TRANSFORMED, from broken to beautiful
by Patti 24 Comments
It’s an ordinary Tuesday. The day of the week that I’m most likely to share a home related post. Well, I’ve still got one for ya’ but I couldn’t help but share that there is something about this Tuesday that had me singing in the shower and dancing down the stairs to my computer.
Sometimes our prayers are answered quickly, sometimes we never see the answer in our lifetimes, and sometimes the prayers go on for a long, long time until suddenly…
…
by Patti 25 Comments
Summer came in earnest on Saturday with the first REAL humidity of the year. The kind that leaves even heat lovers like us seeking air conditioned spaces. Then in the night came thunder, and lightening, and a real downpour that my yard gladly drank in.
Spring is my favorite time of year in the South. The yards are so green and different varieties of flowers are blooming daily.
May seems to be the month for magnolias and gardenias.
I’m musing today on the complexity of doggie relationships . . .
. . . as I consider why this perfectly behaved ten-year-old dog of ours would suddenly begin leaving nasty little messes in the house.
Oh I know it has something to do with the new puppy entering her world, but I’d like to get in her head and understand her WHY?
Because maybe if we knew the WHY we would know the answer to the problem.
In the meantime, she received a good scolding this morning and I do believe she is smart enough to think twice before trying something so foolish again, especially on the oriental carpet 🙁
I’m musing as well today on why my funny seems to have left me of late.
Hubby and I discussed it a bit this weekend and I came to the conclusion that my funny feeds off of other funny people and I haven’t been around enough of those types lately.
I know, a lot of people say that Mr. OTN is funny. But he’s funny in a different kinda’ way. Like the smart guy who acts goofy kinda’ way.
Right now I just might be hoping hubby doesn’t read this post. Click To Tweet
It’s all good honey. It’s like Disney’s Goofy. You like him, right?
My kind of funny is more like this:
At times I'm shocked at the brilliance of my words. Then I try to get out of the car with my seat belt on. Click To Tweet
I think I need time with some of my quick witted friends to get my funny back. Soon gals, soon. 🙂
Today I’m also musing on the message we heard in church yesterday about how we can be certain to know God’s will when we don’t allow ourselves to be conformed to the world’s views, but are instead, transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2).
We renew our minds when we spend time in God’s word and in prayer, getting to know Him, and when we deliberately focus on whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, and on all things good, excellent and worthy of praise (Phil. 4:8).
It is so important to be careful about the things we allow our minds to settle on isn’t it?The more we fill our minds with toxic thoughts, the less room we have for God. Click To Tweet
And the less room we have for God, the less we know His perfect will for us.
I don’t know about you, but I want to know and walk in God’s will for me, because I know it far surpasses anything I could plan for myself.
As a bonus, and to keep you engaged while listening to my musings, here’s a little Spring vignette I created for my kitchen dining nook.
Thanks for stopping by 😉
Blessings,
I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!
Sunday:
TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace
Monday:
IShouldBeMoppingTheFloor, TheDedicatedHouse, Dwellings, ProjectInspired, InspireMeMonday, BetweenNapsOnThePorch, CelebrateYourStory, Making Your Home Sing Mondays, What Joy is Mine/Monday Musings, Darling Downs Diaries, The Art of Homemaking, SmallWonder, MomentsOfHope, Glimpses, SittingAmongFriends
Tuesday:
TalkOfTheTown, HomeStoriesAtoZ, AStrollThruLife, CoastalCharm, CedarHillFarmhouse, TuesdaysAtOurHome, TheWinthropChronicles, Rich Faith Rising Unite Linky, Testimony Tuesday,Cheerleaders of Faith,Tell His Story
Wednesday:
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Thursday:
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Friday:
FrenchCountryCottage, TheCharmOfHome, RootedInThyme, TheDedicatedHouseAnythingBlueFriday, ShabbyliciousFriday, Sweet Inspiration, Faith’nFriends, Missional Women Faith Filled Fridays, Dance With Jesus FreshMarketFriday
Saturday:
FunkyJunkInteriors, OneMoreTimeEvents, SaturdaySparks, TheInspirationGallery, Make My Saturday Sweet
by Patti 8 Comments
Have you ever felt like you’re going round and round in circles, working hard but accomplishing little? I think we all feel that way at times. That’s when it can be a good thing to take a look back to see that you really have made some forward progress. My blogging life sort of fizzled out toward the end of 2016 but looking back I find myself encouraged by these things that I DID accomplish. …
by Patti 30 Comments
Three sisters from the same parents. How could we all be so dissimilar while at the same time so alike? How could remembrances of our childhoods be so different? I guess, given the age spread, it isn’t all that surprising.
