Giving new life to something old

I’ve been so inspired this year by all of the furniture makeovers on Pinterest.   So when we were asked to make a masculine office space more feminine, we knew it was the perfect opportunity to personalize a vintage piece of furniture.  We started with a fabulous industrial style desk, made for this doctor by her husband and were given really only one directive: “I like pink, purple and blue”.  We went antique shopping and found this lovely:

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Pink, yes.  With a little love, new hot pink linen, and staining the wood ebony it became this:

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Here are some of my favorite furniture makeovers from PInterest:

idaho falls interior design

idaho falls interior design

Adding character to new construction

This is our master bedroom in our home.  When we were building, I struggled to find a way to give this room an architectural feature, something special (that didn’t cost a fortune).  I love the three big windows that let in tons of light, but the wall opposite the bed needed “something”.  (Apologies for the crappy pictures)

One day I was in a local antique store and found this old rusted out cast iron fireplace.  It had such beautiful details.

I had my contractor build out the fireplace wall to accomodate the insert.  I painted it gray and used a Romo wallpaper that I had been dying to use (it was too expensive to use in a large area) and used left over marble from the bathroom for the hearth.

This picture doesn’t do it justice, but the “faux” fireplace and wall paper give the room a focal point and something beautiful to look at from the bed (besides my husband’s “gorgeous” tv, of course).  I also used a vintage brass chandelier over the bed and changed out the hardware on the dresser to antique brass.

And someday I’m going to get around to putting pictures of my four crazy kids in those empty gold frames.  Priorities…

Interior doors-black or white?

When we built this house, I was in a “white” mood.  I wanted everything white.  I wanted a white exterior, white walls, white trim…  But the one place I knew I wanted to be different was the interior doors.  We had done white in the past and it shows everything.  We have done wood, and though it is beautiful, and probably the most practical, it wasn’t the look I wanted.  At the time, I kept seeing a paint color by Benjamin Moore being praised in magazines as an alternative to black.  It is BM Iron Mountain, a dark charcoal gray, with a bit of brown in it to warm it up.  So that’s what we did, and I have really liked it.  It hides marks so much better than white and is a great contrast to the white walls.  We also had the grids (mullions) in the windows painted the same color.

This is the door I still dream about doing…

Vintage side table

This little table is one of my favorite finds ever.  It was 20 bucks!  And I love it.  It is the perfect size, I love the brass details and the marble top is gorgeous.  I’ve gotten on the whole brass bandwagon this last year too, and have been replacing hardware here and there with antique brass.  After so many years of nickel and chrome (which I still love) it’s nice to have a mix and really warms the look up.

Finished Gallery Wall

After months of collecting photos, ordering prints off Etsy, and shopping my local antique stores for cool stuff, the gallery wall is finally done!  I’m really happy with it, though it takes some getting used to.  For someone who has lived with blank walls for years, it looks like ordered chaos to me.  I’ve never wanted to hang pictures just to fill space, and so my walls have stayed empty for years while I look for “just the right thing”.   Unfortunately, that also includes pictures of my kids, but that’s my next project!

With this gallery wall, I decided to stick with black frames, with accents of gold or brass.  I wanted to keep it simple but not too modern.  Several of the black and whites are photos  I found in an antique store, that are a collection of photos taken in Europe after World War II.  I don’t even know where they are I just think they are cool.  Then, the “smiling” donkey my husband bought at an art fair, and we like it because it makes us laugh.  Nothing cost over 20-30 dollars, but it looks collected and represents us.

Gallery wall

So I’ve been pinning pictures of gallery walls forever, because I have a huge wall in my living room with no windows that would be perfect for a gallery wall.  It’s a little overwhelming, though, to think about where to begin.  I found some advice on a blog that suggested tracing every picture and item onto paper and hanging them first to figure out where everything goes before I put a million holes in the wall.  So here is what it looks like now…

I am still waiting for a few pictures I ordered to come in the mail before I take the “after” picture.  But it looks AWESOME!!!!  I’ll post the picture soon…

West Elm Velvet Settee

Got the new West Elm catalog today and got to look through it while I waited for my kids at piano lessons.  They have a new yellow velvet button tufted settee that is so beautiful, and only $699!  Where can I put this gorgeous piece of furniture?  Hmmm, unfortunately have no place for it, so I called my friend and design partner, Cari, to try to convince her that she needed it!  At least then I could visit it once in a while…