Updated ottoman

I’m so glad that Target has come to Canada!  They always have great home decor items and the prices are reasonable. Finding decent and modern fabric here is difficult. The best source I’ve been able to find, other than shopping at the ultra expensive decorator fabric stores, is Tonic Living.

Target to the rescue when you don’t have time to wait for the mail. I bought a shower curtain to recover this ottoman, using a very simple method of sewing up the sides and then stapling it to the bottom. I should have ironed the fabric first to take the creases out, oh well.

Of course I didn’t notice the bag under the ottoman until after I took the photos. Now the sun is going down, so I can’t do a retake.

I started pulling out some Christmas items too; I’m uber excited to decorate my mantel, but now that I’ve seen so many great ideas, I’m frozen as to what to do with it.

My thrift store mirror that I found last week for $8 needed a little bling and looks fabulous above my faux fireplace. I used antique gold rub and buff, I love that stuff.

I hope all of my American friends had a fab Thanksgiving. Let the holidays begin!

Faux fireplace part 2

There is actually another phase to this project, involving repainting the entire living room, so for now it will stay like this. Painting is a job best left for the boring and long winter.

Today I finished painting and hung a mirror over top temporarily. I am looking forward to actually having a mantle to decorate with each season, yay!





last night my bestie and her husband came by for a cup of tea and a gab, and I asked her to pose next to the mantel for a perspective on its size. She is going to kill me for posting this picture, tee hee hee.



anyway, that’s that out of the way and the painting will wait until the holidays, when I will have 14 days off in a row!

I hope you are having a great weekend.

Faux fireplace part 1

It feels like forever since I have been able to find time to get any diy done, but I made some time this weekend and got the tough part out of the way.

I have never built anything like this before and while it’s not perfect, I'm pretty impressed with myself.

My requirements were to make it big since it is going on a 16’ wall, and it had to be inexpensive. The final measurements are 60” wide, by 55`` high.  I did a lot of research about building with mdf, and was stumped at how I was going to butt joint the uprights to the top. Pocket holes may have worked, but I didn’t want to risk causing the mdf to bulge. Then it dawned on me to create a bracket of sorts, which is what I did. Its just some mdf, glued and nailed in place. Worked like a charm.

That was followed by some 4” deep strips to make the box. Once I had the box made, I added more mdf on top of the existing, this time at 1” smaller, to give it some dimension.

In order to be sure it doesn’t topple over, I added L brackets before putting the top on. The top is 10” wide, 2 boards stacked one on top of the other, and them some trim to cover up that it’s 2 boards attached together.

But it was still missing something, so I decided to add some trim to the legs at the bottom. It provides some visual balance.

Of course I had to put some decorative items on it, just to see how it will look :)

Part 2 is tomorrow; wood filler, sanding and painting. The opening will be black and the surround will be white. Maybe one day down the road I’ll pick up an electric fireplace to go inside.

It`s so good to get my diy groove back, it`s been way too long. I`ve missed you all.

Vintage La Barge brass and glass table

Finding great vintage pieces always gives me a thrill. This La Barge coffee table is no exception.

I played around with the idea of cleaning the brass, but after two attempts at home made recipes, I gave up. I realized that it would take more effort than I am willing to put into it, so the patina stays :)  I did give it a good cleaning with warm soapy water, and it made a difference.

Are the hoof feet charming and unique or just creepy? I can’t decide.

When I picked it up, the lady that was selling it realized that she had priced it way lower than she could have got, but was good enough to honour her listed price; otherwise I would have been one ticked off woman.

The glass table top is in pristine condition, which considering that it’s probably from the 60’s is pretty good. The family obviously took good care of it.

And did you notice my carpet? Its the same one, I just got the genius idea to flip it over. Ok, so maybe not genius, but it’s subtler this way and cheaper than buying a new carpet.

I looked around online and found the sale price from $500 to $2400. Mine is for sale and I wonder what this market will handle. I have a couple of designers (one of them works with THE Sarah Richardson) that I have been selling items to this past year, so it will definitely get passed by them first.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. Don’t forget to set your clocks back tonight before you go to bed.