Something to Write About

I found this little writing desk at the curb. 

 There was nothing wrong with it. Absolutely nothing.

Yeah, again, I forgot to take the before picture, so you're in fact getting a "during" picture. And a crappy picture at that. It will just have to do. 

 And here she is finished. Paris Grey, with Old White accents. 

Such pretty long legs!

Followed by clear wax.

It's so cute. It has a groove on top for your pens and pencils and storage underneath for your writing paper or, more likely, your lap top, since sadly, hardly anybody hand writes notes anymore.

I made embellishments using another stencil from my girl Martha. These stencils are so beautifully detailed, it looks like real lace!

So tempted to keep it for myself, because it's so cute and romantic, but let's be honest, I have no room for it. Sigh!

Perhaps whoever ends up owning it will be inspired to start hand writing letters to everyone!

I accessorized it with roses in a julep cup. I bought the beautiful silk roses on my Hobby Lobby shopping spree a few weeks ago. They were a little pricy but so worth it because they're so realistic looking. And the beautiful silver plated julep cup I put them in? I thrifted it at Value Village for $6. It's from Pottery Barn and would probably have costed around $30 originally. Yeah. 

Mine has tarnish on it. Bonus!

Little fun fact for ya about julep cups: According to Wikipedia, traditionally, mint juleps were often served in silver or pewter cups, and held only by the bottom and top edges of the cup. This allows frost to form on the outside of the cup. Traditional hand placement may have arisen as a way to reduce the heat transferred from the hand to the silver or pewter cup.

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Linking up to:

http://www.greenwillowpond.com/

Odds and Ends

Well, hello all!

It is a sunny but very chilly day here in Ontario. And I'm going to make chili for dinner, so we're not so chilly. Yum. Such a perfect winter food.

I'm featuring a few pieces of furniture today, odds and ends. I have before pictures for only one of them, as the other three pieces were store pieces I painted on the premises and did not have my camera with me.

First off is an accent table I painted Old White on the bottom and Duck Egg Blue on top, finished with clear wax. 

I had been wanting to do something with a wreath and a bee for a while now and this round table was perfect for it.

I used a Martha Stewart Stencil to trace the design and then I painted it by hand, adding my own details to Mr. Bee.

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Here is a sofa table I repainted in Old White and French Linen:

I spray painted the handles in Oiled Rubbed Bronze. I like the contrast.

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Now this table I bought at a garage sale. It looked sad with its 90's saraning paint treatment!

But it had  great legs and it was solid.

Just an ugly colour.

First off, I painted it in Versailles.

Hmmm, that didn't click with me. I don't know what it was. At least the ugly paint treatment was gone!

I then repainted it in Country Grey. It still didn't click, until I realized it wasn't the paint colour, it just needed some highlighting, which I did on the legs and the skirt using Old Ochre.

I then used a mix of clear and dark wax to deepen the colours a bit, followed by some distressing. Much better!

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And finally, I repainted this little night table with Old White and Paloma, my first time with this lovely colour, followed by clear wax. The handle was spray painted silver, which looks nice with Paloma. It would look nice in a little girl's room I think.

Voilà! These are just a few of the projects that have been keeping me busy at the store.

Linking up to:

Hobby Lobby Loot Shoot (how's that for alliterations!)

During the Christmas holidays, we took a day trip to Buffalo. It's about an hour away from where we are and for us Canadians (well, for me anyway), it's always a thrill to go shopping in the States. We hit the Walden Galleria mall or the outlet mall, maybe stop at Target, then finish off at Olive Gardens for dinner. (We used to have Olive Gardens here, but they all left. I miss their salad and breadsticks!)

Now there was a time when there were a lot of things you could not get in Canada, such as M&M's and  Lays sour cream and onion chips! Can you believe it? Now we have a lot more selection here (including ketchup chips and dill pickle chips, which I believe are exclusively Canadian), but still, the selection is never as plentiful as that of our neighbours to the south, so it's always a fun day and certainly a nice change from the routine.

