Caring For, Cleaning and Restoring Silver - Reader Question

THIS POST IS FROM ROOM REMIX - THE BLOG .


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This is a comment/reader question that was left on the Decorating With Silver Trays post: "I have a slight addiction to silver trays. For some reason I always find ones that I MUST have when I go to the thrift stores!!  I'm curious though if anyone has any ideas on how to make one shine again? I bought a beautifully shaped tray, but the inside of it looks like all of the silver has worn away. :( Any Ideas? I would love to keep it metal and not paint it if I can."

House Beautiful  Photo Reed Davis

Not being any sort of an expert on silver, at all,  I did a little research to see who might be.  I'm sure this post doesn't cover all of the possible sources and information, but it's a summary of what I found.  I hope it will be helpful to Leslie, who asked the question, and to anyone else who is trying to care for, clean or restore any of their silver pieces or silverware.   

Veranda Photo John Grover

How to Care For Silver:
1.  Prevent tarnish by storing silver in acid-free tissue paper or unbleached cotton muslin (found at fabric stores) inside a resealable bag. (source: Real Simple)
2.  Care for Silver (House Beautiful)
3.  Silver Care (Society of American Silversmiths) 

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To shine your silver:

Option 1:  Use a silver polish and a clean dry cloth.  myhomeideas.com gives you the full scoop. 

• Good Housekeeping tested 21 silver polishes and shares their findings with you - The Best Silver Polishes.

Option 2:  A more in-depth method from realsimple.com to remove tarnish and polish your silver using household products.

Southern Accents

Replating silver:
1.  How to Tell If Something Is Silver and Not Silver Plate.
2.  What is Silverplate?
3.  How to Replate Worn Silverplate.
4.  How to Repair Silverplate.

Southern Accents has a good article on how to make the most of your silver...

Have an awesome day and don't forget to enter the $220 CSN Stores Shopping Spree Giveaway!

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Get the big swatch and take it home...

THIS POST IS FROM ROOM REMIX - THE BLOG .

One of my friends recently asked me to meet her at a flooring store because she was trying to pick out carpet and wanted my opinion. When we arrived, the sales consultant took out the big book of miniature swatches that they had been looking at and they asked which one I would choose. My answer was "none!".

I would never make a final decision on carpeting or paint (or fabric for custom upholstery/window treatments, for that matter) without seeing it in a larger swatch in the room that it would be installed in. I'm sure there may be people that do, but I just think it's too risky.

No matter how sure I may be that I'm in love with it in the store, what I see standing there looking at a miniature swatch under fluorescent lighting is different than what I will see in a larger swatch at home. I think it's a good idea to keep any swatches for a few days and look at them as the light changes throughout the day/evening.

When it comes to paint, I paint a large piece of poster board with at least two coats so that I'm sure I have a better sense of the true color and then move it around the room for a few days to see what I think (that is unless I paint the board and immediately know I hate it - that's definitely happened!)

How about you? Take it home or choose it in the store?

The Pattern Inspiration Linky Party will be up through Thursday night so there's still time for you to link up if you'd like. Thank you to those who already have! It's been fun seeing your inspiration.

images - Traditional Home

Removing Vinyl Lettering from Walls

THIS POST IS FROM ROOM REMIX - THE BLOG .

I've had this saying on one of my walls for a while now and, even though I love the saying, I decided I was tired of having it on the wall. I assumed that removing it would be a no-brainer type of project that would take two minutes to do and that would be that. Hmmmm... not true.

I heated the letters with the blow dryer as I was pulling them off (I had heard that this was the best way to ensure that they would come off easily). This worked well, but still left a sticky residue with a clear image of where each letter had been. By the time I got to the last letter, the large H in Home, I was on a roll and got a little ahead of the blow dryer in pulling off the letter. Unfortunately I was left with exposed sheetrock as it pulled the paint off in the form of a large part of the letter. :-( At this point I knew I would be re-painting that section of the wall. I used sandpaper to sand around where the letter had removed the paint to smooth and blend it, and then used rubbing alcohol to remove the sticky residue of the rest of the letters (again, I had read that this was the thing to do). It worked, but the rubbing alcohol removed some of the paint from the wall.

After repainting, the wall looks good as new so it turned out fine, but I have to admit I was a little frustrated during the process.

I would probably use vinyl letters again at some point but not before knowing that there is a way to remove them without having to repaint. I do have flat paint on my walls, so I think this may have been the source of some of my issues? Any experience, comments, ideas on the best way to remove vinyl lettering from walls?

Looking at Your Space In A New Way

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Just a simple, but very useful, tip today. I've used it for quite a few years now, but it really never occurred to me to post about it until Janell and Danielle did. In case you haven't already seen their posts, here it is.

If you're wondering what your room REALLY looks like, take a picture. When I first started decorating I always took photos of clients rooms so that I would have them in their file if I needed a visual on something. I realized it also gave me a little different perspective than what I had standing in the room. Before too long, I started using it on my own spaces when I was trying to figure something out. It really works! I try to fake myself out and pretend like it's someone else's room so that I can really look at it objectively, and I'm always amazed at how much better of a handle it gives me on what's not working and what is. Try it!

