Architectural Salvage Lamps

*knocks on window....peers in*

"Is anyone still there???" she asks.

I am SO sorry y'all!  It's hard to believe that I've left you hanging since August of last year!!  I miss blogging, I really really do, and I hope to be able to carve out a little more time for it this year.  

So much has happened around here since August!  Our beloved Jack Russell passed away in November (she was 13),  Baby Girl celebrated her 1st birthday in January, in February our neighbor found a stray puppy and gave him to us and I talked Hubby into letting us keep him, we got 10 baby chicks in March (only 8 are left now and they're getting close to laying age), we've been getting fresh veggies from our garden, and of course I've still been selling shower curtains and homeschooling the kiddos.  I'll try to share some pictures of some of these things soon.

Let's get on to today's post.

 (Disclaimer - These are cell phone pictures because our computer still won't upload any pictures from my good camera, so I just had to do the best I could.)

These big ol' ugly chunky lamps came from a local thrift store.  The first time I saw them I thought, "Wow, those are ugly!" and I kept on walking.  But then I stopped and backed up and looked at them again and it hit me, I think I could give those a makeover and make them look really neat.  But...I felt like I didn't need another project staring me in the face and making me feel guilty for not completing it, so I left them there.

They stayed there for MONTHS!  Every time I went to that store I looked at them and thought about re-doing them.  Finally I decided if they were still there by the time the next 50% off day rolled around I would get them.  But then I forgot about the 50% off day and had to wait a whole month more.  

They were still there and I got them both for $3.

They weren't very pretty, and they are BIG and heavy. 

They were chipped and cracked and dirty..... I'm not too surprised no one else wanted them.

I had in mind to give them a finish that would make them look like a worn old architectural salvage piece that had been turned into a lamp.  I had in mind something like these pieces.

It was an experimental process and I really wasn't quite sure how to achieve the look I was going for, but in the end I think I ended up with something pretty cool.  

The one lamp already had two big chips knocked out of it, so I purposely chipped up the other one a bit to help it along in the "aging" process.  I gave them a base coat of a dark gray paint, then added a crackle medium in random spots all over them, then I sponged on a layer of white paint.  The areas that had the crackle medium cracked nicely and the darker undercoat showed through.  Then I added a layer of antiquing glaze and then another layer of white sponged on here and there.  I finished them off with a few coats of clear sealer in a matte finish.

I looked online and at a couple of stores at lamp shades to go with them and nothing seemed right.  Then I found these cute burlap ones at Walmart of all places and I knew they would pair perfectly because they pick up the color of the antiquing glaze really nicely.

They're not 100% the way I had hoped they would turn out, but I got tired of messing with them and made an executive decision that they were done.  It had already taken me a month and a half to get them finished and I wasn't spending any more time on them.

The display on these crates needs to be changed to fit the scale of the lamp better, but I was anxious to take pictures and be done.  : ) 

When I started this project I wasn't even sure if I would be keeping them or not, but once I found the shades and put them in place I really like them and decided to keep them.  They go nicely with the  new-to-us matching leather recliners I just bought for the living room.  

I already had all of the paints and mediums for this project, so the only cost involved with these was the initial purchase price of $3 and then the shades which were $15 each.  

There's just something so satisfying about taking one man's trash that no one else wants or sees the beauty in and turning it into a treasure.  

Summer Living Room Decor

Can you even believe that it's September already?!?  On one hand it seems like the summer has just flown by, but on the other hand it feels like it will take forever before the cooler temperatures will return around here.  We usually get the beginnings of fall temps in early October here in north Florida and I am seriously looking forward to it!  

I've been itching to start on my fall decor already, but I decided I should do a quick post about how my living room has looked for the summer months first...you know, now that summer is basically over.  :)

Here's a not so great cell phone picture to show you it in bigger perspective.  I love adding lots of red and blues for a patriotic feel, but this year I also just wanted more color in general.  Bright and cheery and happy.

I didn't bother with any sort of display on the coffee table, just a simple tray holding magazines.  My kids clear the top of this multiple times a day to build Legos, color/draw, or to eat lunch so I kept it really simple.

Of course, my picket fence flag took its place of honor again.  I've had that almost my entire marriage and still love it to pieces!  I threw the rest of the shelf decor together very quickly one afternoon before some company came over and that's how it stayed all summer.

A metal baking tray with a star shaped design continued the patriotic feel, and a license plate, vintage flour sack towel, and a sweet pitcher all brought touches of red and blue.

Even the wooden cheese box has red and blue and on it.  I love using the old picture of my husband's dad in his little league uniform.  Nothing says summer like baseball does.

To the side of the couch I replaced the plainer wooden crates with this colorful stack of old soda crates as an end table.  I found the navy blue lamp at a yard sale for 75¢.  A little bit of faux ivy sits on top of an old pulley as well.  Did you notice my curtain in the background?  I messed up a shower curtain order and instead of throwing it away I hung it up here in the living room to use as a window curtain for the time being.

On the other side of the couch, I replaced the black lamp with this more colorful one.  (You can read about its makeover {here}.)  I moved a potted plant over here and added a simple basket of croquet balls for even more color.  In the background you can see my antique penny square quilt displayed over my wooden ladder.

Our bedroom throw pillows came out to the couch as well as some thrifted blue pillows for a mix-n-match look.

