Sadly my apartment designing is dwindling. As usual funds are short and so is our time here, so there does not seem to be much point to fixing up the place. However, as I come across inexpensive finds and inspirational art I do my best to put it to use. I found a white mirror not too long ago at TK Maxx for about 24 euro. I had been keeping my eye out for just such a mirror; round, slightly ornate, inexpensive and best of all light weight!
Only problem was the color, or lack of it. Nothing wrong with a white mirror, or even white on white (walls) but I was after more contrast. Had painting the walls been an option I may have chosen to leave the mirror white and go dark on the walls. Something more like this:
or this
or this
As a renter, with 15 foot ceilings no less, painting the walls was not an option. So as you may have guessed I prepped the mirror for painting instead. This is the only picture I snapped of it before taking it from white to bright!
A light sanding and two coats of a deep peacock-y turquoise and it was ready for hanging above the somewhat useless shelf that was already in place when we moved in. I say useless because it's only about 6 inches wide. Just perfect to collect junk mail, loose change and keys, or this beauty that was here when we moved in
We quickly hid it away along with several other odds and ends we were not so keen on. You can read more on stashing the "trash" in this post.
Happy with the mirror, but still put off by the somewhat empty shelf and the desire to keep it free of junk I picked up a small rectangular canvas and a lot of inspiration from one of my favorite blogs http://madebygirl.blogspot.com/. I am slightly ashamed to admit I imitated her style, but imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, right?!
Jen Ramos of Made By Girl runs a shop called Coco and Hearts where she sells her original artwork. Recently she's been selling out of these 8x10 inch paintings.
Hooray for her! But at $95 a pop it makes me crazy that I didn't think of it. Hopefully she never reads this, but if she did, she might just agree that almost anyone could do what she does. Not to say that she is not a talented artist, but she happens to have an amazing blog following and a knack for marketing herself; which is something I need to work on when it comes to my own art, but that's a post for another day!
At any rate, I used her fun bright paintings as inspiration for one of my own just perfect for my little entry way shelf! I think it turned out cute. A little bright, but that's OK. It makes up for the seemingly constant grey Irish weather outside my window.
A happy rainbow without the rain!
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