Recycled Dresser Mirror

Work is underway in my guest/sewing room. I am finally reclaiming my lost space that had devolved into a storage heap! While doing some rearranging, I moved a dresser that formerly occupied that room to the living room. Since it was placed under a window, I couldn't use the mirror that had been on top.



I decided to repurpose it as a wall mirror in the guest/sewing room, but felt it was lacking something when I hung it up. I decided what it was missing was a shelf underneath, so I decided to build one using some materials I had on hand...a 3/4 inch thick board, and some cheesy plastic brackets that I found at Goodwill a while back.



To start, I measured and cut the board to about eight inches longer than the length of the bottom edge of the mirror.



Then I sanded the rough sides of the board as well as rounded down the edges to make a bit of a softer line.



This is how it looked when I finished sanding.



Next I painted the board and brackets. When painting the brackets, I left a little bit of the underlying gold showing through for a more aged look.



Here it is all put together. It was painful for me to share this photo...you can see in the mirror reflection the mess I'm still working through to reclaim the room.



Here are a couple of detail shots. First, the top of the mirror.



And where the shelf and mirror join.



All in all, not too bad for a freebie project, don't you think? Work on the room is going slowly because of some extra hours at my job, but it is coming along. I'll have lots of innexpensive project ideas coming out of this re-do, so I hope you'll check in with me again soon.

Until next time,
Sheilla

This post is shared on "Show and Tell Friday" at Cindy's gorgeous blog, My Romantic Home. You should check it out....lots of great ideas to discover! My apologies Cindy! Due to a cut and paste error, I am late in crediting your party! So sorry!!!

Simple as Black and White

I seem to be on a black and white kick lately. While I've always loved lots of white in my house, lately I've been deviating a bit from my usual pastels and adding some graphic punch with a number of black and white accents. I thought I'd show you some of my recent finds today. I'll start with an old photo that I came across at Goodwill last week.
While searching for some picture frames to use in the photo wall in my office, I came across this old black and white photograph of a little dog. It was housed in the most diabolical picture frame imaginable and I started to pass on it for that reason, but I kept going back and looking at this little guy, just literally begging for attention. Perhaps he belonged to a person who recently passed on. At any rate somehow he wound up at the Goodwill store because someone didn't cherish his memory, and that made me feel a little sad. I felt even sadder when thinking that someone else might buy the garish frame he was housed in and just throw away the picture, so I decided that I had to "rescue" him. Although I didn't know this pup, he will become a part of my adopted family and find a new home on my photo wall. Now I feel better!
I picked up the black and white saucer at a yard sale last weekend. It is surrounded by a bunch of great postcards that I lucked into for a dime a piece at a local close-out store.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the saucer when I bought it. Goodness knows I have more china than I know what to do with, but it was calling out,

"buy me, buy me", so I did. This is what I came up with:
Didn't it make a nice little photo frame? All I did was trace out the circle in the middle of the saucer, cut a photograph to fit and glue in place. By the way, that's me as a little girl with my grandmother's dog, Rusty.
I love old letters and numbers but rarely come across them, so I was especially excited to find this letter "D", as it is the first letter of my last name. It started out as a coat hook, though. The "D" sat atop a small wooden platform that was attached to a large hook. I sawed the platform off and painted it black.

My final find was one of those unexpected, unplanned purchases that you just know was waiting for you when you see it.
Isn't this old car just too much fun!

It found a spot on my bookcase next to the pic of my parents old Studebaker. I think they look pretty cool together. This was a tight budget week, so I think I did pretty well

with my $5.00 "allowance". Gotta love a bargain!

Until next time,

This post is shared on "Show and Tell Friday" at Cindy's gorgeous blog, My Romantic Home. You should check it out....lots of great ideas to discover!

Bare Bulb Dilema

Maybe you're lucky enough to have avoided them...but then again...maybe not. Many homes, especially older ones have a bare bulb somewhere. Pehaps yours is lurking inside your closest; or maybe it's hiding out in the garage, basement or laundry room.
Or then again...maybe not...perhaps I got them all. I have seven such fixtures in my former pizza restaurant turned rental house!

I haven't quite figured out what the person who designed the lighting was trying to achieve. Maybe they just needed lights and were on a tight budget. Whatever the reason, every room, save the kitchen and bath is at least somewhat illuminated by these creatures!

My first impulse was to replace them all with chandeliers, but that idea hit a few roadblocks. The first one was the expense of purchasing seven chandeliers. The second is my phobia of working with electricity, and finally I have to keep in mind this IS a rental house! So what to do?

One day it occured to me to replace the lowly incandescent bulbs with chandelier lights. That helped a little, but not a lot.
Then I had another idea...what if I dressed them up with some crystals... The bare bulb fixtures at my house apparently had some type of globe at one time, and the screws which once kept it in place are still here. Using that as a starting point I dangled some pretty drops from the screws. That was better, but it was still missing something.
So I layered on lengths of rope crystals to give it a little more depth. I thought about painting the fixtures, since they are pretty chippy, but decided against it as I like the contrast of rustic with refined. While still not my choice of lighting fixtures, the crystals have made the bare bulbs quite a bit more bearable than they were in their original state.

