Mirror mirror on the, well....floor!

The dining room stallion was nowhere to be found when we moved in to the house (how could we forget to add that to the terms!!), but the gold mirror to the left of this pic was.  Woo hoo, free (if a little ugly) stuff!

The gold, however, had to go, and the mirror quickly became my number one candidate for my first try at spray painting.  I wanted gloss.  A lot of gloss.  I was picturing something like this one from Z Gallerie, but a little less frou-frou.

I grabbed a $4 can of Krylon spray paint from Walmart.

I taped, and taped and taped some more until the mirror was completely protected, then got to spraying.

One coat in, and a lot of gold was still showing through, but everything I'd read said more lighter coats are better that one big thick dribbly one (not sure they put it quite like that, but you get the picture).

Coat two and the frame was starting to look good. 

Coat three and the obnoxious gold was completely covered. 

I sat it aside for a couple of days to dry completely.  And this is how it looks now.  I'm amazed at how well it came out.  Turns out spray painting is surprisingly easy.  The plan is to hang this somewhere in the hall.  I think.  Maybe.

Master Bedroom

When we moved in, the master bedroom was a builder basic beige.  We painted it a cool grey a couple of weeks ago, but the room has been pretty much untouched since then.  In my mission to hang more of our pictures, the master has had a mini makeover.

This is a before pic taken when we looked at the house.

I wasn't a fan of the bed placement under the window, so I opted for a different layout.  Excuse the sad bedding and weird lumps and bumps, we currently have a full mattress on a queen base.

I bought the purple lamp bases in Target about 2 years ago. Even back then I was shopping like we had a 6 bedroom mansion to furnish!

I hung the curtains, and changed out the bedding.  The bench at the end of the bed was a TJ Maxx impulse buy which I'm loving in this room for extra seating/storage.   

The bare walls were driving me crazy, so I hung one of the picture we had stashed away in the basement directly above the bed.  I have a large frame waiting in the wings which will be a much better scale - all I need is some art to put in it!  More Etsy stalking required :-)

Next on the list is a much needed headboard, and hopefully a bigger mattress! 

 

LINKING BACK TO:

 

Thrifty Decor Chick - Show Us Your House - Bedrooms

 



Starburst

The walls in the green guest room were still looking a little sparse, even though the Orla Kiely art was looking good on the headboard wall.

 Opposite the bed is the door to the closet and the door to the landing.  In between we have managed to squeeze my favourite piece of furniture we own.  No surprise, it was a flea market find (Encore Resales).  Amazingly, I didn't buy it the first time I saw it.  After two days of worrying someone else was going to snap it up, I called the nice people at Encore to hold it for me.  It's more of a buffet, but adds good storage to this room, and I love the mid-century style.

I hung the starburst mirror above it.

And my 3 Marimekko glasses, ok plastic cups, found a home on top. 

Bama Flea Mall

Bama Flea Mall is probably my favourite flea mall.  It's housed in an old Walmart building, so is HUGE, plus there are no painted, distressed, stenciled pieces of furniture (I'm all for DIYing some old crappy furniture, I just don't want to pay for someone else's efforts).  Bama Flea Mall is other peoples old junk.  Don't get me wrong, I'm sure if you have the patience to rummage through the toot, there are some legitimate antiques.

But its mainly toot. 

And that's usually what I'm looking for :-)

This weekend was packed with shoppers.  Clearly the combination of a 3 day weekend and baking hot weather had everyone in the mood for a bargain.  And I wasn't disappointed. 

This is my loot:

And all this for $27!  My best bargains were the chip and dip tray, originally $4, but that booth was having a 25% off sale, so $3.  And the candle stick (front right) is solid marble, weighs a tonne, and was $1.

No idea what I'm going to do with half of it yet, I'm sure I'll find a home for everything eventually :-)

Living it up

The curtains are (finally) hung, the sofas are in, and the living room is starting to come together.

This is my favourite little area so far.

Kitchen catch up

The kitchen has definitely been our largest undertaking.  The original cabinets were in good shape, but in need of a face lift.  They were a dirty cream upper and grubby green lower with brass hardware.

We decided on a crisp white for the cabinets with brushed nickel hardware.  We've been painting and painting and painting, and it still looks like we have loads to do.  The cabinet doors and hardware are ready to go.

The drawers are a work in progress.

But there is one little corner that we have finished.  Its right above the microwave, so probably the most impractical cupboard to finish first.  But at least its one more thing check off the list.  One down, only 18 more to go!

Can you handle this?

One of our ongoing projects has been replacing the gold door handles with a more modern brushed nickel. 

We updated our address with the post office and received a 10% coupon for Lowes.  I wanted to make the most of the discount so bought all of the door handles at once.  I'm never one to pass up a discount!

Not only were the handles gold, but they were pretty crapped up too.

They look a million times better now.