental mansion. However, we are wanting to use them at the next place. So....what to do? Should we buy new furniture to replace the broken ones? NOOOOOOOOOO. Then what? Ladies....let me introduce you to Joint Compound. It is a wonderful goo that comes in a bucket like the one above. You can buy it at Walmart or Lowe's. It is really cheap, lasts forever, and you can do oodles of thing with it.

Like I said, we lost two corners on this move. So, I grabbed the joint compound, stirred it up with a plastic knife, and started slapping it on the broken furniture. It has the consistency of thin play doh. You just use the plastic knife or your fingers and mold a new corner or edge.

Here is the bookcase with the new corner. It takes a good day or two for the joint compound to dry. In this case, the bookcase was raw wood. So, we painted it black after I fixed the corner. Here is the mantle with the compound on it. The mantle was already black, so we just painted it again. And wala..... You can also use joint compound to create a frieze, or raised stencil, on your walls. Here is a pic of that.... With this project, you place the stencil on the wall and wipe joint compound over the stencil with a spatula. Remove the stencil and let it dry. Here is a great craft using joint compound. Start with a clay pot. Smash up some old china or tiles. Smear the joint compound on the pot in a small area. Place pieces of the china or tile into the compound. Work your way around the pot in the same fashion. Let it dry. This can also be done with tile adhesive to hold the tile and then grout to fill in.
This is my VERY FAVORITE use of joint compound. These are faux snowballs. I am going to make a zillion of them for our Christmas tree this year. Start with a styrofoam ball. Roll it in the joint compound until you like the look. Let it dry. Spread some mod podge or glue on the snowball and roll it in glitter. Let it dry. Hot glue a ribbon on top. There ya go....gorgeous snowballs.

So, if you lose a corner, if you want a frieze, if you want a new flower pot, or if you need a snowball, grab your vat of joint compound and get busy. Enjoy. Laura