Swan Queen

I knew I wanted a statement piece to be visible as soon as you stepped into my cottage. As you enter the turret through the front door, you face an open doorway into the great room. Something amazing needed to be above that doorway to draw the eye up so that you see the incredible ceiling.

I found this swan bust at a local shop. I love that it looks like it’s been around forever and has some stories to tell. Although it looks vintage, it’s actually a concrete reproduction. I think I’ve seen the same one on Zulily’s website.

But the glorious gold ring with stars that I paired with it is a vintage French mirror frame.

It was pretty tarnished, so I gave it a bit of extra shimmer by rubbing a little DecoArt Metallic Lustre Wax in Gold Rush over the details. That made it shine again.

The frame was missing a couple of stars and one flower. I used my trusty Rusty Stars sprayed gold with RustOleum Metallic Spray Paint in Gold. They only have five points where the original stars have six, but once it’s up above the door I don’t think it will show much.

I filled in the gap where the flower was missing with a larger rusty star. I attached smaller stars and some chandelier crystals and positioned it at the bottom of the ring.

The swan came with a little metal crown. After a couple of years in my storage room, I found that two of the long pieces had broken off. I couldn’t reattach them without the glue showing, so I made an extra little gold crown to cover the mended spots. It was made from a scrap of the Metallic Ribbon we used on the turret ceiling.

Marcus hung the gold ring just above the doorway so that the dangling stars and crystals show a little bit when you are in the great room.

I told my framers I planned to hang something heavy above this doorway (the swan weighs almost fourteen pounds) and asked for extra studs in the wall. Apparently, it didn’t occur to them that I would want to hang it in the center of the doorway, because the stud was off by two inches. These guys made mistakes like that all over the house. It was terribly frustrating. Luckily Marcus figured out a way to put a wooden brace behind the swan so that she hangs in the middle of the doorway and is still anchored to a stud. And he did this on my birthday. Once again, Best Brother In Law Ever!