A few updates – pendant light progress, desk accent decision and new desk chair fabric swatches

So far, I have completed the first (and largest) ring and am ready to assemble the next ring.

And I have seven more rings finished and ready to assemble.

I have both colors fully painted and gilded. I still need to drill holes and attach them to the rings.

And then I had four colors painted on the front, but the back and front needed gold plating. Then I need to drill holes and attach them to the rings.

And then I have one color painted on the front, the back is plated, but the front is plated before I can drill the holes and attach them to the rings.

So there’s still some work to do, but I passed the halfway point a while ago. I hope to have a complete pendant light in the next few days.

Now go to the desk. As many people have suggested, I looked around to see what I could find locally for my desk makeover. I found Target panels and a Kirkland panel locally, but they didn’t do anything for me. Then at Hobby Lobby, I found this panel that I really like, but the middle part (ie, the actual decorative part) is made of very thin wood. I also don’t think it’s 1/4-inch thick, which means it breaks very easily.

But look what I found and bought!

As soon as I saw these I thought they might be perfect. They resemble dark green leaves in a wallpaper mural.

I like it! These look like they were made for my desk! Well, kind of. I absolutely love the design and I think they will be perfect once they are incorporated into the design and everything is painted the same color.

But, as you can see here, the cutout design is an inch too short.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it, but I’ll do something. Because these are too perfect to pass up!

Finally, let’s talk about desk chair fabric. My last round of samples didn’t really work. I soon realized that green was not the right color for my desk chair. So last week when I was having lunch with my mom, we talked about some other possibilities. She suggested looking for a solid fabric in a dark color over my favorite striped fabric.

I love that idea! Instead of going for a contrasting color, I love the idea of ​​making the chair the same color as the cabinets but a darker shade. So I ordered every dark rose red velvet sample I could find from KOVI. Obviously, one of them is immediately “no”.

That leaves me with these four options. They are all very similar, but there are very subtle differences.

I liked them all, but the one on the left seemed the most true red to me. It seemed too harsh against the cabinets.

So then I was down to three and tried to decide which one would look best not only with the cabinets, but with the dark red over the pendant light. My eye kept going towards the middle swatch.

I’ll show you a close up of each one. The swatch on the right has some variation in color that almost makes it look velvety shiny, but it’s not.

It keeps catching my eye. It has a texture reminiscent of a small, micro corduroy.

And then there’s the left swatch, which has more pink than the middle one.

So it came down to these three. Whatever I choose, I’m going to cover the entire chair in this fabric, then add white piping and a white three-letter monogram to the center back of the front chair (ie, where my head is). I am so excited about this idea! But I have to make a decision about the fabric. As of this moment, the one in the middle is the winner for me.