Covering the electrical panel

My little old house has an electrical panel at the front door.  It also has a wooden box on the adjacent wall hiding some ugly old electrical circuit. Not only that, but the drywall on the wall underneath the panel was cut away when the previous owner upgraded the panel.  I didn't realize until I moved in, but the drywall had just been propped back in place with a couple of screws.  Since the electrical is being worked on again thanks to my renos, I've taken that piece of drywall out.  So my challenge is to find a solution that covers both those ugly boxes and the missing drywall...

I use the front door of my house constantly.  I hate the look of the panel and the missing drywall that greets me each time I come through the door.  I hate it so much that during the winter months I bought a H Depot Martha Stewart cube storage just to hide the missing drywall and I cut a piece of maple veneer to hide the box.  I didn't really like the way the veneer looked though.  Here is a shot of my cube storage (don't you love the galvanized buckets??  $1 apiece at the dollar store!!

I took the doors off this wardrobe to make the room seem more spacious:

So I was much happier with all the doors off the wardrobe, but what to do with all the doors??  Hmmmm maybe as a cover for the electrical panel???  Good idea!  So I hinged a couple of the doors & put them behind my cube storage.

I changed the knob to a cute little brass coffee pot and hung the Welcome sign on it.  I had to balance the doors on some bricks because they were a little too short to reach the top of the panel but I like it!  Easy access to the panel & wall below the panel and no ugly view from the front door.

and here's an updated shot taken this afternoon from outside
the front door looking in.

To see the new front entry & updated electrical panel cover, click HERE

Linked to:

Funky Junk Home Decor links

Shabby Nest Frugal Friday

Abode Love Roomspiration

Irises are Easy

This is an old post I decided to dredge up for this week's Paint Party Friday and Sunday Sketches.  Hope you don't mind!!!


During the long weekend, I finally got my fingers in the dirt of my garden.  I was reminded of all the beautiful gardens I've had in my life and it started me on another flower painting week...

Watercolour on paper 6x9

and because I was so successful at depicting the flower of my choice,  I did a second, larger painting:

Watercolour on paper 9 x 11.5

And another one...

Watercolour on canvas paper 9 x 12

Can't wait until things are blooming & I can paint from life instead of memory.

Have a great weekend!

Linking to:  

     

Colourful Decorating (Gorgeous Rooms!)

I love white as much as the next person and can appreciate the beauty of white rooms with only one accent colour or two, but really - doesn't anybody else want more colour in their lives???!  How does one live comfortably with white sofas & tables & walls & such?  Do you have dogs, cats or kids?  Wow, seems like an awful lot of work to me...

In support of my theme, I've put together a series of photos of colourful rooms that I think are simply beautiful. Hope you enjoy them!

From Better Homes & Gardens:

Just easing in here, still a lot of white, but
greys, beige, yellow & a little black added in - and
just look at that fabulous ceiling!!

Bright, fresh & beautiful

So pretty, see how well the colours blend here. 

Another beautiful room, the greens & blues are
perfect together.

Still very colourful, but toned down by the
wall & rug colour.

 From Country Living Magazine

Soothing greens with hints of orange & white trim to
tone it down a bit.

Oops, white sofa sneaked in here!!  very calm, restful room...

From the lovely Sarah Richardson

Using creamy taupes, blues and beiges

Mixing colours and patterns 

More blues, greens & patterns

Sarah's gorgeous mudroom - oh that RED!

From House Beautiful

How pretty is this?

Celery and mint make a pretty picture

Rich colours and patterns toned down by the
wall colour

Beige, caramel, taupe and brown - delicious!

Cheers!

And now for something completely different

I love flowers, I guess that's pretty obvious from all the flowers I keep painting.  And since I haven't been able to figure out how to achieve depth in my artwork, I've given up trying and decided to just paint and not worry about it anymore...

With that in mind, I painted this abstract:

Again, it wasn't the look I was trying to achieve... :P  but I really like the result and I'm not tempted to "fix" it yet either.    Guess that means it's a success!  lol

Have a great week!            

Linking to:  Paint Party Friday

A day in paradise

Here is a series of photos showing the scenery of this beautiful area where I live.  My town is situated in a valley between two mountain ranges - to the east is the Rocky Mountains and to the west are the Purcells.   Enjoy!

I love how these pretty flowers grow
in little bouquets all over the
local hills.

The flowers are Balsamroot.

A wider view of the little bouquets.  That's the
Purcell Mountain range in the distance.
This reminds me of the Sound of Music...

Dancing in the wildflowers :)

then a swim in the creek

hurry up already!

More wildflowers

A babbling brook

a closer view...

can't get enough of how fresh this looks :)

Old growth trees

leaves just emerging from a very long winter

My favourite place, only a few paces away from the large creek yet a hush fell over as I entered this shady glen.  

And because I didn't show you our Rocky Mountain view,

here is a photo from some time ago.

Hope you enjoyed my little piece of paradise.  Have a happy week!

Linked to:

Brambleberry Cottage Time Travel Thursdays

Funky Junk Interiorshttp://www.funkyjunkinteriors.net/2012/08/sns-147-pretty-scenery-pictures.html