Spraying it down.

I have a few upcoming events that I'm hosting at the house. It's amazing how some deadline pressure will get me moving on things I've been procrastinating on. I've been needing to have a spray painting party for a while, but the weather has been so hot I've been putting it off. I finally broke down (with a fan and lots of ice water) and braved the heat. I am so pleased with the results.

First up, a mirror my Mom gave me to hang over the buffet in my dining room. (Try to ignore the messy garage....)



I think the size is wrong, but I have another place in mind for it. The finish is so bleh to me though. So I just taped it up and spray painted the frame a satin black. I am super pleased! You just have to hang around for another post to find out where this gem is going to live in my house!


Next, I found this little lantern at Tuesday Morning in the non-returnable, its-broken section. It had one pane busted out which didn't bother me since you can't really tell. The problem was the frame is made out of aluminum that at one time was some sort of Nestle product. It was hideous! (I already taped the glass before I remembered to take a picture.)


I decided to do oil-rubbed bronze on it. I am over-the-moon excited about how it turned out. The uniform color brought out the detailing at the top that was completely lost with all that busy pattern before.
(The above picture is more of the true color. This picture picked up the red in the color that you really can't see most of the time.)


Both projects cost me a total of $8. I had the paint, the mirror was free, and the lantern was super marked-down.

I found a similar lantern at Pottery Barn for Over $50.
(Picture from Pottery barn's website)


Thanks for reading! Updates to come where these two projects ended up in the house.

Framing it up!

I started this blog a bit ago and never have made time to post some of the things I've been doing to the house. I hope to start with this post and be a little more regular with my updates!

I found two frames at a yard sale for $1 a piece several weeks ago and snatched them up.
I really loved the chunky frame, the black and gold colors, and the patina-look the frames had. I wasn't in love with all the dust though. The inner part of the frames were really nasty and a gray color I wasn't fond of. I gave them a good cleaning up and just set them aside because I wanted new pictures for them.

Finally this weekend, I found two pictures at Hobby Lobby. They ended up being $14 (50% off) for both tax and all. I removed the matting because the frame already has a kind of matted look (and they wouldn't fit with the matting).

I now turned to fixing the dirty "matting." I just put two coats of my dining room wall color on the gray part. I had the paint on hand and I liked the look. You can see the dining room from where these beauties now hang in our entry hallway so the color is a perfect tie in.

I am really happy with the look the frames give for a total cost of $16. Though, I think I talked myself in hanging them too low. I might move them up after I live with them for a bit.

Before:

After: