Chandelier Makeover!

Once upon a time, we bought a house. The house was 79% orange. Not the nice warm trendy orange you see these days. More like a hideous orange/gold/70's looking orange. Orange shag carpet, orange drapes and even 'harvest gold' appliances. There was also a flashy brass chandelier hanging in the dining room. Part of me cringed. I mean, it was a little over the top considering we live in a 1200 square foot house built with economy in mind. And with the orange everywhere, it looked downright gaudy. Yet at the same time, the chandelier was fascinating. I decided that after removing all orange vestiges, it would be awesome and it was. It was the kind of chandelier that people pay good money for at a vintage shop. But try convincing my husband of that. For the last 5 years he has despised the fixture and threatened its demise. Every now and then I would mention the possibility of painting it white, but the thought of removing every single crystal and cleaning all the little swirls and curls was enough to deter me. Recently I decided to just do it, and see how it turned out. I scrubbed it up as best I could and sprayed it with a zillion coats of some 'Heirloom White' spray paint that is supposed to stick to anything. The fake candlesticks on it were so old and brittle that the crumbled at the slightest touch. My husband made new ones out of PVC and I covered the with light yellow scrapbook paper. I am thrilled with how it turned out and even my husband thinks it looks nice. Woo!!

P.S. Who takes an entire paragraph to write about a stinkin' chandelier?! Me apparently. And if you haven't had enough intrigue for one day, check out the picture below. As I was taking it, I realized that behind my nice sparkly chandelier I have an old 'Lay or Bust Poultry Feed' sign and a 'Hippies Use Side Door' sign hanging up. Classy!

Art Box Redo

I had an art box that I used in college. While there was nothing wrong with it, I just haven't had the opportunity to use it in a long time. You know...three kids and all. :) My son is very much into farming and all that goes along with that, so for his birthday we got him a whole passel of farm-related figurines. I decided this would be the perfect time to give my old art box a new lease on life. I planned to spray paint it and add a few rub-ons (which I just discovered are pretty much awesome!). The problem was that I was painting it the night before his birthday and I ran out of spray paint. The bottom was still unpainted and not in nice enough shape to leave bare. So, what does a sleep-deprived mother do who is short on spray paint? Whip out the acrylic paints and modge podge of course! I painted a sky (boy, am I rusty) and used modge podge to slap down a paper prairie. I figured he could flip the box over and use this as a backdrop for his play. Well, fortunately the box was a big success. Basically, he has been playing with it ever since! I guess its true, necessity really is the mother of invention.

Dresser Makeover

This dresser has had many lives already. Previously, it was Rachel's dresser. When Rachel got it, she and Mom painted it burgundy and applied textured wall paper to the front of the drawers. (Thanks for doing the hard part for me!) After Rachel was done with it I decided to take it for my daughter's room. I painted it 'circus' purple as Dad refers to it. The drawers I just painted white. Instant makeover! (Wouldn't it be awesome if I remember to take a 'before' picture next time??)

What to do, what to do?

I am not a floor-to-ceiling pictures type of person. However, I love pictures and I (incidentally) have the three cutest kids in the world ;) That makes it hard to narrow things down. I wanted a way to hang up more pictures without the wall looking too cluttered. Oh, and I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg on new picture frames. Eureka! I had an idea. I raided the frames I already had, stole some from Mom, and went to the dollar store where I bought about 10 frames for...you guessed it, about $10. Then I went and got myself a nice can of matte black spray paint and went to town. I painted all the frames the same black. Let me tell you, a cheesy dollar store frame looks a LOT nicer with a coat of spray paint. Case in point:

After painting all the frames I laid them out on the floor how I wanted them and took a picture of the arrangement on my digital camera. I printed out the picture to use a guide for hanging them up. In case you are wondering, the square frame at the top is going to be a clock. I am in the process of embroidering a drawing James made, which I will use along with the guts of our living room clock to make myself a shiny new clock. So now I have a new picture arrangement. I plan on switching out pictures as I feel like it, and I can even add more frames in needed.