Raising the Bar

A few months ago, I was reading Elements of Style (one of my favorite blogs) and Erin post this.  It featured various bars, one being the one below that was for sale on ebay.  I, like Erin, have always thought a well appointed home should have a bar and when I saw this one I flipped!  First of all, I was drooling over the fantastic bamboo detailing.  But most importantly, there was a chance this bar could be mine, as it was available for local pick-up only in Wisconsin!  I was living in San Francisco at the time, but I immediately sent the link to my dad and said "you must get this it is amazing!!"  He said that he would keep his eye on the bidding... and being the sweet guy that he is, won the bar for me.  I was SO excited, however, I was obviously not going to be able to get this baby out to SF.  So he held onto it for me and Peter and I hauled it to Madison last week. 

I knew that I wanted to give it a fresh coat of paint and as you might expect, I went with a glossy white.  Here is the result...

The whole painting process took about six hours - blah.  But I absolutely love the result and the hard work was definitely worth it!  I am thinking about changing out the hardware, but I want to see it against the new silvery-gray walls before making a decision.  What do you think?

-MLL