Threshold in the foyer

Well hello all! Hope your weekend was lovely!! I’m pleased to say the basement storage room is organized and CLEAN and there is no sign of the mice! WHOO HOO! It took forever, seriously. I’m sure I’ll share it’s organized bliss with you soon.

Today I’m kicking off a fun little shindig I’ve got going…I’m pinching myself because I’m partnering up with Target over the next few months to show off some of their new items in the Threshold line. Have you seen it? Do you LOVE it?? Of course you do, it’s awesome. (And I’m not just saying that, I’ve been drooling over it for months.)

Target calls this line of decor a “casual-traditional look” and when I read that I was like – bingo, that’s my style! That may explain why I like it so much. You’ve probably seen the brand popping up for the past few months, but it’s about to get even better!

They challenged us to spruce up the foyer this month and I’m so stinkin’ happy with how it turned out! You may remember how I changed up the black buffet in our entryway to the beautiful aubusson blue last month:

I think that was one of the best decorating decisions I’ve ever made by the way – it makes SUCH a statement now.

Well there’s an area off the the right of that buffet that I consider still part of our foyer, but it’s an odd little spot. It’s right by the stairs, kind of in the dining area, but it’s still part of the entry into the house.

It’s one of those spots I’ve struggled with for years now. Over the past year or so I’ve had a settee and a wall of old vintage windows on the wall, but with the blue on the dresser the settee looked all wrong, so it got moved up to the master bedroom.

I had an idea to lighten up the spot and replace it, and I started with a trip to Target. Who doesn’t? :) I knew I wanted a little bench or stool, so I headed to this aisle:

I loved this dark brown one – it was uber sophisticated and had TONS of storage space inside:

 

But it was too big and a little too dark for what I was going for.

I also loved this one, with the dark wood legs and the tufted top:

It had storage too, that seat lifted up! But it was too modern for what I wanted.

THEN. I found her. The one:

She’s a she cause of her pretty little (short) legs and tufted top and of course…nail head trim. Add in plenty of storage inside and I was in luuurve.

I brought her home with me and then started a little redo to finish off the spot. I grabbed a chair I bought at Goodwill eons ago that has been sitting in our closet:

I painted it and recovered the seat forever ago and my plan was that it would be a nice little spot to sit to put on shoes or socks in our closet. Instead it became a spot to pile purses and clothes on three feet high sooooo…it came out.

It’s SO easy to recover a seat like this! If you haven’t attempted it I promise you can do it! Just cut your fabric down so it’s big enough to wrap around the edges and then start stapling:

I usually start on one side, staple, go to the other side, staple, and work my way around, pulling the fabric tight as I go.

The corners get a ton of staples – start with one:

And then staple the heck out of it to get a nice little corner:

Remember, NO ONE will see it. I promise. Unless they’re a freakity freak who looks under your chairs. But then do you really want them in your house anyway? Staple away.

I used the fabric to trim out the drapes in our living room near this spot, so pulling it over to this area worked out perfectly! I added one of my placemat pillows that used to sit on the settee, and I LOVE how it came together:

Yes, that was a placemat – I filled it up and then sewed a button in the middle to give it a little tuft. :)

I had been eyeing this Threshold mirrored tray like mad every time I went in to Target, so I finally picked it up for this spot:

Love it!

I’m not big into the decorating with bugs trend – like the vintage prints I see for example. I think they are beautiful but also think it would freak me out to have them in my house. This little votive holder I couldn't resist though:

You only see really see the image when there’s a candle inside, I just thought it was cool and I loved the bright yellow. (I used an LED votive in mine.)

I like using things differently from their intended purpose, so I used a blue votive holder and a green glass as vases:

It was all coming together beautifully, I was SO happy. But those vintage windows hanging above were just feeling so heavy. That wall has always stumped me because it’s big but I couldn’t do a mirror (there’s one above the buffet), I couldn’t do a gallery wall (one on the staircase right next to it). So what the heck do you put there that’s big but not heavy feeling?

I looked over above the sofa at my DIY painting and knew it would be PERFECT!:

It was too small for above the sofa anyway, so this works out even better. (And now the wall above the sofa is now completely empty, but I’m OK with it. For a while.)

I LOVE how it pulls in the color of the buffet – it was like it was meant to be!:

Crazy.

I don’t move furniture around much in this house but the accessories and art get moved around constantly.

