Its all in the details..Home Staging 101

Take any room in your house and use a few simple rules, you end up with a cozy area that is warm and invites you to sit and stay awhile.
Step 1 Have some quality pieces of furniture and neutral pallet
Step 2 Add some color, pattern and texture
Step 3 Accessorize
This rule also works great for dressing yourself...never fails:)

I added my dried orange roses in the glass lamp for more color. For fall you could add some cute little pumpkins or leaves and for Christmas you could add some evergreen and pinecones. Love it

Accessorize with books, wood bowl with textured balls, photos, baskets, vintage trunks stacked on each other, art on wall. Feels cozy now. Think I will sit for awhile and have a coffee.

I added some color with flowers, pillows, a glass lamp with a burlap lampshade which also adds some interesting texture.

I have neutral wall color, drapes and brown furniture. Good start but still pretty boring!

Ugly Office Chair turned into Swan

A few years ago my husband brought a couple chairs home from his office. They we getting new ones. At first I really hated these chairs because..lets face it they were ugly! Then I started to think of what I could do to make these more attractive and this is what I came up with. You can slipcover most anything so why not an office chair. I am not a professional at this but with much determination and want of something pretty, this is what I came up with. I love this chair cover and it has been thrown into the washing machine many times and always looks so nice right out of the dryer. Sitting on this chair kinda makes me feel like a princess:)

What is your best Trash to Treasure find?

I would love to hear from you out there in Blog Land! Share your best  Trash 2 Treasure story with me & link a picture.. Here is  one of my great finds, it's a vintage Dr. Pepper drink caddy. I found it a GoodWill and paid maybe $2 for it. The girl that worked there said she would paint it..hmmm I don't think so. Would you?

p.s. see these pretty orange flowers in the blue bottles? They have been in a few of my blog shots lately, I guess I am really loving the blue & orange together:)

 

Signs

Like many of you, I love signs! They are so much fun to put most anywhere in the house, they add lots of personality to any room and really they can say anything your heart desires. I like to make my own signs, usually I get inspired by something I see at a cute little boutique or magazines. I have used old cabinets, drawer fronts, just a basic piece of wood, really many things will work. Here are a few that I have created, I have made many more than the ones I have pictured here but don't want to bore you:) My most recent sign is the French Laundry sign. I really aged this with layers of paint, a wax technique and Anne Sloane clear and dark wax. I also did some sanding and distressing between layers. The bird embellishment was an old Christmas ornament I had. I didn't have any letters stencils that I liked , so instead of waiting to get some, because I am really an impatient girl, I hand drew the letters in my best cursive handwriting with pencil. After I got it just the way I wanted I used a sharpie..yes I said sharpie:)lol  I was really proud of myself! If you would like to know the paint technique just leave a comment and I promise to get back to you.

Today looked like this..but I'm dreaming of this..Lucsious Orange flowers

Go away cold blustery day! I want Spring back so I can go in my garden and work on my flowers. Until then I will have to settle for these pretty orange roses I got at the grocery store today. I found them looking sad and droopy in the floral dept, well past their prime. They were on sale for $3.99, I went up and asked for a better discount, hey it never hurts to ask:) ended up paying $1.99..that's much better. I am hanging them upside down to dry. The color orange always brightens my day.

Goodwill Garden Urn to Uttermost Topiary

I bought these two Garden Urns a while back at GW, they sat for a time until I could figure out something amazing to do with them. I painted them with a paint from Sherwin Williams called Creamy, then aged them with Anne Sloane clear & dark wax. Hot glued a styrafoam cone onto base, glued two kinds of Moss to give it some visual interest. I had these two Fleur Di Li finials saved from 2 lamps I bought at GW(goodwill) in case you didn't know I liked to shop there..ALOT!  I painted them same color as Urns, hot glued a bamboo skewer, then stuck it ever so nicely on the top. I see these type of Topiarys on Uttermost. Pretty happy with how they turned out. What do you think? Hopefully I have inspired you to go shopping at your local GW. Have a wonderful Day:) p.s. click on the Uttermost website, they have a Topiary on sale for $547, anyone else but me think that is so crazy

http://www.wayfair.com/Uttermost-Preserved-Boxwood-Triple-Topiary-Planter-60093-UM11191.html

Old Rusty Chandeliers..I heart them!

I really love a beautiful old rusty Chandeliers! Some people might like shiny new ones, Not me! I bought this pretty little thing at a boutique I used to work at years ago. It is really rusty in spots, the paint is flaking off into my tub, my husband doesn't understand the appeal of it. That's okay. It's not for everyone but for me it makes me smile, it makes me wonder, where have you been all these years, if only you could talk, oh the stories you would tell...

.