After I became a mom, almost twenty years ago, my career as an interior decorator and designer came to a halt. Having four children relatively close in age became my life and a blessing I would not trade for any career or any amount of money, as most any mom would agree. Over the years, I have been able to help people on occasion and I have tried to stay abreast of decorating trends and classics in order to maintain my knowledge in the field. There is no way, however, to stop a creative person from finding ways to be creative, whether it is drawing, painting, sewing, refinishing furniture, upholstering furniture, knitting and most any kind of craft. I love looking at an old piece of furniture, an old picture frame, an old light fixture, almost anything and seeing the potential in it. My husband and I share an interest in antiques and I love the look of anything vintage. We often make trips to antique stores, consignment shops, and even thrift stores, and one of our favorite spots is "Habitat for Humanity" here in Huntsville to see what "treasure" we may come upon. Sometimes we have something specific in mind that we may be seeking, other times, it is simply the thrill of the hunt and we find things that, we eventually find a use for or "re-donate" to keep from acquiring too much junk. Sometimes things must remain JUNK. But the thrill of the hunt is fun and amazingly fulfilling when I find a way to create or recreate something I find into something unique. For the past four years my husband and I have been renovating our basement. It has taken that long with Jeff having a demanding, full time job outside the home and with me having a demanding, full time job inside the home. We finally completed the task last fall in time to have an Iron Bowl party, which was fun until Alabama lost to Auburn. I did not take before pictures and wish that I had now that I have decided to start my decorating business again. The kids are getting older and I felt that it was a good time to "ease" back into the business. I've included the after pictures of our basement in this post anyway and once I get a few jobs worthy of pictures, I will probably start a separate blog for my business.In the following slide show you will see pictures of our basement where Jeff and I actually did all of the work ourselves. He is very handy with construction... I just tell him what I want and he can do it. He even had his own ideas to contribute in the lay out and design of the basement. We had two antique tables that weren't so nice that we couldn't cut them up and use the pieces from the top, legs and feet through out the pub room. Jeff constructed the bar top in the opening between kitchen and pub room out of one end of the table, as well as, the two wall bars by the pool table. He pieced the table legs for support to the wall bars. I pieced table legs adding a base and top piece for the post on the buffet that we used for the main bar in the kitchen area. I constructed a pool cue rack out of an old coke crate and using the two pedestal feet from one of the tables. We purchased a two tier chandelier from an antique store, which I converted to two separate chandeliers, painted, added antlers with strips of leather and changed the light sockets for larger bulbs then hung one over the pool table and the other in the pub room. I painted an old cabinet door with chalk board paint and decoupaged the frame of it for a chalk board to post the Alabama football schedule. The bulletin board next to the chalk board, I made out of wine corks and an antique frame. The stemware rack hanging over the bar was constructed from a wrought iron piece I picked up at an antique store in Mississippi near where I grew up. You will notice several other items made from antlers that we collected; some from deer hunting expeditions by my step-dad. You will also notice pieces of the tables used for a pair of candelabra and a piece hung as a decorative wall medallion. I added a piece that came off of the buffet to the top of the kitchen cabinets to give it more character. I made roman shades for the pub room and media room. I made double hung swinging doors out of old cabinet doors. I painted, distressed and changed the drawer pulls on an old entertainment unit for the television in the media room... it was rather boring before. Jeff actually found it at a thrift store for twenty bucks. I reupholstered chairs for the pub tables and a couple of ottomans that were covered in the most awful shiny purple fabric you could imagine. I made a magnetic memo board for the office by hanging an antique coca cola tray on the wall by my desk that belonged to my granny and granddaddy... as a kid my granddad cut many a watermelon on that tray. I made tassels out of antique salt shakers (a hobby of mine) and framed a fabric covered board to display five of them for the office. The old Singer sewing machine belonged to my grandma. The oil painting above the mantle in the pub room and the oil on canvas of the paint horse were both painted by my dad. It was many hours of work for both of us and I could write more than you would want to read to detail everything that we did, but it was a fun project to do together and we are both pleased with the end result even though the theme for the media room is Jeff's favorite, "The Crimson Tide and not mine, "The MSU Bulldogs". If you notice, I did reserve a small space for them on the shelf that surrounds the media room; it's a good thing the colors work.
Enjoy slideshow:
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