#356...the eye of the beholder

I picked up the book The Eye of the Beholder by Hienz and Elizabeth Bertelsmann while looking for photographs to blow-up into oversized wall art. The book is a series of abstract photographs of common items, and I like studying the texture and color they captured through the lens. Here are a few examples.

stone

tree

siding

water

algae

billboard poster

asphalt

#355...silvered lantern

My client Laura acquired this rust-colored, hard-wired ceiling lantern resale. She asked me to try to give it a makeover to turn it into a silver lantern for her foyer.

before

I used this metal powder in silver mica that you mix with this liquid medium to create a paint-like liquid metal that I then brushed onto the rust colored metal lantern. Here it is after receiving its new finish.

after

I applied the liquid metal with a brush. Because the fixture was already wired and I could not disassemble the interior portion of the fixture to paint it with a brush, I decided to simply wrap the candelabra bases with silver paper. I once blogged about decoratively wrapping chandelier parts with paper here.

#354...candy hearts say it all

I'm headed to North Carolina this weekend for a party to celebrate the recent nuptials of my cousin Lindsay. She and her husband Eli got married in Vegas. I found this fun candy heart art photo from CAPow on etsy, and thought it perfect for the newlyweds. They are kind of eclectic, so I hope they'll like it.

I think the candy heart map art idea is really clever. In addition to the many "hometown heart" photos listed in the shop, CAPow accepts custom orders, allowing you to choose your candy heart saying and geographic location.

(m & k...saw this one and thought of you!)

#353...swim for your ship

I put a couple more vintage things in my etsy shop, including this antique cross stitch sampler.

#352...sarah's bath

My sister Sarah's 1950's apartment bath already had a lot of charm when she rented the place, with its gray & yellow tiled color scheme. Here's a before shot of the bath.

We gave the bath some decor, and I think it turned out really charming. Here's our after..........

Notes about her bath decor:

• I made the shower curtain from two Amy Butler drapery panels that I bought at HomeGoods last year.

• I made the Roman shade (see this tutorial) from Ikea's origami animal fabric

• We added an extra light to the bath over the shower. There was only one plug in the room and it happened to be on the light over the sink. We decided to use it to add another light using this cord kit and a glass chandelier-like shade. (Sarah does all of her hair drying & straightening in her bedroom in front of a full length mirror, so it was worth it to sacrifice the bath plug for extra lighting)

• The cat looking through a mouse hole etching and the small flower collage artwork duo were both thrifted

#351...vintage etsy

I was up in my attic, and decided that I have a wee bit of a hoarding problem when it comes to eclectic vintage decor. I decided to put up for sale some of my vintage wares, hopefully giving them new homes that will love them. Check out what I've listed so far in my etsy shop here.

#350...lion around

A few years ago, I was really into painting on fabric with these metallic paints. I got inspired by this lion mosaic picture from an advertisement for glass tile, and recreated him on fabric in metallic paint.

Then, I made him into a tote bag...

Recently, I found the bag at the back of my closet, and decided to turn him into a pillow, which will make good decoration for a circus themed baby shower that some friends and I are hosting here next month.

#349...summer pillows for sale

I put some new pillow covers up for sale in my etsy shop here & here

#348...shut the door

After 8 years of living in our bungalow, Tyler and I recently put a door on our bedroom. The bungalow actually came with original doors from 1919; however all were in pretty bad shape, and looked like this.

We removed all the doors the year we moved in, and besides the bathroom doors, which  we did years ago, we finally dug the bedroom door out from behind the garage and gave it a makeover. Tyler sanded it....

and then we rehung it to finish paint it. Here is one side of the sanded door....

...which I painted white

On the inside of of door (facing our room), we liked the distressed look of the sanded, old unfinished wood......

I decided to paint the interior panels of the door the same color as the wall color, and then use an matte polyurethane to finish the rest of the door. I like the "old" quality it retained, but now it is nice and smooth to the touch.

The original door hardware was painted over, so I removed it with stripper and then took it to a metal replating shop and had them plate it in a brushed nickel finish.

The space behind our door was underutilized, so I decided to hang some hooks to house my purse collection.

The brass duck hook came from the thrift shop

The birch tree hooks came from this shop, and the print above the purses is for sale here. The visual display of the purses is busy looking, but our door usually stands open, hiding the display. I'm really happy to have given the behind door space a function.