Sister #1 lived through the lean times.
Sister #2 was there when they were “movin’ on up!”
Sister #3, well, everyone said that she was just plain spoiled though that simply isn’t true!
One thing we had in common were two parents who cared a lot about appearances and looking their best. I once heard my dad referred to as “Dapper Dan” and my mom almost always wore a dress and heels, even into her 80’s when she struggled to remain steady on her feet. There she was, my mom and her walker, heading down to dine and dressed to the nines!
In addition to dress, my mom was a collector of things that made the home I grew up in a place of beauty. When you tour my home you’ll see some of her treasures on display.
So here’s the deal with the three sisters. Our parents taught us strive to look our best too but we pull ourselves together in very different ways:
Sister #1: Traditional style, think Ralph Laurenish. Her look is fairly casual and she loves color. Red is her go-to color.
Sister #2: Elegant style in the vein of Jackie O! She loves to dress up in designer clothes and rocks it in black and white.
Sister #3: Rustic Glam style - Pretty much a jeans girl but she likes to dress her jeans up with pretty tops and layers of jewelry. Blues and greens are her favorite colors - to match her eyes.
Now, can you tell me which sister I am? A lot of times the way we dress our homes is a reflection of the way we dress ourselves. Take a look at a few components of my dining room below to see if this gives you a hint of who I am.
Crystal chandelier
Antique oil painting
Traditional damask wallpaper
Painted and distressed china cabinet
A shabby ruffled tablecloth
Vintage frame turned chalkboard
As I pulled this dining room together with the oriental rug, the chandy, the buffet, the hutch, the wallpaper, and all of the other elements of the room it began to feel . . . FANCY. Too fancy for me (not too fancy for my husband because he loves fancy)! So to make it feel more ME . . . you guessed it, I’m the more rustic glam of the three sisters . . . I added a few rustic elements to the room.
One of these elements was the two oak cabinet doors that I had hanging around in my garage. I thought they would be the perfect foil for the fancy-schmancy crystal wall sconces that I intended to hang on either side of the oil painting. This is the process I used for liming the doors:
Can you see how these two doors tone down the elegance of the crystal sconces and the room a little bit? Now we can have a fancy dinner and still act like our quirky, funny, crazy selves.
Along with the crazy fun friends we seem to be drawn to.
This is the first time I’ve used liming wax and I love how it settles into the grain of the wood. That’s the key by the way. Liming wax works best with open grained hardwoods such as oak and ash.
I’ve added links below to the products I used on this job in case you are interested in purchasing any of them. As my statement says at the top of the page, any purchases through links on this blog help us keep the lights on here at Old Things New but do not cost you any more than buying directing through Amazon.
I do hope you enjoyed my little guessing game though y’all probably had me figured out from the get-go! Next up on the blog I will be sharing a tutorial for the Ruffled Linen-Look Tablecloth that I made for my dining room table.
Blessings until we meet again 😉
TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, NiftyThriftyThings, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays,
by Patti 53 Comments
Have you ever had a big project that you began with every intention of completing in . . . like 5 days? Then that 5 days turned into 5 weeks and the 5 weeks into 5 months . . . or even longer?
Yup, that’s pretty much the way my dining room makeover went. I felt quite vindicated on Sunday though when our Pastor, who is doing a series called Flip my House, talked about how building anything good takes time. It is a process. So I’m thinking this dining room of mine must be pretty good because it took way more time than I ever could’ve imagined!
It began with my trying to strip some very stubborn wallpaper, only to find out that it was applied directly to the sheetrock. Not a good situation. Believe me, I tried every method known to man to remove that paper and it wasn’t worth the time I would have had to put into it to get it to the point of being paintable.
So I repaired the damage I’d already done and moved on to Plan B, new wallpaper. Shopping, shopping, and more shopping, ordering samples, rejecting samples, ordering more samples and finally finding just what I was looking for The wallpaper application itself also took way longer than expected but it wasn’t such a bad experience because I had a good GREAT friend who came all the way out from Washington to help me. Pain shared is pain lessened!
