That one room

Hello all! I hope you had a lovely Mother’s Day! Mine was just wonderful, I am a lucky woman. So thankful!.

So there are times when I feel like decorating-wise this house is doing OK and over time I feel like it’s coming along nicely. And then there are “those” rooms that harass and taunt me for YEARS.

Our living room, or “front” room, is one of them. We have a very open floor plan, which you think you want and then you get it and realize you have, like, ZERO walls to work with. (And by the way, “you” means “me.”)

So this room is one of those, with only one wall to do anything with. We put a sofa on that big wall when we moved in and it’s stayed just because it fills the space and it’s comfy, even though I (now) really dislike the color.

Years ago (in my everything red and black phase) the room looked like this:

Nothing wrong with it, just not my style anymore. And I had always wanted to kind of pull things in more to make it more cozy.

I didn’t really accomplish that in the next phase, but I did start lightening things up:

See the pink walls? Yeah. Eight years I lived with those! I deserve a gold star. I’ll take a cookie!

The dresser didn’t last too long there – I found a small bookcase at HomeGoods that put in that spot instead, and I really liked how it fit right between the windows:

But I noticed something when I moved that bookcase at Christmas last year – I really liked it in the new spot (I scooched it over by the sofa). And then I put it back and every time I looked at it just felt really busy in that spot:

I’ve been planning to tone down the accessories on there for awhile, but it’s more than that. The drapes have a lot going on and combined with the shelves and all the stuff on them, it was just bugging me. So for months now I’ve been thinking I need to try scooching it again – and I got a wild hair this weekend and finally did it.

All I did was move the bookcase back to the “Christmas” spot and then put the chair over there:

The mirror was another HomeGoods find I’ve had for months – it was one of those rare finds I didn’t really have a spot for but knew I couldn’t pass up. I love it between the windows!

It just feels like that room can breath better now, you know? That silly spot between those two windows has been one of the hardest spot for me all these years! Such a goofy thing, but it’s driven me batty!

I can’t even decide if I want the chair turned in towards the sofa (like above) or facing out to the room:

First world problems here people.

There are still plenty of things that bug me about the room – it’s got two story windows and I love all the light (we need it in there) but it makes for a hard space to decorate. And with the one lone wall (without windows) and two honkin’ pillars in there, there are not many furniture layout options.

But I do love this small change! It just feels less busy and simpler to me. Here’s a different view of that spot last year with the pink(ish) walls and the bookcase:

And here it is with grayish walls and a simpler look now:

It didn’t cost any money, which is a bonus (most of my changes to that spot haven’t, thank goodness), and after staring at it for months it took all of ten minutes to move the bookcase and hang the mirror.

For now…I love it! ;) For. NOW.

Do you have a room/spot/wall between two windows that drives you fruit loopy? Do you change it with the wind like me? Or have you found a solution that finally works?

DIY art (reusing an old canvas)

Hello there! Happy start to another week! Can you believe it’s almost the end of July already?? Unreal. Today I’m sharing another project that I’m TOTALLY in love with. I’m totally in love with the price too – FREE. Awww. yeah.

When we had some of the downstairs walls repainted last month, I had to figure out what I was going to do with the large rectangles I had created with molding above the living room sofa (sorry about the old pic, I couldn’t find a newer shot):

I’ve had it up there for years so I was kind of feeling like a change, but I wasn’t sure what kind of change. Thing is, I knew if I left it as is then I did take the trim down later, I would end up with the pinkish wall color behind that molding that I would have to paint.

So to avoid that, I took all the trim down before they painted – I figured I could put it back up pretty easily if I wanted.

After the wall painting was done, it wasn’t long before I couldn’t handle the empty wall, so I went ahead with an idea that had been growing in my head for awhile. ;)

I had a large canvas art print I had purchased years and years ago on clearance that wasn’t really my style anymore. I almost took it to the consignment shop a while back, but decided to keep it with ideas of reworking it.

So rework it I did. :) I started by priming it a couple times:

Then I grabbed as many colors as I could find in my stash that worked with that room. I wanted mostly aqua and blue tones but also wanted to pull in the wall color in the room.

So the Bub and I opened them all up (I think we used seven colors total), and I would pour paint on the canvas (totally randomly) and he would paint:

At first I thought, what in the heck am I doing?? But then…the more we poured and brushed, the more it came together.

And I tell you what – it was FUN! We were making art! :)

I figured out about half way in that I needed to keep a “wet edge” on my paint brush –- otherwise the paint was pulling a bit the more I added to the canvas.

