I Heart Metalics!

I especially heart metallic of the GOLD variety.  Is that wrong?  Not sure really where this love of Gold came from, my wedding rings are white gold, but when it comes to decorating I'm all about the yellow gold.

 

I've had this piece in my dining room since I moved in, I bought it for this house, but for over a year it has sat around in a sad state of old wood.  Not the most beautiful piece, but it does the job, holds all my precious gold dishes! 

 

This week I had a client that wanted her piece painted Primer Red, and I thought what am I going to do with the rest of this can?  I don't get a lot of clients that want this color and I don't have anything this color in my home.  I should point out that I love RED too, but more like an accent.

 

It got me thinking, and I came up with this idea, based on every thing I've read about gold leafing.  Which isn't a ton, but I did notice a reoccurring theme, most pieces are primed with dark red or brown paint.  Apparently it works well under the gold.

 

 

 

 

Here is the only decent before picture I could find, but you see what I mean by boring wood?  It had a  ton of potential and good lines, very sturdy.

 

 

This is where Primer Red comes to play, two coats with a top coat of clear wax.  I did not photograph this step.  Honestly I've been so bad about blogging this last year, I didn't even think I would do a post, and then I just couldn't help myself....

 

I wish I could play music at this point to intro this piece to the blog world!  But let's face it, when it comes to every thing tech like, I'm lucky to use my phone...

 

 

A couple close ups...I just can't get enough of this piece.  It's my new favorite baby, it makes me want to paint the whole house gold! 

 

 

 

And I know you want to know how I got the gold finish.  I used two tubes of Antique Gold Rub N Buff.  The actual gold leave process was more than I wanted to do, I may try it down the road on a smaller piece.  I love the Rub N Buff, amazing product.  (I wasn't paid to say that, just my opinion)

 

Thanks for stopping by!  Love you guys. 

 

 

Stop by later this week, I'm going to have a give away!!!!

 

xoxo Tammy

Mantle Mania!!!

My mantle is driving me crazy, okay to be honest a lot is driving me crazy. 

If you would be so kind, look of the pictures and tell me what you think, and what changes I should make.

I would be grateful.

First up the Mantle.  I love the direction it's headed, it's just not there yet.  Any ideas?  I would love a larger mirror to layer behind the smaller one.  That's all I can come up with.  I did add a new mercury glass piece, and I love it, but that's all I've done.  Should I change the banner to a burlap pennant with the word Family on it? 

Next up, the trunk between my living room chairs.  What do you think about this area?  Even the wall behind, don't hold back.  Trust me my feelings won't be hurt, remember, I'm asking you for help.  The books with the bird I like, and burlap runner is good.  Should I cut it down so you can see more of the trunk?  I'm not unhappy with the lamp or picture frame I made, but the flowers and candle have to go! 

This area needs a face lift too, I'm gonna hang my transferware here when I've collected it all.  What about the rest of it?  Should I get a bigger lamp?  I like the birds, and the willow piece was a gift from my kids.  It has to be out somewhere.  I'm not loving my silver box or the clock, or the candle for that matter.  Sigh.

I've bought some great pics that I'm gonna hang over the tin door, but they haven't arrived yet.  I like the wreath here, but this isn't it's forever home.  I just moved it here so I could display some Valentines stuff.  I really like the topiary trees and the glass cloche, everything else, not so much.  

 Whew, finally, the kitchen area.  I really like the direction this is going, but it's the area over the fridge that has me stuck.

See what I mean?  I'm thinking canisters over the cabinets and wooded dough bowl.  What about on top of the fridge?  The chicken stays, love it.   The rest, I'm not feeling it.   The red finial piece is going to be moved upstairs, but it has to be painted first.  Story of my life, PAINT!!!

Thanks for stopping by and any feedback!!!

Tammy  =)

Check out the Overstock.com Discount here!

Topiary Trees

First project of the year, and I decide to make topiary trees!  Apparently I didn't get my fill of Christmas Trees?  I've been a little crazy changing all kinds of stuff this year.  I'm not doing any resolutions, but this is going to be the year of change.  So being the cheap thrifty gal I am, I decided I can make these for less!  Yes you can, but wow are they messy, took me almost as long to clean up.

I ended up using spray adhesive to put the moss on, but I bet mod podge would work.  You'll need turpentine to get the glue off your hands.  It's very messy, I sprayed it in the kitchen, but I put down a lot pillow covers that were headed to the garbage.  I used the hot glue to secure the topiary into their pots.  Scissors to cut the burlap and floral wire to attach the wreath.

 Burlap and twine went around the bottom of the pots.  Here's a close up of the wreath I bought and my make shift drop cloths.

Naked topiary, I got these, the pots, moss, wreath and the burlap at Hobby Lobby.

 So I sprayed the orbs like crazy and put the moss on.  I just continued this until the orb was completely covered.  I did spray the finished orbs with more spray adhesive and tried to get all the pieces to lay down nicer, but let's face it they aren't going to be perfect.  The finished project does shed a little if you move 'em around too much. 

I cut a good sized square of burlap so I could cover the pot and used twine to tie it on, then I cut the florist wire and attached the wreath.  I'm very happy with the end result, not bad for my first topiary tree!

 

Here's the second one, a little different than the first.

Like I said this year was about change, I haven't been happy with the buffet by the front door for a while.  This is one of the first changes to take place on it.  More to come...

It's already looking tons better, I think these add a lot of the needed height that was missing.  The candlesticks on the left have been the tallest things on the buffet, other than the lamp, for a long time.  I'm hoping the Eiffel tower makes the cut.  Oh well, I'll just have to move it some where else if it doesn't!!!



Thanks for stopping by!!!

Tammy  ;)

Linking up at:
Sew Chatty
My Backyard Eden
Sew Much Ado
The Thrifty Home
Someday Crafs
We are that Family
Tea Rose Home
Firefly and Jellybeans
The Shabby Chic Cottage
Beyond the Picket Fence
Life as Lori
Tales from Bloggeritaville
Brambleberry Cottage

Yellow Buffet? Yep Yellow!

Okay, so if you haven't noticed by now I HEART color.  This is not a blog about all things white, black or neutral.  I love those colors as well and I follow quite a few blogs about them, but I need COLOR!  

Not to long ago I was looking for the perfect piece to replace the less than perfect piece I had...yep the little table by my entry way wasn't making the cut.  It was too little and had hardly any storage.  One more thing to know about me, everything has it's place and it better be in it! 

This is when I found this beauty on craigslist and KNEW, yep I was that sure, that I had to have it.   She even looked pretty good as is, but wasn't quite ME!  I should have taken more pics of the steps I took to get her all beautiful but, I didn't.  I could say I'll be better about it in the future, but we all know that's not true...lol

 After a good a sanding, priming, painting with Bauhaus Gold by Rustoleum (yep, spray paint) and glazing with Ralph Lauren Coffee, this is what I had created!  Color!  And I sprayed the original hardware with ORB, who doesn't love ORB?

 This is what she looks like now, I added a few ton of stuff to her, and a new rug to bring in more COLOR. I'm also getting ready for Christmas, notice some of my decorations.

 Even I am shocked when I look at this picture, but yes, this is my house when I moved in six years ago.  A boring blank slate, I hadn't quite developed my designer side.  I can't even believe it's the same house, or how I used to NOT decorate.  Scary stuff.

Do you have any brightly colored piece you'd like to share?  I would love to see it.  Happy Decorating!

Tammy ;)

I'll be linking up with:

Miss Mustard Seed