Happy Holidays to one and to all

      

We don't have snow yet this year but to me the holidays cry out for the white stuff. Then it can melt so everyone can get to work. And to the grocery store.

In a perfect world, right?

Dog decorating tutorial in the post below.

Just be sure no doggies are harmed in any way.

Linking to:

shabby nest

my uncommon slice of suburbia

savvy southern style

It's a Blu Christmas without you or How to decorate a dog for Christmas

I recently ran across these photos of styling our gone-but-not-forgotten dog, Blu, for our Christmas card back in 2005. I had forgotten that we had them!

I miss Blu. He was too smart, too stubborn, too opinionated and had too many rules. Blu's rules. We had rules, he had rules. Quid pro quo.

A lot of people weren't real fond of Blu. He didn't allow himself to be petted. That 'rule' caused a great deal of drama. A great deal of drama.

So this post is to remember Blu at this time of year, for he died near Christmas, and also to show the REAL Blu to those who only saw him glaring at them, showing a fang.

 Here we are, Blu is wondering what the what?

Getting the pose right.

Starting the string lights.

Then came the garland.

Adjust adjust adjust

Blu waiting while I straighten out the antlers.

 Ahhh, almost there.

Hanging the ornaments.

Plugging in the lights.

Our 2005 Christmas card photo.

And the quid pro quo part? Blu got McDonald's french fries for his efforts.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I am thankful for having known Blu Tougher.

Sharing with:
tip junkie
coastal charm
home stories a to z

I have met the enemy and it is ..... soy sauce

or maybe it's worcestershire sauce.

Who knows? They both gave me a run for my money recently.

At the local once-a-month flea market a vendor told me of another furniture painter who used soy sauce as a glaze. She also used car wax instead of furniture wax. I'm always eager to try something new so I picked up some Turtle Wax on the way home.

The victim.

This is one end of a vanity. I take vanities apart and make the ends into side tables. There are a lot of wood pieces that need replaced when doing this. And a lot of wood filler gets used. A lot. But the end result is worth it.

I had two red pieces done and ready for glaze so I tried using soy sauce. Bwah ha ha ha ha. Maybe cornstarch is supposed to be mixed in? I dunno. Whatever the case, the soy sauce stuck to the paint just like water. Wipe wipe, dab dab. Wipe wipe, dab dab. And so the minutes turned to days and the days into weeks ..... 

Wipe wipe, dab dab.

Remember in Indian Jones, the scene where the last of many swordsmen came at Indy and all exasperated he just drew his gun and shot the guy? Well, after my last wipe wipe I put regular old glaze on the little cabinet and called it a day.

Are those not the cutest little casters?

 I continued using regular Ralph Lauren glaze.

The third piece in the red group never suffered soy sauce torment.

However, just because soy sauce didn't work, that didn't mean worcestershire sauce wouldn't, right?

So I brushed worcestershire sauce onto a red frame I had and waited for that to dry. And waited. It didn't seem inclined to dry so I left it overnight. The next day I had a sticky, smelly red frame. It really smelled like food. It smelled like food for a couple weeks.

I knew I was in trouble when I caught one of the kitties licking the frame. I washed it in the sink three times to no avail. It was still stinky.

The white residue? That is dried Turtle Wax and I'll have to brush it out. The wax didn't work so well on the red frame, but I had another thought that might work better. I had painted a frame with Annie Sloane CoCo and It was a nice flat neutral color. Just right for a Turtle Wax test.

I brushed wax on and made sure to get into the nooks and crannies. I set it aside until the next day.
Then a pleasant surprise!

The wax worked as a patina. The whole frame looked like it was oxidized by the elements. It's pretty awesome. I'm going to try Turtle Wax on a gold frame and see what happens.

Could be fun.

Did you notice the new background? I've done really well on my junking expeditions lately!

sharing with
miss mustard seed
coastal charm
shabby nest

design rules you should throw out the window

The Modani Modern Furniture company is reaching out to design bloggers to write a post about Design Rules to Throw Out the Window.

Well, I didn't even realize there were official rules for interior design. And I had a sneaking suspicion I had broken them in decorating my home. Oh, I know what looked best to me, like uneven numbers for a grouping of objects. But if you only have two? Then two it is. The Decor Police are not as stringent as the Fashion Police. I hope.

So here are the five rules to toss:

Rule 1. Stick to one style. Really? Mix away, baby! I would just say, use common sense and follow your instincts. If you think you might have gone too far, then you probably did.

I'm going to take a chance that you won't shrink back in horror and show an example of rule breaking in my own home. Actually, I think I broke both rules 1 and 3 here.

In the livingroom: Traditional and Industrial.

Rule 2. Match your colors. Hmmmm. That's old thinking isn't it? To pull the pink out of a painting and match the sofa and loveseat to it? You don't HAVE to do that. Really. Although I overheard two women doing exactly that the other day. They were carrying around a print, looking for items that matched the colors.

No, you can get bold like this example from Apartment Therapy. Or even crazier like the example in Modoni's Rules graphic above.

source

Rule 3. One pattern per room. I have seen real-life horrors because someone followed this rule. Imagine a room full of plaid. Or a room completely done in a pastel floral pattern.