Of course there was also the painting of the buffet and dining chairs, reupholstering the dining chairs, repairing and painting a hutch . . . you get the picture.
It would’ve been a whole lot easier to pick everything I wanted from a catalog and have it shipped but that’s not the way I roll . . . Mrs. Old Things New here.
This was the style board I originally put together for my dining room using Olioboard. This great design tool actually kept me from making mistakes when I realized that some of the things I originally planned on using in this room didn’t look good together. If you are interested in reading about how I came up with the inspiration for this room you can read the full post HERE.
Dining Room Before
This is a view of our dining room BEFORE, looking toward the kitchen. Very classic wallpaper in a pretty shade of red but, like some of the other changes we’ve made in this house, it just wasn’t me.
Dining Room Before
This is the dining room view looking toward the front door, where Sasha hangs out all day long looking for something to bark at.
And here she is, my somewhat glam, somewhat rustic new dining room.
The hutch is the first piece I worked on, using a color wash in different grey tones. You can find the tutorial for that HERE
These old doors were taken from another large piece that I’m working on for my bedroom. I used liming wax for the first time to give them this weathered look.
Then I attached some vintage wall sconces for that Rustic Glam look that I like.
You may have heard about my chandy before. It was a birthday gift from my husband the first year we were married. Even though we had to pay a small fortune to have it specially packaged and shipped across the U.S. it was worth it!
An antique frame turned chalkboard so I can write messages to myself.
This is a close up of the wallpaper we used. I like that it has a very subtle pattern in pearly greys, cream and tan. The pattern is Brunate Damask from Seabrook Wallcoverings.
This is the little redeemed and restored hutch I recently wrote about HERE
The pattern in the glass of the hutch . . .
. . . matches the pattern in the fabric I used to recover the chairs . . . and also the pattern in the rug that once belonged to my mom.
I’m either very clever or very lucky 😉 You guess which one it is.
I painted the dining chairs with the same color wash technique that I used on the buffet.
One of the items on my style board was tufted and upholstered chairs for each end of the dining table. These are Bennett Camelback armchairs from Restoration Hardware and they were on sale at the time I purchased them. Though the price was pretty good I guess you could still say they were my big splurge since all of the other dining room furniture combined cost less than one RH chair.
That doesn’t include these vintage Florentine nesting tables. They don’t normally hang out in this room but needed a place to stay while the Christmas tree takes up their nook in the living room.
This antique frame holds blue and white vases filled with dried roses.
An antique French mirror hangs between the two dining room windows.
This, of course, is my favorite thing about this dining room makeover! I have loved this painting from afar for years, ever since I began following Sherry’s blog, No Minimalist Here.
Sherry and I at her home. Eeek! #bloggerfriendsnowreallifefriends
Sherry’s was one of the first blogs I followed. I’ve always loved her style (being a non-minimalist myself) and I’ve always admired this painting which hung in her home. Several months ago, after downsizing, she had an online garage sale through her blog. Would you believe that we drove the 7-1/2 hours to get this painting? It was actually hubby’s idea because he knew how much I loved it. It not only makes my dining room but it also has a special history behind it, in that it comes from the Jamestown Plantations in Virginia.
Ever since I put the last sprig of greenery in my centerpiece in preparation for taking pictures for the blog I’ve been walking by my dining room and feeling delighted at the transformation that I knew would one day be. But you know what? When it comes right down to it, it is all just stuff! Temporary treasure that brings some temporary pleasure but nonetheless, just stuff.
Because of that mindset, and because I’ve had times in my life that I’ve struggled financially, I have a hard time spending too much money on the temporary things. That’s also why I like to restore things that others have no use for, or to create things myself to add beauty to my home.
I know that not everyone is like me. Not everyone enjoys searching through junk stores and spending hours in a hot/cold garage restoring their finds, and I certainly don’t begrudge those who have decorated their homes with high end furnishings. In fact, I love going to into their homes to OoHH and AaHH and gain even more inspiration! Like I’ve said on my sidebar, I believe anyone can create beauty on a budget.
Now, because I can’t help myself . . .
Another BEFORE
And AFTER
BEFORE
And AFTER.
Yup, I like it better this way!
Blessings,
P.S. I have one dirty little secret. It is the dirty, scratched up dining room table hiding under the tablecloth I made to hide it. It is a table just like the one on my design board except beaten. One day I will be stripping and restoring that final piece to it’s original wood tone. One day . . . but probably not too soon.
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