Redo, Repurpose, and Restore

My husband and I like to redecorate. We always have some kind of project going on, sometimes big, sometimes small. We do not like to spend a lot of money doing it. We actually don't have a lot of money, but, if we did we would not want to spend it decorating.

One thing we enjoy is taking something we have, making changes to use it in a new setting. The first piece of furniture we bought was a small desk with one drawer we found for $2.50 at a garage sale. We painted it burnt orange (hey, it was the 70's) and used it for a side table in our living room. I do not even know how many colors that desk has been; red, white, I think it was green for a time, and my favorite, tourqoise with pink details for Melody's little girl room. Oh, yeh, then I faux finished it dark red with gold. Now, our daughter Libby has it in her garage stripping layers of paint off to paint it for her daughters room.

The first NEW thing we ever bought was a set of lamps for our living room. The apartment we were in did not have an overhead light in the living room, so after several months, when we got an income tax refund, we bought lamps. Simple, ginger jar style glass lamps in a nice shade of yellow. They were beautiful. During our early years of moving around a lot, I would not let anyone else carry my lamps. I took them with me in my car to the new place. After many years of use, they were out of style and did not match our new decor. It was the 80's and we painted them country blue, to go with our blue and peach living room. The next decade, we painted them tourqoise, then green. They were in a guest room, then moved to the garage. Last night, Les brought one in and painted it to go with our current living room. We then made a new shade for it from fabric that matches the shears on the living room windows. Not only did we get a "new" lamp, we get to continue using an item that we bought as newlyweds. That is special.

Les is pretty creative. When he painted the living room and hall recently, he decided to spruce up the ugly air intake registers and the light switch covers with metallic bronze paint. They turned out great, from eyesores to added interest. (Those pictures were right side up before I uploaded them, sheesh.)

My sister recently gave me a couple of special items also, a table that is over 100 years old that belonged to my grandmother, and a picture that was my mothers, that hung over the couch for many years when I was a child. Les put it in a new frame, and it looks terrific. I am using both of those now.( OMG why are the pictures turning sideways??? Sorry, but just tilt your head and you can see them.)

I enjoy looking around my house to see things that have great memories, but have a new look.