I had bought a couple of new round mirrors (in a prior post I'd mentioned some new purchases, but didn't go into specifics then), intending to use them for a new look in the living room later this year once I could work out how it would look on paper so I wouldn't be up and down my rickety old ladder and making a million holes in the wall. I felt that the basketweave sculpture was just sort of hanging out there in space and needed something to tie it down more to where mortals live. Anyway, I ended up going a somewhat different route from the "framed picture (or map) leaning on mantle" that replaced my first ever attempt at a Spring Mantle, and I ended up using one of the new mirrors.
I like the new mirror's size and frame, but the color, which had been advertised as an "antique gold" is grotesquely ugly! I absolutely adore the other somewhat larger mirror I also purchased but it will not fit in the current configuration and I'm saving it to use later -- when I can get down on paper these wispy ideas that keep floating around my brain. So, here is the latest incarnation of my mantle, post wipe-out:
The now empty frame that used to hold my map of medieval England is propped back up on the mantle (behind the stops that did not fail me!). I added the set of three flameless candles that I'd been using in my bedroom (purchased for Christmas 2011), pulled out some old copper and brass roses that were purchased years ago at the Renaissance Faire in Bristol, Wisconsin, and added the old and smallish Home Interiors brass candlabra that had been sitting on the coffee table, the candles now burned down to mere shadows of their former 10 inch height. Voila! The new mirror is inside the "frame." I'm sure I've seen this or similar ideas in magazines and online, but it's a first for moi. Not sure I like it. I may remove the candlabra, but for now, I'm suffering from decoratoritis and need a break!
There is supposed to be an invisible "line" that can roughly be drawn through most of the decorating elements on the fireplace wall. Yep, sacred geometry. Still working on that...
It's hard to see the awful sickly "gold" color of the frame on the new mirror from this photo (honestly, it's sort of like throw-up color), and I also did some alteration to the color by attacking said frame with a touch-up marker in a medium brown in a mad frenzy this morning. I didn't stop until the largest "middle" section of the mirror frame was totally browned out. Streaky but - well, let's just say I'm fast developing a new-found appreciation for the term "shabby chic." Since it's up on the wall and people can't get too close to the frame to inspect it carefully, my attempt to disguise the awful color will "do" for now. This mirror is a very good candidate for the "rope mirror" project I've been researching. I just have to get me some rope...
So, you see I've got this sort of circle thing going on. Well, circles and rectangles, LOL! And there's actually quite a large square on the wall too, if you can just fill in the dashed lines I see inside my head. You know, the squared circle -- an ancient symbol of the universe. Think Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man...
So, if you didn't know before, now you absolutely know for sure I'm totally nutsoid.
Yeah, that's the other mirror I purchased on the floor to the right of the fireplace; also, you can see part of an old lampshade I'd pulled out last week that's still sitting in the front room -- I was thinking about trying my hand at making a bookpage lampshade by decoupage. You can also see the rabbit ears for the t.v. (I do not have cable or satellite t.v., I use good enough for cheap old me over-the-air commercial t.v. and need rabbit ears to pull in the digital signal) and the cords from the t.v. and the little lamp are dangling over the left side of the mantle. And the unfinished paint job on the living room walls (going on 21 years now...)
Even if I knew how to touch up my photographs to make them light, bright, crisp and clear and erase all these glaring bits of "ugly" I wouldn't, because that's just not me and it's not real. It's not the way I live. This is what my front room actually looks like. I love looking at all the pretty perfect rooms in blogland designed to make us all think everything is perfect but perhaps we're just, well, you know, falling a wee bit short. Talk about insidious! But that's not real life, not unless you have staff that can clean up constantly and you actually do have invisible cords or invisible outlets everywhere! So, here I am here as living proof of everyday reality. Bwwwaaahhhhaaaaaaa (she evilly laughed)!
P.S. I'm posting this (if I can figure out how to do it) at Kristen's Creations "Share Your Creations" Party #42.
No comments:
Post a Comment