So I got a cup with water, and I would dip the brush in, then paint, and it went so much better. It kept the paint really smooth and easy to work with.

When we were done (and it was hard to stop!!), I couldn’t have been more pleased!

You can see on the left where it was pulling a bit, so the paint wasn’t as smooth. On the right, it’s more flowing:

And when all was said and done, I actually like the combo of the two textures. I totally meant to do that. ;)

I was trying to have the colors continue onto the sides perfectly, but I just ended up painting them when I was done:

I LOVE how it turned out – we are arteests!! ;)

The Bub thinks it looks like clouds (he kept telling me as we were working on it, which I thought was adorable). I think it looks like waves – either way I think it turned out pretty darn beautiful. :)

I love that the texture of the original art still shows through too:

Of course it’s not nearly as wide as the molding was, but I think it works well on that wall. At first I was going to make another large rectangle around it and paint it out white, so it “frames” it a bit. But now I’m not sure – I’ve decided I’m going to live with it as is (by itself) for a while and see what comes to me:

I may go ahead with the trim, I may do a couple large sconces? I’m not sure, but I know with time the right thing will pop in my brain. It may be years. ;) But until then, I’m enjoying it as is!

I can’t believe we created this – it’s so fun to tell people we painted it. :) I know I say this a lot, but this could NOT have been any easier to do this. There was absolutely no rhyme or reason to it – we just swiped the paint back and forth, added more, painted back and forth, over and over till it was covered. (And it’s not even covered perfectly.)

When there was too much of one color in one area, I just poured on another and brushed it in. Like I said – it was a BLAST. I truly enjoyed it. And may do it again. ;)

Have you ever created your own art? Did it turn out how you hoped it would? Better? Worse? :)

Pink walls, begone!

Heyyyyyya! I’m back to show you a HUGE change we made to the house a few weeks ago, and it was a very long time coming.

When we built more than eight years ago, we found out during the process that the builder would paint the interior walls for us if we wanted. Since our dining room, living room, loft and staircase are all connected, and all but the dining room have soaring ceilings (about 25 feet up at the tallest point), we jumped on that option big time. (For those spaces.) And the fact that they were going to paint it all for $600 (that we rolled into the mortgage) made it so we couldn’t pass it up.

We chose a color called Beechwood Grey by Porter and they were able to spray it on before floors or trim were installed (hence the cheap price).

Thing is, it wasn’t too long before I regretted our color choice. Sometimes it had more of a gray tone and I didn’t mind it. But other times it had a pinky hue that kind of drove me crazy. Eventually I no longer saw any grey, just PINK.

Pink as pink could be, pink.

And the kicker, beyond the color, was that they painted in flat paint. Flat paint has it’s place (ceilings!) and on big walls it can be a good idea, because it definitely hides imperfections in the wall.

But for all that is good, it is NOT a good idea on high traffic areas, like say…a staircase? A staircase wall that a little boy touched ever. single. time. he walked up the stairs as he was learning to climb them?

A staircase that showed every little smudge from every piece of furniture we’ve ever carried up the stairs:

 

Grody to the MAX.

Thing is, at least with the old flat paints (the newer ones are coming out with wipeable versions), you just can’t clean them. You could scrub all you want and it it won’t come clean. And then if it does come clean, you wipe off so much of the finish that it leaves a mark where you cleaned.

There’s no winning with it.

But we couldn’t just repaint those stair walls because a.) there’s no way the color would match perfectly b.) the walls are about 25 feet tall.

Uh, this girl? Not going up there. :)

So they sat there, all grody, and honestly I didn’t know that we’d ever be able to do anything about them. I just thought it would be too much to have them painted. But man, that staircase was looking AWFUL.

One day the guys that have been working on the basement took me to a house to show me how they had done something. While we were there they pointed out all the stuff they had done in the house, including painting a two story family room.

DING DING DING!!!

I had no idea they could do it, and it planted the seed.

So months later, we saved up the money (which turns out wasn’t even much more than we paid the builder!) and had it done and I AM SO HAPPY!!!!

The color is Analytical Gray by Sherwin Williams and I am head over heels in love with this color. Here it is in the dining room soon-to-be library:

(The top isn’t cut in because I will reinstall the crown up there eventually. The dining room transformation is coming along, more on that soon!)

Here’s that room with everything crammed in there as they painted – I had painted the dining room myself, but you can see where it stopped on the wall going to the front room:

I used to have a piece of trim up there so I could paint each room a different color. You can see that’s gone and I’ve since installed the wainscoting around into the dining room (above). Doesn’t it look so much better?? (And my money plant is growing like a weed!)

