Deck the Shelves

Earlier this week, I showed you how I took some basic white floating shelves and dressed them up with trim and bronze craft paint.

That was the easy part.  Now, what am I going to put on them?

I have this cute mirror that I pulled out of a heap of garage sale leftovers someone set at the curb and posted for free on Craigslist.  I wrote about it last January, but I never could decide what to do with it.

What else can I use?  I want something organic, but small and compact without seeming too cute.  Hmmm...I'll have to give that some thought.

I love architectural salvage, so I wanted something that looks old with interesting lines to complement the petite ornate mirror.  But in my town it is hard to come by without paying a hefty price.

So I'm going to fake it.

I have a spare finial and a wood disk from previous projects.  I picked up the candlestick at a thrift store.

I stained the unfinished pieces so they would look more like the candlestick when distressed.  Then I painted everything a buttery yellow, let it dry and took sandpaper to it.

My greatest concern was I would sand through the finish on the finial and the disk and not through it on the candlestick.

I was right.

So I watered down the yellow paint a little and went over all the exposed wood.

Next, I used a brown glaze on it, let it dry, and then finished with paste wax.  I love how it turned out.

So that just leaves the organic bit left.  I had the idea of a moss ball to tuck on the shelf.  I had the moss already, so I was going to pick up a styrofoam ball at the craft store.

The size I needed came in a multi-pack for almost $5.  Geez. 

I mulled it around for a minute and came up with a better idea.  And I have a lot of them!

Just take small sections of moss and hot glue them on the tennis ball.  NOTE: Since the moss has to be pressed in place before the glue sets, use a low temperature glue gun and plenty of caution since hot glue can cause burns.

Isn't it fun to using what you already have to make something pretty?