Lantern Turned Terrarium

I love TJ Maxx!  Are you a Maxxinista’s too?  I love to just stop in and browse, I find great inspiration there for home décor and fashion and sometimes I am lucky enough to find a great deal!  My local store has a really great merchandiser because the store always looks neat and is displayed nicely. 
Anyway…TJ Maxx certainly did not pay me to write this, I’m just a huge fan.  I was there Friday browsing and found this great little lantern for $20.

As soon as I saw this lantern I knew that I wanted to fill it with plants.  They had several shapes and sizes but this one was just perfect.  I loved the weathered wood and simplicity.  I found some small plants at Lowes Home Improvement.  I had two small pots that I had spray painted white a while back.  I simply sanded them a bit just to distress.

I also had some moss from the craft store and wanted to use that as filler in the bottom around the pots.

I simply repotted the plants and added them to the lantern.  It is simply charming!  Now is the perfect time to find tiny plants thanks to the popularity of fairy gardening.




I had so much fun with this I redecorated my little entry table…

Twice…

It’s nice to have a new item to adore every now and then.  Where do you find inspiration?

April

A Twenty Dollar Chair

This journey started in my favorite thrift store with a $20 chair.  I literally shoved this chair in my car if you remember this Instagram photo…FROM OCTOBER!!

I’ve kept you waiting long enough…here is the whole chair before I got my hands on it. 

I loved it from first sight!  It was in good shape other than scratches and I thought this was the perfect size for a bedroom chair. I knew I wanted it paint lighter and give it a lift with new upholstery.  If you remember during this time we were living with Will’s parents and I had no place to paint so it sat for a while, then moving took over and it was just put on the back burner of home projects. 
Back in April I painted it with my brand new box of Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Grain Sack, the perfect white/grey color and I could not wait to see the chippyness.
I teased you with this Instagram photo…

Then I forgot to take a photo of the after.  Almost ALL of the paint chipped away, I was so disappointed.  I have this shot from the garage and you can see it a little. It was really bad, worse than it looks.  It mostly chipped all off the back but it was pretty severe and every time I touched it paint chipped off.  I then got the bonding agent and tried again but the paint that stuck was showing through and it looked horrible.

I contacted the team at Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint and they were helpful and indicated that I would have to sand down to bare wood and start over.  I hate sanding! So I opted to sand until smooth and paint with Chalk Paint.  Lesson was I should have tried a test spot!
I’m not sure the colors I used but I mixed ASCP in Pure White as the base with a few others  a pale grey.  I also did not have it reupholstered .  I have a fabric commitment phobia.  Here it is in it’s orange velvet glory.

Here’s a close up, I brushed the sides lightly so I could get a peak at the brown and then distressed.

I'm happy with it for now…at least right this minute, that could change anytime.  I am sure the orange will someday disappear but the pillow helps tie the colors together and the only other color in our bedroom is blue so it’s a nice contrast.  The cat really likes it too, good window seat. 
For $20 bucks it is pretty sweet!
Fun Fact:  I have a strong dislike for the feel of sandpaper and velvet…maybe that’s why it took me so long to finish, HA!
P.S.  See those curtains in the background…trying to make progress in a few rooms around here.

April