For the five bulbs in the open living area I stayed with pretty much the same design, but by the time I got to the bedrooms, I ran out of crystal chain. Time to improvise again.

This time I used a combination of crystal beads and pearls that were salvaged from old necklaces.
Perhaps one day I'll overcome my fear of electrical wiring enough to try something different. Maybe I'll come across a gorgeous chandelier that I just can't resist, and replace the central fixture with that. But in the meantime, I've learned to make do and turn my lemons into lemonade so to speak. Most of my visitors compliment my creative fixtures, so maybe they're not so terrible after all.

If you have a bare bulb lurking somewhere, you might want to try a similar treatment. If you don't have the screws to drape the crystals from, try using small cup hooks screwed into the ceiling. This approach would give you even more options when designing your "bare bulb chandelier".

Until next time,

STYLE FILE: Ready, Set, Go!

Well, the bunk beds are finally gone, so it's time to get busy and figure out my guestroom/sewing/craft area. A few weeks ago in my posts, Origins of Style Parts I and II, I mused about why we are drawn to certain looks.

For me, deciding on a look or combination of looks is one of my favorite parts of putting a room together, but equally important is following a few basic principles that will
	My messy, but soon to be decorated guestroom

guide the design process and insure that the room will live up to its expectations. In this post, I’d thought I’d share some of my essential “pre-decorating” tips.
Before the first decorative decision is made, I think the single most important thing to ask yourself is, “How will the room need to function?” In this case

I need space for a guest, a place to sew, and lots of storage space for linens, out of season clothing, paint, fabric, and various arts and crafts supplies. While I love the open floor plan of my house, I want to restrict my pets' access to this area, so a room division will need to be included in the design. That’s a pretty tall order for a 13 by 14 foot room, which leads me to the next consideration, "constraints".

Accumlated craft supplies completely block access to my sewing machine and must find a permanent home.

Probably the least fun portion of any decorating project is detemining the constraints on it. One of those is space, as I mentioned above, and planning for the funtionality needed in the available square

	footage. In my case I live in a rental cottage, so no structural changes can be made. This unfortunately includes the flooring, which is blue commercial tile, so that must be
Space, time, money and pets are things to consider when planning a room.

worked into the color scheme to avoid a major clash. Another constraint to consider is time. For me, I need to have all of my projects wrapped up by mid October so that I’ll be ready to entertain a guest. The final constraint that I must account for is budget, which is unfortunately quite small. Looking on the bright side, however, tight budgetary restrictions often spark creativity in ways that more lenient funds may not. There are lots of great flea market bargains waiting to be found, and fixing them up is certainly one of the most enjoyable aspects of putting it all together!
The next step for me is editing. I like to take an inventory of what is already in the room, and decide what needs to stay and what needs to go. If something is already working well in the space, then

there’s a pretty good chance it will be a “keeper” although it may need to be revamped to fit in with the new plan. If something is definitely not working, it needs to go….either to another room, to your favorite charity, or if you’re just not ready to part with it, to long term storage. For this room, the “keepers” are two armoires. I believe one will work without any changes and the other will have to be

This armoire is used for storing linens and will remain in the room.

restyled to compliment the new decor. The “goners” are the bunk beds and dresser that have been residing in the room. My sewing table and a small wicker table fit into the “maybe” column.

At this point, I like to sketch out a plan which will accodate all the functions of the room. Included in the plan will be all pieces of furniture that will be staying as well as plotting a space for new additions required for the room's functionality.
	One of the plans that I created for my guest/sewing room

A room plan can be done by hand or with software. There are several free internet applications which do this. The plans shown here were done using the room planner software at Conlin's site. Of the ones I've tried, I found this to be the most user friendly.

Some alternate plans for the room

If you like, you can even import the image files from the site and tweak them a bit more with graphics software such as Photoshop, as I've done in the pics directly above. Sketching things out first can save a lot of mistakes when it comes to bringing in new pieces. The sketch will show how much space is allocated for each item, and will be an important reference when shopping.
After needed items are identified, I like to shop my house to see if I already have anything that will fit the bill. In this case, the sleeper sofa from the living room

	was already ear-marked for a move. I also have a coffee table that may work in this space as an interim piece until the storage ottomans I want can be constructed. A small wicker stand that I already own can sit in for the vintage dress form on my wish list.
My dog, Lucy, who is lounging on the sleeper sofa that will be relocated to the guest room.

While my current sewing table is smaller than than I'd like it will probably remain in place temporarily until time and budget allow for a replacement.

