Robb Whittlef, co-owner of the Sticks & Stones antiques and collectibles shop in Minneapolis, explains how to use old accessories in new ways to create a quick and easy garden theme in your favorite room. Create the look with old garden ornaments you might find hiding in your attic or basement, or pick up items at a tag sale for less than $30. Create a display of old garden items to give any room a garden theme. Robb shows how to bring a garden feel into the kitchen with an arrangement featuring a plaster hen and her chicks, along with an architectural element resembling a sunflower (actually part of an old conveyor belt) and a discarded watering can used as a flower vase. The garden theme continues with a rose vignette inspired by a Victorian rose painting (figure A). An old chalkware kitty figurine, put under a water spout to erode the chalk surface and expose the plaster, has a mossy cement look perfect for a garden room, and weathered tin snips that look a little like garden shears are used as a sculptural decorative element. Color-washed terra-cotta pots serve as charming candleholders (figure B), and an old farm-bench coffee table continues the garden theme (figure C).
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