Another Day, Another Plan...

This is one of my most recent-ish finds. It's an antique mantel I bought a couple months ago, from this ginormous antique store , which is actually an old anglican church. It's a beautiful spot, and is one of my favorite places to go hunting, because it's the kind of place where you have to dig. It's brimming with antiques, and you could spend hours and hours there (and I have) and still not see everything. It's kind of like Disneyland!

So I had this plan in my head. I wanted to strip it down, and paint it a sort of cloud white, and put it in our living room. I was SO looking forward to doing it all myself rather than just going out and buying one.

So I started stripping it, and very quickly discovered that there are exactly SEVEN layers of paint on this baby! Which wouldn't be so terrible, except that between layers four and five, there is a lovely layer of something that has the about the same texture and strength as concrete. Let's just call it stucco. And turns out that doesn't come off with paint stripper.

To make matters both better and worse, I tried chipping away at the evil stucco, and after 1 hour and 6 blisters, I discovered (on an area about the size of a quarter) that the original wood is beautiful, which makes the fact that I may never see it all the worse. So short of taking the mantel to a professional, I'm now not really sure what to do with it.

Now. Along with the mantel, my plan included finding some antique shutters, painting 'em a nice deep barn red, and putting them on top of the mantel. Well, last week, I found the shutters. (on a flea market on my Little Island! I'm starting like this place more and more...) They were super ugly, black and covered with duct tape residue, but I got the pair of them for 5 dollars so I was pretty pumped! Obviously, my original plan for them is on hold until I figure out what will become of my not-quite-beautiful mantel, so I found a new color and a new place for them for now! Here they are on either side of my dining room window...aren't they pretty?!

One of the blogs I follow has a quote I love in regards to home decorating:

"It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful." I love it. My home is so not perfect...and hopefully never will be. But I think it's beautiful. And after all, I'm the one who has to live in it :)