A Tale of Two Lamps

Hello friends - hope everyone has had a wonderful week.. it's rainy/gloomy looking here in metro Atlanta, but I still have to go to the grocery store. Yuck, it's my least favorite thing to do...

Before I go I thought I would share a quick story about two lamps..  they used to live at the Goodwill and Saint Vincent de Paul stores, but now they have been adopted and live with us.  I think they're happy here, too, because they get a lot of attention and provide a much needed service - light!

Here they are, in my old, pre-pink dining room when they first got here..

First up is the $8 art deco blue... which came with that lamp shade that's up-side-down behind it...

And then we have $6 skinny 80s brass with the tallest harp in the entire world and no lamp shade....

Both were in pretty good shape and they both worked - the brass lamp has some bad spots on it and I toyed with the idea of painting it, so it sat around for a while.

Ms. blue had a great shape and the brass accents were cool with me, but I didn't like her color, so I used some spray paint..  I taped off the parts I wanted to keep and took her to the yard for a dose of black..

I found a lamp shade at Ross for $7 that matched the shape..  now she lives in our family room on the round table that hubby made years ago - and she's very happy. I had a skinnier lamp in that spot for a long time, and I really like the way she is heftier.  Yay for new lamp for a total of $15!!

Ms. 80s Brass just sat around for several weeks because I just didn't know if I wanted to paint her or not.. then I was at Target on my lunch hour last week (I frequently go to Target on my lunch hour and browse the Clearance end-caps - you never know what you're going to find!) and I found a beautiful black Nate Berkus lamp shade.  It looked like it had been bought and returned, and it was marked down to $7.49!!  I snatched it up so fast - like nobody's gonna pry this from my cold dead hands haha!  I knew it would be perfect for ms. brassy brass!  Well, when I put it on the lamp, the circle holder thingy was too big!!!

I had to figure out a way to make the shade work.. so I ask my hubs to fix it!  He had a roll of some high-temp rubberized stuff left over from his days working in the airline maintenance industry. He wrapped it around the socket and used a zip tie to hold it in place..  it works perfectly and you can't see it unless you're looking inside the shade :)

So I decided to leave her brass and now she is living in the prettiest room in the house - SHE'S AWESOME!!

I hope you've enjoyed this little story about two homeless lamps.  Remember, you too can find lamps and give them a new life, and do it much cheaper then buying new!

Love ya,
Kelli

In the Pink - Pink Walls That Is...

Hello my friends!  It has been a month since I've written anything.. It has been crazy around here! My sister came to visit for three weeks and it was wonderful! We also had a baby shower for my sweet daughter at my house so we have been really busy..

One of the things (among many) that my sister is really good at, is painting.  When I say she's good, I mean she's really good!  She cuts-in with no tape!

So I have been wanting to paint my dining room pink ever since I saw Cassie's dining room.  The navy served us well for many years but it was time to lighten things up.  My husband was a little skeptical at first. But when I showed him her room he was sold.  Besides - I wanted just one itty bitty room in my house that I could "glam up" and this was the perfect one! 

This is what it looked like a few weeks ago - messy and full of thrift store treasures!

When my sister came over and started priming the walls she did NOT want to use the blue tape and was only doing it because she though my hubs wanted her to. She didn't even want her picture made with the tape on the trim haha!  We only used it right there, on that one wall. The rest she cut-in by hand - she's awesome. Here she is posing for her glamor shot - love her!  You may remember, she helped me with my sexy bench redo, too ;)

What a trouper!  She primed those walls in an hour. We used Valspar High Hiding Primer.  We used only one coat to prime over that navy blue.  Wow!

She painted the pink when I was at work one day so I came home to find this!

My sideboard/buffet looks awesome with the pink.

I am in love.  I feel like I'm in Charleston or something! I am sooo very happy with the way it turned out - I used the same color as Cassie did, Sherwin Williams Verbena.  This room faces north so during the fall and winter it is rather difficult to get a good picture - not a whole lotta sunlight gettin in here..  but you get the idea.. 

Well I'm no interior designer/decorator, but I think this room is the bomb!  Thank you a millions times to my sweet little sister!!!  

I still need to paint the two chairs sitting in the corners on each side of the piano (and cover their seats), and figure out what to do with the unsightly table under the black tablecloth, do some curtains, and probably find a rug.  Lots to do, but that's the fun of it all, isn't it?  The thrill of the hunt!

Let me know what you think - leave me a comment!  I looovvveee to get comments!  So Happy!!

Love,

Kelli

LInking up with Thrifty Decor Chic! And That DIY Party !