This is a LOVELY neutral color, beige mixed with just the right amount of gray. I think they call it “greige?” I call it perfect. :)

I took some before and after shots of the spaces to show you the difference this color has made. Here’s the living room window wall, before on the left, after on the right:

Oh my goodness, I can’t believe how pink those walls look now that I look at them in pictures!

Here’s the desk area in our living room, before on the left, after on the right:

The foyer/staircase area looks soooo different:

Wow. Pink.

Not sad to see ya go.

Here’s my favorite before and after:

Ah yessssss…the joys of an eggshell finish. I use eggshell pretty much everywhere in our house – it’s not too shiny, and it wipes up well. (Sometimes eggshell is called satin.)

And I like that it bounces the light around a little bit – I swear it makes the spaces brighter because it has a teensy bit of reflection to it. The flat just absorbed all the light and sucked it up into it’s dark, pink, flat chasm.

OK, drama. But for REAL my Squeezies. This is huge. I think this is one of the BEST changes we’ve made to our house – LOVE IT!!

I’ve already made a few other changes because of this one, so I’ll show you those over the next few weeks. WHOOO!

So do you have a go-to neutral paint color? It can be SO hard to find one that works for so many different spaces, like this one had to. If you’ve got one you love, please share!

P.S. Did I mention…WHOO?

P.P.S. You can see more on the rug in the dining room here!

Refreshing the living room

Hello there! I hope you had a fantastic weekend! It was a good one here – I got SO much done. And had some fun. Just the right mix. ;)

I’ve been making some changes to the living room over the past year or so and I am really loving how it’s coming along. I know living rooms are typically more “fancy,” but I don’t really want fancy in our house. It’s a big, open room so we spend quite a bit of time out there. The Bub plays in the living room more than he does any other room downstairs, so it needs to be comfy. Even though I don’t want fancy, I do like this space to have a little flair.

As some of you know, we got new hardwoods last fall, courtesy of a fridge leak and great insurance. (It so would not have happened otherwise.)

The floors made a HUGE difference in that space, but I’ve really wanted a rug all this time. I’ve been looking for MONTHS and I finally found the right one. I started with a cream rug back in January from World Market, and I loved it – but once I put it down I knew it was too small (6.9 by 9.6 I think). And the day I got it, a visitor came in with shoes on and I had some major sweats. I didn’t want to live worrying about the dirt that would show.

So it went back, and the floor has been bare again. :) I decided I wanted to go with a natural material like a jute, because it would hold up well and I love the look of them. But it was the feel I was worried about, so I researched a TON, read a lot of reviews and tested a few out in the stores.

And then I waited for a sale. ;)

Last week I got the ONE:

I went with the 8 by 10 size and it was on sale for just over $400 – one of the best deals I’ve found!

I loved that it was the natural look, but had two different colors and had just a slight design to it:

I was afraid a full jute rug would be the exact same color as our sofa and wash everything out, so when I got home with this one I realized it was a good call:

I have a very confusing relationship with that couch – I love that it’s nice and deep and the cushions are oh-so-comfy. I struggle big time with the color and the fabric. I would have had it recovered by now, the the back cushions are sewed on. NICE. I may still do it, I just need to check out my options.

AnyHOO…lately, I’ve decided to just work with the color, not against it. And that’s another reason I really, really like this rug. It pulls in the color of the couch and makes it not stand out as much.

It’s way softer than sisal, and softer than most jute rugs I’ve looked at. It’s not baby butt soft or anything, but it’s not bad at all to sit on (which is good for the kiddo):

And it’s like a little foot massage when you walk on it. :)

I love that keeps this room from getting too serious – the fringe on the ends helps with that:

The 8 by 10 size is perfect for this space – at first I had it running the opposite way, and it wasn’t right. It’s amazing how switching the direction of your rug can make a HUGE difference in a room! Try it. ;)

I like that it goes under the sofa just a bit:

You can see I don’t accessorize our coffee tables. (This one is from Garden Ridge.) Around here, a flat surface is a Lego surface, so really, there’s no point. :)

I put it under the sofa a bit because I didn’t want the rug to go under the desk chair on the other side of the room:

I don’t think I’ve shown you this desk yet! I got it about a year ago at HomeGoods and luuuuurve it. It’s such a pretty little piece. I have a plan to change it up a bit, but I’ve had that plan for almost a year now and it hasn’t happened yet soooooo, I’m showing you the desk. ;)

For years, a chair that went with the sofa sat in that corner. Lately I’ve wanted to try and create more “vignettes” in this space – it’s a big room with soaring ceilings and it didn’t feel cozy to me before. Now it feels so much warmer – I adore this desk and how different it makes the space look!:

I did a tiny bit of rearranging by moving the round table over in the corner:

For no other reason than I just wanted to move something around. ;) I never move furniture in our house, so even a little table feels like I did something BIG.     

