{whimsy} origins & painted rug

As whimsy week rolls on I thought we’d get to the roots of it all. Behold. This is the absolutely incredible whimsical lantern that started this whole sha-bang.

While perusing through Ross (a great store full of this and that) with Alison we came across this lighting gem. After a little flip-flopping on my part (not sure why, what was there to consider? I mean, look at it!) Alison’s compelling argument of how amazing it’d look in the green room convinced me to bring it home. After I got it hung up I started thinking that the green room needed something. A little more…..what? What did the green room need more of? Whimsy!! That’s it! It needed more whimsy.

Just in case anyone was wondering.

I used the colors in the glass as inspiration for bringing more bold colors into the room. And speaking of inspiration, look at these amazing pictures in this Flickr album by eclectic gypsyland

I must have looked through this album about a zillion times for ideas and inspiration. Not only did I get plenty of inspiration, but now I really want to buy a gypsy wagon, pull it into the backyard and fix it up as an outdoor living room. Wouldn’t that amazing?! Hmmm….note to self; start gypsy wagon fund.

With that said I suppose I’ll get on with today’s whimsy project. Last week I showed a sneak peek picture of my painted rug. Remember?

Well this is what it looked like before.

I bought it from IKEA about eight years ago. It’s plain, quite boring and spent some time rolled up in the basement where it got a little discoloration from some water damage, as you can see.

This is the rug that I use to have here.

I like it, but it sorta blends into the floor. I wanted something a little more punch-you-in-the-face-with-a-whimsy-glove. In a good way though. So I started by painting the rug with my favorite color of turquoise. I just rolled it on.

As you can see in this close-up pic, it’s like a jute rug.

I decided I wanted to have footprints walking across the rug. When I told Curt this, he wanted to be my feet. I was glad he offered, it would have been hard to paint my own feet and leave prints. Thanks hun!