Lately I’ve had a few moments that made me think, “this is not ideal.” We like to share the good, the bad, and the ugly here, so here are three recent oops-worthy situations—two small mishaps and one more serious concern.
The first started when I spotted a page in Domino magazine that mixed black and white frames, which inspired me to add some black frames to the grouping above our TV. I was even leaning toward darker mats and art at first.
To avoid painting or committing to anything permanent, I decided to try black electrical tape on the front edges of a few frames to “get the look.”
After about thirty minutes I had frames with bold black fronts and a nice contrast with the white sides. I even cut the tape into eight 3-inch strips to create corner detail on one frame.
For a little while I felt proud—those frames helped tie in the dark TV and looked intentional.
Then, after a few days, the tape started puckering, peeling, and generally looking terrible. Apparently electrical tape isn’t meant for decorative front-facing applications: it shrinks and lifts at the corners, eventually peeling off and falling in a mess. Some frames detached entirely within days. Worse, the chalky white matte frames developed black smudges from the tape. Goo Gone didn’t help much, so I’m planning to try a Magic Eraser next; if that fails, I’ll repaint those frames to restore them.
Lesson learned: washi tape, black paint, or contact paper would have been safer choices. Electrical tape = no bueno.
Next up: our beloved transplanted maple. We’ve moved this little offshoot from John’s childhood home with us through three houses. When we last wrote about it, it was doing great and looked like this:
A few weeks later we noticed the maple looked less full—nibbled, especially on the lower branches. We never caught the deer in the act, but it seemed they were having brunch on our tree. Not wanting to lose it, we bought black netting from Home Depot and draped it over the tree. We’d asked neighbors what worked; most deterrents (human hair, soap, sprays, even animal urine) had failed for them, but black netting had been effective in the neighborhood.
Thankfully, the netting seems to have done the trick: the deer have lost interest, and the net is nearly invisible unless you’re inches away from the tree. So far, so good.
There are plenty of larger maples in our neighborhood that the deer ignore because they can’t reach the higher branches. We’re hopeful that in a few years our tree will be tall enough to escape nibblers and we can remove the net.
The third and biggest issue was a lead scare in our dining room. Something told me to test the doors with metal frames around the glass panes—there had been a faint black powdery dust in the cabinets when I cleaned them after moving in, and that raised a red flag about potential lead dust. Even though we don’t use those cabinets often, I didn’t want to risk any lead exposure.
We used an inexpensive lead test kit from Home Depot: snap, shake, and rub the tip on the surface. I was careful not to touch the metal grates directly, so I let the testing stick contact them for me. Within seconds the test turned neon red—positive for lead. That moment was a mix of “I knew it” and “yikes, wash your hands even if you didn’t touch it.”
John removed the doors and placed them in a corner of the garage that Clara and Burger cannot access. We’re hoping to find an antiques vendor experienced with lead who can safely handle or restore them rather than sending them straight to hazardous waste. In general, painting over lead paint can seal it in, but because we saw black dust in the cabinets, we didn’t want to risk contamination of dishes or inhalation of dust. The main routes to lead poisoning are ingestion and inhalation, so we chose to err on the side of caution.
Update: John cleaned the shelves, floor, and surrounding walls with TSP to remove any residual dust. We also researched lead safety and testing protocols to make sure we followed recommended precautions.
We still like the look of corner built-ins without doors, so we may convert those cabinets someday. For now, it’s reassuring to know there’s no hidden lead dust lurking in the dining room. Any oops moments at your place lately? Are you reaching for netting, Magic Erasers, or something more serious to solve them? Do mishaps come in threes for you too?