Tuesday Tip-Nature

I love natural elements.  

I use nature in my home and designs often.  It is the perfect decor, it is interesting, textural, colorful and usually free.  What could be better than free??  

Nature is fascinating and beautiful, therefore makes your home interesting and beautiful!

Bringing in nature can be as easy as plants or flowers.  It can also be a little more complicated, such as wood in cabinets and furniture or flooring, either way it is an ideal way to warm up a space.

Tuesday Tip-Bottles and Jars

Glass is great!  

It is beautiful, neutral, easy to clean and it sparkles.  I use glass bottles and jars for so many things in my home.  I recycle most of them or buy them second hand.

So many products in stores come in glass containers.  They are great for storage and because I buy the same items over and over, I have quantities of the same size.  These look great for open storage.  All lined up perfect in a row!  

I know I have a little OCD. :]

  Here are just a few ideas:

These are peanut butter jars and spaghetti jars, with the metal lids painted red. 

Old apothecary bottles with pencils and bobby pins, just shake bottle upside down to get them out! 

Sometimes I see jars without lids, but I buy them anyway.  Then I find lids later.

And of course, just as interesting and beautiful decor.

How do you use old or recycled bottles?

Happy Valentine's Day

  I give my children a Valentine's gift every year.  This year I got the idea from another blog I read and decided to do it for my children.  I think they turned out pretty cute and the kids got a kick out of them.

My husband and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day, but if you do I hope you have a wonderful one. 

Table Top

Sorry this is so late.  I think I lost my brain last week.  I kept forgetting what day it was!  Until last night when my husband reminded me that it was movie night, which is always on friday.  So I think that every year I get older, a piece of my brain falls out. LOL

Anyway here is a table top from our bathroom.  We remodeled this bathroom 3 years ago and I still love it.  We have a claw-foot tub in there and we needed a place to put bath "stuff".  

I found this darling table at a second hand store and it was the perfect size for the bath.  It fit great and had 3 shelves for storage.

I love the chippy paint!

The enamel "soap" bowl holds, well soap and a couple of starfish.  There is some bath oil, lavender bath salt and a silver match box holder for candles.  The glass insulator has a candle under it.

The middle shelf holds wash clothes and the bottom shelf has a cast iron planter that hold wood scrubbers.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sideboard

I received a few emails about the finish on my sideboard and some wanted a few detailed pictures of it.  

This sideboard came from my mother-in-law.  As I stated in the previous post it was in bad condition, but I loved, loved its sexy legs and the storage possibilities.  I knew that I was not going to be using it in the dining room and that it would be perfect for the front room.

The finish was bad and I did not have the patience to restore it or the resources at the time, so I painted it and replaced the top with vintage Carrara marble.  At the time, 7 years ago, I liked the crackle finish that was popular, but I did not like the preciseness of it.  I wanted it to look more random and worn.

  So when I painted it,  I sprayed it with water in a spray bottle and used a paint sprayer with white paint.  The water made it so the paint didn't stick everywhere and sort of ran a little.  I loved the look of it, so it stayed.  

The marble top was from the salvage yard that I worked at.  It was taken from an old building, where it was used as wainscoting, nice!  We, my husband and I cut it down to fit.  The pulls and knobs are from Potter Barn in bronze, these were only changed because the originals were broken and one was missing.  

Like I said in the original post, it stores candles, accessories, and pillow covers.

  It is very practical and beautiful!

I am linking up to Furniture Feature Friday, The Charm of Home, At the Picket Fence, Stuff and Nonsense, Common Ground, 2805, French Country Cottage, The Vintage Farm House, French Cupboard, Romantic Home, No Minimalist Here,
Cedar Hill ranch, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia


Check them out!