Liquid Leaf(ing)

I was thumbing through a recent issue of Martha Stewart Living when I saw the cutest little leaf dish. It is available for purchase at Macy's for the not-so budget friendly price of $48. Here is my inspiration.

You know when you see something and a little light bulb just goes off in your head? I had one of those moments when I saw this. I have had a clear leaf dish sitting on my end table for quite some time. I actually tried to sell it in a yard sale last year but no one bought it so back to the end table it went. I've had this little dish for so long that I can't even tell you how much I paid for it. I do know it came from Goodwill (like pretty much everything else in my house). Here she is in her sad, boring before state.

I decided to try brushing on some Liquid Leaf to see if I could replicate the Martha Stewart leaf. I didn't even know if you could put Liquid Leaf on glass but figured I didn't have anything to lose. I tried to get rid of the thing for goodness sakes!.The Liquid Leaf came from Hobby Lobby and it was right under $6. Disclosure: it doesn't smell the best and it's a pretty powerful smell so use in a well ventilated area. Also, to clean your brush you are supposed to use a product called xylene. Seeing as how I didn't have any xylene and a bottle of it was around $18, I decided to just buy a $1 paint brush and throw it away afterwards!

The liquid leaf was SUPER easy to use. I just brushed it on and waited for it to dry. And best part of all? I LOVE the results. New life has been breathed into my little leaf dish and now it will proudly return to its spot on my end table. I only painted the bottom of the dish as that's where all of the details were. I took a q-tip and painted the lip on the dish. Take that Martha!!

The underside

The top side

And a  few closeups so you can see just how beautiful my little leaf is now!

Isn't she beautiful now?

Still Singing the Blues

You all might remember my first installation of Old Blue. This was an antique chair I made over to put in my foyer beside the buffet. Unfortunately, the chair was just way too short for its intended spot. It looked like a doll chair sitting there in my foyer. Seriously. You can find the details on that redo here.

I set out to find a new, taller chair for my foyer and happened to stumble across this gem at my local goodwill.

Isn't she a beaut? I love the caning in the back and the curves at the top. Plus she has some great front legs on her too. Best of all this little gem was only $8.98. What a steal!

I loved the original version of Old Blue so much that I went to the fabric store with my fingers crossed that they would still have the same fabric from last time. And they did! Then after a light sanding and some priming I busted out the trusty Valspar Tropical Oasis. Here she is

I think I'll redo the original old blue to use as a desk chair. Updates to follow!

I'm partying here:
Savvy Homemade Monday at Home Savvy A to Z
Debbie Doos Newbie Party
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm
Nifty Thrifty Sunday at Nifty Thrifty Things
Piece of Work Wednesday at Primitive and Proper
Power of Paint Party at Domestically Speaking
Open House Party at No Minimalist Here
Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed

Purple Power

Even though I've been doing this blogging thing for a few months now, sometimes I just get so excited to start a new project that I forget to take a before picture. That is what happened here. Once I got home from Goodwill I just started taking things apart.

Backtrack. What exactly was I taking apart? A brass chandelier. You know, those kinds you see at Goodwill and yard sales all the time. Well, were you aware you could paint those? Luckily, with a little research I was able to find the exact light online. Online it retails from anywhere to $119.79 to $199.65. What did I pay? $15! What a deal!! Also, since I was lucky enough to find it online at the Progress Lighting website, I was also able to snag a picture for you. This is what it looked like before I got my hands ahold of it.

I took it apart, into some 20 little pieces, and broke out the spraypaint. For shiny, slippery surfaces like this I always like to start with Bullseye 123 primer. After several thin coats of primer it was on to the main event. I chose a bright, grape colored purple. It's Valspar paint and I'm pretty sure it's just called Purple.

You might remember my laundry room redo with the purple ceiling and purple clothespin accents on the cabinet fronts. You can see the re-do here. This light was bought to replace the current laundry room light so it also became purple so as to continue the theme. Putting this light back together was a PAIN. All those little pieces I had to get to stay on while I was trying to get the glass inserts in. I was ready to give up several times. Nonetheless, I finally succeeded in putting it back together and I now have a beautiful purple light in my laundry room. It's much brighter than the old one. Plus, it puts all these awesome shadows on the ceiling!

Remember that if you ever see one of those brass lights that you like the shape of but aren't wild about the shiny brass aspect of it... it can be saved with spray paint!!

Update

Hello Friends! I promise I have not disappeared. I have lots of wonderful projects that I look forward to sharing on here in the near future. The problem is that the weather doesn't care about my plans and hasn't been cooperating with me lately. It will be absolutely beautiful during the week but then on the weekends it is either cold, raining, or windy or some sort of combination of the three. Here's to hoping there's a break in the pattern this weekend. I have some spray painting I need to do!!!