Wednesday, October 24, 2012

"It's a wall chandelier"


It had been a while since I did anything creative around the house.  I felt that after becoming addicted to Pinterest, most of the stuff I did around the house were knock-off’s of someone else’s creative idea.  It wasn't always that bad, but I felt like I was losing being original when it came to creative décor around the house. 

So I shut off Pinterest for a few days (I know, the horror, right? I’m so addicted to that website!) and decided to look around our house and decide what I felt we needed. 

I didn’t have to go far to look for a lonely wall!  Right in our living room on the right side of one of our windows as a big ol’ empty space!  It was screaming for something to make it look alive.  Now that I had the space, I just needed an idea.  That’s where Dollar Tree comes in.

Last month, they opened a new Dollar Tree right near our house.  The one that I usually shopped at was about half hour away and this one is only about 20 minutes away.  Plus, I don’t have to take an annoying jug handle to get to it.  Here in Jersey if you wanna go somewhere that’s on the opposite side of the road, you need to take a jug handle.  Sometimes I love them, like when I’m lost and need to turn around (which happens often).  But other times I feel like it’s a waste of gas since you need to pass your destination, turn around in the jug handle, then re-trace your steps the other way to get to  your destination.  I think this is why our gas prices are lower since we have to do a little bit more driving in jug handles to get to our destination.

Anyhooo, back to the new Dollar Tree, I checked it out a few days after it opened and found these lovelies.


They are packaged in groups of three and are called “snowflakes.”  I bought four packages of them because I thought they would be cool to make some kind of light fixture out of for the spare room...for whenever we get to turn it into a nursery…if it’s a nursery for a girl.  I figured if the nursery is for a boy then I’ll find another use for these “snowflakes.” 

While I was still allowing myself to troll Pinterest, I found this inspiration room. 

Via here

This picture made me think of doing something like this in our dining room. It doesn't have any regular windows and I figured it would make the room look a little bigger with these mirrors.  I wasn't totally sold on the idea yet, so I figured I’d let it bounce around in my brain for a bit.

While that picture was bouncing around my brain during my Pinterest dry spell, so was the reminder that I had those “snowflakes.”  I got to thinking that if I put the snowflakes in front of a mirror, they might look pretty cool.  Aaaaannnnndddd, it was an idea that came from my own brain! Not a knock off from! Which means, that I can allow myself to drool over Pinterest again!  That makes me Pinterest happy.

So I drove to my closer-to-me-by-10-minutes-Dollar-Tree to get more snowflakes and look for some mirrors.  I’m glad I went when I did since there were only two packages of those snowflakes left. They had others, but they were blue and I wasn’t digging the blue color.  I then went in search of a mirror.  I was hoping to find a big mirror like 8X10, you know, one that you would put candles on or something, but they had nothing like that.  I walked around the frame section and found these bad boys.

Since they were an odd size, I picked up three being sure how big I wanted this chandelier reflection wall piece. When I got home, I cut down some wood from those old shelves I have from this project (bathroom shelf).  In my head I figured two of the mirror stacked on top of each other was about the size I wanted.  I added a few inches to my wood so I could add something to the top to hang the snowflakes, which I’m now calling chandelier pieces, from.

I had some of this paint left over from other projects.  I’m in love with this paint. I love the color and the way it covers. It doesn’t hurt that it’s made by Martha Stewart! I adore her…well, except for the whole insider trading thing.  Just stick to crafting, Martha!!


I added the paint to the top and bottom of my wood and the sides then glued the mirrors onto it. 


 Since I had to take the mirrors out of the frames they were in, I figured I could cut them down so I’d have the longer pieces to attach to the top of my wood. 


I sawed them down so I had four long pieces from the mirror frames that I could work with.


 I then glued the four pieces together and painted them silver as well.





After the frame  pieces dried I added these eye hooks to the underside in order to have something to attach my chandelier pieces to.



After the eye hooks were attached I glued the frame pieces that were attached to each other to the piece of wood.  Then I just played around with the length of string for my chandelier pieces and tied them on.


Here’s the finished piece.  Mr. Pal said it looks like a chandelier for a wall.  I think that description fits, so I’ll stick with that.


It’s really hard to get a picture of something with a mirror without getting yourself in the shot.  I’m very thankful for 10-second timer! I was able to set it and duck down so my reflection wasn’t in the mirror.


It finally adds a little something to the blank wall.  Plus, it was all my idea, which makes me very happy.


I do feel that it’s a bit small for the wall and was thinking of adding something around it, but for now I just want to live with it and see if it grows on me.


I’m just happy to get back into doing creative stuff without the assistance of Pinterest.  Now if you excuse me, I need to see what’s new on Pinterest!! haha

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