I should begin by saying that this was not an original idea of mine. I found this idea in a Leisure Arts Publication called Flea Market Finds.
When I bought this book, it had so many ideas that I wanted to create my own treasures. The fact that this project involved using nostalgic Valentines ready hit home with me.
Finding the base elements for this project was probably the most challenging.
The window used for this artwork looked like it could have belonged in a 1930's bungalow. In those homes, the living room had a brick fireplace on the opposite wall as you came in the house. Flanking the fireplace were two bookshelves, one on each side that had a windowed cabinet door. Are you following me? Anyway, as houses were updated, many times the doors were removed and discarded. So for about 5 years I would wander into one restore shop or flea market searching for one of these doors. Nothing turned up until I was in Little Rock about 5 years ago. I was searching through old kitchen cabinet doors when I paused to find this beauty.
(This picture shows the added crystal knobs and towel bar already added.)
It had been painted off white. It was very chippy (that I love!). The best part of this door was that it still had the swing arm closure attached. It was perfect. All the glass was intact. This beauty cost $15.00.
Now that I had the major element, it was time to find the secondary piece of hardware. It was a glass towel rack usually found in the 30's. Because of breakage, they are now few in number. I did find one on eBay and for $30.00 it wasn't the greatest price, but I wanted to complete the project. I have since found the same glass bar in Cullman, AL for $12.00. I grabbed it just in case I wanted to make another one. This towel bar adds so much character to the piece. I did think that as nice as the glass bar was, it certainly was not practical item. I'm sure I would have to replace more than one glass towel rack in my house in a year with kids tugging on them or just hanging their towels up.
In the back of the Leisure Arts Publication, the images are available ready to be copied with permission from the publisher as long as you don't use them for profit. I used good quality card stock for this purpose.
I mounted the individual picture on a lovely scrapbook paper with golden embellishment to unify them in the space. To this day, I can't find this particular paper anywhere. It was one of my most favorite papers.
Burnished gold frames were absolutely necessary to tie this project together.
A side note here: This same book contains the clock face that I used for my mantle clock redo on the blog dated January 15, 2012-A Winter Wonderland.
After that short infomercial, let's get back to the window project.
Instead of adding 3 crystal knobs, I used the metal latch that came with the door for the middle hook. The other two hangers are vintage glass pulls for drawers. The latch still had old paint splayed on the hardware. Many people might clean that off. I look at that and see---character.
Two found vintage glass knobs.
Once everything was together, it was relatively easy to finish this project. The pictures were put in their frames. I used glass since this piece would hang in a bathroom and I didn't want them affected by moisture.
The towel bar was screwed in along with the glass knobs. Now I hung my pictures. I used satin pewter colored ribbon. Decorative towels coordinate with the gold in the frames.
I think it is a stunning piece. I could also interchange the pictures for other holidays.
The frames and towels were purchased at Tuesday Morning. I hung the heavily decorated tasseled towels in the winter months.
When living in Little Rock, I preferred hanging this window on a wallpapered wall. It seems to be more elegant that way. In the future, I would like to stencil a damask design on at least one wall in my current powder room.
I haven't found wallpaper similar to this particular kind. However, with a variety of stencils, I think I could recreate it. Oh my, another project in the hopper!!!
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