Have you ever been walking through a thrift store looking for your next upcycling project and saw something that screamed “take me home and turn me into something awesome!” That’s what happened with this little retro coaster set. It was the proverbial puppy looking at me with big brown eyes. Well, maybe not quite that dramatic but I just knew I could do something special with it, though at the time I had no idea what. So I set in my basket and off to to the checkout I went, along with a few other finds.

It sat on my craft room shelf for quite a while as I pondered what I might create with it. Then I did what I always do when I have a “crafters block”. I called my daughter Jennifer. And thus from that old brown retro coaster set a beautiful gold and white picture holder was born. Nothing warms my heart more than an upcycling project where I give an old item a new home. FYI this is also fits into our Buff Your Stuff series so you might want to take a peek at those other items. Speaking of which, you’ve got to check out two of our other favorite things made from another time that seems to be in abundance in thrift stores: Brass candle holders. First is our Classy Jewelry Stand and the second is a Portable Recipe Holder!

Retro Coaster Upcycling Project Supplies

Old Coaster Set
Paint
Glue
Photos

Instructions

This is what the coaster looked like straight out of the thrift store.

It needed a little cleaning up.

I also had to remove the top pieces.

Then the spray painting began!

I found that a spray paint cap was the perfect size for tracing my photos.

I found photos I wanted and traced them.

I then cut them out.

Perfect fit!

There were just enough trays for each family member to have a photo with one extra so I made a special circle with our family name and printed it out to go on the very top tray.