Work In Progress: Front Entry

There is paint on the front door!! Coral paint!! To be precise, this lovely shade is PARA Paints' Ooh Long Tea*. And since I am bound by the rules of condominium living, let me be clear: the paint is strictly on the interior of the front door. With no natural light and a door previously painted dark brown the front entry felt a bit gloomy, so I decided that a light colour would be best to brighten up the space. Now it feels much more welcoming.

I knew I wanted to highlight the coral in the Persian rug at the front entrance, so choosing the colour was the easy part. The tricky part was painting around all of the door hardware - I'm not bad with a roller, but I'm terrible with a brush. A few touch ups may be required :(

I gathered my Nate Berkus pineapple & Jill Rosenwald vase to assemble a coordinating vignette on the tiny entry table. Did you know that the pineapple is an emblem of welcome & hospitality? The fern is a new addition and hopefully will survive in the low light conditions.

  
By the way, this is where the gold leaf quatrefoil mirrors ended up after I discovered that they wouldn't fit above the bedside tables in the master bedroom. The mirrors also do a great job of making the small entry seem brighter & bigger than it truly is. I'm still mulling over the possibility of adding a fun wallpaper to this area, but until I find just the right pattern that idea is on hold. What do you think so far?

*Thank you to PARA Paints for supplying the paint for this project!!

DIY: Gold Foil Quatrefoil Mirror

While daydreaming about my new master suite, I got stuck on the idea of hanging a mirror on the wall behind each bedside table lamp. This would add a touch of glamour and sparkle, plus it practically doubles the amount of light in the room - a huge bonus when the bedroom lacks a ceiling junction box. Here is an inspiration photo from Tides South Beach:

It's no secret that I love me a good quatrefoil motif, and you may recall that we used a quatrefoil mirror from HomeSense in my Mom's powder room makeover. I thought that this style would work perfectly for my bedside table idea, so I went ahead and also purchased a pair for myself.

Scale is everything in this case, and unfortunately the mirrors were too small and got lost behind the lamps, so they were promptly returned. Instead I found a pair of 30" x 30" quatrefoil mirrors at Lowe's which were just the right size - substantial enough to avoid being completely covered by the lamps. The only problem was that I was not a fan of the black frames.

Here is where the gold leaf enters the story. I picked up all of the supplies I needed for less than $20.00 - two packages of gold foil and size adhesive from Michael's (purchased with a 40% off coupon), and sponge brushes from Dollarama. After several months of procrastination it was time to get started. With help from my Mom and some online tips from Jenny at Little Green Notebook, we taped off the mirror and applied the adhesive size and gold leaf one section at a time, slowly working our way around.

After just a few long short hours, we ended up with a gorgeous gold quatrefoil mirror. Some of you may wonder why I didn't just spray paint this mirror gold, since I'm such a pro (see other spray paint projects here, here, here and here), but I wanted to achieve the antique patina that comes with real gold leaf. We completed just one mirror on Sunday afternoon, so there is still another to go, but having one under my belt makes me hopeful that the next one will be a bit quicker.
 
I love the way it turned out. What do you think?

Powder Room Puzzle

The completion of a puzzle can be extremely satisfying, having gathered all of the correct pieces and interpreting how they will work together to form the final picture. Decorating a room from start to finish is a similar process, since each piece must join together perfectly with the next.

After several months and numerous decisions, the powder room in my Mom's home is complete, and the finished picture is well worth the time and effort spent piecing it together. It looks great, Mom!!

The Completed Puzzle:

The Puzzle Pieces:

Porcelain Floor Tile
Countertop with Integrated Sink
Base Cabinet Doors & Knobs
Single Handle Faucet

High Efficiency Toilet
Tempting Chrysanthemum Wallpaper
Polished Chrome Hardware
Quatrefoil Mirror