Back in the spring, I joined a few other gals in a fun trip to Round Top, Texas during antiquing weekend.  I think we had more laughs than buys, but we enjoyed ourselves and are already planning our Fall trip.

I took my camera to the show, because I planned on doing a post about all the cool things we saw.  When I got home, I realized I had taken exactly one photo the entire day.  I guess I was too busy looking for great finds and forgot to document my trip.  Oops!  Bad blogger!

Anyway, I think that my one picture is pretty cool.  I’ve been holding it close to my vest for all that time, but I finally admitted to myself that I’d unlikely get around to reproducing it and thought you might like to give it a go yourself.

Isn’t that fun?  I think it would look so cool over a farmhouse table in a breakfast room or even over a sofa if you have a modern/reclaimed vibe going on in your living room.

This is a light fixture made using a reclaimed board.  The vendor who had this fixture in her tent said that she had ordered it from a catalog, so I’m not really sure where it came from – this one wasn’t for sale.  The manufacturer or artist drilled holes on the bottom of 5 vintage-looking wire baskets and glued them to the board.  They then drilled matching holes in the board and ran a light socket (like this) and bulb through it.  If you or someone you know is familiar with wiring, you could wire sockets in serial.  Two more holes were drilled on the ends of the board and two lengths of rope were strung through those holes and knotted on the bottom.  On the top of the board, run the cord(s) up one of the lengths of rope, hang the rope to the ceiling, and hardwire the lighting fixture to your ceiling. You’d have to play around with that to really hide those cords if you have 5 of them – maybe wrap them in rope?

Do you have any other ideas about how to bring this project to light?

Things are moving along just swimmingly in my master bedroom redesign.  I’ve spent nap times and evenings sanding away out in my garage on a secret project that I hope to be able to reveal in the next week or so.

Because I’ve figured out that project, my mind starts wandering to the next project.  This week’s newest obsession is our nightstands.  I currently have two very nice nightstands that I bought a while back to refinish.  Of course, I never got around to doing that before I moved on to something else.  I’m glad I didn’t, though, because now I’m obsessed with having two mismatched nightstands instead of a pair of matching pieces.

Emily Henderson discussed it in a recent episode of Secrets From a Stylist (are this summer’s season of design shows so much better than in years past, or is it just me?), so I feel confident that I’m heading in the right direction.

It seems to me there are a few keys if you are looking to find a good looking mismatched pair.  The nightstands should either be the same general shape and different colors/finishes (as above) -or- they should be different shapes and the same general color/finish.  Regardless, I think they should have the same weight to them.  There are occasions that those “rules” don’t apply (as below, where I believe the bench balances out the weight and color differential), but those are easy guidelines to remember when you are out shopping and/or thrifting.

Now for the dilemma – do I refinish our current nightstands in different colors?  Or, do I find another nightstand or occasional table to replace one of the ones we are currently using.  Decisions, decisions.  I guess I should sleep on it.

What about you?  Do you have matching nightstands or are yours mismatched?

Photo credits: Domino Magazine, Apartment Therapy, Decorpad, Domino Magazine.