hello yellow!

So this is a story of how decorating can go terribly wrong...or gloriously right. Sometimes both at the same time. See, I started with this arrangement over my piano (below):

And while I've been really into white lately, this area seemd quite pale and neglected. Not only that, but we haven't had sun here in QUITE some time, and it's getting me down. Really down. So the prescription? I decided I needed YELLOW. Problem is, I have very, very few yellow accessories. So I decided to make some.

I started with this vase. Nice modern shape, but clear and fairly boring. I already had this vase in my closet, so it didn't cost me anything.

Next, I sprayed the vase with this. "Frosted Glass" spray paint. I've had this stuff for years, from some project way back when (that I may or may not have completed) so it didn't really cost me anything either.

Next, I took wide blue painter's tape, and cut it into skinny strips. At first I was doing this just because I didn't have any of the skinny tape; but pretty soon, I decided I wanted all the strips to be uneven and kind of funky-looking anyway. (These are the kinds of things we decide when we have no choice in the matter. But seriously...I like the funky-ness of the stripes!)

HELLO! Then I took some really bright yellow spray paint and painted over the vase with the tape stripes. Just one coat. That stuff is BRIGHT.

And voila! A cute yellow-striped vase was born. I tihnk the stripes - yellow alternating with the frosted look - help the yellow to not be too much. I am just tickled pink...ahem, yellow...with this vase.

So that's the part where things went right. Where they went wrong - I also painted the frame of the mirror with the same yellow. I can't even bear to show you what it looks like, because it's horribly, horribly, wrong. You know that yellow on a school bus, which is really somewhere between a yellow and an orange? Yeah. That's the color of my mirror right now. So, I quickly had to put something else in its place while I wait for the SUN to come back so I can spray paint it a different yellow.

Luckily, I had this yellow print in another room, just waiting to be used. I quickly stuck it on the hook that normally holds the mirror. Added my yellow vase and a yellow candle...it's definitely not perfect, or finished, but at least it's not embarrassing now. (As it would have been had I left the school-bus mirror up.) As soon as the weather allows, I'll be re-painting the mirror and will then show you the finished "after" pictures. (This yellow print is intended for another spot in the room.)

So...I wanted yellow...and I got YELLOW!! And ya know, I love that little vase so much, it's almost worth the agony of going to all that work to paint a mirror school-bus yellow and then have to paint it again.