Serendipity Refined Blog: My home

Showing posts with label My home. Show all posts

Basement Make Over Reveal and My New Year's Resolution

Maybe you can help me with a question that I've been mulling over for the last couple of months:

What is it that defines the lower level of my home as the "man cave"?

Can anyone explain it to me? Ever since we moved into our home ten years ago, the basement has been the guy space. In the beginning, I could understand.

Dress(er) for Success - Roadside Rescue Dresser Redo

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Earlier this summer, my youngest and I were on the way home from a trip to actually drop off a couple of boxes at Goodwill (I know...strange, isn't it?! The thought of actually donating instead of purchasing?!) I had just been lamenting the fact that I really needed more storage space in my studio when, on the way home, we passed a dresser. A long, low dresser, under a tree, near the street, leaning half way into the ditch beside the road. SCORE! Much to the chagrin of my 17 year old, we turned around and hoisted this beauty (yes, I realize that "beauty" is probably a stretch) into the back of the truck.

Stirring Up A Little Lighting - Paint Stir Lamp

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If you follow Serendipity Refined on Facebook then, earlier tonight, you saw this photo with the caption "Anyone want to guess what this is?"

Paint Stir Lamp using Vinegar and Steel Wool and Chalk Paint by Serendipity Refined

Of course, Chris figured out what it was, as did several others.

If you read blogs with advertising, chances are you've seen this lamp. It's from Shades of Light and it's $229. I saw it a while back and thought that it would be cute for the patio. I pinned it on Pinterest and forgot about it for awhile. So long, in fact, that I couldn't find it this morning when I looked for it but it's there now!

When today's weather forecast finally called for cooler weather and the chance to sit outdoors tonight. I decided that it was time to make it.

I grabbed a stack of paint stirs, an old lamp shade frame and my hot glue gun.
(Note: if I had this to do over again, I'd use a straight drum shade frame, I think that it would be easier to work with).

Paint Stir Lamp Tutorial using Vinegar and Steel Wool and Chalk Paint by Serendipity Refined

I glued the stirs to the frame. Then I made a cup of very strong black tea. No, it's not because I'm nuts and I like a nice hot cup of tea when it's over a hundred degrees outside. It's even better than that. I made tea to paint with. The tea was used to treat the paint stirs so that I could finally prove that I could age wood using the Steel Wool and Rust Method that I tried (and failed at) back in March

I tried it out on an extra stir and it worked! So, the next step was to use it on the lamp. First, I painted the wood with tea, then with the "iron oxide" that I made from steel wool, white vinegar and a some rusty metal, back in March. As you can see, the wood instantly turns a really nice shade of grey/brown.

This would have been just fine had I wanted it to just look "old". But it was the color that I was after!

First I brushed on a white wash.

Then, a random mix of shades of blue and green to add to the white and gray. These are the colors of my patio and the table that I'm building which I hope to show you soon.

Then, I grabbed a light kit from Cost Plus World Market. (They also have them at Ikea.)

Some rope from Home Depot.

I tried to use embroidery hoops to cover the metal rings on the lamp shade frame but I couldn't find any that were the right size so I decided to use white nylon rope instead. I fastened the ends of the rope using a little hot glue and some waterproof white adhesive tape. I slipped the rings around the lamp and glued them into place. Then, I simply threaded the light socket through the center of the frame and hung the lamp on the patio!

That's all there was to it.

This is how it looked tonight when it was finally cool enough to sit outdoors!

The weather man was actually correct this time! At around 5:00, the wind shifted to the north and the temperature dropped over thirty degrees. Tonight, it was 77 glorious degrees and I was delighted to be sitting under the pergola, enjoying a cool summer's evening. (Even with the crazy Christmas Tree Lot Lights that are strung around the lower patio!)

For the record, (in case you really don't know me at all) the tree lot lights were NOT my idea. However, in the spirit of "equal representation", they're there, around the perimeter of the lower patio, on stakes that I need to paint with tea and rust so that maybe they'll "blend in" a little better. Admittedly, everyone has their own sense of what may be considered "beautiful".