Speaking of taking pictures... I'm hoping to have my post up sometime on Monday with the changes we've made so far to the closet craft room.

Have an awesome day!

Accessorizing Your Walls - Crunching Some Numbers

myhomeideas.com

In all of the homes I’ve visited in my life, very seldom have I seen art that’s hung too low, but I’ve seen a lot that’s too high. I’m tall, so eye level for me is a smidge over 67”, and I’ve seen a fair amount of art hung above my eye level by a ways. So I'm sure you can guess what the next tip is...

#2: Don't hang your art too high - In general, if you put the center of your art, mirror or grouping somewhere around 60" high it should work out pretty well. Some of you have probably heard advice to hang it at eye level, but since that is quite variable, around 60" is a good average height. If the art is in a room where you're seated most of the time, that number can be fudged down even more.

myhomeideas.com

When you're hanging art above furniture, you want it to relate to what is below so approximately 6" or so above the furniture is a good rule of thumb.

Southern Living Photo Charles Walton IV

#3: Art or groupings that aren't wide enough may end up looking a little lost on the wall. If you're looking for a guideline that you can use for width above furniture, shooting for at least 2/3 - 3/4 of the furniture width will work. This can vary above buffets, etc. where lamps and accessories fill in the gaps.

Country Living Michael Luppino

These guidelines should help you avoid art that's just floating in the room as if it doesn't belong, and a space that feels slightly disjointed.

If your space is feeling a little out of sorts, maybe the solution is as simple as moving your wall art/mirror/grouping down a little? If you try it and it works for you, I would love to hear about it!

EDIT: Hooking up to Julia's HOOKED ON HOUSES link party - check it out!

Accessorizing Your Walls - Work With the Shape of the Space

Phoebe Howard

As I was working on this, I realized that one post could turn out to be very long and possibly a little overwhelming so I decided to break it up. Tuesday's post will NOT be about accessorizing your walls but, other than that, I'll do as many posts in a row as I need to say what I want to say about the topic. I guess some would call that a series :-)...

You've also probably seen all kinds of room photos from designers that have not followed some of these guidelines (I've probably shown some of them on this blog), but we're not going to go there. What I'm sharing with you are very basic in-the-box principles that aren't new, but some that I've learned and used successfully that will help you to get it right without guesswork, or necessarily having to have an "eye" for design or art placement.

#1 - Follow and work within the general shape of the space you're accessorizing.

For example, I typically view the space above a sofa as a large rectangle. With that in mind, these first two don't work...
(the first one may seem extreme, but I've seen it many times - random art placement - we'll cover this in another post in this "series")

While these two definitely do...

So before you accessorize your wall, analyze the shape of the space first... What is it? A square? Rectangle? Triangle? Once you've analyzed the space there are a bajillion (not a word, but I like it) ideas for what you can put IN the space and how you can arrange it and still be within the basic framework, but defining it is step one.

Since my examples don't really have much of a pretty factor, I thought I would end with this bedroom by Phoebe Howard which also demonstrates art fitting, not fighting, the space.

Creative Decorating Tips and Ideas

realsimple.com
Varying the tones/tints/shades of a color and adding texture and pattern ensures that your monohuematic (using just one color) color scheme won't be monotonous!

realsimple.com

The photo above may be a little too much of a good thing, but using empty frames on shelves, mantels or in a wall display creates unique graphic visual interest.

Trying to think of a way to make your flat panel TV less of a dominant feature? Think of how many ways you could improvise on this idea. If you're interested in creating the sillouhettes shown here though, more information is available here diyideas.com

Enjoying Your Photos: If you're like me (not a scrapbooker) and have old photos stashed away in cabinets, why not purchase a large decorative bowl, basket or tray for the coffee table in your family room and put all of the loose photos in it? It's a good conversation starter and a nice way to be able to enjoy your photos when you're just hanging out. (I already know that the mom's with little ones who constantly have sticky fingers are questioning this idea, but I had to bring it up. :-))

Have a great day!

Carpet Tip and Inspiration

This is for those of you who like to remix your furniture as much as I do. (Please don't tell my husband that I just publicly admitted this because I'm always telling him that I do not move the furniture that much!)

A little tip to help remove those stubborn grooves and dents that seem to want to stay in the carpet after you've moved the furniture. I saw it some time ago somewhere (can't remember where) and I've used it several times since with pretty good success.

Lightly spritz (don't soak) the carpet with water and, using your fingers or some other tool (I think they suggested a fork), massage the carpet and blow it dry with your blow dryer. I used the warm, not hot, setting on my blow dryer. If you DO use your hands, you should use gloves or something. I have a blister on my finger today from just using my hands and not protecting them.

Carpet in one of my rooms before:

Carpet after (not completely gone yet, but much better):

I can't possibly just post boring carpet photos and nothing else, so here's a little inspiration for today. No rhyme or reason to it really...

To view this awesome room photo click on the source -

Source: Traditional Home

Have a great day!