Not Your Mama's Door Handles.

I woke up about 3 months ago with a creative side. I know, I was scared too. All these ideas started popping in my head about cute little things to do around the house to put a little more ASHLYN in our home and a little less IKEA and TARGET. I started out slow with a few of my favorite books strategically left out here and there. I was still comfortable. Then I worked on center pieces for the dining room table. I was still comfortable. I pulled some color into the kitchen by stitching and hot gluing ribbons onto my plain white cooking canisters.



Like I said...baby steps.




And you know what? I was still okay!

I have had a love for antiques since I was a child. Something in me loves the idea that an object has a history just like we all do. I know totally corny right? Too bad! I love it. I have all kinds of small and large antiques that I work somehow into my self categorized "modern colonial" decorating style.

I was at Habitat for Humanitie's ReStore in town and found these super awesome old door handles.





I made an impulse purchase (3 handles for $2.99, whew big spender) and brought my new little project home to a confused hubby. It took me a few weeks to decide what to actually do with them because I knew they had to have a spot where everyone would see how great they are. Well this past winter I tried to make a headboard for the guest room. That ended up being an epic fail due to the fact that just the foam is $15 a foot and I needed about 10. I don't need a handmade headboard as much as I need a vehicle to get me to work to make more money for more projects.

BACK TO THE CRAFT. I really needed something to even out the wall weight in our guest room. Enter fun old door handles. I took just a scrap piece of wood that we had from one of our MANY other home projects and painted it white with the new Behr paint and primer in one. Then my wonderful manfriend (Joe) used a spade bit to drill holes for the handles to go through. Here comes the hard part. I had to pick out pictures of our nieces and nephews to go in the tiny picture frames I bought.



Harder than it sounds people. Then I used some ribbon we had leftover from our wedding to tie around the frames and attach to the door handles.



TA DAH! Okay so it's not without flaw and I might add a little somethin' somethin' later but it helps balance out the room and its a fun discussion piece.



Yet again...baby steps.

You can't see it very well but the front door handle is laying strategically on the dresser. There is a picture of the Portland LDS temple behind it and I thought it was a cute way to kind of just say "Enter" in the literal and metaphorical sense.