The Decoration

A what?

A Riddling Rack.

They were used in the early 1800's to aid in the process of making Champagne.

You can learn more about where they originated by clicking here and here.

I had no idea the history behind them when I asked my husband to build one for me. All I had was this photo...

And now I have this...

It is perfectly suited for this wall in our dining room!

I can see the bottles hanging on the wall when I walk out of my bedroom...

...and I love how it looks!

I have to admit, it made me nervous at first...

...as if the bottles could snap off at the neck!

My husband built it and I gave it the aged finish.

I am extremely happy with how it turned out!

You can find original versions of these online for upwards of $650.00 plus tax and shipping! It would be awesome to be able to say that our Riddling Rack was imported from a vineyard in France! However, I don't know about you, but we certainly don't have the ability nor the desire to put nearly a grand down on something like this. And even though ours doesn't come with a history or the stamp from a French Winery, I think ours looks just as good as the one in the inspiration photo!

We fully intend on making more of these and selling them so that others can have the look for less in their own homes!
If you are interested, please contact me and I will give you the details!

You can see other versions of Riddling Racks at:

Love of Wine Store

Bird & Home

Vintage at Heart

I have to give my husband a big pat on the back for this one! It was a monotonous job and he was covered head to toe in sawdust! To get the look just right it took many, many hours of work.

But he hung in there and now has a beautiful Riddling rack to show for all his hard work!

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We have now added our Riddling Racks to our Etsy shop!

If you are interested, please check it out to get all of the details.

Click here

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Be sure to link up to Donna's Saturday Nite Special linky party over at Funky Junk Interiors! And link up with a project of your own!

I still have "Green" on the brain.
Yes, I realize St. Patrick's Day is behind us, but the past two days have flown by and I'm playing catch-up!

Which leads me to...

The need for some green art in the small main bathroom across from our kitchen. And I don't mean "green" as in earth-friendly (although, I think this would count as that because I did re-use what we already had!), but "green" as in, the color!

This particular bathroom in our house is pretty small.
It has a specific function, without any frills.
I have done what I can to make it nice and inviting for the few moments that anyone may spend in there.

We added a frame around the mirror, exactly like the one in the living room and that made a HUGE difference! I painted the walls a warm, medium brown color with just a hint of pink in it. You'll see more signature 90's mauve in this bathroom (just like the tiles in the hall and the living room fireplace)! In this case, we can't cover it up, so I had to find a way to make it all cohesive. When we moved in, the walls were a very light "packing paper grey" color which made all of the pink in this bathroom scream "hello!" The new paint color added some much needed drama to the space and took the focus off all of the pink.

But, back to the green.

I have this vase of greenery sitting next to the sink and I've always loved how it pops against all of the neutral colors that surround you in this space.

But I needed to stretch that color through to the opposite wall to relate the two sides of the space.

I have recently taken a liking to botanical art.
Specifically the ferns.

I looked at a few stores and found.....nothing!
Absolutely nothing!
Which seemed odd to me because I know that not too long ago you could find framed fern art everywhere. Obviously, I missed the boat on that one!

Hmmm.....what to do?

I was definitely becoming impatient on this one. I knew what I wanted for the space and I wanted it now.

I recently brought this Boston Fern into our home and I love it!

The wheels started turning....

Conveniently, there was an unwanted cabinet door that my husband had in the garage. He had made it back when he built the bookcase for our bedroom, but cast it off because it didn't turn out quite how he had wanted.

As far as I was concerned, it was the perfect canvas!

I started by painting the inset a Spring Green...

I cut a few of my fern leaves and laid them out how I wanted them to look.

I took the whole thing out into the garage, just as it had sat on my kitchen table, and gently spray painted it glossy white hoping that enough definition would come through and you would be able to see the individual leaves.

It turned out.....ok.
Definitely not like what I had imagined in my head.
Time to modify the plan.

I grabbed a different shade of green craft paint and a small paintbrush...

I watered the green paint way down (David Bromstad style!) and started to paint in the individual leaves...

I was happily surprised that it actually worked!

Moving onto the frame.

I taped off the picture from the frame and started with a dark brown semi-gloss paint.

Then I wiped on a layer of matte black paint.

The goal was definitely to make it look old.
Not like it was the product of an idea I had 10 minutes ago!

Once it was dry, I took it into the garage, gave it a quick sand with the palm sander, sprayed a good coat of matte polyurethane on it and called it a day!

Does it look professional?
Probably not...

Am I at all worried about that?
Definitely not!

It does for the space exactly what I had set out to achieve!
And I made it myself!
With stuff that we already had!
And that feels good!

I'll post pics of the bathroom soon!

The other day, while browsing one of my favorite design blogs, I came across a post and had a definite "Why didn't I think of that?" moment! I think you may possibly feel the same. Here is their post and this is my take on it...

Many months ago I had purchased this Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Spring Cleaning Kit at my local grocery store. The scent: Rhubarb. I love rhubarb and I also love the way Mrs. Meyers' products capture the true fragrance. I expected to use it right a way, but I decided that I should probably use up my other cleaning products before opening more bottles. Time passed and this little box got pushed to the corner of the laundry room shelf.

So, while reading Sherry and John's post on their blog, This Young House, it occurred to me that I had everything I needed to create my own aroma diffuser. A glass vase, wooden skewers from the grocery store and a pretty, scented liqiud. It was their idea to use the Mrs. Meyer's All Purpose Cleaner. A lightbulb turned on and I remembered that I had some waiting for me in the corner of my laundry room! Score! I had everything I needed. Cost: FREE!

I've had my brand new (home made!) aroma diffuser sitting on the mantle in our living room for a few days now and I can honestly say that the scent fills the room. Here's what I really love about it: I've had aroma diffusers before that use essential oils to provide the fragrance. I have never appreciated the clean-up from the oil since drips can happen when you turn the sticks over (to refresh the scent). I have learned that the oily residue can leave spots on some surfaces if not cleaned up immediately. With the Mrs. Meyer's All Purpose Cleaner it's a breeze to wipe up. It's just soap. Count it as "cleaning"!

I was thrilled that I already had everything that I needed right here at home. But, even if I hadn't, it would not have cost much to purchase these items. Ten dollars, maybe? Of course, this all depends on how extravagant you get with your vase! But $10 is far better than the alternative: spending $25 or more to buy one at the store and hoping that you love the scent once you get it home and put up on display.

So, much thanks to John and Sherry for sharing their idea!
Take it from me, it was easy! Try it out! You won't be disappointed!