The beautiful, talented & creative Mrs. Birnie...

I’ve been so lucky in life with the lovely friends I have had... Honestly, I have been so blessed with friends who love me, I can trust & who just are an absolute joy to be around... One of these dear friends who I only met a few years ago but have since come to cherish our friendship is the beautiful, talented & extremely funny Sarah Birnie... She will be sharing creative DYI & design ideas with you and I’m always in awe of things she comes up with... I also like to tease her because she’s known to go into the Salvation Army a few times a week to find “treasures”- she’s a proud Sally Anner for sure... Anyways, she makes my heart happy & I’m so glad to be sharing her with y’all... Enjoy...

Hello lovely "Pin Me" t... followers!

I’m Sarah. I met T a couple of years ago now (wow, time flies…) when I moved up north to the same little town as her. I’ve got to thank my lucky stars for that - she’s one of those people who you meet and you feel like you’ve known forever. Such a huge comfort and a true friend. You’re awesome T J

Though both my husband and my home are still in that town, I’ve recently gone back to school in Toronto so can either be found in the city, up north, or on the highway somewhere in between. Life literally seems like a highway lately (Tom Cochrane shout out).

This busy life, by the way, is my excuse for not having guest blogged on "Pin Me" t... yet. I have however been enjoying keeping up with T’s trials, tribulations and stories on here while I’ve been away and am excited to finally get to contribute!

Segway into what exactly I’m going to be writing about…my passion is Interior Decorating. Kind of always has been in one way or another. You know how they say that whatever you do when you’re procrastinating should be the work you do for the rest of your life…well I’m lucky enough to be working towards just that. I can’t get enough of creating inspired spaces, often via DIY projects and lots of blood, sweat and tears. It’s important for people to surround themselves with beautiful things that have meaning to them. Your home is your little piece of the world – I think you should walk into wherever you live and feel like the space embraces you.  I dream about helping people achieve that. Also- I just love pretty things, so this is a great way to spend my time…

Like I said before, I’m into DIY’s…I’m also into creative decorating via vintage/salvage/thrift shopping. It’s definitely possible (and for me lots of fun) to find a real gem buried in a pile of giveaways. I truly believe that one person’s junk is another person’s treasure- pieces with history just feel so much more warm and interesting to me. To top it off, it’s green to re-use/recycle stuff rather than always going out and buying new! Of course I know that none of this is revolutionary…there are a million DIY/upcycling/thrifty décor blogs out there – in fact I think I have most of them Bookmarked on my laptop! Even Nate Berkus even has a segment called Trash to Treasure (http://www.thenateshow.com/videos/detail/1871/trash-to-treasure/).  But I thought it would be fun to document some of my little adventures on T’s blog. That, and she asked me to…hehehe.

Here are some of the things I’ve done around my own home and condo that have cost very little but I think have had a lot of impact. BELIEVE me- not everything I try works out. I’ve been known to buy something at a thrift shop, take it home and try to sand/paint/stain/fix it up only to re-donate it later on the same day. Recently I painted our kitchen pendant lights black. This did not turn out well, so my husband took it upon himself to make a weekend job of paint stripping them and restoring them to their original Rona splendor. Yep- mistakes happen, and it’s part of the process.

You know those hexagonal tables that your grandparents had all over the house?

I painted one that we inherited white. Sprayed the hardware gold, and voila, a cute little updated side table!

A couple of years ago I was seeing the beginnings of the whole industrial home décor wave- and really loved the look of vintage industrial shelving. So, off I went to Canadian Tire and bought 2 of these for my dining room. Dressed them up with vintage accessories and voila- a pretty decent take on the trend if I do say so myself!

I had an empty wall that was begging for something interesting…so I hit up my favorite salvage shop (the one in Latchford, for those who know the area) and picked up a vintage milkmaids yolk. Nothing like a little bit of original sculptural art to spice up a room!

I LOVE GALLERY WALLS! It’s such a great way to create a big impact if you don’t have large pieces of art to take up a big wall space. It’s also a great way to use various pieces of art, photos, mirrors, etc. that wouldn’t necessarily have that much impact on their own.

Here are some other creative ways to dress up your walls if you don’t want to invest in art.

• How about a group of interesting baskets? I spray painted these gold and they line a hallway. They won’t be there forever but they serve the purpose for now.

• Another project that took about half an hour but that makes a big impact is below- I grabbed a large canvas from an art supply store, some black paint and a regular paintbrush that you’d paint a wall with. A few big strokes, some splattering and a glass of wine later, I had a big graphic painting that I love!

Next up is a simple wall art project that I dreamt up this past weekend while at my husband’s parent’s cottage. I found a bunch of vintage Penguin Publishing novels that are an awesome shade of green. Using these book covers as art is actually a bit of a trend right now, but I think it will be a timeless piece that would be great in a kids bedroom one day. I’ll show you the finished product when I’m done!

Till next time!

Sarah



Amazing eh? She’s so bloody talented & I can’t wait to see all that she accomplishes as a Decorator... Proud of you my friend...


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