Now it’s so much calmer in this spot – it works well with the area to the left and with the stairs…I felt like it was all fighting before:

We’ve moved most of the Bub’s toys to the basement, but I did keep some of them up in this bench. Things like foam swords that him and his buddies need quickly when they’re playing outside. You don’t how how often I hear “MOMMA, I need my swords!!”

It happened just the other day because we’ve had some days that feel like spring is here…they are brief but they get me excited. I love how bright this spot is now, and that there is so much color!

Funny how our tastes change. Six years ago this would all have been red and black. Five years from now it may be all white. But for now I’m a big fan of color in our home, it makes me happy. Especially this time of year!

So are you getting the spring bug yet? Do you decorate differently when the temps start to warm up? Are you obsessed with the Threshold line at Target too? Here’s a little tidbit – the full line isn’t even out yet! It will all be released in March and I cannot wait to see what else they have in store! (In store…get it? Har.) So do you like my Threshold items in my threshold?

OK, I’m done. :)

Aubusson Blue in the foyer

Hey there!! Hope you had a great weekend! We got a lot done which always feels good. We got so much done that I was laying down yesterday afternoon, contemplating a nap…but this project kept nagging at me. I’ve been wanting to get this done FOREVER.

And now it is. Done. ;)

I’ve shown you our foyer a million times, most recently right around Thanksgiving: 

I’ve mentioned once or a hundred times that I wanted to paint that buffet. I am tired of all the black dressers in our house! Thing is, many of them have come from the same source. I bought this one and at least one other from a Craigslist seller. She finds some great pieces and paints them all black.

The one in my office will stay black, just because I love it so very much as is. This one in the foyer  just needed something, especially right by that black front door.

So something it got…in the form of Aubusson Blue chalk paint:

I have loved this color from the first time I saw it last year and knew I wanted to use it in my house somewhere. I’m pretty much obsessed with deep, rich blues right now. Which is funny because five years ago you couldn’t find blue anywhere around here.

The great thing about chalk paint is the no sanding/no priming part. I did sand this down a bit though, because the paint was really rough in some spots --  it’s always bothered me:

  

I hate sanding but I did it super fast – like two minutes for the whole piece – just the spots that felt rough on the doors and drawer fronts.

After a wipe down, I was ready to go and was super excited to see how well the paint went on:

I realized pretty quick I was going to get away with just one coat and I was stoked! Whoo!! Thing is, I wasn’t perfect about it – I didn’t mind seeing a hint of the black coming through. That was my goal really. I did a good coat, and if I was a perfectionist I would have gone back for another, but I’m not. So I didn’t. :)

I decided to rough up the top with sandpaper too, because I keep a lot of my tools in this dresser and I am not gentle to the top of it:

I figured a quick sanding never hurts. I did just one coat of the blue on the top too. I was thinking of some fun way to do the dresser – maybe two tone, maybe sanding down the top and staining it…but I just wanted this done and really? I’m just a simple girl at heart. Paint it and done.

Well, paint it and then wax it that is. I have tried both the Annie Sloan and CeCe Caldwell wax and I like the latter just a bit more –- it’s just a tad lighter and easier to work with in my opinion:

I wiped it on (like I showed you here) and then buffed it off well – but I think too well. The top is still chalky when stuff hits it so I need at least one more good coat. I’m always afraid to leave any kind of film for fear it won’t dry well, so I take a lot off.

Here’s the deal. This chalk paint stuff is expensive. But get this…it lasts forEVER. And I can promise you there is NO way I would have been able to cover something like this with one coat in regular latex. Just no way.

Here’s proof that it lasts forever – this is all I used:

You can compare that to the pic of the new paint can above. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Crazy eh? So in my mind, the ease of use (no primer) and the great coverage makes it worth it to me to splurge every once and a while. Now I just need to decide what else I’m painting this color! :)

I absolutely ADORE how it came out:

It’s fun and pretty and I love it in the foyer – it makes me happy that visitors will see this first thing when the walk in!

I did quite a bit of distressing, just so it didn’t look perfect – cause things don’t stay perfect around here anyway so I just helped it along. I just did the edges and raised parts with some sand paper – the areas that normally get wear over time.

I pulled from all over the house to accessorize:

    

I want to redo that whole gallery above the dresser, but it’s funny how well that blue ties in to the art above. I did a super fast coat of the blue on the bottom frame to ground that a little bit too.

