Home Decoration | Art Crafts | Ethnic Decoration

>A few months ago I purchased a couple of candlesticks at the thrift store. They were a beautiful shape and size but the finish was a bit confusing. Were they tarnished brass that resembled silver or were they silver plate rubbed down to the brass. Either way I liked them so they came home with me.
Then I stumbled upon an article proclaiming the wonders of an inexpensive product that could easily be found in the automotive aisle. This stuff really is magic-----that is if you can get beyond the horrendous odor of ammonia. I wore my paint mask while scrubbing away with an old towel that quickly turned black as I rubbed and rubbed.But all of the odor and rubbing and elbow grease was worth it when the results are as dramatic as this little before and after. The new finish is a silver-ish with a gold undertone---a really beautiful combination.Now my thrifted treasures are a real treasure find!

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Such was the case with these mismatched wreaths and little blocks. I laid the two wreaths together
and thought that the pairing looked quite nice.
I would just need a way to keep them snugly attached to one another.
That's where this shutter (found by a dumpster) came in handy.A good cleaning, a fresh coat of spray paint,
and a little sanding, makes it the perfect backdrop
to tie and hot glue my forlorn holiday decorations, transforming all of these orphans into one big
holiday wow factor.Unfortunately it's a bit too heavy to hang on my front door
(believe me, I tried).
But it does make the perfect centerpiece
for my dining room mantle/shelf. Add in some eggs, chicks, bunnies,mixed amongst a few potted faux flowers, electric candles, and books.

And I present the perfect example ofHow to Decorate with
Things You Already Own.

>Last year I did a makeover on my back patio. My goal was to have it be fun, summery and a bit retro. I painted my collection of vintage metal chairs and other accessories in the colors of red and yellow. My boys teased that it looked like ketchup and mustard, which meant I had accomplished my goal of having it fun and summery. I also chose to decorate the patio so that it connected to the yard and flower garden, with garden accessories galore.In the spring of this year I stood at the back of my yard staring at my patio. I no longer loved what I saw. The bright colors were fun, but they also created visual clutter. So I chose new goals for my patio. I want it calm, classy, and more of an extension of the inside of my home.
One way that I chose to accomplish the home to patio connection was to incorporate another furniture piece. I decided that a china hutch would be the perfect choice. It could provide storage for cushions during the winter, and beauty and a bit of privacy during the summer. I began my search. The hutch had to be a bit on the smaller side. I didn't want it to overwhelm the patio. It had to have character. It had to be free of glass (who wants to continually clean?). And, most of all, it had to be cheap!

After looking through several thrift stores with nothing to be found, I started my search on our local on-line classifieds. I found this hand-made cutie for twenty-five dollars. What? You don't think it's cute? Well, it did have that grandpa's cabin look, and it was a bit short, standing less that five feet tall. But it did have character and it definitely had potential!We added legs and feet using a 4x4 that we'd found in the dumpster, and fence finials from the thrift store at 50 cents each.I gave it a fresh coat of spray paint, but found the color a little too boring, so I sanded it a bit to prepare it for it's next coat. I pulled out a mis-tint that had the wow factor. The paint was beautiful, but I wanted to add back some of that grandpa's cabin character. Out came the sandpaper and the stain.Thanks to the addition of the feet, this cutie now stands at 5'8'' and looks like a piece unearthed from an attic.

I love it!

>Many of you have admired my chunky candlesticks. Before they held candles they sat for about a hundred years as part of a balustrade on a neighbors' front porch. My neighbors replaced them with the vinyl stuff that doesn't need to be painted. I volunteered to take the old porch parts. They were happy to give them to me. I've made four sets of these candlesticks. A pair for my neighbors as a memento of their old porch, a pair as a Christmas gift, and two pair for me.

A white pair, and a black pair. I have six of these sweet things left.
Well, actually four of them are going to be
part of my next project.
Here's a preview of what we'll be doing this weekend.

What will you be doing this weekend?

>I found these vanity benches at different times years ago at thrift stores. I bought the second thinking that it was an exact match to the first. It wasn't. The legs are different but fortunately the size is the same. They sat in my storage room until I found this darling fabric. It's too light weight for upholstery fabric so I knew that if I were going to use it on a piece of furniture it would have to something that wouldn't be used every day. That's when I remembered the benches. I knew that with a little makeover they would finally find a home.With a little Mediterranean Blue spray paint to unite them, and cushy new tops for comfort, those worn out benches now look fresh and new.
They now reside at the foot of the bed in the guest room.

They finally look right at home!(And I might have just enough fabric left to cover that small pillow!)

>You know of my love for spray paint in transforming almost anything, and you know how much fun I've had using burlap in several projects, so it wouldn't surprise you that I decided to combine the two in the transformation of my thrift store lamp.After spray painting the lamp with R's metallic brown, I started the shade makeover. I purchased some chocolate brown burlap and a package of seam binding. I cut off the old material leaving just the plastic liner. I laid out the burlap and sprayed the outside of the shade with spray adhesive. I matched up the finished edge of the burlap to the existing seam on the shade. Then I rolled the shade on top of the burlap, pressing on the inside of the shade as I rolled.I trimmed the excess material from the top and bottom of the shade. I trimmed the opposite end of the fabric, pulled back the finished edge and tucked the raw edge under to make a nice, clean seam.
Using a clear tacky glue, I adhered the seam binding to the top and bottom of the shade. The lamp transformation is complete. A freshly painted lamp base combined with a newly covered burlap shade. A favorite combination! And a great price! Did you know that the big box red dot store sells burlap shades for twenty dollars? I paid less than ten dollars for the lamp, shade, and makeover materials. Linked to Tales From Bloggeritaville and A Soft Place To Land

>There was one more thrift store treasure that I didn't show you yesterday.
It's this wooden salad bowl.

Do you think they're fabulous now???

How about when they're turned over?

I'm sure that right about now you're wishing you hadn't passed by that old wooden salad bowl last time you were at the thrift store.
Don't worry.
It will probably still be there, because no one else knows
what a fabulous find it really is.

Speaking of fabulous...go check out Darlene and Kara.
They're both giving away some fabulous prizes on their blogs.
(I used the word "fabulous" four times in this post!)

>I recently worked with Susan rearranging and styling her home. On my second visit I asked her to bring out all of her decorations and accessories that she had stored away but that she wanted to find a place for in her home.

One of the items that appeared from her box was this
decorative iron piece. I immediately saw it's possibilities!
I told Susan the items she needed to purchase,
then she gave me the opportunity of pulling it all together.

First I cut a piece of cardboard to size then
I adhered floral foam using hot glue. Next I dressed the foam with plenty of moss
and slipped the entire thing into the metal piece. Then came the real fun!

Next I placed the florals,
pretty poppies in red and yellow.

Now Susan has a beautiful arrangement
to hang on her door or in her home,
made from an item that she had stored away.