It's A Gallery Wall Ya'll!

I’ve been working on our home office for a little while now and have finally gotten to wall decor. I’m not sure why, but hanging wall décor has always made me nervous. I’ll be honest, I can be a bit indecisive and putting a hole in my wall makes me a little uneasy. What if I change my mind? Then I put a hole in the wall for no reason. That is probably the reason I’ve taken my time on putting up this gallery wall.

I started collecting items from my junkin’ adventures that would work great with some photos I wanted to hang. I laid out all of the items and started moving them around until I was certain I liked the arrangement.  When I told Chris I was ready to hang I forgot that my junkin’ items weren’t typical wall décor and they didn’t have hooks. Whoops. Hubba hubba to the rescue, we placed hooks on the back and were ready to go!

The drawer, plinth, large metal shelf, and grain belt were all found while junkin’. I received the large frame as a gift and purchased the canvas from Canvas People. (If you haven’t checked out Canvas People yet, you’re missing out!)

I’m so excited with how it turned out and am glad that I didn’t put any unnecessary holes into the wall, either!

Rather Be Junkin'

Heather

Chalk Holder

I get the feelin’ I need to be junkin’ quite often. It’s so much fun to rummage through the old and rusty. Every time I go I have no idea what I’m going to find and am always surprised. Of course, this time was no different.

While out on a Saturday morning for MISSION: Office Chair, I wasn’t having any luck. I decided the best way to save the day was to go junkin’. Unfortunately for me, my three junkin’ companions were busy and couldn’t join me. That didn’t stop me. I decided to make an hour drive north to a small town with a wonderful antique shop that I have passed many times. You may wonder how a junkin’ lovin’ gal like me has passed by such a wonderful place so many times and never stopped? Well, I am a family of hunters and when it’s hunting time, we don’t have time to stop. I digress.

My trip to Bethany went a lot quicker than I anticipated, of course that’s probably because I listened to the likes of Miranda Lambert and her song about me called, “Old Shit.” Look it up, it’s wonderful. Anyway, while on my trip I found this awesome old metal matchbox. I picked it up and turned it over in my hands a few times wondering what I could do with it when the light bulb came on. Chalk holder. With my new fireplace and the hubba hubba’s brilliant idea to paint it chalkboard in the opening, I was not fond of just leaving the chalk sitting on top of the mantel. I was so excited. I wish I had bought a few more so that I could share them!

Chippy Ol' Fireplace

A fireplace. Growing up my family had a fireplace and I remember in the winter my sister and I would snuggle with a bunch of blankets next to it while we watched TV. Lets fast-forward to now where I own my own house and I don’t have a fireplace. Though a fireplace was on my “must-have” list, it became a back seat need when we found our beautiful home. However, my longing to have a fireplace did not go away.

This must be the reason I became infatuated with the idea of having a faux fireplace in our house.  So the search began. I initially found an old white one in the West Bottoms on a Saturday afternoon. The hefty price tag deterred me from making the purchase, which in return haunted me until the following month when the West Bottoms opened up again. This time, making my hubba hubba tag along, I was sure to get that darn white fireplace.

Of course, my plan did not go as I expected.  We get to the store that the fireplace is supposed to be at, has to be at, I look high and low on the 3 floors and even ask someone if they still have it. No. it’s gone. This makes me pout the rest of our shopping trip. I can’t leave empty handed. I came with the intention of getting that fireplace.

As we leave with my lip sticking out, I decide to stop into one last store. We walk in and there it is. My fireplace. It’s not the one I intended on getting. It’s better. Like a million times better. Unfortunately, the price is higher, too. The owner of the fireplace sees us eyeing and comes over to give some additional information on the piece. Then she says those magical words, “if you have cash I can give you a better offer.” YES! I was ecstatic to be getting a fireplace, better than the one I originally wanted and it was even at a lower price, too!

I am now the proud owner of my very own fireplace.

Rather Be Junkin'<3

Heather 

Barn Door Turned Desk

As some of you know I have a slight obsession with doors. I’m not sure where my love of doors came from, however I know that when I see any kind of door I’m drawn to it. The doors that interest me the most are older and usually have chippy paint. Any color of chippy paint is great. The character that old beat up doors have is unexplainable. Much like any other old junkin’ item, the story that door could tell is something we’ll never know.

So naturally, when I came across this door that was used in someone’s barn and has MANY colors of chippy paint, I knew I had to have it. The kind of know that I pouted to my husband as we continued shopping around Excelsior Springs, MO. He knew it, too. As we got into my car to leave he finally looked at me and said, “go get it.” Yaaaaaaaay! I went back into the store and the ladies knew what I was there for.

Of course, now I have my second door and I can’t hang it on a wall, too. So what am I going to do with it? Well, at first I didn’t know. Which if you know my hubba hubba, you know that he does not like me purchasing things that I have no idea what I’m going to do with. After some time I knew the perfect use for it. A desk.

Seemed easy enough at first, the door would serve as the top of the desk, but we needed to find some legs. Between the two of us, my hubba hubba and I came up with a few different ideas. A few of these ideas included galvanized piping (super expensive), old sewing table legs (usually used for another repurposed table or expensive as well), or the many random pieces of metal I found while junkin’. I wasn’t completely sold on any of these ideas until I came across some old patina metal at an antique place. I knew right then that it was another one of those, “I have to have it” moments. And boy was I right.

After going back and forth with the hubba hubba as to how the metal would work as legs, we were finally on the same page. Chris then began his handy-man work and I supervised… as much as he let me. Apparently watching over someone while they work is frowned upon, who knew.

So here we are, with my desk complete with the exception of finding a piece of glass to lay over the top. I couldn’t be more ecstatic with how it turned out. The way the turquoise color flows up the metal leg and across the door is something of magic. The rusted metal works great with the rust color chippy paint on the door. The patina metal and chippy paint were made for one another.

I would say my hubba hubba and I make a pretty great team.

Rather Be Junkin' <3

Heather 

Distressed Easter Mirror

For Easter, my grandma bought me an old mirror. I had mentioned a new obsession with mirrors and upon one of her MANY thrift store runs, she found me a beautiful organic mirror. At first I wasn't positive how I wanted to paint it but quickly decided upon elegant black.

See below on how I accomplished this beautiful mirror!

 Take small pieces of tape & "roll" them so that both sides are sticky. This makes it easier to stick to both the mirror and the plastic bag and to peel off when you're finished.

 Place the tape up against the edge of the mirror.

Take plastic bags and place them around the end of the mirror so that they stick to the rolled tape. This ensures that the spray paint doesn't get onto the mirror.

This is what the mirror looked like with the glass being completely covered with the plastic bags.

I chose to paint outside and to make sure that the blades of grass don't get in the way of the paint, I placed the mirror on top of two paint cans.

The mirror after being spray painted.

Hanging on the wall after sanding to get the distressed affect!

Up close of the black, gold, and red distressed colors.

As what happens with most of my project, I come across some bumps in the road that ultimately end up changing the idea I had for the project. I purchased black spray paint and began spraying when the paint began to bubble. After doing some research, I should have used an oil-based primer before painting. So, I decided I would sand in the places where the paint had bubbled, prime, and re-paint. However, once I began to sand, I could see that under the gold paint, there was red paint. With the three colors (black, gold, and red) the mirror looked beautiful distressed. I decided that it wasn't necessary to prime and repaint with the beautiful colors coming through. So I left it as you can see!

<3, Heather