Thinking

I was recently at a friend's house.This friend is very dear and has excellent taste, but I realized her house was not comfortable or relaxing. I slept there overnight (we were preparing for a garage sale the next morning), and while the bed was incredibly wonderful to sleep in, the rest of the home put me on edge. I recognized that her home was not a reflection of her personality. The warmth and caring she exhibits as a friend was strangely lacking in her environment; I could appreciate her taste but get no sense of who she was as a person. 

I came home to look at my home with a different set of eyes.

image courtesy of House of Turquoise via Pinterest.

Proof

The linen cabinet is done! (The links are some 'before' pics). I stripped down the exterior and slathered on one coat of Kilz primer and two coats of Sherwin Williams' Duration semigloss, color matched to Glidden's Popcorn White (which is our apartment's trim color. It's very French vanilla-y.) The inside is Ace Hardware's Royal paint in Summerland (which is almost the same green as Frog Tape. Not that I set out to match that...) I hot glued some lace trim to the front of the shelves, and ordered knobs from Etsy, which I spray painted ivory. I wire brushed the hinges to removed all the previously caked on paint: they are kinda a nifty deco look, so I left them unpainted for now. So happy with the results!

When I moved the linens out of their storage cubbies, I also lost my 'dressing area': jewelry, perfume, eye glass landing spot. The shelf was part of the freebie pile where I picked up the Rotex chair, so out came the primer, paint, and the leftover trim from this project. Now I have a nifty area where everything is even easier to access. Woot!

Wedding gift preview

For my niece's shower:

The napkins are heavy white cotton, thrifted from somewhere a long time ago. I bleached them out, cut apart a doily that had seen better days, and used the bits as embroidery in the corners.

The tablecloth was started by my great grandmother, found in a trunk of her fabric, finished by me, and the crocheted edging was done by my great aunt.

Since I don't have kids, I'm making sure the heirlooms I have get passed on to my nieces and nephews.