Freestyle A Room, The Challenge, Post 4 - Fabulous fabulous fish art

The original Freestyle A Room Challenge list did not consider artwork. Luckily we came across an awesome piece at someone's front porch sale on our way back from dropping off compost at le dump one sunny weekend.  By this point the freestyled room was occupied by a graduate student who also happened to enjoy scuba diving in the Caribbean, so the theme of this piece was an extra bonus.  When we balked at the asking price the lovely young woman selling stuff told us to just take it, she would rather someone enjoy it than have to throw such a gem in the dumpster.  We happily agreed.

Soon the canvas fish print was up on the wall in its own little sea of blue.

This gold octagon mirror was another freestyle find that got utilized for this challenge.

Happy freestyling, and if the price isn't right it never hurts to ask.

Freestyle A Room, The Challenge, Post 3 - Gold mirror for dressing area

A dressing and prep area in your own bedroom is important when living in a one-bathroom apartment with multiple roommates.  Although not an original goal of the Freestyle A Room Challenge, this little octagon mirror was just large enough to be useful when getting ready in the morning.  It only needed some minor fixes.

Some of the gold paint had chipped off on the frame, an easy fix since I had a similar color already on hand.

I also glued small piece of felt onto the back of the sawtooth hanger and along the bottom edge of the mirror so that it wouldn't scrape the recently painted wall if bumped.

Little blue felt protectors

The gold is a nice contrast with the light blue walls.

Happy freestyling!

A cat considers a mouse, framed in black and white

 When something is nicely framed with a dust cover on the back and information about the artist and the piece of art it is a little bit sad to have to take apart all that finished work. But only for a second.  This nice white-washed wooden frame came from le dump in Cambridge.  We soon got to work taking things apart.

The grays and blacks of this watercolor are echoed in the black mat and dark whitewash of the frame. I wonder if the mouse was convincing.

We were convinced to hang this on the kitchen wall.

Happy freestyling!

NQF: From off-white to bold and blue-tiful

Falling in to the Not Quite Free (NQF) category, this $5 purchase from a thrift store originally caught my eye because of the nice scroll/vine detail around the edge. In the picture below there is no glass in the frame, maybe that is why it was so affordable.

Nice curves

I had recently learned that you can get mirrors cut to size at many hardware stores, so this was my 'make a mirror' experiment. I also spray painted the frame with a few light coats of a bold royal blue in a gloss finish.

Here's looking at blue

The mirror insert makes the frame heavier than if it just had a glass frontpiece.  When hanging on the wall I use two small nails through the attached triangular hangers on the back of the frame (with extra measuring to make sure it hangs level).

I think it reflects my style nicely.

Happy freestyling, upcycling, or just plain re-styling!

Small, ornate, and enameled metal jar

This metal jar and lid was lovely little find from le dump from a while back. I used it to store odds and ends, but then I moved into a tiny space and was trying to downsize.....  

...so I gave it to a friend who was styling a shelf in her new apartment featuring photos from her world travels, this goes nicely with her gorgeous photos of India.

Just passing along the pretty, in freestyle of course.

Things come in to your life for free- it's nice. 

Giving things away so they can be enjoyed by someone else- ever nicer.

Happy freestyling.