windmill – Dust Bunnies and Dog Toys

Happy New Year everyone! I hope your holiday weekend was exactly how you wanted it to be, wether that was exciting or relaxed. We took the relaxed approach. I stayed home and the Hubs went hunting so no big ball dropping parties here. Today I wanted to share another piece of wall art that came back on our recent trip to Portland.

This metal reproduction windmill. If you remember I purchased an authentic windmill from Alaska Picker about a year ago and planned to display it on this faux shiplap wall but it was SUPER heavy and the Hubs just wasn’t sure we’d be able to locate studs in the right spots to mount it securely. So when I spotted this baby on DecorSteals.com for $90 a few weeks before our trip I snapped one up and had it sent to my Mother-In-Law’s house since they wouldn’t ship to Alaska.

This one is smaller and much lighter than the authentic one we bought. Plus it comes apart into three sections so should I ever want to change things up I can use them separately without much effort. It looked so awesome with our holiday decor and my new farmhouse style sign fit perfectly inside the bottom curve.

I packed up all the Christmas decorations over the weekend and I’m still working on my ‘winter’ decor for January – March, so we’ll see how I decorate around this in the coming days. I’m considering adding two hanging lanterns or sconces on either side since the wall is so large, but I’ve got something else from our Portland trip going up on the wall where the barn wood angel hung for Christmas, so I want to wait until I get that up before I make a final decision, in case it would make the space too cluttered.

So you’re probably wondering what we’ll do with the large and expensive authentic windmill right? Don’t worry it will still get it’s due – I found a local buyer for it who wants to display it on a wall in her home. And since she’s buying it for what we paid, we’re breaking even on that attempt. Hopefully, she’s able to figure out a way to secure it well and enjoys it as much as I do this one.

We’ve also been working on another long-time-coming project recently – barn doors for the office! The Hubs built the doors over the Christmas weekend and sanded them down so now it’s up to me to finish them with stain or paint. I’m still debating on what the final choice will be but they should be done and installed this weekend so I can share them with you soon. 🙂

So it should come as no surprise that I’m a huge fan of the show Fixer Upper, and if you’ve watched it at all you know Joanna Gaines’ penchant for using windmills as wall art. I loved the look and decided to make the same happen in our home. Luckily, we have a fantastic local antique store who does picking trips across Canada and the lower 48. So when they asked if anyone was looking for something in particular I made sure my request got on the list. It must have been fate because they found one in Wisconsin! Unfortunately they didn’t have room to bring it back that trip, but they were able to store it at a partner’s warehouse until the next trip when they cut it in half and wedged it into the trailer with all their other found treasures.

Usually they have a big one day sale a few days after they return from each trip where the items they pick are available, but since it was a special pick just for me, I got to come pick it up as they were unloading. It’s definitely a large scale piece, measuring about 8′ wide and 4′ tall! The picture above is a shot of it on our big flatbed trailer in the yard. It’s so large that I had to take the photo vertically and rotate it because I couldn’t get high enough to fit the whole thing in the frame! Although they brought back the better half for me, it is missing half of two of the blades, but because they are in the center it doesn’t bother me much. And how can you not love the amazing patina this thing has?!

The plan is to mount this massive piece of rustic art on the dining room wall, which I’ve cleared in preparation. The small yellow stickie notes are an approximate of the size for reference. I’d like to have a white plank wall (another Fixer Upper inspiration) behind it so that has to happen first because I have no intention of making the hubs help me move and mount this mother more than once. He loves me, but I’m not sure he loves me enough for that! 😉 I’m hopeful that we’ll get that done before December so I can clip all the holiday cards we receive to it, but life might get in the way of that, so we’ll see.

For now I’ll just envision it there above the buffet, which includes a sneak peek of my fall decorating that I’ll be sharing soon – including a few DIY revamps! I’ll be sure to share both the plank wall install and final look with the windmill in place, so stay tuned!