Hakuna Matata

We had a yard sale on Saturday. In preparing for the yard sale, I went through the house on Friday night and grabbed every sit around that didn't have a specific spot in the house that I didn't absolutely love. My golden spray painted lion didn't make the cut.

But then when we were putting everything out on tables in the driveway too early on Saturday morning, I just couldn't part with him. His mates are a golden giraffe and elephant, who currently appear to be grazing on some faux plants in the dining room. (Cue "Circle of Life" which our little lady has been singing as "Circle of Light" in the car lately.)

After the yard sale, we went to Habitat for Humanity ReStore to look for a cheap headboard for our son. Score, and for under $10. (Expect an update in a few weeks with the transformation using chalky paint.) And then I happened to see a stack of 50 cent bricks on our way out.

And the wheels were a turnin'...

Golden lion + brick painted white = perfect book end!

The brick was pretty rough looking, but for 25 cents (yes, apparently they were on sale!) I could make it work. I picked the smoothest side for the lion's throne. And my Target dollar spot lion had a few spots in his beard mane that needed another hit of gold.

A little spray paint and E6000 glue and time.

I used some cork self-adhesive shelf liner that I had for the bottom so the brick wouldn't scuff up our shelves. It seems to be adhering fine, but if it starts coming off, I plan to switch to white felt.

And then I realized that I had put together this project from inspiration from two projects from blogs I follow. See Cassie's elephant bookends here and Jackie's gilded menagerie (the reason I have all three dollar spot animals in my home today) here.

His name is Mufasa and he cost less than $2.

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How have you transformed items with spray paint? What combinations of items have you put together to make a new functional or decorative (or bonus points for both!) item for your home?