Simple spring wreaths

 Welcome spring!   It is warm today in St. John's and I finally feel like we are moving on from winter. My friend in England is mourning the disappearance of the daffodil while we are awaiting its arrival. With all the sunshine pouring in,  I knew it was time to add a little spring to the front entry.  It will be a long time yet before we see the forsythia and tulips.  If you read this blog you already know I am not a big seasonal decorator and recycling and dollar store finds are my go tos.

Designing Home  simple spring wreath

This wreath has served me for three years and moved from a  natural colour, to silver, and then on to purple, but today thanks to two different  spray paints  it is green. Yes, I'm still painting things. Spring greens are so hopeful.  The dollar store provided five bunches of spring flowers that I tore apart and reworked . I was so happy to feel the warm breeze I even added  a ribbon and I never add ribbons to wreaths!

Here four more favourites I've seen lately on Pinterest. 

 

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Love this one, because I love circle shapes and eggs are such a part of spring celebrations.

Parker Kennedy Living tulip wreath

Ah, tulips!  How can you go wrong when you use tulips and mass them into an inviting circle?

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This would be called a sway I suppose.  The gerbers are so bright and bold and the pail anchors the design.

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Go on!  Find a container  you could hang on a door and fill it with flowers and viola.  How easy is that?

Paint solves many problems

You know how it goes with decorating.  You get one thing to a point where you love it and that improvement only makes other things in the space look dismal.  And that is the point where we left off in the last post-  loving the chairs and not liking what is happening on top of the buffet.  

Almost but not quite

One problem area

Let's start with the lamp.  I've always loved this lamp and when  I recently moved it from the living room it needed a new home. I perched it on several books as a way to increase the height and  connect the dark chair colour to the buffet.

  I left it for several days, but I knew what would happen.  Every time I passed by I had the same thought

 ( that shade is way too white).  Problem arising... what were the chances I would find this type of lamp shade in St. John's?  NIL  What was left?  Paint it or cover it with fabric or paper.  I chose paint knowing if I totally messed  it up I could use fabric or paper to cover it. 

What colour? 

 The lamp had to relate to the drapes without overmatching, I trotted to my studio to see what I had there and chose  BM floral white OC29 left over from painting  frames for an dart show.

Benjamin Moore Floral White OC 29 

This  is a dirty white with the faintest hint of warmth without looking too yellow. Perfect in my book. Some bloggers recommend it as a good white for cabinets if you have white appliances.

How to?

 I watered down the paint by half  and brushed it on with a 2 inch art brush -synthetic soft hair for acrylic paint.  It's a  messy business so have something to catch the drips. If you are careful you only need one coat.   It worked like a charm with no buckling or patchy areas.  You definitely have to water down  the paint or it will look too solid and not be absorbed into the fabric. 

  Some references I consulted said to use a fabric medium with the paint but I didn't.  From my art experience I think you could add acrylic matte medium to replace the fabric medium if you so desired. 

Problem two

Once I used  red as an accent on the buffet and in my living room, my beautiful landscape by Carolyne Honey Harrison started to remind me of a Christmas tree.  The green frame (which hubby made for it) had to be changed. I have a terrible aversion  to "seasonal" colour connections.

What colour?

 First I  painted the frame BM Black panther, a soft black I use for art frames, but it was too harsh for this particular  artwork and space.  All you could see was the frame.  I prefer the art to show and the frame to support it.

Benjamin Moore Black Panther 2125-10

Benjamin Moore Iron Mountain  2134-30

Next try was  BM Iron Mountain left over from painting my Media unit (see here). Worked like a charm.  It brought more dark to that side of the room and played off the chair colour without matching perfectly.   My daughter joked that everything in my house would soon be some form of charcoal.  Possibly!

The reveal 

Almost but not quite

Subtle changes make a difference 

And you might think this room is now complete.   I wish!  More problems and solutions to come.
Is paint a solution in your home decor?  I'd love to hear what you've done with it.  

Dining room solutions

In January during a blackout our pipes broke resulting in water damage to a number of rooms in our home. What was a bit of a disaster turned into a positive for me because it finally got me moving to do something about  one of my biggest decorating problems.  That would be my dining room.... See my complaints in this  post .  It's quite a list. 

Too much of a good thing

This is how it all looked  in early 2000 .....

Wood, wood and more wood

Problem lines  

Wood everywhere isn't the only problem.  Note the all the horizontal lines from the buffets to the railing,  a light hung too high and a window that has a view of the window next door.   Below is my first attempt to solve some of the highlighted problems.

 A different orientation solves some problems

Rearrange and add

I liked the changes and that satisfied me for a short time.  The new light was a good height and the roundness worked well against all the rectangles.  I also added longer (very temporary and too short) drapes to break some of the horizontal lines.    I moved the art work from  the living room to dining room,  and created some height and brightness on the dining table.  Still seriously problematic in my book because I did nothing to alleviate the wood issue, but it was improved but sorely lacking  pizazz.

Enter 2014... 

The power of paint and fabric

One of the cheapest updates you can make to any space is to paint something.  I don't care if it is furniture, accessories or walls, it works every time. Since we had to repaint all the walls (BM Glacier white) I continued on to paint quite a few things which I will reveal over the next several posts.  

 Bringing  it into 2014

To break up the wood and the set,  I was determined to sell all the dining chairs and buy new ones. I still don't know how I got hubby to agree to selling 8 hand made solid ash chairs because they were too matched. He was probably fed up listening to complaints!

After an extensive search,  I realized the chairs that looked best with the table  were the ones my husband made for it. I don't like sets, but in this case I had to concede.  So ... after much discussion with sister and daughter and varying opinions, I found a fabric I loved and then choose spray paint to work with it. 

I would like to say that cleaning and spray painting 8 chairs was exciting.  Not so.... But I got to use my favourite motif (circles) and my favourite colour gray. What could be better!   Part 2 coming soon... new problems and solutions. Hint:  Look at the vignettes on the buffet and table.

What do you think?