My Tobacco Basket Looks Smokin’….

Yesterday, I told you that I was planning on incorporating the tobacco basket that I bought last summer into a re-do of the top of the entertainment units in my great room.

 

The basket has been stored in the garage for about a year, so it needed a good cleaning to remove all the cobwebs from its nooks and crannies. It was not until I gave it a spray bath with the garden hose that I was able to get them all out. I let it dry in the sun, and since it was another hot day here in Ohio, it dried pretty quickly. I wasn’t satisfied with its dull look, however, so I sprayed it with a clear coat finish. I was much happier with the way it looked after that.  It was so humid out that the lacquer took a while to dry. While I waited, I worked on the vases I purchased over the weekend. You can read about them in this post.

 

 

This is the inspiration photo for using the tobacco basket in the great room. It came from the last year’s cover for the June issue of Traditional Magazine.

 

 

This is the smaller of the two vases I bought. I liked the pattern on the body, but hated the gold neck. So, I painted it with my go-to spray paint-  oil rubbed bronze.

 

Here you see it all taped up and waiting to dry.  Classy background in the garage, huh?

 

This is the before picture  of the  reddish brown, metal vase.  It was just calling to be painted.

 

 

 

 

 

I sprayed it completely in ORB.  What a transformation!

 

 The top of the entertainment unit before I started my re-do was pretty darn bare since I had edited it to use some items for another room. I was left with a very boring and empty top, and since the room has 18 foot ceilings, the wall above the unit looked really bare. This is where the tobacco basket came in.

 

I centered it in the middle unit and placed a copper tub in front of it. The newly sprayed large vase went on one side and a single candle holder flanked it on the other.

 

This candlestick was a thrifted find last fall. Originally brass, it got a coat of ORB to make it look more contemporary. The candle is wrapped in birch bark.

 

The tub is actually a beverage holder that I bought on clearance at Target a few years ago.

 

On the left bookcase is the armillary, placed on top of a bamboo trunk. It gives the unit more height and its arm points upward to the featured tobacco basket.

 

It’s a rusty, iron piece that came from a going out of business sale.

 

The spools are from a collection that I purchased at several different yard sales. They were so reasonable. The interestingly shaped one on the left was the most expensive one at $3.00. I bought the framed picture in the background at another shop that went out of business last year.  Gee, was the economy that bad?

 

The smaller vase sits on the right side bookcase alongside a trio of small suitcases.  You can see that I left the body of the vase exactly as I found it and I only sprayed the vase’s neck. It added much more contrast than the previous gold color.

 

Here’s a close-up of the three suitcases.

 

I made the moss ball last week while sitting at my new table in the laundry room. I hot glued sheet moss to a 5” styrofoam ball and placed it in a simple iron vase.

 

 

This is the finished look. Don’t you think it looks smokin’ hot?

I played around with re-arranging various accessories for the better part of the day. Why does it always take so long? I kept getting up and down the ladder to see every adjustment. Klutzy me even tripped backwards onto the floor two times from the bottom rung. I have to remember NOT to place baskets and suitcases right at the foot of the ladder! 

The only thing I hurt was my pride, but I did knock over a lamp on the end table nearest the left bookcase. It, in turn, hit a glass vase which broke into smithereens. The vacuum cleaner is still awaiting me…Tomorrow is yard sale day and I have a great one to go to. It’s more decorator items from the same household where I bought my  two vases last week. Can’t wait!

Won’t you please stop over and visit the following blogs for their parties to see what inspiration you can find.

Lots of eye candy here!

 

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Pay Gina a visit to see some great transformations.

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This is one fun place to see a lot of ideas.

Stop over and pay Debbie a visit!

 

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Here’s Artie’s new party! Go check it out.

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