Chandelier project

My Sunday project this week was a chandelier shipped with the wrong finish. Below is a before and after of the finish. The chandelier needed a creamy white finish with just a little rust showing through. It came with a lot of rust and a little white showing.
So with liquitex in white, yellow orche and phthalo blue
liquitex medium
water
a wide brush
a  few sea sponges
This finish was created!

I started by mixing the white and blue and medium in a 1:1:1 ratio and lightly sponging the chandelier in about 30 spots generally over the surface
Then I mixed white, yellow ochre and medium in a 10:1:10 ratio (in otherword very little ochre) to slightly tint the white to a warm white. This I thinned with water and sponged the entire surface intentionally leaving some of the rust in the veining and on the bottoms on the curves- where water would normally stay longer.
Lastly, I mixed the white and the medium in a 1:1 ratio and lighting went back over the peice to add some highlights.
The project took about 2 hours to do, 2 hours in my head for planning!

Here is the before and after... what I'm not showing is my manicure- that is a sad tale which will end in polish remover and more polish. There is no recovery when acrylic paint meets nail polish!

No more boring bathmats

Bathmats, function, fluffy and not normally super fun... until now!
I am obsessed with these GIANT doily bathmats I found on etsy. They are pretty, and funny, and granny chic as well as contempory- all at the same time. I want to carve my own giant needles to make these, but buying might be the more practical option.
What makes these rugs so perfect is the scale. Anyone can crochet a big doily with normal needles and yarn, but it would look like a table cloth on the floor. The folks a Squirrelicious understand scale! Please click on the grey words and check this shop out!

Ultimate desk

I found this desk on One King's Lane and it had so much function and style, I just had to show it. It has all the function of a Hoosier Cabinet from the 1920's and 30's with the sixe for the modern laptop type office. I love the pull out desk feature- another very Hoosier feature. See other small office solutions on my pinterest page! Need help with you small office, let me know about it!


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Adding bathroom sparkle

Adding sparkle to the bathroom can be as easy as an extra special scrub and polish or it could be new lighting fixtures. Cleaning is the least expensive way, however I have compiled below some great image ideas for adding sparkle to your bathroom that doesn't require rubber gloves.

Nice fix for a large plate mirror is to add a mirror on top of the plate mirror.
It provides a focal point and a dose of sparkle.



Sparkle doesn't have to be in the amount of crystals, it can also be in function.
This double rod from Moan can serve as a towel bar, robe hanger and in a pinch, a clothesline!

A sparkly knob or pull can take a cabinet and move it into furniture.
This knob looks a bit lalique-ish and only cost about $15.00!

From House Beautiful- silver napkin rings a shine, sparkle and and a bit of drama to the guest towel

leopard love

Source: onekingslane.com via Laurl on Pinterest

Leopard can be a difficult pattern to work with- too much is looks tacky, too little and it has no impact. This is a good example of a room that used leopard and pattern, without going over the top. Barclay Butera designed this space presented in Luxe Interiors and Design's Greystone Glamour and photography by Grey Crawford. The keys to this room is to keep the space neutral, add other patterns and place your leopard pieces as the support cast, not the lead role. The lead in this room is the large leather wing back chairs, which are modernized with the striped rug. The leopard chairs, flanking the windows, act as a pattern in the room, like the stripes and the damask.
This room also plays with scale. The landscape paintings are not only large, they fill the walls from floor to ceiling. They appear to visually dwarf the windows and in doing so, make this room about the room, not about the view.
Interested in seeing more leopard I love? Check it out here!

Great looks Monday- The Divine Chair

So, today I found a deal on Fab.com from The Divine Chair. I have always loved the idea of taking old chairs, painting them and adding some insanely beautiful upholstry. Well, The Divine Chair has all that and some great press to. Check out this bold houndstooth chair below. Classic patterns and lines, but made modern with the scale of the print. This is an easy addition to your home! Sign is today with FAB.com and get this chair for $600!

Home Office-English style- Turquoise and Chocolate

For my weekly room design, I have taken the home office from my last post (image from country living) and as inspiration for a home office.  It's soft, romantic, and looks highly functional! I choose a chocolate and turquoise as the color palette for my office. Below is the decorators story board including wallpaper, paint, carpet and furnishings. All you need to add you office supplies!

The home office- English style

                                               photo credit: Keith Scott Morton

What a great home office from Country Living! Often the problem with a home office is the clutter and the make do attitude to the space. This space has none of that- pretty, a bit formal, and functional.
 Here are some tips inspired by this room for your home office.
1. Storage- lovely small cabinet in the back can conceal your papers, wireless printer, routers and other messy minutiae.. or an office bar!
2. Color- An office does not have to be  devoid of color. Color can be inspiring, soothing or invigorating. Find a color palette that you love and go to town. I love the English looking  wallpaper in rose, charteuese and chocolate from Osborne and Little. Such a great starting point for the rose color upholstry and the chartreuse office chair.
3. Function- One of the reasons this office is so function is the ability of the furnishings to serve more than one purpose. Th small footstools can also double as small group seating and the side chair is a nce way to get away from your desk to read. The accessories in the space allow for a place for the mail or working papers. The desk houses just enough space for a laptop and room to store the footstools underneath.
4. Lighting- The two windows afford great natural light and the heavy drapes afford light control. The desk light is large enough for true task lighting. The chandelier  seem to be more for looks than function, but would give off nice ambient light in the evenings.
5. Pattern- I love mixing patterns, when they are mixed well and this room mixes them well. Dark on the walls, light on the floor, both patterns of equal size. The drapes are a tonal stripe, which works as a neutral in the room and the velvets, though not patterns, provide texture from grounding the space.

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pinterest and the kitchen

I am newly discovering pinterest. As a visual person, I find it a great way to create cohesive imagery and make new observations. For me it has the elements of Dumbledore's pensive, I can add images that I find anywhere and look at the all together to find the pattern, trend or commonality.

Additionally, I am interested in statistical nature of the medium. What to know if other people like something, just pin and wait to see how much it gets re-pinned! To the left is an image from countryliving.com that I pinned for a work project. We were looking at a variety of white kitchens with dark countertops. This image, out of 12 images on the board received twice as many pins as most others. Not that it is not a nice kitchen, but what about this image is so pin-able? The flooring, the green door, the view outside, the homy-ness of the dark wood, maybe the chandalier? I'm still deciding... your thoughts?