Halloween fun

We are spending Halloween at my daughter's beautiful house this year. She is supposed to get about 1,000 trick-or-treaters coming by. This will be her first year handing out candy; apparently she lives in "the" neighborhood. We are going "all out" with our costumes ... we will each be a character from The Little Mermaid. We spent hours making our costumes ...

And I may or may not be dressing up as Ursula the Sea Witch. He He He :)

I hope your day is filled with lots of fun and yummy treats ... Happy Halloween everyone!

A garage-sale table two ways

Last weekend my mom and I went to what was advertised as a large community garage sale. It was held in three different neighborhoods of Eichler homes fairly close to where we live. I grew up in a mid-century modern home and we were hoping we would not only find some nice modern "stuff" for sale but also see some great houses. It was disappointing. There were only a few homes that participated and nothing for sale that was all that exciting, but it was a fun day with my mom and we made the best of it by going out for breakfast afterwards and perusing through some antique stores nearby. I did pick up a couple of side tables at one home we stopped by though. They were $10 each. 

I knew immediately that I would paint one of them gold and wasn't really sure what I would do with the other but for $10 I decided I couldn't leave without them both.

They are great little side tables. I painted one of them white.

I am not sure how long this will stay at my house as I am continually shuffling things around and moving them out to other people's houses ... 

But for now it will make a lovely side table that can move from room to room as needed.

I used this spray paint. I was a little worried the gold might end up being too shiny but it wasn't. It is just perfect.

It adds a little extra flair as we head into the holidays (because they are coming really soon!!!) ... 

Painted pumpkins, Fall flowers and a new chalk paint

It took me a while but I am embracing the change over to Fall - the colors that is (I am not loving the late sunrise and the early sunset!). 

I got out the paint brushes and had a little fun with some pumpkins this week. The warty ones are natural.

I used black spray paint, acrylic paint for the reddish-orange one and a new paint I found at Michael's for the blue one. It is by Americana Decor and is called Chalky Finish. It is similar to Annie Sloan's chalk paint and just like hers, there is no prep needed (my kind of paint!). 

It comes in a nice variety of colors and I found this chart that shows you how to custom mix even more colors:

I picked up a small 8 oz. jar of the color, Vintage, for $5.39 (40% off $8.99 with my downloaded phone coupon) and and used about a fourth of the jar to paint a chair I am working on for the wedding next month.

While the paintbrush was still wet I decided to throw some paint on one of the pumpkins I had. You can see it dried a bit more blue than the jar shows. 

I love that the blue is a pop of unexpected color ...

I used this paint for the gold stems.

I picked up some yellow Ilex to bring a little color inside the house too.

And this book came in the mail yesterday. You will LOVE it!

Ah, Fall. The year's last loveliest smile. 

Lindsay Letters

And it is Friday! That is definitely something to smile about. Happy weekend everyone!

Which table would you choose?

I am working with a long distance client. I helped them with their house when they lived near Chicago and again when they moved to the East Coast. Now they are living in a new home (a gorgeous home, may I say?) in Kentucky and we have a clean slate. The dining room is the first room to be tackled and they were considering the Salvaged Wood Trestle Table from Restoration Hardware.

 Salvaged Wood Trestle Table | Restoration Hardware

But there was hesitation. They were torn between this new look for them or what they have always loved - a dark, more refined looking dining table. To help them, I put together two boards bringing in similar elements that they are leaning towards - a little industrial, a little modern mixed in with their very traditional looking architecture - one with the table from Restoration Hardware and another with a dark table. 

Option 1:

Option 2:

They liked them both. More confusion. And so I asked a question, "which look do you see continuing throughout the entire house?" That seemed to help and I think the dark table is going to win. I found two that would work in the large dining room; one more understated - a nice backdrop for the rest of the furnishings, and another - an exclamation point. 

Celebration Dining Table | Drexel Heritage

Claudio Dining Table | Noir Furniture

I would pick the Claudio dining table - what a statement piece! 

And it is wedding time again ... I just purchased this table on Craiglist - it will be the bride and groom's sweetheart table.

I love all the detail on the front ... and it will look perfect with the settee.

This bride is one fun girl and she has been collecting bottles and candle holders to use for her wedding for months. 

The bottles will be used for the centerpieces. She brought them all over on Sunday and we played around with them a bit to get a feel for what the tables will look like:

This is going to be another gorgeous wedding. Can you tell I am smiling?