Turn The Ordinary Into Extraordinary

Things don’t always have to be what they seem. One of the tricks designers use over and over again is taking the usual and making it into the unusual.

Accents are the best way to approach this little slice of sleight of hand. Filling an entire room with these magical touches might make the space look like you’ve pulled the rabbit out of the hat once too often.

The way to pull all of this off to best advantage is to look at a specific something, then dream up an entirely new use for it.

Bring the outdoors indoors with a picket fence. That’s about as homey as it gets. Bring it indoors in the shape of a headboard for your bed. Very country cottage. Here’s how. First, gather varying heights of wood pickets from a home center. Then, on the floor, arrange them in the shape of a headboard.

You might want to position the pieces so that they step up in height from both ends to a crown in the center. At either end, position a very tall picket for a poster headboard effect. Glue all the pieces together with a sturdy wood glue, paint, and, voila, you’ve got it.

Who says shingles have to go on the exterior of a house? Not us. Do an entire indoor wall in shingles. What we’re going for here is an interesting texture. For a contemporary look, paint the shingled wall white. Again, it’s the texture you’re after.

Chairs, in most cases, are for sitting. But you know better. Hang one on the wall as a piece of art. To accomplish this bit of what-you-see-is-not-always-what-you-get, you’ll need a simple unfinished pine chair.

If the chair has a padded seat, carefully remove it. You want all of the structure of the chair to show for an architectural appeal.

Paint the chair. You might want to go with pastels for a warm look. Squiggles, dots inside dots. For a bolder approach, simply paint each of the pieces of the chair a bright primary color. Contemporary? Why not a simple black-and-white approach?

To hang the chair, wrap a piece of strong, color-coordinating ribbon around the top back slat and tie firmly, making a long loop. Hang the chair on a wall with a nail or, for something a bit more spectacular, hang the chair in a window with a nail anchored to the window’s frame or in the wall just above the window. Finish off the look with a simple valance behind the chair.