There are wonderful examples of mixing patterns all over the internet  Be as wild as you want, just mix patterns with thoughtfulness and taste. Just like you would do your clothing.

 Did I break this rule? Of course I did. And I did it on just one piece of furniture.

My beloved Tuffet

And I plan to do it again since my chair is showing signs of needing attention. Below is my inspiration from Renewal Home Decor. Be still, my heart.

source

Rule 4. Neutral colored walls for small spaces. In my opinion that would make your home look like a rented apartment. The new thinking is put bright colors in small rooms. Color experts 

from HGTV to Sherwin-Williams support the concept that bright colors make a room look larger. (A decade ago they were behind the neutral walls rule. Do you see why the rules should be ignored?)

A while ago in InStyle magazine an editor wrote that aviator sunglasses were soooo yesterday. Don't wear them at any cost. Later on in the very same issue an article claimed aviators were The Thing. Don't wear anything else.

Whatever. Let's do what works for US.

source

Rule 5. Dining chairs stay in their own set. This is my personal favorite and I'm not even sure what it means. Are they supposed to match the table or just each other? See? I'm such a little rule breaker that I don't even understand the rules. But, I love chairs and wouldn't dream of having just one style or just one color around my table. I want one of every style. My own chairs are mis-matched and have been forever. They each have different feedsack upholstery and are different styles. What holds them together is that they are unpainted except for the white chairs at the head and foot of the table.

My dining room from about a year ago. The photo is already outdated.

Ironically, as I cruised the web looking at chair combinations, I came across Rules for Mis-Matching Chairs. Seriously, 6 rules for mis-matching chairs. In the article they also mentioned mis-matched couch cushions, an idea I find intriguing.

There are rules for everything. There are even more "decor rules" that aren't even addressed here. I ran across "Don't mix metallics.' The first images that popped into my mind were the harsh chrome pieces of the 80s. Or the brassy gold of the 70s. Thank goodness we have better choices now. Oil-rubbed bronze, patinaed copper, brushed silver. They can be wonderful in the same room.

Bright gold and padded walls? This room received kudos in one "rule" article I ran across. It's all subjective. The author loves this room whereas I would have been thinking 'Please, please, don't make me go in there'. So, who is right?

Let's consider the 'Rules' to be just guidelines.
Then let's go do what looks best.

I was not compensated in any way for doing this post. 'Case you were wondering. :-)


I want to thank Modani for suggesting this post. This was educational for me. I had a lot of fun doing the research. And I'm pretty sure I know all the rules, now. Follow them? Well ...... probably not.

I saw that decorators are trying to bring back bright gold. Really?
 ...................................................
Please visit Modani's website and check out all the wonderful things they have. It's more than just furniture. There is decor, lighting and kid's furniture to explore.  

Also, there are many Modani Modern Furniture stores across the United States and Canada. If you are lucky enough to live close you can check the pieces out in person rather than just online. 

Linking to:
my 1929 charmer
nifty thrifty things
elizabeth and co

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Every now and then a project comes along that forces me to learn new things. I had such a project this summer. I started it in early August and am not quite finished with it yet.

 A few years ago I did this lowboy for myself. I also used it to teach myself how to layer paint.

Since it was for me, I overlooked some repairs such as the split in the top picture and the veneer issues above.

Then new furniture came and there was no room for the lowboy. It went to the barn for a good long time. Then I decided to sell it and thinking no one wanted blah brown, I'd paint it red. 

And since this was a simple repaint, I didn't take pictures. I kick myself now because this lowboy refused to be repainted. No matter what I did, the paint went on faded and blotchy. I re-did it I don't know how many times.  I used up all my red paint and still had pale blotch results. Then success, sorta. The paint darkened with wax. Looking back, it was too hot to be painting. I think my paint was drying before it even hit wood.

I left the low boy in the garage while I attended other things and when I came back to it all the wax had clouded.  I started buffing but it was too hard. I took mineral spirits to it and removed wax then let it rest and dry. (It seems the garage got too hot and the wax melted.)

Then.

      ,I came back to this. I sanded it lightly because I wanted the chippy look, but ALL the paint came off. The same with the rest of the lowboy. It was like the paint couldn't wait to get off of there.

So I sanded and repainted the whole damn thing. In the house. With air conditioning.

The top dried like this. I don't know if the paint stretched or what.

Part of me just didn't want to deal with it. The other part said 'Let's experiment.' So I mixed paint and wood filler and scraped it over the whole top of the lowboy. It worked!

 The top is smooth and shiny.

 I fixed the split wood.

 And I fixed the veneer.

Inspector 22 is checking the underside.
Instead of the traditional wood pulls that seem to be on all empire pieces I used vintage clear glass knobs.

 I painted the inside of the drawers and laid new paper.

The finished lowboy. It will be at the Collector's Market soon.

Linking to:
by stephanielynn
my 1929 charmer
nifty thrifty things
the dedicated house
elizabeth and co