The Interior DIYer
Artwork

A simple update with paint

I made a really simple update this weekend to a kitschy rose I bought in Value Village a few weeks ago. The matte porcelain flowers were a shade of purple I wasn’t particularly in love with and they were also worn and chipped in a few places. I grabbed my favourite tin of Classic Burgundy paint from CIL and painted two quick coats of paint on the petals, front and back.

Though this was a really minuscule project [so small infact that I need a magnifying glass to read the likelihood of it being allowed to be even called a ‘project’], it was a kind of project I need right now; something that can be done in 20 minutes.

Have you worked on a tiny project recently? Sometimes I love tiny projects. They’re enough to get finished with a toddler running around in the background and also make me feel like I’ve achieved something other than perpetually cleaning up after said toddler tornado.

Artwork

Toddler painting (+ Baroque style picture frame)

As soon as I hung up our Baroque style picture frame I knew it wasn’t going to be one of those projects that sat around for six months waiting to be worked on. A few days after I bought it I headed to our local DeSerres to pick up some art supplies and a few days after that, I was sitting at the table with Cora mixing some peachy paint for her.

RANDOM STORY – when I was pregnant with Cora I craved some really weird things. Like 90’s movies and the colour peach. Both of which stuck with me after having Cora [and let’s face it, I loved 90’s movies to begin with], so now the moment I see anything peach or rose gold coloured I will find it hard to resist. I’d say 70% of Cora’s wardrobe is some shade of peach.

Because this frame’s ratio is a bit longer than typical frame sizes, I had to buy a canvas that was wider than it and cut it down to size [I used a really sharp kitchen knife since I couldn’t find my exacto knife].

I absolutely love painting with Cora supervising Cora painting. She really loves it and I love sending pieces to friends and family as little unexpected presents. I guide her at times [just by pointing at different parts of the canvas for her to paint] and she stops, listens to my suggestions and with a quick “okay” she gets to work. It is equal parts hilarious and adorable.

This of course isn’t Cora’s first time painting. She did a black and white piece for my One Room Challenge, which she points at and shouts to let me know she’d like to sit down and paint something else.

I also want to get our bar cart in bit more of some kind of order. I want to add something green too as this is all screaming, dare I say, too much burgundy? I’m not sure what plant though to get. If you have a favourite small house plant [that is hardy and won’t die too easily], please let me know! I’d love to have something potted on our bar cart, but I’m not entirely sure what. And it can’t be too fragile either because of curious toddler hands.

I can hear you all screaming “fake plant” at me as my only option.

Also featured – bar cart – black dining room hutch – Bill Murray print [which won’t be staying here for much longer. It looks strange here] – dining room One Room Challenge

#DarkRomanticLuxe

Secondhand baroque style picture frame

Every few weeks I check Kijiji for old picture frames in the hopes that someone posts something they don’t realise is actually amazing and I find something inappropriately underpriced. Like when I got lucky with our secondhand Victorian style mirror in our dining room or the baroque style mirror in the hallway. Last week I found my next piece, and while it was a bargain at just $10, it’s not made of plaster but some type of plastic and had been left in storage for some time and the front details [like the center of the flowers] were worn down and the gold had chipped off. I knew I could fix it so after a quick wash I touched it up with my gold Sharpie marker and despite it being a plastic frame, to me, I think it looks incredible and well worth the walk in 45C heat pushing a pram with one hand to pick it up.

I’m calling it a baroque style picture frame because I don’t know what else to call it. It doesn’t have a back, but I should be able to sort that out easily enough. I’m hoping to either fill it with another painting by Cora or try painting something myself. It’s unusually long for normal canvases so I’m going to have to buy a canvas board and cut it to size.

I think it looks so much better here than the previous iBride trays, which I of course will be putting somewhere else. And I finally set up our bar cart! Once this corner is looking a bit more organised, I’ll take better pictures.