When the old colors just don’t work anymore

I have a thousand knick knacks, or shelf-sitters/dust collectors – as I call them,  around my house, most of which came from our old house. In the old house, we had a lot of cream and brown and orange going on. In this house, we are shooting for grey and black and white and… well, I’m not settled on my “other” colors yet. In the old house, we had a lot of very heavy furniture too. For example, this was our old living room.

A wee bit heavy, dontcha think?

And (really) old family room picture, even before we painted the walls a lovely shade of pumpkin spice orange. And obviously before I learned about how to dress shelves up! HA! I think I had every knick knack I owned on those shelves. If I was the type to get embarrassed, now would be the time, after showing this to ya’ll!

Circa 2006

Well, now with the house going towards greys and black and whites, I have a bunch of shelf-sitters that need to either be sold, given away or updated to match.

I picked up these pretty candle holders a few months back. I loved the detail, and the elephant heads. But I didn’t love the colors though.

Can you see how the detail is carved into the middle part - not just painted on - too?

Look at the little elephant heads that formed the base!

I just love their little faces

The colors would have been perfect for the old house, but here they didn’t fit in. So, I cleaned them up and gave them a quick coat of primer and then went to town with Rustoleum’s black gloss spray paint.

I love a minor makeover that makes a piece I love usable again!

Love how they seem to have even more detail

I still have a bunch of other accessories that I need to decide if I can “save” them for this house. And those that don’t make the cut will be added to the “yard sale” pile that seems to be growing every day.

Have you made anything old, new again lately?  Tell me about it!

Eliesa