I found this wooden bunny for just a few dollars at the thrift store and knew, with a little love, it'd be a perfect addition to my Easter decor. I wasn't sure where this DIY would go when I started and knew it'd be a lot of experimentation and letting the piece lead the project to where it needed to go. Let's just say, this bunny is a great example of a thrift/DIY tip of mine: just keep screwing around with it until it's right.
Wasn't feeling the original gold and red color scheme so that was the first thing to go. I didn't know what wood I'd find under all that paint, but I decided to sand it down anyway before just giving it a new paint job.
It was work to get through those layers, so once one side was finished, I decided I'd make the bunny reversible and give him both a dark and light look. The other side looked like it would be even worse to sand down and I wanted to avoid that whole mess.
I painted one side a creamy white and added a few streaks of dark charcoal for a weathered look. There was a lot of texture under the existing paint on this side which I was annoyed with at first, but ended up liking when it was finished.
On the other side, I did several coats of a watered-down green stain I had in the back of my paint closet. I liked the mossy feel the green gave while still letting the natural wood show through.
(This picture is one coat short of the finished look.)
Lastly, I painted over the red rim with the charcoal I used on the white side of the bunny.
You'd think styling this guy would be the easy part, but he was determined to live anywhere but where I tried to put him! I rearranged my green shelves for an hour only to find he didn't fit anywhere. I tried setting up a little Spring display on a cabinet, but nothing felt like it aligned with my style.
Finally, I got the idea to turn him into a "wreath" for the front door. Both the green and white sides would go great with my yellow door and my exterior could use a little personality boost.
Hanging him was unnecessarily hard. What worked in the end was hammering a ribbon into his face and booty. I also tied an extra little ribbon onto my wreath hook so it looked more styled.
My bunny got an updated wardrobe via a floral baby headband and some pink chiffon ribbon. In my head, the green with flowers is a cute little lady bunny and the white bunny is a gentleman with a fancy scarf.
When I was planning this article, I literally made a note to myself that it would probably be a short, easy project that would need a lot of styled "after" photos as the focus. I totally jinxed myself there. This bunny made me work for it, but I do love how it turned out in the end. Sometimes you just need to keep trying things out and screwing around with a project until you get it right.