Fun With Junk: Bicycle Wheel Wreath

I got a creativity bee in my bonnet one day and decided it was time to finally do something with that bicycle wheel that had been loitering in the garage for waaayyyyyyy too long.  You see, I only LOOK like a horder, eventually I get to the project the junk was intended for!  Really, I DO!

In a fit of blessed resourcefulness, I prowled around in the garage and came up with: said bicycle wheel, a grapevine wreath, a rusty circular saw blade, a porcelain cabinet knob, a large metal washer, a bolt and nut, a rusty dog leash latch, some twine, some wire, and a pinecone from the backyard -- all free items. These things plus a very little bit of time and some magic fairy dust became this fun wreath! Which I LOVE!

Below is the magazine photo (Country Living, October 2007) of the wreath that insprired me.  Actually, I like my wreath better.  The one below is a creation by Junk Market girls Sue Whitney and Ki Nassauer.  Have you seen their Junk Market Style books?  They are a huge inspriation to me!  But then, I'm a sucker for anyone who can do creative things with junk!

On A Pedestal

When I first laid eyes on this pedestal table, it was in two pieces in a pile of junk and the pedestal looked like this:

I also found these two kind-of Louis-the-whatever-the-number-is chairs at the same time:

My vision of what could be was instantaneous!  And you can see it instantaneously below:

 

I like the set so much it I snagged it for my Fayetteville house and it appears here in my living room. I love to sit here and lose myself in my decorating books and magazines. The fireplace is just out of the shot to the left so I may camp out here all winter!

Here's a picture of the pedestal detail after paint.

 

An after picture of the chair detail.




I painted the chairs black and sprayed the gold handles with metallic chrome spray paint (which is very different, texturally and visually, from plain old silver spray paint) that I bought at an estate sale for 50 cents.  I had planned to cover the seats with black and white toile but, once the chairs were black, I liked the blue seats after all -- and they match the walls.  I'm still waiting to find some free caning so I can replace the damaged cane backs on the chairs.  For now, pillows cover the damage well enough.

I am very enamored of the transformation this lamp underwent.  My "before" picture is pretty bad but you can probably make out that it was a really ugly antiqued gold with a snipped-off plug and looked like it was just begging to be put out of its ugly misery.



Ugly lamp.





Beautiful lamp.



Close-up of the crackled glass ball on beautiful lamp.