Inspiration: Sarah Richardson's Crest

Rebecca did a piece on summer mantles, and posted this picture from Sarah Richardson's farmhouse.  I fell in love with the crest above the fireplace as soon as I saw this room.

Rebecca's post
image via

Below is a close-up of the shield.  Isn't it gorgeous?!

Sarah Richardson crest; image via Hello Lovely

When I was at one of our local antique stores, I spied this old wooden shield hidden behind objects and leaning up against a wall.  I thought it was kitschy, but cool, despite the rather horrible crushed gold velvet lining.

A Hidden Gem?

I snapped a picture and emailed it to Rebecca to get her opinion.  Too much?  She was encouraging.  We went back a couple of days later, and I picked it up for a song.  Here's what's great about Rebecca- we finished our errands (new curtain rings for my bedroom redo, a look at some shelves, a good lunch), and then, after picking up the Cat, we IMMEDIATELY got to work on making this sucker more presentable.  By we, I really mean Rebecca.  I helped where I could, but she really did all the work.

Here it is, in all of its crushed velvet glory.

After we ripped off all the velvet that we could, we noticed that we could remove the screws and take the metal pieces off.  Much easier!

Here I am, kind of helping!

Here we are, with no more velvet.  This made it so much easier to clean it up!

Looking better already!  Rebecca used a white washing technique that she learned from Sarah Richardson.  The key, it seems, is to wipe a lot of the paint off the brush and then lightly apply it to the piece.

Here it is, all painted and done.  It is vastly different from the inspiration piece, but it is in the same vein, and it is going to look awesome above my fireplace!  Thanks, Rebecca!

~Lori