Up cycle

What I have always considered Shabby chic is now called up cycle..Who knew?

When I was in high school my mother took me to Dania and let me pick a few pieces for my room. I was immediately drawn to the crisp freshness of white. The shade made me feel happy and everything around me feel brighter.When John and I bought our home I just continued to like the style. But as all things do, it evolved, from things at furniture stores to pieces I found on the corner, painted and found uniqueness in. We once went to a local furniture store and picked out a lovely table, dark cherry wood, cream padded chairs, quite eloquent. I picked it because that's what I thought grown ups had. My grandmother had a very similar taste, she had a beautiful dark cherry table that always had a beautiful centerpiece adorning the middle, she always let me know how much she loved that furniture, how hard she had worked and saved literal pennies to purchase these comforts. I followed suit, but was quickly displeased. It was a blessing to be able to go buy a new table and I should have been happier, but seeing as though it wasn't my style I quickly wanted to change it. 

After much careful negotiation with my sweet husband I talked him into letting me buy a $40 table off craigslist and painting it white with a crackle finish. That big, sturdy cherry table still sits out back in my garage just waiting for me to sell it to some family who will have a perfect fit for it in their dining room. In my dinning room sits a shabby chic table that was someones cast off. With pencil lead sitting in its cracks from years of homework being written on it, paint from past art projects being created by children and stains from markers.

Just my style!

 I found this frame in my neighbors garage, she had picked it up because she couldn't bare to think of it going to the dump. I rescued it. It was originally a frame that framed plastic ceiling lights in a kitchen. I use it as a giant frame on my dining room wall, it holds 16 x 20 prints I had developed at costco for $10.

 Vintage luggage from a thrift shop for an end table, that was the idea, but I can't keep anything on it because the kids love to climb up it and sit on top to watch out the window. I keep seasonal glass ware all wrapped in newspaper in the suitcases for extra storage.

 Paige gave me one of the windows from her old house. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I went looking for glass door knobs to have John make it into a coat hanger for by the front door. When Shilo makes an art project in school we hang it up on the glass. 

 For super Saturday Sarah came and taught people how to make a menu board out of a picture frame. Once again, I knew exactly what I wanted mine to look like! So I went to hobby lobby, picked up a 12 x12 shadow box, a  piece of paper that looked like an old fence with chippy paint and created a menu board. And can I just tell you how much of a life saver this thing has been!? Saturday or Sunday I come up with a menu, usually asking each family member for one idea, making me only needing to come up with two ideas on my own. I flip though Shannons cook book, Our best bites, and of course, Pioneer woman, head to the grocery store Monday for what we need and tada! Dinner! No more 4pm thoughts about what to make and that I didn't defrost anything... Making for a very happy mom.

 Lakeside rummage sale always holds some great treasures to be found. Classroom size cork board holds all the random pictures people give me of my kids. Or pictures my kids have made, strange sized prints or pictures  that just aren't ever going to go in a frame but I want to enjoy. Spray painted white of course. Hangs in the mudroom.

 Old pie cabinet is now used for Cd storage in the corner of my dining room. One of my favorite finds. EVER. 

 Jordan's friend Ben had 10 sets of these powder coated gym lockers in his garage waiting to be taken away! For free! The red actually works out absolutely  perfectly with all the white in the house! I had John haul 2 sets of these beautiful lockers to our house, this set with tags made to tell True what locker holds which of his toys sits in the corner of his room.

 This was originally a small closet door, I painted it white with an inset of chalk board paint  that I leave inspirational thoughts on. It hangs on the wall in a bathroom with silver hooks to hold damp towels. Another one of my favorites, it turned out just the way I had hoped.

 My friend Kelly made me this tin ceiling tile fitted with a mirror for a birthday one year.

It has a special place  in our living room flanked by two old parlor doors.

My father in law gave me an airline cart one year for my birthday! {He always gives me cool junk that we both like!} It was gray, then I painted it white, left it outside and forgot about it, and this is what I got. At first I was bummed that I let it get all rusty, but then I started to think that I actually liked it. I like things to be individual, uniquely mine. I don't want our home to look like a museum, hotel or the same as what  somebody else has in their home. I never want some one to come in and say " this looks just like a show room or magazine,"or "I have that same thing!" I want it to feel comfortable, feel welcoming & like my children live here. I love that when all the teenagers hang out here they feel comfortable enough to get a glass & snack or unload their back packs on to the table to work on homework. 

Maybe I will have inspired you to take something that once had a certain purpose and give it a new home with a whole new function, if so, I say happy up cycling!