Alternate room plans using interim furnishings

In keeping with the title of my post, I've gotten READY; a plan is SET; and now it's time to GO! It's time to enjoy some digging into blogs, magazines and such for ideas, and searching out the perfect treasures to complete the room. Let the fun begin!

Until next time,

One Thing Leads to Another...

A short time ago, I purchased a long-coveted sofa from a friend of mine, and realized that with the new addition, a new scheme in the living and dining areas of the house would be necessary.

Fortunately, I had a “look” in mind, based on a vignette that I already had in the house and wanted to expand upon.
I love the crisp romance of the black and white photo and the serenity of the white busts and cherubs that occupy the top of the piano, and knew that I wanted more of this look.

In anticipation of the arrival of the sofa, I began to make a few minor changes, the most important of which was the hutch display. In keeping with my craving for white, I removed my pink flowered dishes and replaced them with the white ones that are trimmed in gold.

Unfortunately, the bright turquoise background of the hutch, which had offset the pink and white dishes so beautifully, clashed miserably with the white and gold ones.

I thought about a color for the background, and decided upon a smokey gray; Something understated, but not white, as I wanted the dishes to stand out. It turned out to be a good choice. Good enough, in fact, to become the basis of my new color scheme.

Since I painted my walls a lovely pale shade of robin's egg blue last year, I've decided to stay with it. In keeping with the new direction, however, I'm planning to change the trim color from pale pink to pale gray. The photo below some of the fabrics and accessories that I've been gathering for use in the room.

As you can see, I've chosen a palatte of robin's egg blue with some grays along with silver and gold. All of this with a very healthy dose of white. I've chosen some formal and informal fabrics as well as modern, traditional, and vintage ones. I think it's going to be a fun mix. Now to figure out the guest/sewing room.... Stay tuned to see how it all comes out!

Until next time,

All Around the House

Welcome back! My last post took you onto the porch and through the front door of my house at Christmas-time. I like to sprinkle Christmas all through the house, though, so this time

we'll do the "grand tour" of my little cottage.
While not always in keeping with the color scheme, I love to sprinkle vintage Christmas decorations such as the 1950's Santa cutout (above), throughout the house. I think the vintage touches take a bit of the edge off a themed decor and lend a warm, cozy feel to the place. Over the last couple of years I've started

collecting vintage reindeer. They remind me of a set that my family had during my childhood. These are displayed on the chest that I featured in the Chest of Drawers Redo post.

Another collection that I like to scatter around the house is mini Christmas trees.

I've tucked at least one in just about every vignette in the house including the one here on the sofa table, where I've concentrated my blue decorations. By the way, that's my darling

Lucy, all decked out in her holiday clothes perched up on the edge of the sofa.

As I mentioned earlier, my house has an open floor plan, so the sofa doubles as a room divider to the dining room, which is one of my favorite places to decorate for the holidays.

The hutch is home to many of my vintage treasures. This little Santa Claus is one of my favorites.

The photo above shows the antique cast iron stove doing server duty for the punch bowl at my Christmas open house.

While the hutch and stove are large focal point pieces, I think sometimes it's the small touches that tend to add the most charm. For instance, I like to use touches of greenery, whether real or artificial wherever I can find a good spot. My sconce is shown here with a

garland of artificial foliage accenting the candle base. The candle chandelier, which hangs over the dining room table is one of my trash to treasure pieces. I literally rescued this

outdated brass chandelier from a trash heap and revamped it with a coat of white paint and some crystals. For the holidays, it also gets a touch of greenery.

A couple more of my flea market "fixer-upers", this mirror and triple sconce seem to also lend themselves well to a bit of festive foliage. I used some fresh clippings from the woods here.

Moving on, you'll see that I've decorated the kitchen in a more whimsical style. This handmade Raggedy Ann is made from wood and buttons. She's right at home perched on a shelf along-side a little rocking horse and some primitive Christmas trees. An assortment of vintage red-work linens is displayed on the towel bars below.

Futher indulging the child within, this shelf is home to a collection of tattered but much-loved old Raggedy Ann dolls.

Here are a few more of my vintage dolls.

Finally, we arrive at the smallest room of the house, the bathroom.

I like to keep a bowl of fresh face cloths handy, and around Christmas, they're jazzed up a bit with the addition of a few glass ornaments and some silver napkin rings.

The vanity tray also receives a holiday makeover. The red bottle brush Christmas tree is one of my favorite decorations.
I hope you've enjoyed this little tour of my Christmas cottage. I'm already getting excited about Christmas 2010! Just a couple of weeks ago I picked up a 1960's aluminum Christmas tree at a yard sale, so you can be assured that next year's decor will be quite different! For me, putting it all together again in a new way is part of the fun of the holidays. I hope that perhaps you've gathered an idea or two that you can use in your own holiday decor. I'd love to see what you're doing, so, if you don't mind sharing, send me your photos and they just might wind up in a future blog post!

Until next time,