...because home doesn't happen overnight.

I bought a canvas art piece from our home’s estate sale before the house was officially ours. {The previous owner was a painter and there were dozens of pieces up for sale.} We had originally planned to hang the piece above our mantel in front of the flatscreen TV and install a remote pulley system that would raise / lower the artwork to reveal / hide the TV. But then we {and by we, I mean mostly me} decided that was a little much. Like we were trying too hard to do something cool and different when, in reality, the best option would be to keep it simple. Now the plan is to install tongue and groove planks horizontally above the center of the mantel all the way to the ceiling and frame out the TV. Not sure exactly when that will happen but that’s the plan. FYI – We discovered a minor leak around the chimney so we’re keeping the wall above the mantel open until we’re 100% positive it’s fixed.

What to do with the artwork? Well, it’s a pretty large piece and the size limits our options. We don’t have a ton of blank wall space but there was a corner of our bedroom just begging for some art.

br mirror 10

Do you remember me mentioning it in this post? I have always wanted that mirror to reflect large scale art on the opposite wall. The estate sale piece was the perfect size but, sadly, everything else about it wasn’t doing our bedroom any favors. I leaned the painting against the wall in our bedroom for months trying, really trying, to make it work but it never did. I started thinking about tweaking it to make it work for us.

HH’s sister is a curator for an art museum in Cincinnati and when we first bought the piece she was curious and checked up on the artist, our home’s previous owner. The estate sale had mentioned some of the artwork being shown at local galleries but, in fact, that turned out to be false information. Liars! Knowing that the piece hadn’t been part of a gallery at some point in time made me feel a little better about tweaking it but I was still feeling apprehensive and guilty about ruining another person’s work. Until, one day, I just couldn’t stand it any longer.

I tried to make the piece work. It didn’t. Now it was time to suck it up and do something about it.

canvasart 1

Clearly, I am going to hell for this DIY.

I paid $95 for the canvas art and now, looking back, obviously that was steep. Hindsight is 20/20. Shortly after closing on the house, we learned that all proceeds from the estate sale and the sale of the house were donated to Hospice. I feel good knowing our money went to a worthy cause but I wanted to keep this project’s cost to a minimum to offset the $95. Ouch.

I painted over the original art with Benjamin Moore white dove leftover from our trim and ceilings. I drew up a bunch of sketches, settled on one then taped it out on my blank slate. There was very little measuring and lots of eyeballing involved. I mixed together two different shades of Martha Stewart gold paint – golden pearl + metallic gold – because I’m a gold snob. Even with all of the dozens of gold paints out there, I have a hard time finding exactly what I’m looking for. The ratio was something like 1:2 – golden pearl : metallic gold. I already had the golden pearl and I bought a 2 oz. bottle of the metallic gold for less than $3 – the only out-of-pocket expense for this DIY. I applied the gold paint with a 2″ brush, keeping the brush fairly dry. I wanted there to be movement and imperfections within the taped off areas. I wanted it to look handmade.

After everything was dry, I hung it in a corner of our bedroom.

canvas art 2

Here’s where I say, “Guess how many triangles are in this picture!” Wouldn’t that be a fun game?! I’m sorry. I get excited about shapes.

I am beyond happy with the artwork. The large scale chevrons pick up on the smaller patterns of the kilim pillow and the saddle chair. {Look Lauren, it’s THE CHAIR!}

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And now the aforementioned mirror has something to reflect instead of just a blank wall. This is also why I chose to paint a symmetrical image. It’s palindromic art!

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The edges of the chevrons are crisp but I like that you can see brush strokes within them. It almost makes the chevrons look like they are being revealed from behind the white paint. I thought about painting the wood frame black but I really like the aged patina so I’m keeping it as is. Go figure.

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If it’s any consolation, the leaning art on the dresker is an untouched piece from the same estate sale / artist and I don’t plan on changing it one iota.

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If this is bad, I don’t wanna be good.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

fall wreath 2

I don’t do a ton of holiday decorations. I can’t justify spending time and money on something{s} that will only be displayed for thirty days and I don’t like how gussied up some decorations make my home look. {My kids think I’m boring.} I lean towards seasonal décor that is nature-inspired. It’s usually cheaper, can be displayed longer and better complements the rest of our home’s décor unlike, say, a giant inflatable yard jack-o’-lantern with a ghost rising up out of it. {My kids think those are the bomb.}

fall wreath 3

Wayfair sent me a plain vine wreath and asked me to autumn-fy it. There were no guidelines for the challenge but I made it a goal to spend absolutely NO MONEY on the DIY. Turning to nature, I clipped three hydrangea blooms from my yard leaving a 2″ – 3″ stem on the heads. I let the blooms dry out in an empty vase then tucked the stems snugly into the vine wreath. I also clipped a few leafy branches from a shrub in my yard to flank the hydrangea arrangement. I attached them to the wreath in the same way. I just slipped one end of each branch into the vine wreath until it was secure. I borrowed a simple ivory ribbon from my Christmas decorations to hang the wreath from a mirror {yes, it looks like a bald man’s silhouette} in our laundry nook. The ribbon is taped to the back of the mirror with heavy duty duck tape. Fancy.

fall wreath 4

I love the way it turned out. Especially since it took about five minutes to put together and hang. I like the organic feel and the reddened blooms of the hydrangea are the exact hues that come to mind when I think of fall. Sort of a deep purple-ish maroon. The best part about this DIY – aside from the no glue, no wires, no mess, no trips to the craft store, no money spent – is that the arrangement is totally removable. When I tire of it, I can replace the bloom + branches arrangement with something more wintry or festive.

I encourage you to skip the Halloween and Thanksgiving decoration aisles and turn to the outdoors for seasonal décor instead. Nature knows best!

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking