Everything is better with a coat (or two) of paint. The black coasters below were originally pewter, but that's not really where I live so I painted them. I don't have a good spray painting location, so I painted them with some "Black Licorice" craft paint into which I mixed some gold glaze. Once everything was dry, they got a lacquer coat to seal. The mum-shaped coaster was a thrift store find that I painted in my trim color "Popcorn White", then sealed. I plan on using this one as a ring dish. The little footed vase got the black/gold treatment too.
I stripped this utensil drawer, then painted it same butterscotch yellow as the paper I used to line it, then distressed the edges with a dark green. I screwed in two tiny eye hooks and hung it in my craft room. My collection of small doo-dads is now safely out of the cats' paths of destruction.
