I’m so excited to have finally finished decorating the interior walls of Osteria Al Vecchio Stallo. As I mentioned in the post about the picture frames, all of these are replicas of actual pictures in the restaurant.
In the real-life restaurant, there is a wide variety of horse tack on the walls, including collars, horseshoes, and some iron keys. As described in a previous post, I made the horse collars from polymer clay. I bought the set of horseshoes specifically for this purpose. The two keys, however, came with a pair of brass door knobs I bought for another shop, and I painted them black to resemble wrought iron. The cast iron skillet came with an old-fashioned stove I had in my childhood sweet shop dollhouse. I bought the copper pan and antiqued the bottom with copper Rub ‘n Buff and black acrylic paint. Those elements are all installed on handmade wire hooks that are glued into holes drilled into the wall. In the bottom right corner are a couple of photos of Chef Mario Mancini and his daughter Vittoria.
Above the window is more copper cookware, which I antiqued the same way. The cast iron shovel was part of the same set as the skillet. I tried antiquing the aluminum ladles with black paint, though they didn’t come out as intended. At least they don’t look quite so bright and shiny anymore. The beer stein was an afterthought, when I wasn’t satisfied with my original arrangement for the ladles and changed their position last minute, thus creating an awkward empty space. I don’t know where I got the beer stein, only that it’s been in my childhood miniature collection for decades. (I think perhaps it belonged to my mom once.) I was going to set the stein on the bar shelves but it fits here just as well. On the sides of the window are the mask and plate I made from polymer clay. Below those are a pair of coat hooks.
Above the bar are three ceramic plates I bought when I was scouring eBay for miniature horse-themed decorations.
I tacked the Friuli flag, newspaper clippings, family photos, and postcards to the wall with cut-off ends of jewelry head pins. (I reserved three of my postcards to eventually hang on the bar shelves.)
The bottom corners of the rainbow peace flag kept curling up, so I ended up tacking them down as well.
