My $10 Desk Lamp

If your Goodwill is like mine, there is usually an abundance of old ginger jar lamp bases that look similar to the ones pictured here:

Seriously.  They are most likely disguised by a coat of dust and sometimes a sad shade of country blue:

I found this one for the attractive price of $3 and thought the short round shape would make a great little desk lamp.

After sponge brushing on a couple of coats of the green I used to paint this, and adding a $7 shade I found at a consignment store:

I decided to leave the lamp base brass. . . .You can see my paint job was not perfection, but I can live with it.

Umbrella Stands: the Perfect Accessory for Your Entry

In anticipation of April showers, I've got my eye out for a pretty umbrella stand to place beside our front door.  (Okay, in reality, I rarely carry an umbrella.  It really becomes just one more thing to hold while trying to get three kids in the car in the pouring rain.  But, I like the idea of it, anyway. . . )

Regardless of whether you actually use the umbrellas, the stands can be a good way to jazz up an entry way.  Almost like jewelry for your front door:

DecorPad

This is one of my favorites that can be created by turning a ceramic garden stool upside down.  And, these are now popping up at places like Ross and TJMaxx for $20-$30:

Lonny magazine

Ashley Whittaker

Brooklyn Limestone blog

Martha Stewart

Love Jenny's DIY monogrammed stand. (Image via Little Green Notebook blog)

I'm thinking of a brass one for our entry.  I recently spotted one similar to this at a consignment shop for $12 and was feeling indecisive.  I went back to get it and it was gone.  Ugh!

Also really like this one:

 So, I'll keep shopping for now.  Next, I'm going to need some pretty umbrellas. . . 

My Weekend in a Nutshell

To sum up my weekend. . .

The powder room went yellow. . . .

Benjamin Moore "Marblehead Gold" to be exact.  Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.  Good accessories will surely make all the difference.  And, a couple of you left comments saying that gold would be very "Kate Spade."  So, I keep telling myself that. 

Afterall, who wouldn't want a room that feels like this:

In other weekend activities, the Kentucky Wildcats lost and aren't going to the Final Four--which made a certain 5-year-old boy in my house very sad.

 

And for the big finale, a tornado came through our small town last night and our swing set bit the dust.  This picture was taken after my husband moved it off our neighbor's fence. . .

And, that pretty much sums it up. 

Pondering my Powder Room

So, if I'm feeling ambitious this weekend, I plan on tackling our powder room/guest bathroom.  The current situation:  a blah, beige with no shower curtain and now huge holes in the wall where we recently removed the standard mirror that came with the house. . .It needs help.

While I've always envisioned a pretty gray. . . .

Margot Austin

It seems my design ADD has gotten the best of me once again. I'm now considering a gold (more orange than yellow) somewhere in this family:

Think along the lines of this color (unfortunately, I'm ruling out wallpaper for now) :

Image via House & Home (courtesty of Odi et Amo blog)

Does anyone have any other good images of gold (not yellow) bathrooms?  They seem to be hard to come by.  Maybe that should tell me something :)

The rest of the plan: to hang this mirror I bought at Homegoods last weekend, and to use this navy/white stripe fabric for some type of fabric shade (to be decided):

I may ditch the weathered look for glossy white spray paint:

Would love your feedback on this.  I may take the kids to Lowes to get paint this afternoon (and to ride in those cool race car carts they love). 

What project are you tackling this weekend?

Creating a Colorful Outdoor Space

This beautiful day has me itching to spruce up our little front porch. And, if there is one place to use color, it's in an outdoor space:

Metropolitan Home

The easiest way to add color until the blooms start appearing:  bright, outdoor pillows.  They are readily available, in a wide variety of colors and patterns--and most, at reasonable prices.  Here are a few of my favorites that I found online:

Crate & Barrel

 

Williams Sonoma Home 

Etsy seller: MustLoveHomeDecor

Target

Etsy seller: PersnicketyHome

Etsy seller:  Mazizmuse

Pottery Barn

Etsy seller: DIYPillows

Etsy seller: DesignsByNancyT

And, for the chairs on our front porch, I'm thinking of pillows in this:

And, maybe spray painting a table I already have in a color similar to this:

image via Apartment Therapy

So, what are your spring plans for your outdoor spaces???
 

Home Office Update

A few of you have asked about the progress of my home office re-do, and the answer is, it's coming along.  I now have the furniture in place (and no longer have my laptop on our dining room table!), but I still have a lot of work to do before I'm ready to show it to blog land.  So, in the meantime, I'll give you a sneak peek by showing you my favorite piece in the room:

My favorite find so far: a campaign-style dresser for $50! 

I am absolutely the world's worst about taking "before" pictures. I remembered after I had taken all the drawers out and removed the hardware.  So, here's my two-part "before":

Sanding, primer and two coats of paint later:

It was painted a dark gray when I bought it, but I went with Benjamin Moore Fresh Grass so it would pop against the charcoal walls.  (And, as you know, I've been in love with this Lonny image for a while):

The hardware was also painted gray.  I left it for now but noticed some of it's starting to chip, so I may eventually end up taking it back to it's original brass. 

I also plan to make this a gallery wall, and hang several black and white photos in an arrangement around this mirror that I bought a while back at Homegoods and never used.  I can't wait to hang the typewriter photograph that I won from Stefanie at Brooklyn Limestone:

Stay tuned. . . .

Weekend Deals

Do you have one of those rooms in your house that you think is almost finished and then it just as quickly becomes "unfinished?"  My dining room is that space in our house.  Since moving in, I've slowly but surely taken every accessory and piece of furniture from there to use in other rooms until we literally just have the table left standing.  So, I've been scouring through images of dining rooms and I keep finding that white chairs are catching my eye, particularly ones with cane backs.

DecorPad

source unknown

I love the look of these paired with a dark table. So, imagine my delight when I found six of these for $75 (total)!!!:

My kids climbed all over them (the true test), and they seemed to be in good shape.  And, the caning is all in tact, so it ended up being a deal I couldn't pass up.

I then went in search of fabric and came home with this lattice pattern by Raymond Waites:

It's actually an outdoor fabric (which I thought would be great for a dining room) and was only $7.98/yard.  I was a happy camper! 

I haven't quite worked out the rest of the dining room details, so be prepared for more random thoughts to come. . . .

Bowled Over

I recently found this "fish bowl" and thought it would be a pretty solution to all of the keys and "stuff" that accumulates on our kitchen counter when you walk in. (I may have to give my family a lesson in what is acceptable for the bowl, however, as I found a wet diaper in ours yesterday.  Really?)

If you have a similar "dumping ground" in your house for unsightly odds and ends, a pretty bowl might be the perfect solution. Here are some other options (all from Overstock) that you might like:

On another note, thanks to Dayka at Life & Style for showing off my latest Craigslist find.  She has the before pictures of my bookcases on her blog.  A litte more work, and I'll be ready to share the after pictures with you.