Quicky Lamp Re-do

We're having a blizzard here in the Northeast! Lots of wind-blown snow but not too much accumulation, yet!. We'll see when it's over how much we end up with. I hope everyone had a great Christmas. It was our grandson's first Christmas. He is eleven months old and although he has not an inkling as to what Christmas is all about, he loved the bright lights, paper and people surrounding him with love and attention.

If you read through the home decor blogs, you'll see spray paint is king. Just head over to Home Depot, Lowes, True Value or where ever and check out the spray paint aisle. I really had no idea until I took a peek, bought some and tried it. There's just so many finishes, textures, colors, and possibilities. Lamps are a great place to begin. Lamps are available in every second hand shop for little $$. A little paint and a bright new shade and you've got yourself a nifty new lamp to match your decor.


After shopping my house and moving a lamp from the family room into living room, I needed to fill the void left behind. Of course, my first stop was Goodwill and there she was all Plain Jane!

 
As, I liberated her from continued despair, I knew she would be transformed with just a spray of my good friend, Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint!

Just the right size and shape for the spot I needed to fill!

I was poking around on Craigslist the other day and came upon a coffee table. I knew I didn't need a coffee table but I was attracted to the clean lines of this one. I called to check it out and grabbed it for five bucks. I was pretty sure I could do something fun and resell it.

Check back and see what I did. I like it so much I'm keeping it to replace my existing coffee table. I just have to get to the fabric store for a finishing touch!

A Chair in Pink and Green.

Wow! I'm so excited I'm getting views from folks all over the country. Thanks so much for taking a look my blog. Please come back often. I'd love it if you would post a comment-I'd appreciate the feedback. As promised, I have a new project highlighting a favorite color combination, pink and green. Let me tell you about the origin of this little piece. My husband and I own a small apartment house, and the tenants occasionally leave things behind-usually a huge pain in the patoody! By law, we must hold the items for 30 days, after that it's-see ya lata. But, we're a bit lazy and some of the stuff sits around in the basement.  One night, thinking I needed to add a chair to a desk in my guest room, I had a vision of some chairs in a corner of the apartment building. I was up at six and heading over to see if they were as good as I imagined. Yup! They were! Well, at least one would do-four would be a bit much. One would be just unique enough for the guest room. Here's the beauty, herself. I tossed the seat cushion and back before I took the picture. Picture black paisley embossed vinyl.

My guest room is-you guessed it-pink and green. So I picked myself up a can of Rust-oleum Painter's Touch in green apple and went at it.

I'll let you in on a secret. Polka dots make my head swirl, I love them so. If they're orange; I just about die. But orange polka-dots are left for another day. Today it's pink!

I've had this stapler for-I'll bet-thirty years. Santa, please bring me a Ryobi nailer/stapler. I've been very good!

Secret #2-Monograms, numbers, symbols, I love them all!

Hurray! A new chair for nothin' save a can of spray paint and a yard of fabic.

Goodwill Repurpose Project

I love poking around at the Goodwill. I can't drive past without going in. If I do, I'm sure that was the day I would have found something amazing. I beeline pass the clothes, shoes and bags and go straight for home goods in the back. I love anything graphic, simple and cute. So, when I saw these plates I knew they must be mine!

$.99 a piece. There was a fourth one but the glaze was cracked, I like things in odd numbers anyways. So, I left it for someone else! I'm nice that way. I have some other Christmas plates that I wanted to use for the same project but when I saw these I like them much better. The hunt was then on for three square frames or canvases to mount them on. Around the corner, there they were calling to me...Karen, Karen.  Some things are just meant to be.

Yeah, I know just the right size! I gathered them up and headed for home. Grabbed the Heritage White spray paint, Gorilla glue and a little red grosgrain ribbon. Here's what I ended up with.

A nice pop of color in my kitchen! I love them with the pot o' candy canes!


I had a large project planned for today. But decided I needed to finish up my Christmas cards and a few other things. I'll get to it over the weekend. I can't wait! Think pink and green! Is there a more perfect color combination?

Christmas Home Tour

Hi,
Welcome to my new blog-decorating your home and life with the un-new. I'm getting this up quickly so I can join in on the Christmas Home Tour linky party. Please come back soon as I post more and more on the joys of junk!

I love this very simple coffee table display. I wanted to use burlap in my decorating this year because it reminds me on growing up on a farm and I adore the smell of it. I know it's crazy. The women at the fabric store hate cutting it and some say they're allergic to it Despite their attitude regarding burlap, I bought a bunch of it. It just makes me happy! I added some gold ribbon I had left over from last year. Popped in some phoney hydrangea I had in my crystal hanging vase (you see it later with evergreens in it.) into an apothecary jar and used votives from Ikea. Then I remembered that I had a copper tray from my Mom in the basement that I never, ever used. It went perfect with all the metallics I have in the room. I really adore the table scape.

I have three large ceramic shells that I use consistently throughout the year along with varying items depending on the season. I found a bag of vase filler at the dollar store and added some glitter to them and some sparkly metallic ornaments form Target. I have two large pine cones I found at Lake Tahoe when my daughter was living there. I use those consistently around the house, too. You never know where those pine cones will pop up. I added some more of the vase filler and some little gold bells.

This is my crystal hanging vase with evergreens, sparkly stuff and some crazy round pine cones.

The area above my mantle is wide and I wanted to use three wreaths to fill the area. These are cheap artificial wreaths from the Christmas Tree Shop. I wired two together to get the fullness I wanted. The mantel has garland with lights, sparkly vase filler and more of trhe metallic ornaments. I also painted my silver NOEL stocking holders gold and sprayed them with glitter. Since I no longer use silver in this room, spray painting them was the perfect solution.

Pottery Barn candle holder loaded down with Santa and Mrs. Claus, garland, holly and skates pulled out of the basement.

Two little Swedish gnomes on a dollar store wreath wrapped in grosgrain ribbon and hung with chair webbing.

A little wooden truck my husband made years ago holds a load of merry.

Vintage angels from my childhood share a tabletop with pictures of my kids in their Christmas morning PJ's. All the frames and mats were painted to match.

More little gnomes sitting in snowball candle holders.

A sparkly star hangs from the chandelier.

Another view of the candle holder.

This urn usually holds wooden spoons. I like to use things that are already there and just make them a bit more special for the holiday. I stuck in some jumbo candy canes along with some traditional ones.

Ahh, my beautiful Swedish tree!

Ornaments from my kids' colleges.

I like to cluster similar ornaments together for more impact.

A fun goodwill find! I think these are luminaries but they could be tumblers. Anyway, I'm using them with candles. $.99 a piece. Love it!

Goodwill plates and prints I transformed into a cute display above my stove. I'll post the before and after of the Goodwill re-do a bit later.

Little snow couple I found at Goodwill. The best part is they jingle when you shake them!