Wall Decor Transformation

Boy is it good to be home!  Long story short our vacation this year was riddled with complications, not exactly the calm and relaxing week we had hoped for.  Because I like to keep my blog my happy place, I will not bombard you with all the whiny details of a less then desirable week.  I have chosen instead to share a few highlights from our trip.  One of the big highlights from our trip was getting to shop at all of my favorite outlets and stores in the Garden City and Myrtle Beach area!  Unfortunately and fortunately (yes I meant to say that) I had plenty of shopping time due to several overcast and rainy days!


One of my favorite stores in Garden City is called Tomlinsons Warehouse.   While it is not your typical warehouse size (it's smaller) it is packed with bargains of all sorts, in clothing, jewelry and accessories, home decor, art, housewares, bedding, and even team paraphernalia.  We Carolinian's love our Gamecocks!   Woot-woot!  Any who, I love, love, love this store.  I actually found many goodies from two visits there last week but today I am only showing you one such beautiful find!


Why?  Because this post is all about the final touch to a project I have been working on since May.  I have been working on transforming a wall vignette in my dining room.  It took this past week to get the final pieces to complete the look I was going for.  Can you guess what those pieces are?


Let me start from the beginning, this is how my wall looked before I started.  I really wish I had also gotten a photo a little further back so you could see the bigger picture but this will have to do for now.

Without seeing the rest of the room you wouldn't know how much this frame stuck out like a sore thumb.  I absolutely adore this print I purchased from one of our local South Carolina artists.  I had this framed when we lived in our old house to go in our formal living room.  It is a very nice quality mahogany frame that I happily paid dearly for!  It originally also had a deep rose colored mat that was too dark for this room.   I  painted the mat several years back because matting is sooo expensive to replace in a custom size.  Well even that did not satisfy me and I still felt like it wasn't quite right, so I finally decided it was the frame.

Then I decided if I was going to change the frame out I would do it as inexpensively as possible.  I kept my tape measure handy and finally came across this picture above in one of our local thrift stores.  Do your remember me telling you about this bargain?  You can read all about it here if you want, but basically I only paid $5.00 for this beautiful frame.

I had to do some slight adjusting to my matting again, as it was off even though the frames were of equal size.  I didn't quite take into account the "width" of the frames being different..lesson learned.  My original matting was a double mat.  After removing the top mat it was a better fit but had some fading and one small spot where the sticky from the top mat peeled away some of the bottom mat.

But I was determined not to let this stop me so I decided to try painting the mat again.  I used a sponge technique because it compliments a few of the other prints I have in this room.  You could also use a mini roller for a smooth finish if you want to change out the color entirely.  As you can see I still had a few more adjustments to make on each side of the mat that had be cut off.  Finally it was done and ready to be rehung!

 This photo shows you a few of the other frames that are in this room.  My gold framed mirror above the marble table and the two silver toned frames on the other prints in the room.  I am much more satisfied with this new gold frame.  I think it is much lighter and even more complimentary to the print itself.

Don't you just love it?  I certainly do!

I left my candle sconces in place but made a few more adjustments.

 Like adding these small plates I had on the wall on the other side of room.  They are a match to the tin plate I have of this pattern that sits on the sideboard.  I have shown you that before too, here.

Then I put this beautiful decorative plate inherited from my inlaws centered right above the picture.  This plate is what actually inspired me to repaint my dining room from red to the color it presently is now.  However, I was not quite finished.  I was still needing a little bit more to my vignette.  I have been keeping my eyes open since May for just the right finishing pieces.  You would have thought it would have been easy to find what I was looking for but I just couldn't quite put my eyes on it until this past week.  What have I been looking for you ask?  Well, more plates of course!  Not any old plates would do, I wanted plates that really spoke to me, and they had to be a great match too of course.  So...ta daa...here they are!!!

I just fell in love with these Vera Bradley plates immediately the minute I saw them. I think they are just the right color combinations for this room too! I had been looking for something that had both the teal blue and a darker blue with a bit of white.  I just love the paisley design on them too!

Finally, the look I was after for this wall! 

I am joining the following parties today.  Be sure and stop by the following links for more wonderful similar posts!  You won't be disappointed!

http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ for Met Monday

http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/ for Blue Monday

http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/ for Before and After party.

Thanks for stopping by today, please leave a comment if you do.  Hope you enjoyed your visit!

Mary