The Dining Room Table

I have fond memories of wonderful things happening around the dining room table.....family dinners...games and puzzles...and big messy projects. Today was a project day....and my dining room table was covered in fabric swatches and glue.  

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was scheming with my friend and neighbor Patty on a project. Because of some balance issues she's been using a cane....and asked me if I would help her fancy it up.  Of course!  I love a creative challenge.....and there was a good chance I had something in my stash that might work.

Patty is quite fond of MacKenzie-Childs furniture with its bold colors and patterns and gold and black and white accents.  As a matter of fact...she painted a few pieces herself in that style. 

So her furniture....and the colors in her wardrobe became the inspiration for her cane. And after some thought and auditioning on my metal mop handle...we had a plan.  

Neither one of us were confident in our painting skills on a metal cane....and at first I thought about collaging it with paper.  But when the checkered pattern and gold accents came into the mix my mind went immediately to fabric. I had just what we needed.

We chose rich fabrics in red and navy with metallic accents along with some black and white checkered fabrics...and backed them with fusible webbing.  We weren't going to fuse them, but the fusible backing kept the fabric from fraying and helped it be more rigid and easy to handle.

Patty gave the cane a good sanding....and we started glueing down the strips with medium...which is a glue and a topcoat.  We were a little unsure about it sticking to the metal....but it seemed to be holding tight on the mop handle...and a couple topcoats would seal it all in.  Or at least that's our hope.

We learned quickly that it worked much better with four hands...Patty held and rotated while I glued and sealed.  We made a good team.  But we already knew that....Patty and I serve together on several Condo Committees.

We left a space at the bottom for a wide strip of something different....something bold to ground it. We have a stripe that could work....but we're hoping for something better. If you noticed the chair next to Patty's table in the photo above...you know she's not afraid of bold colors.

I'll shop my stash and see what might work....and we'll get back at it in the next day or two.  The MacKenzie style often uses other patterns including bold florals and stripes. 

I found this MacKenzie-Childs wall art piece online for sale at Neiman Marcus....and look at all the colors and patterns going on.

Some of my dining room Christmas decorations made it into the photos....so here's a few close-ups.  This may be the most understated spot....but it's merry and bright.  The candle (which is battery operated) was a gift from Jane years ago....and I usually pair it with this sweet little caroler.  And the precious little box was a gift last year from Patty.....and I spy a little something unexpected.  

Paul found this little green dragon which has been on the kitchen window sill for a while. I wasn't quite ready for it to go into the big jar.....so I decided it needed to live here for a while.  There must be a story somewhere about a Christmas dragon.

I just looked...sure enough there was a movie called "The Christmas Dragon!"

And...along the hallway wall is my ledge shelf that's usually full of found nature objects....now has a sweet little village of sorts....with some sweet little folded stars....also from Jane.  

Something unusual and colorful happened on my dining room table today....how about yours?