Wall Sconces on Old Shutter Doors

I love the synergy created when two pieces of rubbish come together to form something greater than each part could ever be on its own.  That is how I feel about these vintage, louvered closet doors and this pair of scrolling iron, wall sconces.

I really scored when I found this pair of wall sconces at the local Santa Cruz Flea Market.  I got both sconces for twenty dollars! When my upholsterer was picking up some of my other projects, she mentioned that she also did rewiring, so I had her take the wall sconces to rewire them.  She is a jack, or rather, jill-of-all-trades.

I salvaged the shutter doors from the Last Chance thrift shop at a local landfill. I got nine of them at only two dollars a piece.  They are really heavy  and solid, old closet doors. Perfect for this project!

I flipped them upside down, so the shutter portion of the door is now at the bottom and mounted the wall sconce to the flat panel at the top.

 It seems simple enough, especially when my brother happened to be in town.  He is really great at taking things apart and putting them back together again.  I remember his vast lego collection and his intricate lego designs. His skills came in handy for figuring out how to mount the sconces to the shutter doors.  He used a drill attachment that drills large holes to feed the, newly rewired, cords through to the back side.  Then, luckily, the wall sconces came with mounting brackets and all we needed to get was longer screws to attach the brackets to the doors and the sconces.

Voila!

I left the original, weathered patina, that only time can create, on the wall sconces.  For the shutter doors, I painted one coat of Coco Chalk Paint® followed by a coat of Old White Chalk Paint® that I thinned with water.  I wiped the white back as it was drying, so the Coco showed through more in places.  Then, I sanded the whole door to make it look like a rough and weathered, old shutter.

I placed my new lighting fixtures on either side of  my french doors in my new apartment.

They look so lovely when they are lit and add a lot of old world charm to the room.

This simple and inexpensive project is one of my favorites of all time.

Chalk Paint on Brass Lamps

Vintage, brass lamps, like this pair I picked up at a storage unit sale, are easy to find and, thanks to Chalk Paint®, easy to transform too.  Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan adheres effortlessly to metal surfaces without requiring any primer. I painted a base coat of Old Ochre and then applied a wash of French Linen over that.  I finished the lamps with clear wax, followed by dark wax.

Now these previously unimpressive brass lamps are an elegant pair.

I always show these brass lamps to customers at Loot when they ask if Chalk Paint really sticks to metal.  Everyone wants to touch them to see if they are actually made of brass because the new Chalk Paint finish makes them look like wood.

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Verdigris Bird Lamps

My sister-in-law found these unique bird lamps at a thrift store in Pennsylvania and bought them for me for Christmas.  My parents went to visit them at Christmas time and my mom brought them back for me in her suitcase.  I finally got them when I visited my family on my birthday back in February.  I love these lamps!  I finished painting them a while ago, but I had to wait to find the perfect shades.

This is what the pair looked like when I got them.  They are vintage (I am guessing 80s) with a copper finish, which gave me the idea to make them copper verdigris.

They look elegant atop my Louis Blue and Graphite Buffet.

It took me a while to find the right shades for this pair.  I wanted them to be simple because I did not want to detract from the beautiful detailing of the lamps.  I went to Target and brought back shades at least three different times and none of them seemed to be a perfect fit.  Finally, I know this is probably obvious to everyone else, Nancy suggested I take a lamp with me and try the shades on there. Well, I already knew that Target did not have the right shades for me, so I started to look around locally.  On the way home from the farmer's market, I spotted a local family-owned company, Riverside Lighting, whose windows were full of, what seemed like hundreds, of lamps and shades.  I made my way over there the next day and they have an entire room of just lampshades!  Plus, they were 20% off that day and I found the perfect pair of shades!  They are sophisticated, creamy linen with a simple drum shape and I think they look just right in scale and style on the bird lamps.

To create the verdigris look over the copper finish, I mixed Provence and Chateau Gray Chalk Paint.  Then, I dry brushed it over the lamps, letting the copper show through.  For those of you that have not tried Annie Sloan Chalk Paint over metal yet, I can tell you it does an amazing job of adhering.  I did not even wax over top of the paint because I thought the chalky look and feel made the verdigris finish seem authentic.

