fleur de lis

I have been carrying around this huge piece of wood for years - one of those rare architectural finds I was so happy to come across. Years ago I found it at this great antique store, which was filled to the brim with stuff. I had dig through everything just to see what was what. The piece came out of an old barn that was being torn down. It is heavy and it must weigh at least 50lbs, but I somehow convinced my very loving husband to hang it up for me over the weekend. He did it very securely so it would not fall on any one's head and kill them! Not a very easy task.

When I got it, it was just a very dark wood color and I thought it would look great painted so the fleur de lis pattern would stand out better. So I painted it teal and haven't touched it up since. You may recognize it, I've used it on my blog and on other images over the last few years as a kind of logo. It is amazing to see the pictures and how different it looks when you see it on a wall and not just cropped down as an "image".

We hung it  in our sitting room that is just off of our kitchen. We have an old window in the kitchen that looks out into the room and it has made such a difference seeing it out there now hung up. Because it is such a great size, it makes a big presence in the room. I love old architectural pieces, they are really a great find that have such a great history behind them.