Master Bedroom Lucite Lamp Makeover

I purchased a fabulous pair of shiny silver Lucite lamps a couple of years ago. We had just bought our house and I thought I wanted to decorate in a 'modern' style.

We all make mistakes.

 I soon realized Mr. Lamp (and the missus) looked funny with all of the stone, iron, and wood in our house. Oil rubbed bronze and gold were a more natural fit, and over the course of the past 2 years, the house has slowly veered from Silver Street to Gold Avenue.

Here are the silver lamps after I moved them in the bedroom (they started out in the living room and kept moving farther away from 'the area where people see stuff'). With a couple gold mirrors, gold nail head trim on the headboard, and a gold chandelier (none of which you can see in this picture...FAIL.)...something had to give. (Yes, I am pretending like this lamp situation is the equivalent of world hunger....just roll with it.)

Insert problem here. What to do with my uber-modern SILVER lucite lamps? I came upon a solution when I found this gold lucite lamp at Target in the clearance aisle back in January.

(Solution appears in cloud over my head.) Spray paint the other ones!!

So I matched some spray paint to my already-gold lamp.

I found that Rustoleum 'Champagne Mist' was close enough.

So then I spent the next 1,400 hours taping up the lucite parts of the lamps with painter's tape. 1,400 hours, folks. That is how long this task took. I probably could have unscrewed all the parts and had an easier go at it, but on this certain day I opted for the blue stuff. Next time, I will learn to disassemble a lamp.

 *Sidenote: My husband came in the office right as I had this picture on the computer screen and said 'Oh NO. Did you paint our lamps blue?'. Hehehehe. Although he seemed a bit perturbed, he did not seem all that surprised at the possible blue lamps. FACT.

Moving on...so, after I peeled off the tape, I had 2 awesome gold lucite lamps that PERFECTLY matched my already-gold one. Sidenote Round Two: Jesse said 'Did you paint this one too? (Referring to the store-bought-gold-lamp that he apparently never noticed was gold.). You can't get much past this man. (Sarcasm.)

Here are the results. Enjoy

OK. That's not fair. How dare I pull back the curtain when Mr. Lamp doesn't even have his good shoes and hat on? Shame on me.

and while we're at it, let's do a little twirl so you can see the other gold shtuff

So, obviously, spray painting a lamp isn't rocket science, BUT, if you've ever been to a home decor store, you KNOW the issue: All of the stupid lamps are SILVER!! What's a girl-who-loves-gold to do in the lamp department?!?! SO...the moral of this story? If stores refuse to sell what you want, MAKE IT!

(or technically just tape it up and spray it down with some Rustoleum 'Champagne Mist'!)

Happy spray painting!!

Pssssst.  Want more easy DIY Ideas? Check out my top 10 here.

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DIY Ballard Designs Knock-Off Caned High Back Chair Makeover

I got my Ballard Designs catalog in the mail yesterday. It's like a visit from Santa every time it arrives. (I believe! I believe!)

After 30 minutes of devouring every single page, I came away with one cold hard fact: 

I'm pretty sure I have that exact same chair in a closet in my basement...
That I got from Goodwill 2 years ago...
That I almost RE-sold on Craigslist last month...

By a stroke of pure luck, the buyer never picked it up. 

I had no idea what I had on my hands!

Until I saw this in the catalog yesterday:

Look closely. YES, you read it right. STARTING at $449 PER CHAIR.

OR, you can get lucky like me and find THIS for $5 at Goodwill:

It's probably not actually from Ballard, but it is seriously identical...even down to the intricate leg detail.

It was dark brown wood when I found it (which was 2 years ago, and that was BEFORE I blogged, so no before pictures...sorry!) and didn't have a seat cushion, but at the time I thought it was neat.

Plus, for $5, I knew I could do something with it.

So, I painted it

 cut a plywood seat and upholstered it

 and trimmed it.

Here's what I ended up with:

I'm not sure what I'll do with her yet, but for now, she looks good in the guest bedroom.

Not too bad for a $500... $5 chair, huh?

To see the real thang, go HERE.

and if you are like me (super thrifty), and are more partial to $5 furniture, have your significant other pat you on the back, and let's just look at a pic of some flowers that are currently gracing my table. (Who said carnations can't be pretty??...dummies.)

Happy treasure hunting!

~ Virginia

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DIY Chevron Art and a Peacock Gallery Wall: Living Room Updates

I spent my weekend doing projects. All of which were done to change the color scheme of my living room. My living room has had about a million different 'looks', and it never ceases to change. I'm sure it will change again, too, but for now, I'm switching out all the green for a light blue.

It's not finished quite yet, (I'm still working on my 'curtain redo' and a few other projects), so let's consider this post a mini-reveal with a look at how sweet my husband is...along with a peek at a few projects I've been working on!!

My always-patient husband spent his Sunday morning climbing 400 feet in the air on a wobbly ladder to repaint the accent wall. This will be the 3rd time this wall has changed color in a year. 

Would YOU climb this ladder?

No? Yeah...me either. I tried once last year (on the first round of painting this wall) and made it to the 2nd rung.

Luckily this guy will risk life and limb to climb up there with a paintbrush (duct-taped to a pole) and get the job done.

He's a mighty, mighty good man...oh yes, he is!! (Sang in the key of Salt n Pepa)

So, 'tis true...the accent wall was repainted for the 3rd time ( Before it was Behr 'Garden Wall', now it's 'Sandstone Cliff').

Yes, it's a minor change, but as most of us women know, sometimes just an itty bitty change can make a world of difference in the way a room 'feels'.

I also changed out the wall art/decorations in the room. It got a new mirror (just brought it in from another room), a chevron painting I made, and some DIY peacock feather art for my gallery wall.

some closeups:

just some simple sketches of some wispy peacock feathers, matted and framed....

and then a giant canvas with some chevron goodness.

 Oh yeah, and then I made a few pillows out of an old shower curtain. I'm still in the process of making some other ones, so more on that project later.

The best part of this whole deal? The total cost of my mini-revamp was $0. Yep. I just repurposed stuff I already had...I mean, I'm now the proud owner of shower-curtain-pillows....c'mon!! :)

So, the room isn't finished yet. I still have some work to do. Expect to see some more tidbits and photos of this room this week as I wrap up some of my other projects. 

Hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Pssssst.  Want more easy DIY Ideas? Check out my top 10 here.

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