Wednesday, June 25, 2014

FLUFFING UP THE ENTRYWAY AND ART THAT SYMBOLIZES OUR FAMILY

Hello everyone.

How goes the middle of the week?  It seems to pass so fast and I look at my to do sheet and still it’s got a bunch of stuff not crossed off!  I keep telling myself it’s a journey, not a race.

Front entrance!  Does that fill you with horror?  School bags, piles of shoes, mud, dog hair. It’s all there, when really what you want is a serene welcome, something stylish, yet practical.  And of course for the family members to listen to your request that they put THEIR shoes in the basket you so stylishly provided!!!

The other day I put up a post of how I transformed that flea market gold picture frame. Now all I need was a place to hang it.



What better place than the entryway into our home. A place that tells whoever enters our home that we are a family and that family means everything, a motto I try to live by every day.

So with this in mind I cleared off my entry table.  This is an old Singer sewing table, without the wooden top.  Years ago The Hubby snared a large slab of marble and this has become the top of our sewing table.



The worse thing about the entry way is that the builder stuck the light switch, DVS thingy and security thingy, all on the same small wall. Why couldn’t he have put it on the wall the door opens to, or at least around the corner, I don’t know?  I’m sure it must have been a man who wasn’t thinking about where to hang pictures and art etc.

So the first thing I need to do is try and hide those darn switches.  This is the brass bullet case I used in that winter collage here.  It has some dry branches and the straw flowers in that I brought in Russia years ago.  They are a tad worse for wear now, but have very sentimental memories and I can’t throw them out.

I think it hides the switch plates reasonably well.  I have seen people hide these offending items by hanging an art piece over them, built out with a small wooden backing frame, but that to me was too much work. I’m all for ease.




Then to give a little bit more height, I put in an old wooden box that is made up of different kinds of wood and atop it is a slightly battered clay man which was purchased another lifetime ago in Rio de Janeiro.  Maybe it’s ironic since the Soccer World Cup is on there are the moment.




Next came the lovely golden frame and it’s new art piece.  A perfect announcement to visitors about our home’s motto.


Fluff and design is all very well, but practicality has to have its place too.  Keys, locks, garage openers all get put dumped here!  So these are now corralled on a lovely 1950s Carltonware plate.  I’m a huge collector of Carltonware, and this was a piece that was in storage for lack of room to display it. (Note to self, don’t buy any more Carltonware!)


So this is the finished table.  Not cluttered, but hopefully its display of memory pieces tells a little story about the family who live here.





What vignettes have you created that tell your family’s story?


Happy days everyone.


Jane
PS  just as an aside, here's a peak at what is in my picture hanging box.  I used to use hooks all the time but find I prefer using the 3M Command velcro strips now, because they don't leave a mark, nor do they put holes in the wall. There's a tape measure, thumb tacks, isopropryl alcohol which is used before you stick the Command stickers on the wall, a bag full of plate hangers - gotta put that Carltonware somewhere. The little box of picture hooks and nails i've had for years.  I really like having all this in one place, it's my little slice of organization.



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