homage style

when your home is your canvas

schedule a design consult

a bird problem

by 3 Comments

According to my sister, I have a bird problem.

No, I don’t have a flock of annoying Canadian geese over-running my yard.

Actually, it’s more that I like faux birds and enjoy decorating with them as well.

Along those lines, I made this lovely little bird assemblage…


A faux bird appears to have nested in a vintage purse…


I had it listed in my Etsy shop, AngArtica, but as soon as someone expressed a shred of interest, I realized that I didn’t think I could part with it. So I decided to keep it & find a home for it in my own home. Maybe I’ll make another to sell some day.


Sigh. Will I ever become a minimalist?

Probably not.

Funky Junk's Sat Nite Special

Showing off at the link parties at Funky Junk Interiors and Remodelaholic.

thanksgiving table

by 4 Comments

This Thanksgiving I hosted the Thanksgiving dinner and had a total of 11 guests.  Not a huge production, but certainly more than my usual 3 person deal.

As always, I wanted to create a special tablescape, but using things that I have around the house.  Plus, this year, in addition to making it budget friendly, I wanted it to reflect the more austere times that we and many families are experiencing.  Not too sparse, but nothing extravagant either.  So, I went with a combination that I frequently rely on…shabby chic with a touch of whimsical & mod.

As promised, I used the same tablecloth as last year and the year before.  And no, I didn’t iron it…I’m not that kind of girl!  Besides, that’s part of the “shabby”!

I mixed 2 sets of dishes and tied the dinner and salad plates in fun ribbons that I’ve had since forever…

The ribbon takes care of the whimsical…

…and the mod…

The delicate blue glasses are vintage – they were my mom’s from before I was born.

The “centerpiece” is comprised of repurposed Classico pasta sauce jars, filled with a tealight and topped with ribbon, further contributing to the shabby chicness…

But best of all were the family we were blessed to have joining us at this table…

Here’s wishing all of you a warm and wonderful holiday season, filled with the love and laughter of family and friends!

sign language

by 3 Comments

Sometimes it’s just easier to post a sign than to try to explain everything.

That’s what I was thinking when I created this piece for my coat closet…

A coat closet sign.  Pretty ingenious, huh?  I thought it was important for my guests to be able to find their coats.

OK, who am I kidding?  I rarely have guests!

But irrespective of the number of guests I do or don’t have, I thought this coat plaque would be cute.

I took an unfinished wood plaque, painted a base coat of yummy midnight blue, followed by coats of light gray and a hint of taupey beige.  Then I cut out a coat graphic and decoupaged it on to the painted plaque.  Distressed the edges a bit with sandpaper, to reveal the yummy midnight blue, then topped it off with a layer of non-yellowing polyurethane, attached it to the door with non-damaging 3M picture-hanging velcro, and voila!

Now go hang up your coat!

Showing off this project at the link party over at Funky Junk Interiors.

easy art

by 2 Comments

When I redecorated my teen daughter’s room almost 2 years ago, I placed 3 frames on one wall, because she really wanted to hang pictures of her & her friends.

Well, because after 2 years I got tired of waiting for her to add the pictures and looking at this…

…2 of the frames with the original picture that came with the frame and the 3rd frame on the floor collecting lots of dust and hair product overspray.

I finally took matters into my own hands and decided to remedy the problem, since it doesn’t look like the friend photos are happening any time soon.  So, I removed the picture frame girl photo and replaced with 3 different scrapbook papers that match the colors in her room, and that I already had on hand.

Here are the closeups…

Super cute & easy! And cheap, since I already had the paper on hand.  Plus, my daughter likes it!  Good stuff all the way around!

(If only I could show you pics of the rest of her cute room, but I’m afraid the Health Department will recognize it and condemn it!  Maybe after she goes off to college next fall…)

lights + birdcage = birdcage lamp

by 11 Comments

I have a little birdcage that I decided to fill with mini-lights.  Mine is a decorative birdcage, but you could use a real birdcage as well.  However, the bird should probably not be still living in the cage.  And it’s just a recommendation, but if you’re using a real birdcage, you might want to remove the newspapers, bird seed, and of course the bird poop.  But you knew that!

So, I bought 2 boxes of white mini-lights – 100 lights per strand, for $2.49 each…

Because the plug on the mini-lights was too large to fit through the bars on the birdcage, I fed an extension cord through the bars.

To give the mini-lights a little height, I placed a glass jar (upside down) in the base of the birdcage, then messily placed the 2 connected strands of mini-lights into the cage around the jar and on top of the jar.  An alternative to using the jar would be to use an additional strand of mini-lights.

I put the cage back together and voila!

\

A quick and easy birdcage lamp!

Now for a couple of tips…

First, although you may be tempted to try LED mini-lights since they use less energy, I recommend using the traditional mini-lights.  The LED lights are super-bright, and not in a good way.  More like in a migraine-maker kind of way.  Ask me how I know…yup, I tried them, and the glare and color of the lights was way too harsh, then had to go back to the mini-lights.

Also, I have the birdcage lamp plugged into an outlet that turns on with a light switch on the wall, which is convenient, so I don’t have to be plugging in the lights.  Just flip the switch and the birdcage lamp is on.

If you don’t have the luxury of a plug controlled by a light switch, you can use an extension cord that has a foot switch.  No need to bend and plug!

Showing off this lamp at the White link party at Funky Junk Interiors.

twig decor

by 1 Comment

A great low-cost decorating trick is to use twigs & branches that you can gather up on a walk in your neighborhood.  Imagine that – decorating as exercise!  That’s my kind of workout!

I picked up the large branch in this vignette after a windy fall day in our neighborhood…

The birch branch above our entertainment center holds some sentimental value for me, since I cut it from the lovely birch tree in front of our old house in California, because I wanted to take a part of that home with me.  Now it adorns our family room and I can see it every day.

With 2-story walls, the birch branch serves more than just a sentimental purpose. It also “caps” the vignette on the entertainment center, and grounds the whole thing, otherwise your eye would go all the way up to the ceiling, where there’s not a whole lot to see, aside from an occasional dust web.

And hey…don’t be too jealous of my Sauder entertainment center!  I keep fantasizing about replacing it, but a replacement entertainment center never seems to make it to the top of my grocery list!  Maybe some day a beautiful piece will find me when I’m out garage sailing or dumpster diving!

Don’t forget that you can also create a tablescape using twigs & branches.  This was from a past Thanksgiving, when I spray painted some gnarled roots & branches for a free but lovely holiday table display.

OK, I probably should have ironed the tablecloth before creating the tablescape, but it was all about the juxtaposition of sophisticated mod and rustic!

So don’t think you have to spend big bucks to adorn your home…just take a walk on the wild side and bring some nature indoors!

Showing off my twigs & branches at the sticks, twigs & branches link party over at Funky Junk Interiors.

benched

by 4 Comments

Because I live in a land where backpacks, purses, viola, suitcase-sized-5th-grade-zipper-binder-almost-as-large-as-said-5th-grader, and other various & sundry items litter the kitchen table and the bar stools and the breakfast bar, I need some sort of storage solution.

We do have a coat closet with a shelf for each person, however, that is MILES away from the kitchen table! Well, probably only 12-20 steps away, depending on your size, but it sure seems like miles!

So, when blogger Ruth from A Trip to Holland came up with a backpack storage solution I was inspired, but still a little stumped.

Then I remembered the butcher block style grocery display counter tops that I have had sitting in my garage for a couple of years.

Got them for free from the grocery where my ex-husband works, and I’ve been contemplating how to use them for a couple of years.  Finally figured something out.

So, I purchased 4 legs & metal brackets to attach the legs…

First I drilled some pilot holes.  I marked the drill bit with tape to ensure that I didn’t drill through the wood.

Then screwed in the metal brackets…

Then I stained the legs…

When the stain was dry, I screwed the legs into the brackets, and voila!

A great looking place for all of that after school miscellany!

The only drawback with this project was that it wasn’t as cheap as I thought it would be.  The butcher block was free, but the legs were $4.88 each, and the brackets were $2.95 each, plus the stain was $4.95.  So it ended up costing around $36, which is more than I would have preferred to spend.

But it’s adorable, isn’t it?

I’m showing off this great bench at Funky Junk Interiors.

Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special

when you said to frame it, is this what you meant?

by 1 Comment

Recently, a dear friend who lives in New York came to visit me in Ohio.

After his visit, because I have a collection of masks like this…

And this…

He sent me these…

He suggested that I frame them, which I thought was a wonderful idea.  So I purchased this framed painting from a second hand store…

I paid $7.50 for it, which is more than I usually pay for something like this.  Free is usually more my price range, but I was motivated and had an idea of exactly what I wanted to do, and this was the perfect frame.  And although the painting was cute in a kitschy kind of way and very tempting to keep, I popped the painting out of the frame and began prepping to paint the frame.

So, it went from this…

To this, which resembles something from a bloody horror flick…

To this, which turned out to be cute & funky, adding a pop of color & fun to a classic office…

A close up of the detail on the frame…

What room in your home could use a shot of color & fun?

Showing off this project at Funky Junk Interiors…

Funky Junk's Sat Nite Special

no sew curtains

by Leave a Comment

I’ve been reading a great blog that I love – Funky Junk Interiors.

Funky Junk Interiors blogger, Donna, is inspiring in so many ways.  First, she’s made living small an art form by transforming every day junk into fabulous interior decor.

Even more than that, Donna has overcome adversity, yet she’s still cheerful and upbeat, and inspires so many through her blog.

More recently, she’s inspired me to complete a project I’ve been putting off with her “Gitter Done” challenge.  What was the project?

No Sew Curtains!

While my bedroom has blinds, I wanted to add some curtains to soften the harsh look of the blinds and hopefully to prevent some draftiness in colder weather.  And I wanted to do it simply & inexpensively.

So, a couple of months ago, I purchased 12 yards of unbleached muslin, cut in 3 yard lengths.  Unbleached muslin is typically inexpensive, and this was no exception at $1.99 per yard.  Plus I had a 40% off coupon, so including tax, my total was just under $16 for 4 curtain panels.  Not too bad.

(Then my fabric sat in the bag, um, “curing” for a couple of months.)

Last month I found 2 clearance curtain rods for $9.76 each.

But here’s the best part of this project (aside from not spending a whole lot of money for glamorous window coverings)…I pinned the curtain panels on to the rod with fabulous vintage brooches.  A couple were my mother’s, and a couple I picked up here and there over the years.

So finally, after months of contemplation, the big reveal…

A close up of the individual brooches…

Since I’m trying to live small, you may wonder why I even bothered to spend the money on the curtain panels.  Why didn’t I just spend no money and keep things as they were?

Well, if I continue to live in this house, these curtains will last for years.  So for less than $40, I’ve created curtains with staying power for two windows.

And, if at some point I decide to sell my home, the curtains will give the bedroom a more elegant look, one of the many things that can help sell a house at a good price.  (Of course if I sell the house, I will replace the brooches with some that aren’t family heirlooms!)

But most of all, I love them, and they make my bedroom so peaceful!  There’s nothing quite like retiring to a peaceful bedroom at the end of a long day.  And that’s worth $40 to me!