Birthday Table for HHM

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My faithful intern and I made a trip to the outlets in Dawsonville and to Lakewood Antique Market last Friday.  I found this great vintage Dutch Boy paint can at one of the booths at Lakewood and thought it would be the perfect gift for HHM for Valentine's Day! I know Valentine's Day had already past, but HHM was out of town for both his birthday and Valentine's Day so I had some leeway.  Inspired by my purchase, I changed up the table in my family room to pay homage to HHM for his birthday.  He is of Dutch descent, so I like to throw windmills, wooden shoes and such into our decor.

 

 

HHM is also a big fan of houseplants so we made a quick stop at Lowe's on our way home to pick up this fern.  I subscribe to the theory of treating plants like fresh flowers, you enjoy their beauty while it lasts, then you pitch them and buy something new.  The tag states that this Lemon Button Fern is easy to care for -- we shall see!

 

 

Here is a before picture.  The only items I kept on the table were the lamp and the Pottery Barn Navigation Desk Magnifying Glass (no longer available online but you may be able to locate one in the clearance center of your local store).  The vintage stamps were a bargain at an antique store in Braselton last fall.

 

 

The ceramic peanut box and binoculars are also discontinued PB items, though the peanut box may still be available at some outlet stores.  I would like to say I chose these items because HHM is a bird watcher and a nut lover - both of which are true.  In reality, they looked good in the vignette.  I always keep a supply of cigar boxes on  hand to use for elevating decorative objects.  Most cigar shops have a supply they will sell for $2 and up.

 

 

The gold peanut really stands out against the dark wood and the gold writing ties the two pieces together.   The juxtaposition of the rectangular boxes with all the other round and curved pieces adds energy to the vignette.  Now that we are empty nesters, HHM and I usually eat at this table so I kept the front half of the table empty.  In the winter we enjoy a fireside meal, while in the summer when the windows are open we can hear the fountain bubbling in the background.  (And, I am a messy cook, so we do not have to see the dirty kitchen!)

 

What areas of your house are you re-accessorizing for Spring?

 

Wendy

 

 

Shop your house first!

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During a recent design consultation, my client and I spent a few minutes discussing the bonus room over the garage.  She wanted to use this space as her "play room."  Here she would have a place to work on craft projects, gift wrap and sort photos. This was not an area she wanted to spend a lot of her budget on, but still wanted it to be an inviting workspace.

 

On her sewing table, she had her toy sewing machine.  However, even though the table is small, the toy sewing machine looked lost there by itself.  (Sorry for the lack of a before picture this was an impromptu project.)  I spotted her sewing basket on an adjacent book shelf and added it to the display.  In the corner, was a stack of artwork she was saving but didn't have a spot for at the moment.  She had embroidered this beautiful crewel picture for her daughter when she was a baby. It was perfect for the backdrop!  A few books from the bookshelf to ground and elevate the vintage sewing machine and the table top was complete.

The wicker basket, which hid her full size sewing machine, contained some fabric remnants and left over stuffing.  A quick look in her craft closet produced the bright colored yarn, embroidery hoops, and knitting needles.  The poly fill stuffing and remnants are still stored in the basket but are now artfully concealed.

Pulling together this vignette took, at most, ten minutes and is totally composed of items my client already owned.   It is always a good idea to shop your own home first when accessorizing.  Pull out everything and anything you think might work.  You will be amazed at the vignettes you can create.





Abacus Nursery Art

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The oversized abacus in Baby M's Nursery is probably my favorite item in the room!  I had seen CB2's version several years ago and fell in love with it.  One of my client's original inspirations for her nursery was the alphabet.  This was a great jumping off point, and I expanded the idea to include vintage school items, hence the abacus.  (See sneak peak for more on the original inspiration.)  The abacus fit the gender neutral nursery and it combined vintage with modern - two things on my client's wish list.

Here is the original abacus wall art from CB2, which is no longer available. Hunky Handy Man (HHM) to the rescue! I found  great plans on Anything Pretty blog which he used as a starting point in his construction. 

HHM made a few adaptations to the original plan as he wanted the joints on the top and bottom rather than the sides.  He also did not add the outer frame.  I felt this would make the black frame too heavy, detracting from the graphic sculptural statement of the piece.

The drill press he inherited from his Dad allowed HHM to drill perfectly aligned holes for the dowels.



Pipe clamps helped keep everything square during the construction process.  (HHM will be so proud that I know the correct names of all the tools he used during the building phase!)

Figuring out how to paint 100 beads was a dilemma that HHM pondered for several days.  This first idea of using coat hangers was abandoned due to the fact that the beads could  easily slide around and possibly smudge.

  
A box from Costco became the paint booth.  If you look closely, you can see that a square peg in a round hole was the solution to the sliding problem.  This allowed HHM to space the beads so he could get all angles and rotate them without the beads moving and smudging each other.  Brilliant solution, HHM!

The square dowels (for lack of a better description) could also be suspended between two sawhorses to allow the beads to dry.  



After looking at many pictures of abaci (or abacuses, either is correct according to Merriam - Webster, although spellcheck does not seem to recognize abaci), I decided to go with 10 different colored beads rather than 5 colors repeated twice.  Little did I know what a challenge this would provide!  Finding the ten paint colors I wanted in a satin finish, sent me to many different Lowes, Home Depot, Michael's and Hobby Lobby locations.  For some reason, matte seems to be the most popular finish in spray paint.  We did eventually end up going with gloss in the pink and could really not tell much difference.

What a great addition to Baby M's School House Rocks Nursery!

Custom orders available.  Contact me at Chapingroup@gmail.com