Chinoiserie Shelfie

I found this little shelf at GW about 2 months ago. 

I wasn't sure where it was going in my home ...

but I knew it was going home with me!

Some haters gonna hate but I painted this little shelf.

It had some damage to the finish 
and I thought it would work better for me if it was painted. 

I've been waiting to decide the "where" so I could decide what color!

Progress shot. It's painted and I'm deciding how high to hang it. 

Also, how to hang it because it was a bit heavy 
and I knew some large shells were going on it as well.

Cooper is very enthusiastic about interior design :)

The previous display shelf in this area actually sat on the table top 

so I'm excited that this one will hang. 

It means I can put a lamp on this table and we need a lamp at this end of the couch.

(It means more display space too!)

The shells and coral are from our travels. 

The blue and white lamps and planter are thrifted. The bamboo chair was thrifted as well.

The table was my grandmother's from Charleston. I love that table. It's still "brown" :)

The seascapes were inherited from my great-uncle and I love them.

The plant is a white bird of paradise I bought on a trip to Florida a few weeks ago.

 I hope my thumb is green enough that it blooms someday.

I've moved it outside to a sunnier spot to help it bloom 

and replaced it with a pretty little fern leaf begonia.

*not sponsored but I used this spray paint to paint my shelf. 

It was a great color - Smokey Beige. 

The coverage was great too - I was covering black!

Coral - I Love It!

I expressed my excitement on Instagram

when I heard that the Pantone Color of the Year for 2019

 is 

Living Coral!

It was right before the holidays 

and I just hadn't had a chance to 
gush any more about my love for this color!
But now it's gray, dreary January in Atlanta so we need to talk about color!!

I did recently paint my Foo Dog thrifting find a delicious coral color. 

There were some doubters out there but it's only paint

 and I personally think he looks pretty fab.

Before 

and 

After!

My fabulous china cabinet turned bathroom storage extraordinaire 

was painted coral for my Fall 2016 One Room Challenge 

(a little ahead of Pantone's announcement)

I can't imagine painting it any other color! I love it so much.

I love blue and white chinoiserie in a big way 

but I fell in love with a coral-y orange lamp while working on this bathroom

 and now I can't pass this color chinoiserie up!

And this china pattern is gorgeous.

No surprise - it's by Mottahedeh who brings us the much loved Tobacco Leaf among other patterns. This coral design would be beautiful mixed in with almost any other pattern.

And look at this coral lampshade on this fun monkey lamp! 

Just that one spot of coral in this colorful room adds so much.

I Suwannee

Summer Thornton went allll the way with gorgeous deep coral walls.

I have a Pinterest Board called Color It Coral.

 I'm sure I'll find a lot to "pin" this year!

Here is a favorite image already on the board:

I could happily live in this coral house with it's fabulous potted topiaries! 

What about you?

And since Pantone's color is called "Living Coral" I can't pass up sharing this picture

 I took a couple of years ago while I was on site in SC for post- hurricane debris clean up. There was devastation all around and we worked incredibly hard all day long 

but this sunset was our reward!

So will you be using more coral in your home this year!
I will. I always do and I feel like this Pantone choice is license to go coral crazy!!

Pineapple Tree

 Give me a small themed tree any time. 
I love them.

Don't get me wrong a big beautiful tree is eye catching but I love (and have) little trees 
(here, here and here for starters!) 
tucked all over the house during the holidays!

This little pineapple tree sitting on the sideboard in my kitchen makes me smile.

A few weeks ago I saw a sparkly pineapple ornament 
in a bin at a bargain store and bought it.

Then I saw another one somewhere else and picked it up. 

And then it was like "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie."

I had a couple of ornaments and  I wanted more. 
And a tree to hang them on.

And then I found that big sparkly one on top and knew I could cut the string off,
 drill a small hole in the bottom and, voila, a perfect pineapple tree topper!

Are you a one tree or multi tree kind of person?

The Elephant on the Porch and More!

I was scrambling to get my One Room Challenge post up on deadline 

so it was mostly pictures.

But I wanted to share a little bit about how I created what we think is a beautiful, relaxing spot without spending much at all.

It is an outdoor space and even though our porch is screened and under a roof 

the elements still take their toll.

This means that things do wear out or fade or suffer

 in our humid, damp weather most of the year.

I can't justify spending a lot, but it is our favorite room "in the house" so I want it to be comfortable for us and welcoming since we do the bulk of our entertaining here.

Almost everything on this porch

 was found at a thrift store, yard sale 

or online thrifting forum. 

I've already talked about the great deal I got on this large wicker chaise here.

I can never, ever leave an elephant garden stool behind. 

This one was at Goodwill a couple of months ago. It's large and had great detail. Sadly it had been broken. Someone had very carefully, practically seamlessly, glued the base back together but the glue had yellowed and they donated it. 

I grabbed it for less than $10.00 and brought it home. 

A coat of the BEST gold spray paint in the world (here,  here, here and you can't even find the cracks.)

The British say, "It has a wee blighty."

You can't even tell the poor boy had a blighty!

Trunks up!

Now for the big, fabulous bar cart!

If you are lounging around in that hanging bed you might need a refreshing drink!

