living room...

Linking:


My living room is pretty small and feels really small when all 8 of us are in there. But I like to think of it as cozy and I don't mind being squished on the couch with my kids.

Of course this is a work in progress.


I would like to get a new coffee table, I'm going to be redoing the black lamp and adding black ribbon to the white linen curtains. I would also like to redo the dropcloth slipcover on the chair. Well actually I would just like to replace the chair.



I'm still loving my Ikea rug and my Ektorp couch/sofa. I find it really comfortable.

The living room opens to the dining room so it does make it feel bigger.

curtains...

Remember my curtain fail?

Well I finally made it to the fabric store to see if there was any fabric I liked enough to make new ones. I HATE making curtains for some reason. I think because it's boring sewing rectangles.

As I was wondering the aisles I found the perfect fabric.


However, there was a problem. It was $45 a yard. Yikes! But it was 50% off. Still not good but no other fabric would do. I calculated that I would need 6 yards. Um, no. Way too much money. So I decided to get 2.5 yards and just make shorter panels. I don't like the look of the shorter panels but I also didn't want to spend a ton of money. Plus these curtains are in the dining room and full length panels always got dirty and trapped food behind them. A bonus is you can see the board and batten wall better. Does it sound like I'm trying to hard to justify them? Well I am.

I decided to stretch the fabric further (I actually needed 3 yards), so I went to the quilting section and bought a cheap fabric that would match to make the top part of the curtain.

Want to see them? Wow! My dining room is actually clean. It doesn't normally look like this.



I used every inch of both fabrics to make them. I love the how the fabric on top matches but doesn't. Well of course I do, I planned it that way.


The new fabric pulls the colors of my Ikea rug in my living room. The rooms are open to one another.

I ordered a stencil for the dining room walls so I will show more pictures when that project is done. Most likely in a few months. Ha-ha.

new to me...

Last night we went to pick up our new to us Ikea couch via Craigslist. It is in almost new condition and surprisingly comfortable. Of course I won't let anyone sit on it and jumping on it is out of the question! Or at least until tomorrow.

I'm used to my red couch and beige seems so boring. I may have to buy a green slipcover like this one or the gray one, *swoon*. They are only a little over $150.

We're trying to sell our couch to pay for this one. What I really want is a sectional but maybe at the next house.

tweaking...

We ordered our new countertops today and I'm so excited. We're getting Formica laminate in a black basalt color. The quote was very reasonable and got even more reasonable when we agreed to do the tear out and remove appliances and disconnect plumbing. It saved us over half. So now I have to wait 4 weeks for them to come in. Meanwhile I will get started on painting the inside of the cabinets and priming the outside.

In other news, I've been tweaking the house. Our new mantle stain just didn't have enough red in it so I put another coat of a cherry stain right on top and bam! perfection.

Before:


After




Then I found a cute basket and mirror at Goodwill and hung them on my clock wall. I need more of them so hopefully I can find more at Goodwill.



and finally the stenciled dining room was bugging me. It was all too "hello, I'm stenciled, can you see me?" so I painted over it, stenciled it with a smaller stencil and used paint that was slightly lighter then the wall color.

Oh and I also sold the buffet on Craigslist because it was too big for the space and I wanted the money for countertops.

Before:


After:




So now I'm off to teach my kids their school for the day and then clean out kitchen cabinets so I can start the exciting process of priming and painting. Blah.

copy cat...

We redid the mantle in just one day with no money as we had all the materials on hand. Whaaat. (said in Shawn from Psych style and not British style)

Anyway, Brian decided to build a box for the top piece so if I change my mind (or the next homeowners hate it) we can just take it off and go back to the original mantle.

He also added in 3 strips of wood along the front to match the existing ones along the side. I painted the brick black (was gray) and repainted the mantle in white.

Please ignore my mantle decorations, I fail big time in this area.

Before (sort of, we don't usually have the painters tape there).


After:




Awesomeness. Thanks Layla for the inspiration!

Linking to these parties:
The DIY Show Off

The Thrifty Home

Domestically Speaking Power of Paint Party

kitchen inspiration

I saw this picture (sorry but I can't find the source):


and now I'm revamping my kitchen makeover a little.

I'm going with white cabinets all around (top and bottom), black countertops, hardwood look floors (probably some kind of easy care vinyl that we get to match the rest of our hardwood floors) and we will widen the doorway near the refrigerator and add a hanging pot rack and maybe a butcher block rolling cart.

I probably won't be getting stainless steel appliances for awhile. That's okay. Our white ones work just fine and it will save us an enormous amount of money.

Total for the kitchen makeover is budgeted at under $1000. I'm sure we can pull if off. I just can't wait to get started. Well as excited as you can be sanding, priming and painting cabinets.

