Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

Our master bedroom wasn’t exactly the fairest of them all and needed a sprucin’. 

The room is not very wide and the hubs and I both have fairly large dressers in the space, so I thought mirrors would be a good solution to bounce around light and make it appear larger than it is. So, after collecting a few mirrors from yard sales and the local Goodwill, a can of ever trust white spray paint, we are enjoying the room much more. 

It all started with these three mirrors that had great potential but needed a visit from the spray paint fairies:

only cost me 10 buckaroos!

the gold one was 3.99 and the silver one was 5 (originally from JC Penney for $80!)

After a quick spray of True Values True White spray paint (I don't recommend it, spend a few dollars more and get the good stuff.) Since my dresser is taller of the two, I decided to take the smaller two and arrange them on the wall over top. The larger of the two, with a basket weave detail, serves as a great spot to put on my jewelery and makeup in the morning.

The picture above is my very favorite picture of my brother and me when we were little, playing pirates (maybe we confused pirates and construction workers...sweet bandanna and overalls, J!) in the drive way.

It was his birthday yesterday, Happy Birthday Old Man!

The hubs got the 3ft mirror on his dresser and I have to admit, I am a bit jelly...it's beautiful!

You might notice that we took out the ugly insert panel. Love

Two recent long sought after finds, a wooden dumbbell and an Indian club.

See that sweet reflection in the mirror?

That's right, we have Johnny Cash over our bed. We are pretty much awesome, we know! Ha, although not for everyone, we love him and it fits so well into the space.

I have been looking for an equal size June Carter. It would be perfection.

There are still a few more things to do before the room is finished, but I'll be sure to show you the complete package and its pieces as we go! So how about you, what hangs above your bed? Anyone ever see a large framed picture of June Carter?

Literary Lamp

 One of my “labor days” project this past weekend involved updating a 3 dollar brass lamp I picked up from Goodwill last week.

$3 Goodwill brass lamp and nasty (with a capital N) shade

The lamp had a great shape and height, was heavy, and most importantly still worked! It was destined for some glossy white spray paint and a unique lampshade. First stop was the make shift garage paint booth since it decided to rain most of the weekend. (The can of white spray paint was shown a lot of love, let me tell you.)

Disclaimer: cans of spray paint were harmed in the making...sorry mother earth!

Once the base went from dirty brass to shiny white, my attention went to the shade. I ripped off the existing the material from the shade base and then looked at it for two days. I’ve been looking for a shade with a great shape to try and recreate this…

Hemp wrapped lamp shade with scalloped edges

…but haven’t had much luck, and since this shade came with the  lamp I was determined to find something great to do with it. Anyone who knows me understands my love for old books and literary classics and when I came across a paperback version of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” for a few bucks at the thrift store, my brain gears started a-workin’.

I took a circle hole punch to the pages, grabbed my trusty glue gun and here’s what I came up with:

I’m not going to even try and pretend I don’t love this, the hubs even said that this was his favorite thing I’ve done lately (I nabbed a winner, huh?) To think this was only project of many has me boasting a proud design mama sticker and I can’t wait to keep sharing the goods with you.

A Summer's Welcome: Patio Makeover

My husband and I are lucky enough to have a great backyard and patio. Finding a rental with a fenced yard was a dream since we had two very young puppies and the patio was just icing on the cake. When we moved in it was late in the summer and we didn't exactly have the money or motivation to get patio furniture that would just need to be stored for the winter. Logical at the time but when the hubs and I invited his family over for a bbq earlier last month, we realized we had nothing! In an attempt to provide a seat for herself, my mother-in-law gifted us her three old robins egg blue [read hideous] plastic patio chairs. We now had a place for 3 people to sit at a time, musical chairs anyone??

Who thought this was a good color, honestly?

About a week or so later, we began our search for a table and some chairs for no more than 150 and went straight to the thrifts stores. (Again, since we are renters, any larger of an investment seemed risky.) We hit the jackpot at a local thrift store with a great 6ft black wooden table with a steel frame. It cost us 40 bucks and a few painful hours trying to load it in our just too small CR-V. I cringe just thinking about about that day in all honesty, but at least we now had a table and 3 ugly chairs. Fast forward another two weeks and a purchase of four patio chairs (one sale for 20 a piece at a home improvement store) and we were well on our way to the great entertaining space we knew we could have.

Its not perfect, but its outdoors and it was 40 bucks people!

We needed at least two more chairs for us to have family and friends over but we were already close to our budget, so we were going to need those hand me down plastics after all -mothers do know best! I grabbed some black glossy plastic grade spray paint and got to work.

Two coats of black Valspar Plastic Spray Paint (6 bucks at Lowes)

A few hand cramps later, we had our functional party patio...for now anyway! We have already had the family over for dinner and some friends over for a bonfire and smore's. I have a good feeling about this summer!

The finished project, love it!