Over on the loveseat I draped a small blue floral throw blanket and added the adorable throw pillow I got from my friend over at Peek Pillow Originals.

Isn't it just the cutest?!?  I liked how the "star" theme of it once again fit in with the patriotic feel I had going on.  If you haven't been over to Etsy to check out her pillows you must take a minute and stop over there!  She's got the cutest designs and has even come out with some amazing fall designs as well. And....if you ask very sweetly she's even willing to do custom designs.  So be sure to check out her shop.

The only thing I changed on the other side of the room was too add this wool plaid blanket with the perfect color scheme that I found at a yard sale for $2, as well as a little throw pillow.  For the pillow cover I simply wrapped a piece of fabric around it and safety pinned it closed.  Ta-da!  An instant "new" pillow.  :)  (You can also see that I took the shelf out of part of the entertainment center to make room for our scrapbooks/photo albums to be on display and within easy reach.)

I just loved this combination of patterns!

So, you can see I kept things really simple for the summer and didn't stress over having everything "blog-worthy" and perfect.  Just a few touches to freshen things up for the summer months.

Now that these pictures are shared I can move on to warm and cozy fall decor!

* P.S. - In baby news, I'm a little over 5 months along now and baby is healthy and active.  I had an ultrasound done, but baby didn't cooperate and we still don't know the gender.  I have another one coming up in a couple of weeks and we're hoping to find out then.  I guess one of these days soon I'll need to get started on making space for this new little one's crib.  :)

                                                               

Junkified Gallery Wall

Hey, whaddaya know! 

 I'm finally blogging about something to do with decorating again!  Can you even believe it?  I feel like it's been forever since I've done any sort of decor post.

So last week on the Facebook group I shared that I was dusting off the right side of my brain and trying to get it into creative mode again because I was working on a little project.  I shared a sneak peak picture that showed the corner of a rusty license plate as well as the corner of a picture frame. 

 Did anyone have any ideas of what it might be?  

Well, if the title of this post didn't already clue you in, it was a gallery wall...a junkified one at that! 

Here's a quick reminder of what this wall looked like before.

On the left is the depressing orange color it was when we moved in, and on the right it's freshened up look after I finally got it painted.  And now we have some things up on the walls!  

Yay me!  And it only took me 5 months to accomplish this.  :D

It's just a hodge podge of a bunch of frames and pictures we already had.  I didn't bother to buy all matching frames or paint them in any certain color scheme.  I already had them, they had pictures in them, I put them on the wall, and ¡Voila!...a gallery wall.  

I played around with different bits of "junk" I had in my "collection" until I came up with a look I liked.  I had it all spread out on the floor for a few days while I tweaked it.  I was hoping if Hubby tripped over it enough times it would inspire him and his logical left brain to help me with it and do all of the boring stuff like measuring and leveling, and I could do the fun stuff like stand back and shout orders.  But it was not to be.  He just had too much going on that week, so I tackled it all by my lonesome.  

  The rocking chair has my hundred year old penny square quilt on it now, as well as a little flour sack pillow I found at a thrift store.  Wire baskets in the black cabinet hold our Bibles in one and TV and Wii remotes in the other, and a stack of decorating books brings a bright spot of color to this dark piece of furniture (that I'm still hoping to replace someday).

The right side of the cabinet has an old Royal typewriter displayed.  It was another yard sale find.  It still has some ink left in the ribbon and my kids love to put scrap paper in it and plunk away.

Not everyone will love the tennis racket or even understand why I included it in the mix, I know Hubby certainly doesn't.  He thinks I'm weird.  But it's quirky and unexpected and I like it!  So that's all that matters.  :)  It's vintage, it's wooden, it has red on it, and it was only $3 at the thrift store.  What more can a girl ask for?  

My old rusty license plates make another appearance.  If you've been around for awhile you might remember seeing them on my Christmas porch 2 years ago.  There's actually a third plate somewhere else in the room that I'll be sharing a little later on.

An old folding ruler shaped into a star adds another spot of repurposed "junk" to my gallery wall.  This same idea also made an appearance on a Christmas porch 3 years ago in my basket "wreath."

And did you spot the last bit of junk that's tucked in between two pictures?

If you follow me on Facebook then you might remember this picture from a month or so ago.  It was like Christmas morning for me when my father-in-law gave me some old pulleys that belonged to his father, and an old weather vane he found when tearing down a house.

I tucked one of the directional arms of the weather vane in between two pictures.  It's simply resting on the flat top of the frame below it.  It works out nicely because that wall is an east and west wall so the directions are correct.  This makes the small part of me that is OCD very happy.  : )

Doesn't it have a lovely patina?

I used another part of the weather vane in this little arrangement beside the TV. 

 Can you see it?

Yep, there it is!  The ball part of the vane is sitting atop the books and I tucked some faux ivy down into the hole on the top of it.  I liked that it had a lovely red color going on as it fits in nicely with some other summer decorating I'm doing around the living room.  

And there ya have it, that's my version of a gallery wall. 

 It's so nice to finally have something to look at other than paint.

So what's your opinion?  

Am I completely nuts for hanging a tennis racket on the wall?  

Is the whole thing too random for your taste, or are you like me and 

enjoy the unexpected quirkiness of it all?

Let me know what you think!

                                                              

Sharing over at:

Funky Junk Interiors - PJ242 Unique Feature Walls