It was time to go from drab to fab.  When I moved in to this house, I was downsizing from 3500 square feet to 1400 square feet.  As a card carrying member of the walking wounded, I was juggling a divorce, children who were hurting, and a basement so chocked full of the mementos of a life I didn’t resonate with any more, I couldn’t move.  The front entrance was pretty low on the priority list. Now that life was settling down, I could no longer ignore the fact my drab entrance way was crying out for some fab!

In the past 4 years I have made a lot of this home my own, but it’s easy to wear blinders in this life.  I can ignore an ugly entrance way just like I can ignore an unhappy marriage or an unhappy heart…until I can’t any more! Happiness comes from within. We build an authentic joy filled life from the inside out, one change at a time. The same is true for our homes. A happy home is reflected from the inside out. The heart of my home is happy now and the entrance way was not a reflection of that reality.

Perhaps the ‘before’ was functional….but I want a life which is more than functional.  I want a life which is authentic and full of joy; a true reflection of who I am NOW.

Here are the transformational steps for an entrance way…a lot of it would work for a life too :)

I purchased an antique cabinet designed to hold dishes. It’s solid mahogany and in fairly good shape.  The only issue–there is some peeling veneer on the top left corner.  I can glue, nail, fill and sand the top–but that also means I will have to paint this cabinet.  I’m not adept enough at furniture repair to replace a veneer.

(Just as an aside….“veneers are thin layers of highly decorative woods which are placed over more stable species of wood.  Veneers have been used since Egyptian times and are not an indication of a poor quality piece. Higher density woods are very difficult to carve and intricate design was achieved by using less dense or softer wood veneers to achieve beautiful results.   In the construction of cheaper furniture we see today, the veneer is often made from a plastic laminate of some sort with the wood grain photographically imprinted on the veneers.  If the veneers are perfect, chances are it is a photograph and not reminiscent of the natural flaws we would see in a real wood veneer.  Even if the veneer is made from real wood, manufacturing parameters now allow veneers to be 1/128” thick as opposed to the 1/16” thickness of veneers found on older, good quality pieces of furniture.  The veneers are so thin now; the slightest bump or knock can dislodge them from the piece of furniture.  Solid wood veneers were sometimes nailed in place with very small nails.  If you can find evidence of this on an older piece, that may be a clue regarding the overall quality of the furniture.” ) There’s your design lesson for today ;) Excerpt from Divine Design on a Dime–Construction 101 section (email me if you’re interested in purchasing a copy. I used my training as an Interior Designer and my love of up-cycling to show you how to enact Divine Design on a Dime.)