These beautiful, bird lamps are for sale at Loot.

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Whitewashed Lamp with Custom Shade

I found this bland lamp at a yard sale for $2.  I am currently on the hunt for lamps because I have so many shades stocked up at home. 

I wanted to whitewash this lamp instead of painting because the finish had such nice texture and I wanted some of that to show through.

 I whitewashed the lamp by thinning some of my white paint with water.  I brushed the mixture on and then wiped it off. I applied a brown glaze after whitewashing and the final color turned out to be a grayish-white.

The owner of Blessings Boutique, Sherry, knows that I like to recover lamp shades and she generously gave me a few of her self-adhesive shades to try.  This was my first time using one of these and it was so much easier than recovering a regular lamp shade.  I didn't even know these existed! I loved how the adhesive held the fabric in place as I wrapped it around the shade.  I still applied a little hot melt glue to the top and bottom edges and then attached a mini-ruffle trim.

Another thing that made this lamp shade easier to recover is that the paper comes off and becomes the pattern for cutting out the fabric.  I usually have to trace the shade onto paper as I roll it along to make my own pattern, like I did here.  The self-adhesive shade saved me sooo much time!  

Here is my finished lamp and shade at the boutique, ready for a new home.

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My Sister's Bedroom Makeover

I just spent two days visiting my younger sister, Emily, and her family in San Diego.  I did not have as long of a visit as I wanted, but I did leave her with a little dresser makeover during my brief stay.



before

Emily received a set of three vintage dressers from her mother-in-law when she got married.  There are two small dressers that she uses as nightstands and one larger one.  She told me that she was ready for new bedroom furniture, as she just got a new bed and wanted updated nightstands/dresser too.  I do not believe in buying furniture new, especially when you have some that is perfectly functional and only in need of a little re-love. 

Her dressers have a lovely shape and I like the scalloped edge along the bottom. The finish was well-worn and outdated, but that was easy to fix. The first morning I was there, we headed to Home Depot and bought some supplies and got right to work!



After

She also had a little lamp with a garage sale lampshade that I wanted to recover. 

I used some vintage bird and floral fabric that Emily got from our older sister, when she cleaned out her massive fabric collection. 

Below are pictures of the finish before and after.

I used a palm sander to even out the surface and remove the old stain before primering.  Then, I painted two coats of pale gray.

When the paint dried, I distressed all the edges, so that the white, base coat and the original wood showed through in places.

We originally wanted to buy crystal knobs for the dressers, but in an effort to save money, we spray painted the existing knobs silver.

I used things that she had around her house to decorate her dresser.  I love the blues, silvers and grays together.  Emily loves birds, so I paired her ceramic bird with the bird fabric on her new lampshade.  She has several of the beautiful, old, blue mason jars with the original lids from garage sales and she got the l-o-v-e letters as a wedding gift.

This is just a start. Emily is going to finish painting the other two dressers herself.  I think it is a huge improvement already and I can't wait to see her room when it is all done!

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Linen and Ruffle Lamp Shades

I have an obsession with recovering lamp shades and I seem to find them in need of recovering everywhere I look.  I sometimes wish I could pass them up because it is a time consuming project.  I covered this plain, white shade in a pale rose fabric and added a ruffle trim.  This is my favorite lamp shade so far.  I love the gentle scalloped edge on the bottom of the shade with the ruffle trim.  I was going to sell this one at Blessings Boutique, but I love it too much!  

Now I need to find the perfect lamp redo to go with this shade.  Isn't this subtle fabric beautiful with the light shining through it?  

The other lamp shade, I finished yesterday, was a $1 garage sale find and started out bright red.  While it was in perfect condition,  I am just not that into red.

I ripped and cut the red fabric off of the lamp shade frame, while still leaving the liner intact.

I covered the frame in some pretty white linen, covered up the seams and added a raw edged ruffle to the bottom.

I put the shade on a $2 thrift store lamp and moved them both out of my to do pile and into the shop!

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