For me, it's a paint stir lamp with a single, 60 watt, bulb. For the men in my life, it's 4,000 watts of lights that look like a Christmas Tree (or used car) lot and can be seen from a half mile away.

I don't turn them on often. (Mainly because I'm afraid that a plane trying to land at O'Hare airport will mistake my yard for a runway!)

UPDATES:

I decided that I should probably protect it from the elements so, this morning, I sprayed it with some clear polyurethane.
A HomeTalk reader brought up a valid point about the socket and moisture from outdoors so I applied silicone caulk to the top of the socket where it meets the cord and added a rubber washer where the bulb meets the socket.

xo,

Linking to:
At The Picket Fence
Beneath My Heart
Cherished Bliss
Coastal Charm
DIY Dreamer
DIY Showoff
Get Outta My Head Please
Homestead Simple
HomeStories A to Z
Hubby Made Me
I Should Be Mopping the Floor
In The Old Road
Krafty Kat
Not Just a Housewife
Not Just a Housewife - best of 2012
SavvySouthernStyle
The Style Sisters
The Dedicated House

Featured at:
http://www.refabdiaries.com/2012/08/upcycle-paint-stirrer-lamp-shade.html (ReFab Diaries)

Rust Remover - Failing "Grace"-fully

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Meet "Grace". Back in February, (Yes, you read that right, I said "February", four months ago, don't mock me. At least it was 2012) she looked like this:

"Grace" and I go way back. I bought her at an estate sale in 1985 from my friend, Grace. I've had her since I was single. She's been a china cabinet, a linen closet, and most recently, storage for my sons' WarHammer Army. Poor girl, banished to the basement where I'm sure that she thought I'd forgotten her. I thought, back in February when I hauled her upstairs from the ~~dungeon~~ basement, that I would refinish her using Tea and Rust. I also thought that I'd have her done by Easter. I also thought that I'd be win the lottery last weekend because I actually played. Clearly, sometimes, I have no clue. I abandoned the rust idea after two weeks of misery coupled with finding this post at one of my favorite blogs French Country Cottage. It had the most glorious grey armoire in it.

After seeing that cabinet, the decision to paint "Grace" grey was an easy one. Pretty much any decision would have been an easy one after the "rust debacle." Well, other than what color the hairdresser should highlight my hair this time and what to make for dinner, but other than that...

One of my favorite sayings.

Here are the deet's on Grace's makeover: Since I'm storing linens in this cabinet, I painted the interior using latex paint: Leftover Benjamin Moore,Tranquility on the walls and BM Bavarian Creme on the shelves. Then, I painted the entire exterior of the cabinet, using ASCP in Paris Grey as the base then white washing using thinned ASCP in Olde White. The carved details and trim were painted using homemade chalk paint made from Benjamin Moore Tranquility, a custom blue/purple color and ASCP, Olde White. I followed with a light sanding to gently distress just a few places.

Then, I applied striped scrapbook paper to the two pediments using Matte Mod Podge. The remaining design, and the words in the center of the top valance, I hand painted. I used the original hardware after I rubbed it with a little silver rub n buff and sprayed the plastic parts for the lower cabinet pulls with white spray paint made for plastic.

After it was dry, I waxed with clear wax. I'm still not sure, I may put some dark wax just in the carved areas but right now, I'm happy that, for the first time in FOUR MONTHS, it's out of the middle of the hallway and no one has to worry about stubbing their toes or poking their eye out when trying to get to their room tonight.

I added a few of my favorite things: old lace, lavender, some transfer ware, my sons' baby cups, and other stuff that was just hanging around on the top of the dresser and a chair in my bedroom and making it nearly impossible to dust without spending ten minutes moving everything and forcing me to sit on the bed when I wanted to read.

SO much better, don't you think so? I'm saving the rust for another project. Because I'm willful...and I'm not going to let a jar full of rust get the better of me!

xo,

Kimberly