the last grand duchess

There's quite a few little separate posts I'll do in the next day or so, I never remember everything I want to say at once. Smaller chunks of blog post are more easily digestible anyway.

I'll be heading to the hardware store this week to pick up materials for a little project that has been on the back-burner for a long time, probably about six months.

It's part of my plan to salvage my duchess from the hungry jaws of my dysfunctional bedroom. I say Duchess out of habit, most people would call it a dresser. I'm not sure why we call it a duchess, I'll assume that's what the guy at the antiques place called it when he sold it to us.

I still remember when I was four years old, and my parents and I went to buy it from an antiques place. To be truthful, I don't remember a lot of how it looked or when we bought it, the clearest memory is just looking out the car window on the way to the shop.

This video reminds me of being about four years old, I think it's so beautiful.

There is something very special about sisters.

I found it at lalalovelythings.blogspot.com, who found it from rikshawdesign.blogspot.com, both blogs I now follow, because they are that beautiful. The video was made by Ericka McConnell, I believe.

But I digress.

It was originally very ugly, Dad tells me, it was very dark, painted in a bad wood finish.

Dad and Papa ( his father) sanded it back, and painted it to the colours it is today, which is white, with lilac panels on the front of the drawer, the middle table section and the front of the cupboards.

It has a big round mirror at the top, and was perfect for a little girl who secretly hoped she was a fairy.

Dad, and me back in my fairy days, at age 3 or 4

I used my duchess every day from then, until about a year ago when I rearranged my room to accommodate for a bigger bed. Natural sunlight to the duchess is blocked out by my behemoth of a wardrobe, and my overhead room light isn't that strong, so the lighting for the mirror is terrible, so now I use the bathroom mirror instead.

So it has collected a pile of jewellery, hair accessories and other odds and ends. I'm clearing it all off, buying a new stool for it ( the old one broke some time ago) and putting little lights on it to return it to it's former glory.

I also want flowers around the place

Several times, Dad has tried to convince me to throw the whole piece out, but there is no way I could, i love it way too much.

Now, what the hell has this got to do with my little side project? Admittedly, that was a massive walk down memory lane, but anyway.

I'm building a few different little jewellery storage/display units custom built for my various types of jewellery. They're all fairly simple to make, I designed each unit a while ago. There's one for necklaces, one for bracelets, one for rings and I don't remember what my plan for earrings was, so I'll have to dig up my sketches of the ring unit.

At one point I was toying with the idea of combining each separate unit to make one larger, all-in-one display and storage unit, but I think it would look too clunky. But we'll see.

Below so far is part of what is inspiring me for my room make over. I won't be painting any walls pink though, although I do like pink in bedrooms because it's warm, pretty and it also helps you sleep, apparently.

images via quirky charm, Andy Warhol, Lalalovelythings, The Selby, Petrina Tinslay. Please comment if any are attributed incorrectly, or if they are yours and you would like them removed.

So that is what I am excited about at the moment, I love when a creative project serves a purpose.

I'll put up some photos of the units, and the duchess when I am done.