Rescued and Restored

Psalms 51:12 (KJV)
"Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a free spirit."
I'm not an early riser since I typically stay up late. That's when creativity decides to visit! But when I do finally decide it's time to begin my day, I am welcomed by the sunlit living area with french doors and floor to ceiling windows that look out to the water. My living room, sitting area and kitchen all open up into the majority of the downstairs. This is where my passion begins! The decorating (nesting) of my home. As I walk through the house in my blog, I see things in a different respect. Although it's taken several years for my decor to take shape, it never really seems finished. Perhaps that' the creative side. Perhaps it's just the indecisive nature of a woman. At any rate, it keeps my mind active with projects and innovative ways to create something that is different. Something that makes people say, "How clever is that!" when they walk around my home.
I'm by no means a tree hugging, environmentalist, but I do like to take something that appears useless to most and make it useful again. It's a challenge more than an obligation to "save the earth". The earth has its destiny mapped out in Revelation, and I know that God's plan is inevitable - and a promise. That's another blog altogether. So, that leaves me with the satisfaction of making something old, new again. My earlier post spoke of how I love to treasure hunt. Well, that's where I find much of my inspiration and the fun things that become transformed into what I call home decor. I must add that I do find many treasure on the side of the road as well. Momma got to experience a true dumpster dive when I found a wing back chair. Hey, the bones were good and the chair is fabulous.
So back to the living area. Even though the floor is tiled (for now!), the open floor plan works well with the soft color palate. I divided the area and made a sitting/music room in a smaller area. Two of the main features of the sitting room are a sofa and an upright piano. Not just any sofa or piano. Yep, you guessed it! Both were rescued and restored.
The piano was my Larry's when we married. It was rescued many years ago from a barn that had burned. The piano was salvaged unharmed. He's had it now for many years. I love to hear it played although I can't play a lick myself. My Momma makes it sound heavenly when she lays her fingers to the old worn keys. It has a few ivories missing, but the sound is lovely still. In order to fashion it to my decor, I painted it white and added a mosaic motif with a treble and bass clef, along with musical notes on lines across the upright portion. Pastel colored tiles and broken mosaic pieces form the pattern. I also painted and embellished a saxophone (found on the side of the road), flute, violin, trumpet, bugle, and my daughter Holly's clarinet, in soft hues of blue, pink, yellow and green. I hung them on the wall from ribbon and placed a ukulele, pink guitar (from my nephew Kyle), and a harpsichord around to fill the area with music to inspire every whim.
There are two chairs that my daughter and son-in-law, Nichol and Jeremy, helped me retrieve from a hotel being renovated. The chairs were disgusting when we brought them home, so I stripped them to bare bones and left them on the upper deck for a few weeks to air out. Then I reupholstered them with some of my favorite shabby chic sheets from Target. (I do love Rachel Ashwell's shabby chic!). The result? Two fine looking and might I add - free - comfy chairs.
The second main feature is the sofa. This isn't just any sofa - it is "the" sofa. For several reasons. One, it was a serendipitous find from my brother Joey who worked for a moving company in Memphis at the time. Two, it was left for the men to dispose of when Joey called and said he had found the perfect couch for my Victorian home I had just bought in midtown Memphis. It is a Duncan Phyfe (late 1800/early 1900) pink (originally and reupholstered) two cushion beauty. Three, it was pink (and still is). And, it was built around the same time my house in Memphis was. When horse and carriages roamed the dusty streets that are now paved and busy with a life fashioned to this century. This sofa is one of two pieces of furniture in my home that I will never get rid of. What once was someone else's heirloom, is now mine.
All of these rescued and restored pieces brings me back to God's plan for our lives. I am rescued and restored. I was born in sin and left for disposal until I accepted Christ as my personal Savior. Like King David said in Psalms 51:12, I repented of my sin and received the promise of the Lord that He would, "restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with a free spirit." See Momma, a free spirit is a good thing! I also look at the book of Job 20:10, and realize that, as a child of God, I will "seek to please the poor, and my hands will restore their goods."
I've shared my rescue and restored goods with you, what have you rescued and/or restored? Branch out! Use you imagination! Give something that is left to be disposed of, another life. It may be you, let the Lord restore and rescue you.