Things Aren't Always What They Seem

This curtain - in photo above - was made from old silk scarves . . . .

The shower curtain in our bathroom was made from an old linen duvet cover. The wood finial used to be the base of a lamp . . . .

This is pallet wood, in the bathroom - on the floor and on the countertop. Notice, too, the 'legs' I attached to the old wooden box; those are old ceramic knobs.

For more about pallet wood in the bathroom, click link.

And the wood on the ceiling in the bathroom is from an old barn. 

An old feed sack makes a wonderful lampshade redo....

The back splash in the kitchen was fashioned from plywood cut to size, covered with burlap and painted with coppery paint.....

More info about burlap back splash here:

I used old blue jeans to make a big ball for our son's room. The ball has a zipper so that it can be opened to hide....our sleeping bags - sleeping bag storage!!

I think I deserve the award for the Most Creative Use of Jar Lids. I used them to hold the bottoms of fishing poles in place in the garage....

Notches cut into wood - with rubber 'stops' added - keep the tops of the fishing poles in place. 

The window decorations in the basement came from the filigree from an old wooden shelf.

The built-in planter in the front hallway was not in an area that had enough light to support plants...so I turned it into storage. See next pic also.

In the garden, and old antenna was employed as a trellis. In the background is another 'trellis' - made from an old room divider; the divider was covered with rattan when I bought it so I threw the whole thing on the b burn pile and sent the rattan up in smoke!!

We have 3 bookcases in my sewing room in the basement. We installed them with the shelves facing out, but I eventually took the backs off those units and put a fabric-covered boards on the original fronts. Now fabric is hidden behind and I have a padded surface for display facing the room.....

For more about the sewing room, click on link.....

The curtains are really shower curtains. They hide the walkway to the storage area behind the shelving. 

When we moved in here, there was nothing decorating the tops of the large windows in the living/dining areas. I found the two cornices at a yard sale, one of which was the perfect size for the front window - 12'. The other one had to be extended 62" to fit the other window. That was no problem; I extended it with plywood. The problem was finding stain to match the other cornice. I eventually hit upon the idea to use acrylic craft paints - red and yellow. It worked. Unless you look really closely and are looking for it, you cannot tell this was not made of birch: 

I had to seam the front of this cornice, but, there again, it's not noticeable. It will never be seen on a galloping horse, as my mom would say.

This wall-hanging was made from hand-loomed potholders. I got them for just 10 cents each at a yard sale. The trick was hooking them together. I tried all sorts of methods - crochet, etc - but finally just sewed them together with strips of fabric in between. The wall-hanging is pinned to a very large cork board, found at a yard sale some years ago.

The wall-hanging also acts as a place to store my costume jewelry!!

The kitchen curtains were made from a beautiful beaded Indian fabric.....

And the bathroom curtains were made with old hankies....

After spotting this bingo thingie at a rummage sale, I walked away from it, only to go back to snatch it up before I left. It's brass and beautiful. I got an old sports ball at another yard sale, cut it and turned it wrong side out to hold a plant. 

This half wall hides the hot water tank and water softener in the basement....

Behind the wall is plenty of storage for paints and such - the studs we used are 2x6's, wide enough to store such things. 

The decorations that grace the arch between kitchen and dining room started life as . . . shelf brackets. Aren't they lovely?

 When I found a wonderful copper window blind at a second-hand store, I had every intention of using the slats from that blind to embellish the soffit in the kitchen. But instead, I installed the blind in our dining room window - it just fit. Some time later, I realized I had enough extra slats to go ahead with my plan to add slats to the soffit. So that's what I did: I hot-glued those coppery slats above the cupboards. I looooove copper. 

For YEARS after we moved here, I wanted to get everything up off the counter - paper towel dispenser, knife block and microwave. Finally I came up with a plan to do just that, and convinced my husband to help with this project. I could not find a magnetized strip for hanging knives, so we fashioned one out of some old wood from a paper cutter, then we added magnets from an arm band designed to hold tools on one's upper arm. In the picture above you can see a close-up of our knife holder. 

In this pic (above) you can see more of the burlap/copper back splash and the knife holder. The metal filigree surround the range hood is from a 60's-era light fixture. I like having a mirror above the stove, by the way; when the mirror gets grimy I figure the wall is also in need of a good cleaning, so I clean them both.

For more info about the kitchen, click on link.

http://redoredux-faywray.blogspot.com/2012/04/wood-counter-top-kitchen.html

Here's a picture of the old paper cutter (you can barely make out the groove profile that used to hold the wooden foundation, now used as a knife holder). We added old hooks to it for hanging coats and bags in the basement-way. 

At a yard sale some years ago, the man whose yard sale it was tried to convince me that I needed some wood from an old organ. I demurred, he persisted, and I'm very glad he did: I ended up buying several pieces of that old organ wood and using in various places in our home. In the pics above and below this writing, you can see one use we found for some of that wood. This set-up is just at the bottom of the basement stairs. The light fixture was also a good find: Vintage, and only 25 cents.

View of organ wood/light trim from basement

Here's more of that organ wood. Isn't it fabulous? This long piece has its original felt backing and a ledge where we can set bottles of water while we play ping pong. The metal piece is an old funky planter - now used to hold table tennis paddles (some of the hand made by son Bob). The silver thing holds ping pong balls; I have no idea what it was designed for originally! 

To read more about the basement project, click here:

Oh, look! Another piece of old organ wood, this time employed as a vent cover......

And here's another vent - this one covered by an old metal floor vent cover.

Before we tackled the huge job of replacing our back window with a door, we had some fun: We shortened our existing dining room table to make more room for people to access the soon-to-be-installed door. We found a pedestal base at a yard sale and took the leaf out of the original table and added old barn wood to the top. 

For more about installation of sliding glass door, click here:

Another shot of the newly-shorted table

I love decorating with photos, and I like photos in a display to be interchangeable. The photo display in the living room holds 84 pictures. The pics are glued to boards that have been cut to fit into the nifty rail attached to the wall. In the pictures below you can see how this works: photos can be taken out and flipped over; the back sides also have pics glued to them. Photos slide in and out of the rail, and can be removed mid-wall too - making it easy to swap out photos when company comes and we want their picture on the wall to surprise them!! 

For more info about this project, please click on link.....

You can see the rails' profile in the photo above. 

The doorbell cover is really an old tin!! 

This couch used to be a sort of green/beige plaid. There was no wood on the arms and the legs were shorter and not as hefty as the ones you see on the couch in this photo, above. My husband and I work together on such projects, but the sewing of all cushion covers falls to yours-truly. Maybe someday I'll teach Bill to help with the sewing too.....

I hope this picture is clear enough. What you see here is an old.....Amish buggy part, now used as a drink holder above the workbench in the garage!! This was once used as a step up into a buggy. Cool, heh?

That cute metal stand near the rain barrel is an old fish tank stand!! It's handy to have it there next to the workshop, as a tool holder in summer. 

I collect old wooden boxes - I've been doing this for many years. You see those old boxes throughout our home. I love using them as storage and as organizers. 

I quit, er, at least for now. Here's a smiley face for you. Our son Bob drew this when he was quite young. I transferred it to canvas, and, oh, I lengthened the line on one of the 'b's in his name when I reproduced it; otherwise it looked like it was drawn by . . . . Booby! 

Happy Day!!!!