So this space is one of my favorite before and afters. Early on it looked like this:

We really loved it at the time, just like everything in this house. I love (most) changes every step of the way, but it sure is fun to see how different the same room looks years later:

A couple of winters ago I started the process by adding new window treatments (that I made myself) and adding a dresser (that was in the Bub’s nursery) to brighten it up a bit:

And now it’s really come together:

It’s taken a few years of waiting for the right pieces and I’m SO glad I've been patient. Sometimes it’s a good thing it takes me forever and a day to do anything.

There’s still a BIG project I want to work on next, and it involves the walls. And ladders. OH MY.

I think picking out a rug is one of the hardest decorating choices, hands down. Do you? Part of it is the cost issue, but it’s also because they make a HUGE statement in a room!

**You can see how I made the terrariums on the desk here.
**Check out the DIY Pottery Barn pillows on the cheap here.
**And more about the bookcase here! 

Trimming out the drapes

Well hello! Hope you had a lovely weekend! I got a project done that’s been harassing me for months. Well, not really. It just seemed like the window in the living room that had been nekked forever was mocking me every time I walked by. And the extra fabric I bought six months ago to go on it was yelling at me to JUST GET IT DONE.

Sheesh. Chill out already!!

Anyway.

You might remember when I changed out the drapes in the living room. They absolutely transformed the room and brought it from the dark into the light!

Because I was trying to save some cost on the fabric, I ended up cutting each length of fabric in half and used the halves for the new drapes. (Instead of buying double the yardage, I just bought enough for one window and cut the fabric in half length-wise).

But the skinny skinny panels were starting to look pretty…well, skinny. Wordsmith, I know. ;) I hadn’t even lined them yet, so I waited on that to decide how I wanted to change them up.

I went back to Calico Corners hoping to find something that I could use on each side of the panels to beef them up a bit. I couldn’t find a solid fabric that worked, but I did find a stripe that matched perfectly:

Every color in the stripes is in the fabric and I couldn't believe how well it worked! Although I must say it had me a bit out of my comfort zone. But I wanted to try a little something different so I went with it.

Six months later. ;)

Turns out my DIY craft table in the basement is a PERFECT sewing table! Up till now I’ve been sewing upstairs in the guest room because it has great light. But I use an ironing board and it’s not exactly the best set up.

This worked great!:

I only got enough fabric for one window, knowing that I would cut it into four strips – two for each window. (There were exactly four sets of the stripes across the fabric.)

I thought sewing a straight line along straight lines would be pretty darn easy, but. no.

I’m here to tell you the lines that aren’t straight will NEVER be noticed after all is said and done. I promise. If the straight line eludes you and keeps you from trying to sew, please don’t let it!!

I sewed a strip of the stripe (huh?) on one side of print fabric, then lined them all (with lining I’ve also had forever).

I tried the stripe on the outside first, but liked it on the inside of the windows much better:

All of the colors on the striped fabric were a bit too much at first, so I just tucked some of it behind and clipped it back there with the drapery rings. I was not about to cut them down and resew them. SO not about to.

I absolutely LOVE the bit of contrast along the insides of the drapes:

The dark blue green color pops, and the lighter green beside that kind of disappears in the light coming through the window.

I still can’t believe how perfectly the colors matched!

I wanted to add a little somethin’ to the windows and it turned out better than I had even hoped:

I even notice them more now – that little bit of color made a big difference!

I’ve been changing things up in here over the past year, and there’s still a few more projects in the works. One BIG, one medium one and one kind of easy one. ;)

That’s what I say now anyway.

If you’ve been around long you know I love to look back. Early last year the room was dark with lots of black and red:

Wow, what a difference a year makes!

The room looks completely different now – and the wall color and the sofa haven’t even changed. I’m LOVING all the color in this room now!:

The floors don’t hurt one bit either. ;)

Now I just need to find a stinkin’ rug that doesn’t cost a thousand stinkin’ bucks. I was thinking a large print at first, but now I’m leaning toward something very neutral. The colors in the drapes and accessories are plenty!

Stay tuned for more updates…hopefully it won’t take me another six months. I make no promises.

P.S. I’m honored that someone thought to nominate TDC over at the Apartment Therapy Homies!:

I don’t ask this often, but I would love your vote! You can go here to do just that if you want. :) THANK YOU!