So on this latest spree, I dragged my family to Hobby Lobby (they were very patient, I must admit.) We have a Michael's near us, but Hobby Lobby has totally different stuff.

Like these fabrics for example.

Could you just die? Eiffel Towers, crowns, stamps, French writing and toile. 

This one's my favourite!

They were all about $8.99 a yard, already a pretty good price, but with our 40% coupons, these were a steal! These will be great for pillows and to recover chairs.

I bought a few wood appliques:

And then, look at all these knobs!

Just my luck, they were all on sale at 50% off!!! I went a little crazy, I must admit, but I'm sure I will use them all eventually.

Beautiful , sparkling glass!

I really, really love these!!

Yummy!

I spent an hour and a half in there and barely scratched the surface. I could have stayed another hour easily, but I had to spare my poor family... They needed a much deserved rest for lunch at Olive Gardens.

We carried on to Walden Galleria where a lot of clothes was half-price. Again, great selection and we barely even had time to look at everything, there was so much. (We'll just have to go back soon!)

And the last thrill of the day? Having the customs officer wave us through without having to pay taxes or duties, even though we declared everything. (It's usually the luck of the draw.) Woohoo, thank you officer!

Have a great week-end!

Nicole

Oldest Daughter's Bedroom Redo

When we moved into our present house nearly two years ago, our girls were respectively 19 and 16. Time to say goodbye to the childhood bedrooms in the old house and embrace a more grownup, more sophisticated look.

My two girls are different like night and day. One is blonde, the other is brunette, one is chatty and outgoing, the other is quiet. I love the fact that they are so different, it makes life so interesting!

So when it came to making decorating decisions, my oldest daughter had very specific ideas, while the youngest said "Do what you want. I'm happy with what you choose." Sooo different!

This is the eldest's new bedroom:

We decided not to spend a great deal of money, seeing as she was going to university and wouldn't be there all that much. I think our total cost was less than $300! 

The starting point was the bedding which is a beautiful greyish shade of purple. We painted the back wall as an accent wall in a similar colour and the other three walls in a lighter shade of the same colour.

My daughter was going from a very large bedroom to a smaller one (she kindly "let" her younger sister have the bigger bedroom this time around). So that meant getting rid of a few pieces of furniture, one of which was her large desk. Instead she came up with the idea of putting a little shelf with a chair and a mirror to act as a make-up table and a spot for her laptop. We bought the shelf at Ikea with two metal brackets for the ends and we cut the shelf to size. It fills the space perfectly and looks light and uncluttered.

The chair was a curb rescue. It kinda looked pathetic, but I loved its art deco lines.

That seat was so grimy and funky, I just kept the wood form (which I disinfected!!) and I reupholstered over with new foam and this fun, modern fabric:

The chair received a fresh coat of white paint:

Aah! Much better! And the purple matches the room perfectly!

I spray painted a thrifted mirror with white glossy paint.

We picked up a gorgeous drum light fixture with crystals in the same colour as the 

bedding and some curtain panels with grommets at Bouclair, a local discount home decor store. The deep purple of the curtain panels picks up on the colour of the flowers embroidered on the bedding.

(I must apologize for the poor lighting in the photos, the room doesn't receive great outside light so I had to take flash pictures and that creates unwanted glares and shadows.)

A closer look at the little makeshift desk.

There are a couple of black accents like this frame and one of the bed's decorative pillows.

Don't you just love those pillows? And a nod to her childhood with one of her favourite polar bears she collected over the years!

I just love how the mirror turned out and how it stands out against the dark paint.

We decorated the dresser, on the facing wall, with some accessories from Ikea.

I think my daughter came up with a clever solution to maximize the use of the space!

Now if it only always stayed that clean...sigh!! 

I will show you my other daughter's bedroom next time.

Nicole

Linking up to:







http://savvysouthernstyle.net

Do It Yourself Show Off That DIY Party