Inspiring ideas for the handmade home.
I’m starting to look at things differently. A $35 eBay find. Rewired. Didn’t have a shade on hand. I think I like it just the way it is. I’ll set on it a while. Maybe I’ll change my mind, maybe I won’t. We’ll see.
I hope you find some inspiration.
All the best~
C.
Simple shades for a few dollars from Lowes, simply covered with the twill tape and tied off on the interior.
A lifesaver indeed. I had four lampshades that needed to be replaced. Two were for some vintage boudoir lamps and two were for a pair of wall sconces. All four were in both my bathrooms. I wanted something refreshed, not precious.
I looked online, but finding neutral shades in the right scale at the right price that weren’t 50 shades of boring became a larger task than you would think.
Then I had an epiphany. I had a 100 yard spool of 1 inch wide white cotton twill tape that I had ordered from Amazon by mistake. It occurred to me there may be some DIY synergy if I could somehow find a way to use it to re-purpose the shades I already had. At $29 for the twill tape, it would be incredibly cost effective and maybe, dare I say it…clever.
Judge for yourself.
I hope you find some inspiration.
All the best~
Cindy
Downstairs bathroom – Before. Sconces that weren’t in the budget to be replaced and needed some updating. The old shades were full of debris from the renovation and really couldn’t be salvaged so I had to come up with something.
After. New shades, an old shelf and my collection of antique apothecary jars.
Still trying to get the hang of proper arrangement. It’s an art, for sure and I haven’t mastered it yet.
Oval Scalloped Shade – Before.
Downstairs sink – After. This vintage shade required a bit more work (Thanks, Mom). A few hidden basting stiches to keep the twill tape in place around the curves. It diffuses the light well.
Round Scalloped Shade – Before.
Round Scalloped Shade without it’s original covering.
Upstairs bathroom Before.
After. The lovely scalloped shade was a perfect foil for this treatment. Adds some panache to the vintage white hobnail lamp.
A constant rotation of vintage items make them seem fresh when the context of seasons change.
Folks…I have been remiss in posting lately. Life is very busy right now and now that I have (finally) chosen a contractor for my renovation, the next month will be off the charts busy between closing, packing, storing and finally, a tag sale to get rid of many things I don’t want or won’t have a place for, post renovation. Then I move into a rental cottage and hopefully, it will be somewhat less stressful once the work starts.
For now, however, I am just trying to keep things easy at home. Where as this time of year, I would be doing a lot of things to the exterior of the house for the summer and also creating a lot of craft projects, I am purposely foregoing all that to keep life simple. So it is easy, breezy summer for now.
I have just added a few summer touches to the house.
I hope you find some inspiration.
Always,
Cindy
I just love vintage alabaster lamps because they easily fit the neutral palette and are still very reasonable priced online and in antique stores.
A table with a canvas top was the perfect size for my found vintage, European bulb trays. A very rustic and rough hewn element against the more refined alabaster lamp and vintage white pedestal pottery.
My design books are never very far away.
Vintage tin with a bouquet of dried, white berries and pencil starfish with tarnished German Glass Glitter.
Vintage Ironstone Pitcher and basin with a vintage, hand embroidered linen runner. Perfection!
Vessels with maritime rope with mercury glass globes
An old lab beaker with thick glass that diffuses the candle light.
Spring can’t get here soon enough. This weekend, Saturday was a lovely 78 degrees and the next day, Sunday it didn’t get above freezing. Since hunkering down and staying in was the best option, I refreshed some of my interior vignettes. If you look closely, you will see a number of antiques and vintage items that used for my holiday decorations. Change the context a bit and it looks more winter-into-spring than Home for the Holidays.
One more thing. My followers and regulars have probably noticed I haven’t posted a lot of blogs that feature crafting projects, which tend to be my more viewed postings. It’s because my crafting supplies have been packed away in anticipation of my renovation. Instead you’ll see a lot of features about cooking, antique finds and when my renovation gets started, I’ll copiously document the process and share it with you.
Speaking of which, I am waiting on drawings for the renovations as we speak. If I had to guess, the renovation will get started late next month or early May. While I am anxious to get started, it is more important when I finish. I want the work to be complete for the holidays, so there is time. Mostly, I want to enjoy the process and not be so anxious about it which is how I feel about most projects. I’ll keep you posted.
In the mean time, I hope you find some inspiration with the latest pictures from my home.
Always,
Cindy
xoxo
Textural elements with a tarnished tin vessel and a vintage paper accordion vase cozy
a variety of neutral toned items arranged on a shelf.
Starfish on a bed of moss that is the color of driftwood.
An old column base, alabaster lamp and a German glass glitter starfish
Mercury glass globes on a bed of packing hay in an old ironstone bowl with linen slipcovers in the background.
An old lab beaker with thick glass that diffuses the candle light.
Old tin forms in the form of circus clowns in pointy hat that are treasured items passed to me by my mother.
Before: Den
After in the same spot: New Side Table/Night Stand in the new Master Bedroom.
The beauty of an old house is that each room can be anything you want it to be. Just as antiques can be moved from one room or another based on fancy and feeling, rooms can be re-purposed out of whimsy or necessity. For me, necessity dictated some changes.
I have a special needs dog who often requires care throughout the night. For the better part of three years, she wakes me up 2 to 4 times during the night. The original master bedroom was upstairs, so it required me to pick her up and carry her up and down two flights of stairs (she is blind and can not walk down them on her own) which was difficult, not to mention dangerous.
About two years ago, I felt it was better to sleep downstairs in the guest room because it was easier to take my dog outside without having to navigate two flights of stairs. However, the guest room has no closet and is hardly large enough for decent clothing storage.
The solution was to re-purpose each room downstairs in order to create a master bedroom for myself. Indeed, it would help me feel less like a guest in temporary quarters as I did, storing my clothes in stacking plastic storage containers.
And so it goes, I had a major antique sale to get rid of the furniture that would not fit in the new arrangements and I set out to re-design each room in a way that was more suitable.
I will share the pictures in future posts, but I thought I would start out be sharing the old and new floor plan along with a sneak peak of the results.
I hope you find some inspiration.
Cindy
A guest room, den, dining room and sitting room.
A guest room, master bedroom, dining room and den
