So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye…

I started this blog way back in 2009, never imagining that 4 years later I would say goodbye. What started out as a way for me to share my thrifty finds, slowly became more focused on decorating and diy projects.

There are so many wonderful bloggers out there that encouraged me, praised me and lifted me up. I have shared very intimate moments with all of you, as you have shared with me. Concentrating my energy on home decor projects helped me to pass the time away, but what I really need now is to spread my wings and get out of the house. I have to create a new chapter in the book of Mel; I don’t know where it will lead, but now is the right time.

Thank you for sharing you, with me. I hope that in some small way I was able to inspire you, to lift you up and make you feel valued.

I owe it to you to say goodbye; there have been bloggers that have just dropped off the face of the earth without a goodbye and I always just felt it was a little thoughtless (I am sure they have their reasons).
I will leave the blog open for a while, but this is my last post. And, I’ll still be visiting your blogs so I can continue to be inspired to diy.

All the best to you and yours, enjoy the Holiday season and a prosperous new year!
Over and out   (I’ve always want to say that)

Mel

P.S. I have moved all of my content to a new blog: www.broadviewheights.blogspot.com

There are no link backs, no widgets to follow, no nothing :)  Just a place for me to occasionally post the things I'm doing.

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!

Thrifty finds–oops I did it again

I found another set of 6 faux bamboo Chippendale chairs! I’ve had 8 so far and haven’t kept any of them. Likewise, these too are currently up for sale and the funds will go towards my Christmas shopping.

I also found this humungo mirror, which will get some gold trim and be placed above my fireplace. Eight bucks! Seriously. It’s solid wood and quite large.

My first entertainment event of the season is tomorrow, then two more weekends of events before I can relax and prepare for my own Christmas. I may have to haul out some of the decorations soon, I’m itching to decorate my mantel.

Happy weekend all.

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.

Vintage wicker chair find

It’s been a while since I shared my junkin’ finds, so here we go.

This fabulous, grand and vintage chair was $10 at GW. I had my eye on it for a couple of weeks and was certain that someone would scoop it up before me. I’m not sure why I hesitated, but with some shifting of furniture in my living room, it fits in perfectly.

It’s quite unusual and I’ve never seen a chair like it. There is an attached long basket on the side, and I can’t imagine what is is for? My son thinks it’s for a rifle :)

It’s not in great condition, but it’s sturdy and looks great in my room. The cushions were the perfect size to serve as  bottom and back cushions, so that saved me some money.

The vintage wire basket is from a Canadian egg farm that has been in the area since the late 1800’s. For $3.00 it was a good find

This tray was purchased a couple of years ago and this is one of it’s many incarnations.

I made a few velvet pumpkins from my fabric stash, but couldn’t be bothered to search out real stems, so I put some butterfly knobs in and I think they look sweet. Not very pumpkiny, but that’s ok.

I also found this little side table for $12.

It’s made by Baker Furniture and while not in perfect condition, it is in great structural shape and it’s just pretty.

I am gearing up to repaint my living room. Choosing the colours is always the hardest thing. From floor to ceiling measures 16’ and I’m looking for a way to visually bring the height of the ceiling down. It’s either going to be fabulous or awful, but I’ll never know until I get to it.

Wishing you a lovely weekend.

Stamped fabric diy cushions

I worked for several hours on this one cushion making the piping and then sewing it together, so I wanted to make something that would coordinate, but that wouldn’t take forever to make. I am trying to bring more navy blue into my living room.



Yesterday as I was making stuffed peppers, I noticed that the shape of the peppers were quite lovely.



I finally managed some time today to make two more cushion covers to coordinate with my new cushion, and I made it with the pepper! It was like I was back in grade 1 :)



I mixed 2 parts paint to 1 part fabric medium and brushed it on. I wasn’t careful with the placement as I thought it should look organic.

Not too shabby.

Sharing here:

Tutorials and Tips Link Party at Home Stories A to Z

Wedding sign diy

A few months ago I had pinned a fabulous sign tutorial by Liz at Love Grows Wild, and hoped that one day I could make one. I finally had an opportunity to make one for my son’s friends, who recently got married.  Please go and visit Liz at Love Grows Wild for the full tutorial! Like Liz, I used vinyl rather than painting it, which would have taken forever.

I sped this one along as I wanted it done quickly, so I used my hairdryer between coats of paint and I was done in no time flat, one hour tops. I used the paint that I painted my kitchen with, which is such a fantastic blue. The can is almost finished, so I may have to get more.

For those that would like to duplicate it, the fonts I used are:

Family name and date is DaunPenh which can be found here

Wording is Callie Hand which can be found here

Dollar Store Craft–updated frames

I bought these frames from the dollar store for $3 each, not sure why it’s called a dollar store when it’s more than one dollar…anyway :)

I painted them with a brush first and I have to tell you, I am confident that I’m the worst painter ever! So I spray painted them and they still aren’t perfect but they are good enough for me. The corner pieces came in a pack of 4.

I am working on updating my spare bedroom, with things that I already have in the house so that it doesn’t cost me any money. It is satisfying to make something out of nothing. I definitely need a rug and that will be a diy coming up soon.

That’s the weekend done, back to the grind. Wishing you all a wonderful week.

Faux bamboo side table score

Please tell me you are not tired of seeing my thrifty finds, especially when it comes to faux bamboo?!  Oh my goodness, this piece melts my heart.



I don’t know a lot about this type of furniture, only that I adore it. This piece is quite unusual and I’ve searched online to find something like it, but cannot. I guess it’s for books, but wouldn’t it be fabulous in a luxury master bath for holding towels?



It’s in great shape with a few nicks to the wood, but it’s mostly intact. The dividers are all carved and gorgeous.



The family I bought it from said that they used it for cutlery and napkins when they were entertaining.



As a beside table it would also be fabulous, with lots of room for your books and magazines.
Have you ever seen a table like this? I have emailed Beth at Chinoiserie Chic to see if she has ever seen anything like it. If anyone knows, she will; If I were an idolizing type of person, she would be the one ;)  UPDATE: I guess Beth is a busy woman, because I've never heard back from her :(

Traditional Chinoiserie

I went out on a limb this time and went for a traditional Chinese look for the two remaining chairs and side table that I recently bought.



With some convincing from my BFF and inspired by Waverly’s new line of Chinoiserie fabrics, purchased at Tonic Living, I chose black and red lacquer.



I kicked the chairs up a notch by adding old gold rub n’buff to the crevices, but maintained some constraint on the table, it would have been a little overboard (according to my daughter LOL).



The set is up for sale as it doesn’t fit into my house either in style or in the space to keep it. If you are local to Toronto and are interested, let me know. (SOLD)

And of course, I have to have a before and after. Quite a difference and saved from a life of banality :)



Sharing and being inspired at the following: