my best garage sale finds yet...

Hi girls, well yesterday I ended up going to a couple of garage sales.  Lucky for me I did as I was contemplating (whilst still in bed) not to go and just laze a bit .. but something told me to get my butt out of bed.
So to get straight to it this is what I found...

a beautiful pink velvet french provincial lounge! It also came with 2 boudoir chairs that aren't shown here.

AND this...

 a beautifully carved mirror with columns roses and leaves. I've only shown the top section here as we had to put it in between some boxes to keep it upright. It is a huge mirror that is straight at the bottom so I can sit this flush on my fireplace surround.

I am so happy because now I can finish my lounge room. You may remember I had purchased a vintage lounge that needed reupholstering but that never happened and is still sitting in the shed. So I will be selling that one and using this one instead. 

Of course all my plans for a blue with gold accents are no longer.. as I will be replacing the blue with pink. I'm not really loving the timber trim so I might have to paint it.. still deciding what colour to use against the dusty pink.. I might start with the smaller chairs first to experiment.

It may take a little while as I need to empty my lounge room now as I had started using it as my sewing/store room for my ebay store...

take care, Maryann  

some more finds... for my frenchy lounge room..

I know one day my lounge room will be finished.... but for now I wanted to show you a few more things I came across for this room. Firstly was this coffee table .. I will be painting the base white.. I do already have a timber queen anne coffee table but for $5 I couldn't pass it up!

and I was so excited to come across these..

I have been on the look out for a bust so when I found two I was over the moon.. they also have touches of gold which will go with the look in this room. They are still as I found them so I need to clean them up a  bit. I couldn't pass up the brass and mother of pearl cross. I have never seen one like this.

 on another note.. all the trees on the side of my house have been chopped and I have a massive job ahead of me fixing up the gardens.. I have planted nearly 400 bulbs and just have a few more bluebells to go..

have a great day ladies... Maryann

lounge room curtains and painted doors...

Hi girls, well I finally put the curtains up in the lounge room. It took me a while as I couldn't decide whether to go for gold rods or white. In the end I went for the white. I decided to keep the gold to a minimal and just have touches of it here and there. I also painted the french doors that lead from my hallway to the lounge room.. come in and have a look...

my hallstand is the first thing you see when you come in

Fred still needs to put the handles on..

from the other end of the hallway

I also hung up a mirror on top of the fireplace but it looks too small for the space

the curtains are just off the floor.. I might put the hem down so they 'puddle' but having a thermal backing they may look a little stiff and not puddle so well..will have to think about that one..

my cute frenchy dressing table/desk has gone from this room, into my family room for a trial and now back into my lounge room. I'm not sure if I'll leave the mirror there but I really don't want to get rid of it as I just love it..

other side of the room .. I don't have curtains tie backs yet ..the fabric is just pushed in where my blind attachment thingy is.. but you get the idea..

this mirror will stay for now .. I do have another mirror.. the frame only that is..  I need to get a new mirror cut out for it and I'm hoping it won't cost me an arm and a leg as it's quite large. Next thing for this room is to get a lounge suite. I had planned on reupholstering a vintage one I came across awhile ago but I am more leaning to getting a new one with comfy cushions and a couple of french style armchairs. So I am on the hunt... thankfully it's sale time at the shops so fingers crossed I'll find something I like at a good price! 

take care, Maryann 

lounge room progress...part 2

So, thought I'd let you see whats going on in the lounge room. The flooring is done.. HALELUAH... Thank you Jesus!

I've started to put a few things back but I am still painting the french doors..

The fireplace will remain as is until I get round to putting some sort of insert in there or heater. Spring is just around the corner so there is no mad panic for that.

My theme is french provincial with cream, gold and touches of blue. The sheer fabric you see is actually chiffon, dress material. I purchased this a few years ago originally for the other part of my house but changed my mind on the blue and went with pink and green. I still love this fabric though and have held on to it just for this room. I will be using it on the 2 front windows and am thinking of putting a plain blue fabric curtain for the french doors so it's not all matching.

I don't know why but my spirits are lifted when I enter this room, it is so bright, light and airy and that is exactly how I want it to remain.  Even though it will be quite formal,  I still want it to be a usable space. Anyhow, here are some pics. Some things have been placed where they are just temporarily, but this will give you an idea of where I'm at.....

The club chair has been with me forever so will go into this room now in the corner. It used to be in my bedroom covered in teddies! For the main lounge I picked one up for a song.. that you can read all about here. It still needs to be reupholstered .. whether I do it myself or get a professional still remains to be seen. I am leaning more towards getting it done by a pro as the last thing I want is to stuff it up!!  
take care, Maryann

Flooring dilemma...

If you have been following my blog you will probably know that we recently added on a small extension to our home. It sits at the front of the house and is made up of a hallway in the middle( with front door) which now takes you into the already existing home. A 'formal' lounge sits on one side of the hall and a bedroom on the other. Just 3 rooms. I have been searching for timber flooring to match the rest of my house but as 'bad luck' would have it they no longer make it and to my disbelief can't find anything that matches. So I have hit a bump in the road and come to a standstill. Now I do have enough timber left over from before to do the hallway so my biggest dilemma is.. do I use another timber.. or go for carpet like hubby suggested. I really don't want carpet as I've been there done that and with kids and living on acres I know I will regret it later.

The other problem is that I already have another type of timber in the kid's bedrooms so this would make it a third type of timber in the house.  Admittedly the new timber will be in the lounge on top of which I would have a big rug anyway, and in my bedroom, so a lot of the furniture would cover the floor .. so I would love to ask you, if you have the time, what would you do?????? as this is driving me totally nuts!!

I cannot wait till the floor is done as I'm aiming to have my home finished inside by Christmas. I have been purchasing some pieces though along the way,  to put in lounge room.

I'm pretty sure you know which way I am going with this.

I have had these oil paintings of Paris for about 15 years now. Someone came knocking on my door at night selling his paintings and I really liked these. I like the one with the Eiffel Tower in the background the most but of course being a Libran I had to buy another one matching to have a pair. I've had these in storage for the last 10 years now. I'm so glad I kept them but I will be changing the frames though to more vintage ones.

Please excuse the junk in the background, at the moment my lounge room is one big mess! See the floor still waiting to be done.

 OK better go as I have dye in my hair and it's been in there for way longer than what it should be... God forbid someone should knock on my door... which did happen once.. oh... the... embarrassment..!!
take care.. Maryann

My lounge room chandelier..

Have you seen that movie "Castaway' with Tom Hanks.. the part where he's in the cave and he keeps flicking his torch on and then off, then on and then off..... well that was me yesterday with my lounge room chandelier! I just had to show you a pic of it!

 It's been in storage for the last 4 years but finally took it out a couple of weeks ago to work on it.. well all I did was give it a good clean by spraying it with hot soapy dishwashing liquid and then I hosed it down. Yes I had to use the hose it was that dirty and prayed it would still work when it was dry. Ofcourse I covered the globe bits with a plastic sleeves to keep the water out. She came so sparkly. I love it.
She did look like this...

I have to say I was a bit disappointed when I took her out of the box. I forgot what she looked like. I really thought she was 2 tier with a row of globes up top and bottom.. but they were all at the bottom... that's how good my memory is for you! Plus she was filthy, a bit of a let down really to how I had remembered her. I can't tell you how relieved I was when I saw the dirt just dripping off when I started spraying her and her shine was coming through. I just love it now!

I decided not to do the scrunchie thing over the chain as I think its just part of the look of the chandelier.  Have a great day, the electrician's back this morning to finish off a few things so better go get dressed! take care, Maryann