Saturday, September 18, 2010

DESIGN CHALLENGE-COULDN'T SPEND ONE DIME!

Above is my bedroom. There are still some rough places, but I'm almost finished. My design "challenge" was to redecorate without buying anything and not spending a dime. I figured that out after I did it. Yea, don't go down that rabbit hole. You'll need a time machine and a psychiatrist. Basically, our room was a storage facility with floor to ceiling boxes. Hideous boxes. The worst part was, the boxes weren't even mine, they were the hubs. And now they're gone. Well, they're in another bedroom, but not the one where I spend most of my time in. Yay! Also, I discovered that I'm a skosh Bohemian.
Above is the shelf I designed. Actually, it's a piece of very old wood from an antique armoire that Peter disassembled. It's way over 100 years old and the individual pieces are quite lovely, but it's a behemoth and not for our room. Anyway, I took this piece of wood, found some lovely old books of mine from about 20 years ago and made a shelf out of it for my attached bathroom. I loved the extra space it gave me and I thought it was creative problem solving. Ouch! Cramp in my upper arm from patting myself on the back...
Other angle to see the detail of the old wood....
Then I used those hooks that you put over doors for towels and robes and I placed my necklaces and bracelets on it. It's right by my closet in my "getting ready" space, so it works perfectly.
Close up detail. Plus I like shiny things. The bracelets are on the top hooks and the necklaces are along the bottom hooks.
Here's the "working" corner of the room. How nice that I left the Dew on the "table" I made out of stored water containers. That's an old quilt covering them, but they made a nice table for my Mac and printer. The "seat" is actually the foot rest for my papasan chair in the living room. The table is an old table we've had for awhile. The white clothes underneath were made by hand by a physician I used to work for. There's lots of hand stitching. The silk scarves on top are pure silk from China and were gifts from my daughter, Emmy, about 5 years ago. The baskets next to it are old baskets I've had for years.
Details of the table top. Everything in here is definitely for function, but I did cave on this. It's purely sentimental. The candles are romantic, that's my momma, the record is something my dad wrote and recorded for the love of his life, (my momma), and it may be difficult to see, but my wee tee tiny white cast iron pig with wings is on the table. This little inspiration tells me that I WILL get my doctorate...I WILL!!!!
The record....
My dresser/night stand. I also got this from the physician I worked with (that made the tablecloths). She is a pathologist. The top of this is all broken china dishes. Beautiful.
Detail of top of dresser.
This is my favorite picture of all...detail of the lamp with the pale blue silk scarf over it. It's also cast iron-ish with crystal droplets hanging off the shade. I giggle when I look at this room. No one bothered me. I got to do whatever I wanted. No influence. No nuttin. All me. Only took a little over 5 decades....

:)

















5 comments:

Anonymous said...

ok, you're amazing.

p.s. a LITTLE BIT bohemian?

The Katzbox said...

hahahahahah....well, from one Bohemian to another, then..

:)

Emmy said...

Have you thought of having that record converted to a CD? There are services that do that for like ten dollars. . think about it! Wouldn't that be a fun gift for Grandma for Christmas? Sol singing to her?

Eli Bowman said...

Looks great, Mom.

The Katzbox said...

Thanks, Eli. :)

Em, it's probably scratched up quite a bit. The flip side has another song called, 'This Is My Love'...very dramatic!

There were two copies; Dad hired a man to sing them, he didn't, but the idea of a CD is interesting. I'll call around when I get time this week. Great idea, actually, now that I picture it!!!!

Love!!!!