And I love that it ties in to our DIY art in the reflection:

So pretty!! I just love how it turned out!

Now…onto the tile in the foyer! I’m more determined to replace that now more than ever.

Doesn’t it look like spring to you? It does me:

Mother Nature is determined to remind us it’s a long way off though – it is absolutely freezing here today!

Again, here are the details on this project:

Color/paint: Aubusson Blue, Annie Sloan Chalk Paint
Protective wax: CeCe Caldwell clear wax
Painted with a wide angled brush.

You can see my other chalk paint adventures here and here!

So are you a chalk paint fan? Have you made your own? I’m still wanting to try that out too.

Reindeer vignette in the foyer

Hello there! First of all, thanks for all the well wishes here and on Facebook! I really appreciate it.

I felt pretty good this morning and threw together a little vignette for Rhoda’s party – the next in our holiday home series:

I had grand plans for putting together a pretty vignette this weekend, but then the sickness hit and it just didn’t happen. When I say I threw this together, I mean it – and just so you know, I don’t say that in a braggy way, I say that so you know that it doesn't always need to take a lot of stuff and a lot of time to put a little something together!

I started with these cute particle board reindeer I picked up at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago:

I’ve bought very little new Christmas decor this year, and actually plan to get rid of a bunch more (it seems I cut my stash by a third every year). But these were just too darn cute to pass up. Each one was $6 and I got them half off, so $9 for all three.

It took about three minutes to put them together, and they were MUCH bigger than I thought they would be, so I only ended up using two. If you need something big to fill a spot these would be perfect!

I set them up on our front foyer buffet and then was on the search for stuff to fill in the empty spots. I started with some clips of some real greenery, and then thought of these cute light bulbs I’ve had forever:

A friend gave me strands of these lights years ago because most of them were out. I LOVED the bright round bulbs, so I took each one off and saved them.

And then didn’t know what to do with them. ;)

Last year that were just placed in the glass candleholders, this year I have new plans for at most of them.

The others I just nestled into the greenery around the reindeer:

I wanted this to be a fun little vignette, nothing too serious. The bright bulbs were the perfect addition.

I added a flocked tree I picked up last year for some height and was pretty tickled with the result:

It was cheap and easy and I had everything on hand. And it was QUICK – the most important thing to this girl (points to self with both thumbs) this week. :)

I LOVE these reindeer with their bright houndstooth!  I only used two – there was a brown one too but like I said, they were much bigger than I thought they would be:

They even have a little bit of glitter around all the edges. And the best part – they come apart and store away flat – brilliant!

Our musical advent calendar sits at the other end of the buffet:

We got it from Costco and the Bub LOVES it. When you open the little doors the music comes on and the little vignette lights up and moves. So adorable.

So there you go – it’s not the most amazing vignette ever, but it’s cute and colorful and that’s what I want guests to see when they walk in our home this season. It makes me smile, especially those houndstooth reindeer. ;)

Can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with over at Rhoda’s today! And don’t forget my annual Christmas tree party coming up on Thursday! Can’t WAIT!

Binding to get the perfect rug

Hey hey! Whazzzzup.

OK, I’ve been meaning to post about this little tip for months and months and just…I don’t know…didn't. And then a friend told me about the rug sale at Rugs USA yesterday (75 percent off people! GO. After you read this post!) and I found two rugs (crossing fingers they work) for hecka cheap, and then another friend mentioned she was bummed she couldn’t find any runners that were the right size for her space.

So THEN I told her about this little tip and realized I need to just post about it and share it with you all!

So say you have an awkward space, like our foyer that I showed you last week:

I know it doesn’t look awkward, but I’ve ALWAYs struggled with the right size rug for this spot. Before we had the buffet piece in there, it wasn’t as hard. But after, when I wanted something long and skinny, but not too long, that’s when it got harder. A 4 x 6 rug would have to go under the buffet which looked odd to me, a 3 x 5 just kind of floated around and looked weird, and a regular runner (about 2 1/2 by 8 feet) was too long.

We can’t have a rug up by the door because there's not enough clearance under it – by the way – if you are looking for a rug for an exterior door, make sure to check that. In my decorating days many a client would have to send back beautiful rugs they had searched for for weeks because the door wouldn't clear it. (Interior doors can be cut down pretty easily so it’s not as big of an issue there.)

