updated fan.

The guest room had this dated fan 

that made me cringe every time I walked in the room.

I disassembled it, including taking the gold parts off the blades,

which left me with this stuff still attached.

I wanted the gold gone, so I wrapped everything all up nicely,

and sprayed it black.

I also sprayed the gold attachments to the blades before reassembling.

Home Depot had a decent globe that helped too.

Makes a huge difference!

curtains and complete.

The final touch for the office was to hang curtains.

I bought 8ft of this sweet graphic fabric,

tried Stich Witchery for the first time,

and hung them up.

The office is complete!

Let's take a look at some before & afters.

This room contains a few different feels:

a bit of family history,

vibrant colors and patterns,

a bit of Africa,

traditional antique furniture, 

a bit of personal history.

I think *hope* it all melds nicely.

pantry door shelves.

This vertical-pantry-turned-horizontal-storage-shelf

had second contribution to make to the office.

Its doors.

I removed them,

sanded them,

re-stained them,

 shortened one of them,
hung them,

and filled them.

This room just keeps getting better.

grandma francisco.

Barbara Francisco, my maternal grandmother,

was the ultimate repurposer.

She used to say,

"Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Or do without."

If the internet was around in her day,

her DIY blog would have been super.

These are the spools of thread

she used for punch embroidery.

In the box, I found a handwriten list of country songs.

She and my grandpa Jack were line dance instructors,

and this may have been a playlist for one of their classes.

I'm glad to have some of my grandparent's

values and personality traits displayed in our home.

 

ghana lessons.

My first trip to Africa was in 2003.

It was during that time I learned to adore and admire

the people, the languages, the cultures, the ways of life.

This painting was acquired there,

and it reminds me so much of what I love about Ghana:

color, hard work, patterns, family, 

pure beauty, natural resources, modesty.

Gye Nyame = Except God

This is the name of a very common Ghanaian symbol that means 

'except God is present, noting is possible.'

I had it silk screened on a shirt while I was there:

I needed a way to feature these in my home.

My dear friend, Mary, gave us these great bamboo 

place mats 5 years ago for our wedding.

They are still used on a daily basis,

which is why some of them are fraying at the ends.

I fixed one of them right up

and used it as a backing for my beloved painting.

I also purchased a large embroidery hoop

and used it to frame my Gye Nyame.

Now I can be reminded of lessons learned 

while working in my office.

cork tiles.

I bought these cool cork tiles several years ago

without really knowing what I was going to use them for.

 

They came to my mind as I've been working on the office.

So, I went to my scrap wood pile in the garage,

pieced together a few planks,

played with a few designs,

made some alterations,

and hung it on the wall!

It's kind of quirky,

but I'm happy with it.

Now I have a place to pin some of 

my decoration inspiration,

and it cost me $0 because I already had everything!

cutting in.

The original walls in our 1959 house are pretty rough.

As a result, painter's tape doesn't always adhere to the bumpy surfaces,

so the cutting in process in the guest room didn't turn out so great:

I have a lot of touch-ups to do in there.

When the time came to paint the office,

I took the plunge and tried to cut in with no tape - yikes.

I learned that my hand is pretty steady;

I'm done with painter's tape.

Before the office was painted,

a whole bunch of junk was piled all over everywhere:

After a making this, the office is looking pretty darn good.

I still have plenty to do in there,

but it's coming along.