I found this bar cart a few weeks ago in a non-profit thrift shop. 

I actually left it behind, thought about it for 20 minutes (what was wrong with me?) and then rushed back to get it. It is from a company in Bradenton Fl and I'm sure it spent many sunny days on someone's porch in South Florida.

Humble beginnings. 

We gave it a coat of fresh, glossy green and then added a ton of thrifted, vintage bar cart accessories. 

It will be so much fun to change it up for the seasons.

Literally everything here was thrifted and so inexpensive. 

 The straws are in a thrifted pineapple pitcher (99 cents at GW) and the gold straws came from the party section at Wal Mart. The gold polka dot tea towel is from the Target Dollar Spot. The silver pineapple snack trays are from the dollar store too!

 Tortoiseshell pitcher? Goodwill. Less than $5.00. 

And so far no one has noticed - we drank that wine the night before the photo shoot :)

The pineapples were all thrifted

 and the big pineapple canister also got a coat of my favorite gold spray paint.

No monkeys left behind either!

The brass tray cost less than $5.00 and is holding leopard napkins from the dollar store.

The mantel was salvaged. Read that story here.

Everything on this mantel is thrifted. 

The bamboo mirror was $6.96 and it's plastic!! It's definitely vintage - you can tell it has some age from the back but it looks great and you have to get close to tell it's not real bamboo!

Plastic bamboo is perfect on a porch.

Lamp and lampshade - GW on separate trips. Under $10.00 for both.

Seascape? Yep, Goodwill for $4.94. We love it. The gold frame is thrifted and the contemporary black and white art is just something I painted quickly to work with the black and white from the zebra rug.

The big yellow vase was a quick buy at GW a few weeks ago because the background of the wicker chaise is a nice soft, creamy yellow and I thought this would be fun and a nice modern addition to the mantel or bar cart.

So, see, you can find a lot of great items for not a lot of money. A little paint , fabric or freshening up will do the trick. And a lot of items don't need a thing done to them- they were just donated because people got tired of them. 

This is the ultimate recycling.

And because I don't have a big investment in my decor I don't feel bad if I want to pass something on and change things up. I can resell some items but I often just text pics to friends, someone is usually willing to come pick it up and it gets a new home!

I'll try to share more details about the other thrift finds on our porch in future posts.
And you can always see what I'm finding if you follow along on Instagram!

I hope you have some thrifting luck soon!

ORC Lucky No 7 - The Reveal.

This reveal is all smoke and mirrors.
And creative editing.

Repairs were not quite finished 
by the time this ORC started six weeks ago (and they still aren't!)
 but I didn't let that stop me!

And we only had one way to go on this project. Really.
It couldn't have gotten any worse!

There are still a few things that will have to be finished construction/repair wise
 and I didn't complete all of my plans -
  so maybe you'll check back and see.

But here is what did happen in the 5 quick weeks of this One Room Challenge...

Thank you to Linda of the One Room Challenge because, finished or not, this is the greatest motivator and we always end up with a space that I'm glad I took on the challenge!

Please be sure to see what everyone else accomplished. So many great rooms.
And check back on the blog because I'll be sharing in future posts where I found some of my items and what I still need to finish and more!

ORC Lucky No 7 - Week 5

I almost titled this post 

"Sheer Panic!”

What the heck - let’s go with it!!!

This has been slow going and there hasn’t been a lot to show up until this point but it was so awful to begin with that I feel like every little thing is great progress!
 Or that’s what I keep telling myself!

 I have painted everything white that needed to be fresh, glossy white including the swinging bed and now I’ve moved on to the gorgeous green floor.

We have had a green porch floor for years but a friend recently gifted me with Amanda Lindroth's book Island Hopping and I'm obsessed. Like, can't put it down. And it confirmed that this fabulous green was just the color we needed for our porch floor!

I have a thrifted, vintage bamboo mirror for the fireplace wall. 

And I’m covering a lampshade.

And that's about it.
Here's hoping I get a lot completed in one week!!

See more ORC participants here.

 

ORC Lucky No 7 - Week 4

As I stated last week, I've been in Charleston SC (lots of pretty porch inspiration!!)

 and the Virginia mountains 

for the last 8 days so nothing much has happened physically.

I used all my travel time to think, visualize, source and plan 

so I can hit the ground running this week.

Time is flying by!!

One thing that did actually happen was my handy husband worked on the "box" for the gas fireplace insert while I was away.

There is still a lot to be done but I'm excited to see progress. 

We salvaged that fireplace mantel from an old house in Marietta GA over 27 years ago that was scheduled for demolition.
Every time my husband mentioned getting rid of it because I hadn't done anything with it yet, I resisted. Then several years ago we added this section onto our screened porch and we "installed" the mantel as a focal point. Then we started looking for a gas insert and one finally showed up at Restore ages ago and now it's close to being a reality.

We certainly took our time on this one!

Things still look pretty rough but there is actually progress. 

I have the floor paint ready to go now that I'm back in town!

Gorgeous green!

I just need good weather so I can roll it on and show y'all some actual progress. 
Please check out everyone else's progress here and if I haven't bored you too much please come back next week and see if I might actually get something done!!