So anyhoo, last year we needed a new rug for the foyer, and my long, arduous search began again. I finally found a runner I liked at Burlington Coat Factory:

It was too long though, so I decided to try out a little trick I had learned long ago.

Did you know you can have rugs cut down and binded to fit your space?:

Mine was eight feet, so I had two feet cut off and the one edge binded. I took mine to a local carpet store to do it. It’s been so long I can’t remember what the cost was, I think $30? My rug was a steal so it was worth it to me to do.

And I’ve seen that you can do this on your own, but I’ve never attempted it. If you have, let us know!

Only thing is you need to be specific with the carpet folks about the kind of binding you want. They did mine so that the “new” end looks different than the other:

 

I was going to take it back but then later decided it’s not a big deal. No one but me notices it. And you know if they did…THEY’D GET A COOKIE.

I think it’s cheaper to have it done another way, where they kind of use the fabric stuff to close off the rough edge, instead of the thick thread. I know that probably doesn’t make sense, but look at some of your rugs and you’ll see what I mean.

Or not. ;)

So anyway, be specific about how you want it to look. I wasn’t.

But now we can open our door and have a spot to wipe our shoes – both good things:

The other great thing about this is that you can pick up carpet remnants from store and have them bound as well – so if you need a huge rug and don’t want to spend $1,000 and up, check out the remnants and have them bound! (Remnants are usually a fraction of the price of the carpet off the roll.) This is also great when you need an odd sized rug – say 10 by 14 or something like that.

Awesome eh?? I like it, I do.

Just do a web search for carpet stores or carpet binding near you and I’m betting something will come up.

I think picking out a rug is just about one of the hardest decor decisions to make – it’s usually an investment, it is a BIG statement in the room so it has to be the right color/design and it can be hard to figure out the right size.

Rugs USA has extended their 75 percent off sale by the way – check it out here. My charcoal rug in the family room is available here too! And no, I’m not being paid to tell you this, it’s just an AWESOME sale. :)

Show Us Your Foyers and Mud Rooms!

Hey all! How was your weekend? It was lovely here and I got most of the outdoor decor up. Just a couple more strands of lights and we’re done! (And it’s supposed to be near 60 all week – crazy!) It’s SO nice to have it up before the cold hits!

Today we’re continuing with another space in our house tour that we’ve had going all year – this month was supposed to be just foyers, but I’m adding in mud rooms as well. We’ll finish up with laundry rooms next month. :)

We recently changed up our laundry/mud room by moving the washer and dryer to the new laundry in the basement, so we have a dedicated space for our mud room off the garage now. Let. me. tell. you. It is AWESOME. It still has no storage, the baseboards have been torn out (for a YEAR), the walls need paint badly, but it doesn't matter. We luuuuuurve it!!

It’s a long way off from looking cute again, but at this point I don’t care:

There’s MUCH to be said for just being able to walk through a space!! :)

Our entry way has cathedral ceilings and is just a tiled area open to the rest of the house. I found some old pics to show how the space has changed over the years – first, just after we moved in when I installed the wainscoting:

And then with a new rug, a little table and some art:

Notice the pink walls? Yeah, they were everywhere. SO GLAD to be rid of them!

I added a Craigslist dresser a couple years ago and not much has changed since:

One of the big projects I’d like to tackle next year is the tile:

It’s a gray tile that we picked out to go with those lovely pink walls so it comes across a little purple. We could have taken some of the tile out and extended the wood floors last fall, but I thought it would be best to keep the tile there for the winters. I didn’t want to stress about wet shoes/boots and snow on the wood floors. I’d love to do a creamy tile in a brick pattern perhaps?

I painted the inside of the door black last year (I showed you the how-to here):

I still plan on painting all of our interior doors darker – I love the look! That project is 349 on the long list. ;)

That dresser will get a paint job soon too – the black looks a little heavy for me now. I’m just waiting till I decide on the perfect color. It’s always a fun spot to decorate – right now it’s super simple with fall-inspired decor:

You can see more of how the foyer has changed over time here!

Now I can’t wait to see your entryways – foyers, hallways, mud rooms – whatever you make functional for your family!

If you’d like to be considered for an upcoming highlight post, please add a link or this button to your post:

<div align="center"><a href="http://thriftydecorchick.com/" title="Show Us Your House" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/image34.png" alt="Thrifty Decor Chick" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Now go ahead and link it up!