Cute or crazy?

At our art gallery, The Peanut Gallery, we were always trying to come up with unique and different lighting ideas. I attempted to make the string pendant lamps that were so popluar a while ago...


But after hours and hours and hours of winding yarn around beach balls, and hours of soaking them in fabric stiffner, they didn't work! As soon as we started to let the air out of the beachball to remove it, the yarn cpmpletely collapsed. So they've been hanging in our garage for over a year! Last week when we were doing some spring cleaning I decided it was time for them to go...but rather than deflate them and throw them out...


I decided to hang them from one of our trees! A little silly perhaps, but it's kind of fun and festive. I'm sure they won't hold up through the spring rains, but for now, I think I like that it looks like we are on the verge of hosting a fabulous garden party!



Before & After - Tiffany

Tiffany is fini! I recently finished "re-loving" Tiffany, a now gorgeous 5 drawer dresser. What started out as a well-loved, well-worn, well...awful dresser...


...is now a lovely and stylish piece that any lady would be proud to place her lacies in!


This was a really fun project! I started by sanding and priming the pieces separately. I did this so that I would have full access to the drawers, so that I could paint them completely inside and out. It drives me nuts when you see a beautifully refurbished piece....then you open a drawer and the sides and inside are still dull and dreary.


I chose a gorgeous tiffany blue water-based latex paint for the main color, and a shimmery silver to really highlight the panelled accents on the sides. To give it an extra bit of charm, I painted the insides of the drawers a shimmery silver as well. To achieve the silver sheen that I wanted, I decided to use silver spray paint instead of regular latex paint. It worked perfectly. The original hardware was in decent condition, so I simply replaced one missing piece, and spruced it up with silver spray paint.



Finally, I used three coats of clear gloss polyurethane to seal the piece, sanding in between each coat. I used a sprayable polyurethane on the hardware to prevent brush marks. I was quite happy with the results, and I think my chichi's, Peanut and Don Julio, were too!


The piece was rather striking against my purple walls, and I was a bit sad to see it go! But it went to a lovely customer who I hope is thoroughly enjoying it!