But today I'm working on our fireplace mini makeover. I'm totally inspired by Layla at The Lettered Cottage and am copying her. If you don't read her blog, you should. She has the best ideas!

Here is hers:


I've already painted the brick on mine black and Brian has to build a box out of 1x6's for the top. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to stain it. Total cost will probably be around $20 since we have most everything here!

slipcover...

Remember this chair? We needed a chair that swiveled for tv watching and we found this one at a yard sale for $10. It's from the 1980's but in really good condition (although dirty).


Mustard gold wasn't really in keeping with my decor so I picked up some really soft ticking fabric, washed it and put it aside for 3 months. I HATE making slipcovers. Finally I felt motivated after Christmas and while watching the girls play the new Wii Lego Star Wars game, got it done.

It actually ended up fitting pretty well and I was left with one scrap at the end. Phew! Now all of my living room furniture has slipcovers and my furniture stays clean for a couple of days. Quite an accomplishment with 6 kids and two dogs.





The pleat in the middle wasn't planned but I was running out of fabric and came up with that solution. I kind of like it now. The slipcover looks loose because I pulled it off and put it on 1.2 million times to get a good fit. Once I wash it, it will shrink back up (I hope).

I still have a chair in my bedroom I need to slipcover but I'm in no rush. It will probably be done in a couple of years.

living room...

Well, it finally happened. I'm happy with the paint color and layout of my living room. I kept trying new things until it clicked. There are still some things that I need to do (like the blank striped wall behind the couch) but I'm going to be patient and wait for the right thing.

I really wanted to have the living room feel cozy and inviting. It's not a very large room but when you have a large family, not many rooms feel large :)

Before:




After:







We took the board and batten treatment from the dining room around to the living room wall. It needed something and we can't put anything there that would block the flow of traffic.

Anyway, I'm done decorating and painting for awhile. I want to concentrate on other things (like homeschooling) and saving up money for the upstairs reno. I'm sure as soon as spring starts coming on, I'll change my mind :)

Linking:

slipcovers

It only took a few months of procrastinating contemplating but I finally finished the slipcovers. They are made of Home Depot painter's dropcloths which worked out to less than $2.00 a yard and covered both chairs.

Here is a tiny picture before:


This is a comfy chair but impossible to keep clean. Here it is with the new slipcover. Note: I have never made slipcovers before so this isn't perfect.



The arms are little sleeves held underneath by velcro so I can just take them off and wash separately as they get the dirtiest the fastest.

And here is the chair as it normally appears. I made the pillow out of some of my favorite Tina Whelan fabric.


The other chair is from the 60's and while I think it's kinda funky and fun, I knew it would be impossible to keep clean. So another slipcover.





This chair I slipcovered first and I had no idea how to do box cushions so they look off but not enough off for me to redo them! I ran out of fabric for the back pillow but it's covered up by a blanket anyway.





And how it looks most days shown with a pillow I made, a vintage crochet blanket and the footstool I made over.


I like the result but hope I don't have to slipcover anything for awhile!

remember

I can't leave well enough alone. Remember I recovered this footstool a few days ago.

This was the after:


I liked it but it was still too tame for me. So I recovered it again with some cool red fabric. I sewed them into strips for interest. Now I like it and it feels like me.

After and a peek at the dropcloth slipcover I made (more on that later).




I'm finally getting around to redoing our bedroom. So far there is a new blue coat of paint in Benjamin Moore's Waterfall (a great turquoise). I'm making new curtains, we have a new Craigslist dresser. I'm saving for new bedding and a rug. I really wanted Pottery Barn's lamp sconces but the cheapest I can find them for was $139 for a pair. We have perfectly good lamps but I was tired of the boring look. So I fxed them up!

Semi before (The bases were a brassy metal before I spray painted them):


I recovered them in Amy Butler's fabric. There's a peek at our wall color. The color is more true in the before lamp picture.


I can't wait to post after pictures in the bedroom makeover. It's finally becoming the room that reflects me.

before & after

I picked up this little footstool at Goodwill for $3.99. Brian saw ugliness, I saw potential. I loved the shape of the little legs.

Here it is semi-before. I forgot to take a picture of it with the ugly orangy brown wood legs. I painted it my favorite turquoise color, sanded it, glazed it with some Valspar brown glaze and sealed it with poly. All of which I had here already.


Now that I look at it, I kind of like the fabric in the picture. Up close it was disgusting and dirty.

After:


I picked up this remnant at Joann's for $2.00. So for a grand total of $6, I have a cute little footstool.

my new table

I had this table sitting in the corner for a year now. It holds my laptop and it was UGLY. Since I've been on a decorating kick lately, I decided to paint it yesterday.

Before:


After a couple of coats of my favorite muted turquoise blue:


I adore it now. You can see the new curtains I'm making for the front windows in the back. I'll take pics when I'm done. I love them as well.