Handmade Mirrored Sconce

This mirrored candle sconce was sort of a make-do project (hint: there's duct tape involved). I've recently been eyeing those beautiful round antique mirror candle sconces, made up of a mosaic of little mirror pieces...

Like these from a House Beautiful magazine...

Or this one, currently for sale here on etsy...

But, avoiding all temptaion (at least for now), I made my own for around $11.00.  Granted, it's not quite the same, but I still think it's simple, beautiful, and charming.

I found the vintage concave mirror at an antique mall for $5.00. It was an old handmade lamp reflector and it has a nice wavy, slightly darkened mirrored metal surface that reflects light (and a bit of my bookcases on the opposite wall) beautifully.

Then I picked up a simple tin candle holder that was meant to hang over a cupboard door (like a towel hook hangs over a bathroom door) for around $6.00 at a gift shop, and I was able to bend the hanger flat so I could attach it to the back of the reflector. And yes, when I say "attach" I mean "duct tape".  The wonders never cease!

A Light Makeover

As hinted at in this post, I have a new Impatient Decorating project to share with you. A burlap cord cover for the chandelier in my dining nook!

My husband surprised me with this little chandelier for Christmas, to replace the gigantic frosted glass and shiny brass wart of a light fixture that was adorning the ceiling when we moved in. Now, I know, it's no french antique... It's actually Swedish! (cough, cough, Ikea.)  But it's amazing the difference it made!

Sorry... again, no "before" pictures. In looking through early pictures of the dining room, I noticed that I had purposefully framed all the shots so as NOT to include the ugly light fixture. Go figure. But it was one of these...

...only bigger, older, and dirtier. Yuck.

Much better :)

If you are renting something less than your dream house, know this: it is remarkably easy to change out an ugly light fixture, and absolutely worth it!  I had to reassure my husband that my utter shock and amazement at how fast he changed out the light had nothing to do with my doubting his handyman skills, and everything to do with my cluelessness about the world of electricity. It took less than 10 minutes!

But, as will all modern conveniences, it came with an ugly cord. I have seen burlap cord covers from places like Pottery Barn for around $20 that are made to neatly snap around the cord and stylishly hide it.

But aside from spending the money, ordering one involves lots of waiting. And one morning, I decided that I didn't want to wait anymore! I had a nice big piece of burlap on hand, so I had to decide how to make it work. I thought about velcro... but didn't have any. I though about stitching it... but that takes way too long. I even thought about hot glue... but that involved digging around for the hot glue gun, not to mention an extention cord. So what did I use?

Nothing! I ended up cutting the burlap into long strips about 6 inches wide, and just started wrapping it around the cord. I secured the end by tucking it into the chain and tightly wrapping the burlap a couple times around it. I would wrap a short section at a time, not paying too much mind to how it looked, and then go back and scrunch the section together to get a little more volume and tuck all the raw edges under. Wrap, scrunch, and tuck. Wrap, scrunch, and tuck. At the end, I just tucked the end under a fold and into a loop of the chain and it held just fine. Not a drop of glue or a stitch of thread in sight! And it looks just as good at the Pottery Barn ones, for a fraction of the cost.

If you want to try it at home, I do have a Tip of the Day for you:

If you have anything on your table, take it off before you start!

The burlap will shed hairy little strands all over the table, and in my haste to get started I neglected to remove the tray of garden pots, candles, and urns that I had on the table, so they were covered in burlap fuzz by the time I was done. How much easier it would have been to just sweep off an empty table. :)

But I am SO happy with the end results. Proof again that you can do great decorating projects with next to nothing!

A Touch of Sparkle

I picked up this rusted cast iron chandelier about a year ago at one of my favorite antique malls back home in Ohio. I love it! I pulled out all the dirty old wiring and broken sockets, and now it sits on the antique wood desk in my living room.

I can just imagine it hanging from a low branch of an old oak tree in a country garden, over a little french bistro table. Just like something you'd see in a magazine...



Photo from the book "Found Style" by Amy Butler. I have this book and I highly recommend it!



I love all the ornate details done in such a rustic material... the perfect blend of rustic elegance. But want to know the secret?

I added the sparkle!

Just a few days ago, I found an old cut glass lamp at an antique mall for just $7. It was a little dingy and chipped, and truthfully not really my style, but it had five perfect teardrop crystals hanging from the base. And with 5 graceful cast iron arms just waiting for a touch of sparkle, it was the perfect find!

Secret number two? I didn't quite how to attach the lovely crystals once I got them home (tiny little wires and no holes in the hefty cast iron), so I rustled up some brown embroidery floss from my cross-stitching supplies and tied them on!

Impatient decorating at it's finest!

I think if I ever wrote a book, that's what I would call it - "The Impatient Decorator". It would be full of ingenious decorating tips and projects that require absolutely no waiting. No trips to the hardware store or craft supply shop for the "proper" equipment or supplies... just cheap and creative ways to get things done whenever the inspiration hits, with whatever you have at home. That's my specialty... I once got the urge to make a pillow out of a vintage feed sack I had on hand, and I sewed the whole thing up with a paperclip and twine because I didn't want to wait to make a trip to the store for a tapestry needle. I'm like the decorating version of Macgyver :)

Here's a sneek peak at another Impatient Decorator project I did recently...

But I'll save the details of that project for another post... Just because I'm impatient, doesn't mean you have to be!