My Orange Mirror

If you remember from my numerous Wedding Wednesday posts (as well as the orange dog post back in March), I love ORANGE. Being a redhead, I feel it’s sort of an extension of my self and my personality… or at least, that’s how I’m explaining it for now. And while I’m definitely aware that it’s not one of those colors for everyone, it is most definitely a color for me.

In my early days of decorating with orange, it took on a much bolder, mayhaps even slightly boisterous place in my decorating life. Our very first apartment had contractor white walls and almost no architectural interest of any sort. Blah. We chose not to paint our walls in this apartment (we were new renters and had yet to learn the lesson of just making the place your own and not caring if you have to paint it back a YEAR later), so we made up for the lack of color in boocoodles of orange accessories, including floor to ceiling orange curtains in the living room.

With our second apartment, we were far more adventurous. Josh sometimes refers to it as our Skittles apartment, because each “room” was a different color, even though it was sort of an open concept apartment (living room, office, and dining room all rolled into one). The dining room walls were… ORANGE. If that had been the only vibrantly colored room, it actually would have been fine, even elegant in its own way (I have no pictures, so you just have to trust me on this). However, it was one of THREE vibrantly colored rooms — all on top of each other — so it was a bit too much. It’s OK. I’ve accepted it as something I had to get out of my system. I have since recovered.

Our third apartment was tame in comparison, with just the occasional orange pillow or candle (well, there was the purple Mardi Gras hall way… Details). However our NYC apartment, with its calm blue and gray walls has even less orange. In fact, the only bits of orange I can think of off the top of my head are the orange kitchen utensils displayed behind the stove (I say “off the top of my head” because I’m about 900 miles away, so I may have forgotten a detail or two).

Such a good picture.

Oh yes, and the orange blanket on the couch:

…And the orange plates in the baker’s rack…

Ok, so I haven’t exactly abandoned orange all together, but it’s definitely taken the backseat. But starting now, that changes (Josh just read that sentence in New York and probably did a face palm). :)

I’m not gonna paint the walls orange or get huge, overbearing orange curtains (again), but I am going to add a few new things of the orange persuasion, starting with this bleck thrift store find:

Ewww. It’s a mirror that I got at Goodwill for a whopping $1.51 (I took out the mirror to paint it).

I did three light, light, light (and even) coats of good ol’ Krylon spray paint in Pumpkin Orange — my fave brand. (Did I mention HobLob had a sale on spray paint last week?)

Here’s the first coat:

Second coat:

And the third coat:

Then I let it sit outside (and off-gas) for a day. These things require patience.

And here she is in all her indoor, sufficiently off-gassed and dry glory:

And a little closer:

I like how the spray paint brings out the quasi-fleur de lis details:

I’m thinking she’ll look lovely on the wall where the ransom note art currently resides:

No hard feelings, Ransom Note Art… I just think we should see other people..

Once I get back to NYC, I’ll grab a few pictures after I’ve hung it on the wall… and after Ransom Note Art and I have had a break up post-mortem. (These things are always awkward.)

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