Its in the details

If you haven't already been able to tell, my mom is on a constant "treasure" hunt, with treasures being free items that can some how - once refinished - be of use. The majority of the time I accept her finds without having any real clear idea as to what in the world I am going to use them for. When she brought a very ugly very brass light fixture to my house I smiled and accepted the item while quickly stashing it away so that I didn't have to submit my eyes to looking at it every day. 

Fast forward a few months and my mom is back in town to help paint the house and she sees the very ugly very brass light fixture sitting in a forsaken corner of my garage. She quickly persuaded me to spray paint it and hang it in my living room. To say I was less than enthused on the idea is quite the understatement. I had a lot of projects in the que and this brass baby wasn't high priority. Then came the 14th trip to Lowe's that day and while walking the isles my mother reminded me to pick up some spray paint for the fixture... by this point I was so washed up with all the other projects that I gave in and thought "if anything I am just out the cost of the spray paint"...

Lucky for me - after a good glossing and some alterations (removing the glass panes) this brass baby started looking acceptable. More than that, it actually looked fitting for my living room.

Since the fixture was free and a little passed its time the socket covers were not in the best condition. We ended up throwing them away with the starburst glass panes and found some cuter ones online at Home Depot.

On Friday, these beauties showed up on my door step. Personally, I think they kind of resemble packaged cigars.

A few small trims later (there were a bit too long) and the fixture was complete. 

I am not sure if on a regular day anyone would even notice the socket covers but I love that it adds that little bit of detail to the room.

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Remember when I told you I wanted to create a "communication station" from an "as is" Ikea door? I finally got around to painting that sucker over the weekend.

White trim paint + chalkboard spray paint = communication station complete!

I have yet to season the chalkboard but once I do it will be a full fledged life size notepad.

In case anyone is curious - the door was rather heavy considering its size and was adhered to the cabinet with a nail gun (bless the man who invented those)

Anyone else into the details?