Showing posts with label in. Show all posts
Showing posts with label in. Show all posts
Sunday, March 2, 2014
A Corner in the Living Room
For a while now Ive been gradually working on a corner in our living room. You may remember the shelves we recently hung to give some structure to a large bare wall. Adjacent to the wall with the shelves was yet another space I needed to fill.
Our living room updates have included a new ceiling, new trim, new ceiling light fixture, new drapery and fresh paint. Ive tried to keep the rest of the updates minimal and inexpensive. With that in mind, I needed to make our existing furniture work. After finding a furniture arrangement that I liked, I brought our originally black console table over to this wall.
BEFORE:
BEFORE:
I knew the right piece to hang above the table would be a mirror, so I took a trip to our local antique mall to take a look. I found this mirror for $20. It was heavy, obviously old with a solid wood frame and back. I knew I would have to paint the frame so that it stood out against the wood walls, but after thinking about it for a few days, I realized it would be perfect and went back to buy it.
I first painted a light coat of BM Titanium (the same gray I used for the shelves), then a light coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Coco, lightly sanded and finished with clear ASCP wax. I was so pleased with how it turned out and was thrilled that my husband had to agree (especially since he tried to talk me out of buying it - smile).
BEFORE:
The following week I went to work on our generic console table, which we purchased as newlyweds.
The truth is... I painted too many coats on this piece to count. I just could not get it to look right! Finally I ended up painting BM Titanium over ASCP Coco, and finished with both ASCP dark wax and ASCP clear wax.
The neutral colors really pop against the wood walls and hopefully help to create a look that is soothing and cohesive. You may have heard me mention before that the wood walls are original to our home... as hard as it has been for me to decorate this room, I really wanted to try and embrace that rustic element.
Originally I had planned on buying a couple lamps to set on either side of the mirror, but Justus had the suggestion of buying oil lamps, and I was instantly smitten with the idea. In our old house, we dont have many outlets and its also nice to have a source of light when the power goes out. I bought these nearly identical lamps at our local antique store. All we had to do was add lamp oil - fun!
Slowly the corner was coming together. Then last week my dad came over and brought me some antlers he had found on their farm. I knew immediately they would complete the look I was going for and hung them above the mirror.
In actuality, our sofa sits in front of the console table. Weve had this red sofa for nearly nine years (another newlywed purchase) and will likely have it for another nine (smile), so that was certainly another reason for opting to keep the background decor simple and neutral.
Sometimes I feel like there is still so much to be done in our home, but tonight when I happened across "before" photos of our living room and our entire house, it was so rewarding to see that we actually have accomplished a lot. Yes, there are still many improvements that need to be made, but I feel like I need to be more thankful for what we do have and recognize that it doesnt all happen overnight.
With that being said, were looking forward to starting on some outdoor projects tomorrow we hope to accomplish before spring, and one of those is a chicken coop! Today was rainy and overcast (hence the bad photos), but if we see sunny skies, well be getting started.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Sharing at Miss Mustard Seed
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Cold afternoon in February
Hi Everyone,
Well, its a very cold grey afternoon in the wood shop and what was going to be a long day working turned out to be a short day shivering and finally giving up and coming inside.
I did however make a couple of things. My mother in law asked me to make a darning egg for a friend of hers so I made one out of a piece of cherry:
This was a very rough piece of wood that had the bark still on it. Its interesting how wood can change so much when its turned. The wood turning process really brings out all sorts of secrets in wood.
Over the holidays I bought some 3x3 cut offs of various types of wood milled from trees that fell in a storm last year. This lumber came from just ordinary trees, not trees that were cultivated specifically for their wood so the wood grain is not as straight or perfect as cultivated trees can be. The resulting wood is very pretty with all sorts of different colors and irregular grain.
I took a piece of ambrosia maple and made a rolling pin out of it to see what its working qualities are and I wasnt disappointed:
The photo doesnt do it justice. Most of my pins are made from baseball bat lumber and they are very uniform in appearance but this one has a lovely, country look to it and I like it very much.
Ill be back soon with some photos of the new drill press!
VW
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Well, its a very cold grey afternoon in the wood shop and what was going to be a long day working turned out to be a short day shivering and finally giving up and coming inside.
I did however make a couple of things. My mother in law asked me to make a darning egg for a friend of hers so I made one out of a piece of cherry:
Over the holidays I bought some 3x3 cut offs of various types of wood milled from trees that fell in a storm last year. This lumber came from just ordinary trees, not trees that were cultivated specifically for their wood so the wood grain is not as straight or perfect as cultivated trees can be. The resulting wood is very pretty with all sorts of different colors and irregular grain.
I took a piece of ambrosia maple and made a rolling pin out of it to see what its working qualities are and I wasnt disappointed:
The photo doesnt do it justice. Most of my pins are made from baseball bat lumber and they are very uniform in appearance but this one has a lovely, country look to it and I like it very much.
Ill be back soon with some photos of the new drill press!
VW
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