Little Decor Details- adding age to a new room

Beth gave a brass door knocker to me for my birthday last May, and I had not used it yet.  When I was finishing up little things for the new room, and painting outlet covers and switch plates to match the walls, I decided to paint this too. It is now on the bathroom door, and gives the little grand fairies a lot of pleasure in BANGING  it when the room is occupied by one of the sisters.

On it, and on the vintage brass outlet covers, I used a spray bonding primer in white, let it dry, and then washed the pieces with the "sandcliff beige" color I'd used on accent walls.  Afterwards, all got a spritz of clear polyurethane.  

Nowhere I looked had a vintage 3 toggle switch plate.  So, I glued a little bit of old, metal trim onto a wooden plate, and painted it in the same way.  Not many of my electrical covers match, I have a few different styles, so it seems to fit in just fine.  I think it looks much better than the white plastic one that came from the electrician.  That was way, way too shiny and new in our old house. I did what I could to make the new addition look like it belonged with original the house. 

Like using vintage curtain fabric on the windows.

 And re-using this old, iron shelf that had previously  been in the kitchen. I debated hanging it up again (it is made from a chippy, iron porch rail and two rusty brackets, the rail is probably from the 40s and the brackets are new, but look old- plus they are birdies!!).  It had been over the dining room window for ten years or so, and I thought maybe I was over it.  But I realized that I'd enjoyed it for that long and still did, I was glad to add it back into the new room.

When I was a full time, antique dealer, my home felt like it had a revolving door on it.  Things were constantly changing and I was always finding something better than what I had before.  Stuff had stopped moving around as much as it used to, mostly it gets shuffled, not replaced anymore. 

I figured I might be getting boring.  And I shouldn't just reuse the same stuff over and over. 

Then, it dawned on me that I'd found pieces that I really liked keeping and there was nothing wrong with having some forever pieces.  Why get rid of them for the sake of change? I think I'd settled on these items because I loved them. And they all mix and match with other things I love in my cottage.

Also, as I unpack belongings, I am being picky about setting things out. Just because I own it, doesn't mean it needs to be out, right?  I can have goodies stored away to play switcheroo with when I feel like a change.  There still is a revolving door with stuff moving in and out, but now it is into a storage cabinet, not gone forever.