Do you love it when things from the past come together in a beautiful and unique way? I do! It’s called ‘serendipity’ - a gift of making fortunate, desired or pleasant, unexpected discoveries while searching for other things.
Below shows a fun, serendipitous coming together of many small and pretty things from the past that were previously found in various places around the house.
We moved into a new home to us three months ago. Step-by-step projects are getting done. In the dining area there is an alcove (shown below) that looks like the people who originally had the addition part of the house done had a specially sized piece of furniture to go in it. It looks like a shallow closet without doors and a bit out of place or blank in our dining area. After taking measurements of our furniture, I found an antique dresser fits perfectly in the space plus an antique mirror on top that had previously been in a bedroom. It was easy to imagine this as a good base to feature my teacup collection, and function as a service center for tea and coffee. There were also a few decorative plates that hung in another bedroom, and my husband recently inherited his mother’s tea set. With these things in mind, a vision began to form, and in my imagination the project had begun.
Beginning the project
Below shows briefly the steps. I mixed some Floetrol, a latex and acrylic paint additive, with some craft paint to mix a color I wanted. Then I applied the floetrol/paint with a large brush and sponged it off with a damp sea sponge. I should’ve mixed more of the paint, because I ran out of the mixture on the first upper blue layer, as you can see below in the center photo. I wasn’t too worried though and figured that part of the wall would be behind the dresser and I could make it look better with the second, green coat of sponged paint and Floetrol mix applying it starting on the bottom and working up to blend with the blue.
I have a bunch of old books and love the look and feel of them, so I wondered if a book could be a shelf for a teacup. After looking it up on Pinterest and Amazon, I found out a book as a shelf is a thing. I ordered a set of six triangle floating bookshelves on Amazon. They are simple, clever and just what I was looking for. You can see them attached to the wall below. In the center photo you’ll notice the notches for the back cover to slide onto. NOTE: The molly bolts that came with the shelves were too big for just holding the few books up, so we used smaller ones. Other than that it worked great. Since the screws are dark, I put a piece of white artists tape over the upper screw holes so they wouldn’t show up behind the teacups on the light wall.
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Stenciling, Twinkle lights and symbols of memories brought together
After painting the background, I got out an ivy stencil I made years ago and stenciled on the ceiling and the upper part of the walls and painted a few tendrils of ivy growing up the sides. This birdcage (from Joanns) and two little bird make this their home amidst the twinkle lights.
It makes me happy to see it lit up, especially at night.
The finished serendipity alcove
The top of the photos below show a piano face, that sadly fell off a truck years ago, and I bought the pieces to glue and nail together. It has finally found a proper home at the top of the alcove, hanging on the wall, close to the ceiling. Now it looks at home after years of being just ‘okay’ in its designated hanging spot. Nearly all the pieces, big and small, in this newly made vignette come from our different homes from the past. They’ve been unpacked and gathered from different rooms and display areas. Bringing all these things together for the first time, and seeing them beautifully singing together visually, makes me happy.
It looks much better in person than in the photos - like a little collection of memories that holds the hope of future tea parties and sweet times together. We bought very little to complete this project. My husband bought, stained, and installed the two boards on the side of the piano face to frame it in and tie the top piece with the dark dresser.
Details
With each project that gets done, it feels more like home and I am thankful. Looking at it now, I realize it looks rather Grandma-core style, but after all… I am a grandma so it matches me just right. I guess I’ve always been a bit of a grandma at heart, or an old soul, which sounds much better.