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Showing posts from January, 2013

A 180 Turn From the Last Post

In the last post I talked about my silver tray display on the west wall of the dining room. I am still tweaking the opposite wall but I'll show you where it stands as of today. Obviously I moved the table to get a direct shot of this side of the room. I had extra trays and coffee pots after completing the west wall, so I decided to use them here. It ties in with the glitz of the hearth and surround.  I covered the existing tiles on this fireplace with the mirror mosaic years ago and I'm still happy with the look.  It was a big project because all the mirrored pieces had to be snipped one by one. I have enjoyed the look for many years so it was worth it. The candles I found at an estate sale.  The mirror came from a yard sale.  It does have a pretty frame that needs some repair.  I tried it here without the frame and decided to keep it that way. The artwork is from a charity resale shop. This was how I found it.  I wasn't

Thrifty Wall Display

I have planned for some time to make a wall display using silver platters and bowls. (Pinterest)  I saw a few collages on Pinterest. (Pinterest) I pinned them to my "wall decor" board for future reference.   (Pinterest) Then I started collecting my own silver pieces from thrift shops and resale stores.  I played around with the arrangement a bit. I also measured the space I wanted to cover on the wall and made sure I had enough pieces to fill that space in the best way. Next came the job of polishing the pieces.  I had gotten a tip from one of the volunteers at a charity resale shop.  She told me the only thing to use is Simichrome Polish.  She was right.  The piece on the right looked worse than the one on the left.  What looks like tarnish is actually the reflection of the chandelier hanging above the table.  Some of the pieces had a few marks that were not coming out with any kind of polish but that is part of the upcycling charm. T

The Journey of Four Little Chairs

In retrospect I wonder why I just had to have these chairs.  I knew they needed work when I bought them, I just didn't realize that meant weeks in intensive care.  In my defense, they don't look too bad here, do they?  You would have fallen for them too, right? Beautiful lines...who could resist? I started by removing the upholstery. Not only nail heads, but lots and lots of staples. And then more staples that were holding the foam in place. Once my hands recovered from pulling staples, I was ready to examine the chairs for structural defects. The curved parts had put too much stress on the dry wood and they had started to pull apart. With only four clamps in my arsenal, this took awhile. The feet had taken a beating and there wasn't much I could do to bring them back to the original tapered lovliness. I added glide pegs and hoped that would be enough to halt the deterioration. Next came a coat of primer and this is ho