Candle Holders Made from an Antique Beam

I hope everyone has had time to recover from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. I know for one am ready to get back into a routine. And I think even the kids are ready to be back in school since Con-Man has been asking me every morning if it was school day. Maybe he's just tired of seeing me all day everyday. :)

One of the ways I'm getting back in the swing of things is finishing a few projects that I've had hanging over my head. The first up is this old beam:

I found it being thrown out during heavy trash pick up a few weeks ago. I thought even though it was in rough shape I could still make something out of it. 

First up was chopping it up into manageable pieces with the circular saw:

After some prep work- mainly sanding and smoothing out, it was time to paint. I've had this Modern Masters Bronze paint and Patina that I have been dying to use for ages! It's paint with real copper and zinc bits in it that react to the Blue Patina and give it an aged look.

My first attempt was not so impressive. One coat of paint covered very well so I went a head and sprayed the Patina on with lackluster results. 

Brass is Bad Ass(phalt)

Have you noticed it? The brass that has been creeping it's way back into decor? It's not the shiny brass of years past- but a honed, aged more sophisticated brass. It's popping up on hardware, furniture, and accessories.

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It goes with anything like most metallic do. Unlike silver or chrome it's not cold feeling. And it's not overdone like gold.

I personally am jumping on this band wagon. No I'm not replacing every or spray painting every metallic accessory in my house. But I am making it an accent in our bedroom. As you can see on my $10 thrift store pendant light:

This antique solid brass fire hose nozzle. It was my grandfathers, he used to collect them from the refinery where he worked. When the fire trucks at the refinery were finished with the nozzles they used to throw them away; he would save them and had a bunch! Some were brass like this one others were solid nickel. I love having this piece of family history in our home.

And the brass accents on my TV Console:

 I am adding brass accents on our new unholstered headboard, but it's the kind of shiny fake brass I'm not a fan of:

I'm going to fix that shiny-ness and will be sharing with you soon!

Are you on the brass bandwagon? Or are you going to let it pass by?