Living Room Upgrade

I am so excited to reveal our upgraded look of a living room!  I cant stress enough what a coat of paint can do to a room. We went from this dark and drab of a room:

To bright and open! 

Much better right?!?  Well let me tell you how we did it.  First of all I apologize for all who couldn't wait to see the original paneling that I wanted to do.  My husband and I went to Home Depot and were totally sticker shocked!  It would have cost about $250 just to panel that back wall.  So back to the drawing board . . for a cheaper option.

We sat around looking at our house and got inspiration right from our windows:

 So we decided to mimic that same decorative trim to frame out the TV. The best part of how this turned out is that it looks like the trim addition always belonged in our house. This project ended up costing about $50 with all the supplies and a full day of work. After cutting and using the nail gun to attach the molding to the wall, I caulked all the edges waited 2 hours and then painted the trim.  Here are some photos during the process:

What a difference huh!  Well in addition to working on the molding and paint, I got to work on making some frames.  Remember these frame scraps I purchased?!:

Well I made some additional frames for my refreshed Living Room:

The frames are quit easy to make with just a 45 degree cut and wood glue with clamps to hold over night. 

I hope you are inspired and I hope that you find a room in your house that you can lighten up!  Enjoy!



Small Changes

Sometimes small changes make the biggest difference . . especially when you are yearning for something new and fresh in a room.  I have been feeling like something new in our living room.  First of all here is a wall that we stare at quite often:

Especially on Sunday nights when Once upon a time comes on!  (If you have not seen the show then you need to!)  Back to the change . . All I did was add Hardware to the TV console.  It took a very inexpensive piece of furniture from Target to a whole new level. 

Great isn't it.  What a $12 fix can do!  I like how it broke up all the dark brown colors.

Now to the next small change.  I do have to admit it is not done yet but tomorrow I am going to paint the living room:

I can't wait to see the difference this paint will make!  I have found so much inspiration on Pinterest with light, bright, and airy colors!  I think that light is in.  In addition to the paint we are going to try and get some Paneling up on one of the walls as well . . This is one of my inspirations:

I want to do horizontal paneling like in the picture but am tossing around the idea of Vertical as well. Cant wait to show you when its done!  I hope this inspires you to make some small changes . , in your home!
ENJOY!

A Fresh Look

Have you been searching through Pottery Barns Clearance Sale?  Well I wanted to use some of my gift cards I got for Christmas and thought it would go much further on a discounted item.  This is what I bought with my $$$:

I wanted to give my dining room wall a fresh new look so in addition to my new purchase I bought some frames and painted them.  I picked the frames up at Walmart for just $5 each.

And here is everything put together:

Instead of shoes I though I could use the ladder to show case some more of my photos and maybe even drape a magazine across.  I hope this inspires you to update something in your home.

Enjoy!



Numbered Baskets

Earlier this summer I shared some ideas on how to organize and label Baskets.  See it again Here. Well as I continue to drool over the Pottery Barn magazine I love how they use numbers to label them.  With how expensive Antique letters and numbers are I found a cheaper solution.

Here was my inspiration:

And here is how I recreated the look:

All I did was get house numbers from Home Depot for just $3.99 each.  They have an assortment of styles and finishes.  The possibilities are endless . . now go organize your baskets!

ENJOY!



Hallway Bench

I told you a few weeks ago that I wanted to make a bench to go under my new shelf ledge . .but I did something else!  I came across a total deal at the World Market. I fell in love with the Arcadia bench . . and the best thing was the sale price!  For those of you looking for a piece of furniture I would check it out.  I was very impressed on the quality of furniture I got for the price.

Here is what my bench looks like:

And here is what it looks like in my house:



I love having a place to drop my things as I walk in the house.  I hope that you can find a killer deal on something new for your home!  

Enjoy!

Mission: Organization

I am always looking to be more organized.  I have been inspired with a lot of other fellow organizers to do more in 2012!  Take a peek at some of these brilliant ideas for staying organized:

For more advice on organizing visit one of my favorite blogs here.

 Enjoy!

A Bedroom Change

We have now been in our house for just over 3 years and I have started to re-do the things(projects) I started with doing.  Does this really mean that every three years my taste is going to change and I want new?  If so I am in trouble! Am I the only one out there with this addiction to decorating?!?

Well I am officially tired of the black in my bedroom and honestly the real contemporary look.  I want to add some vintage flair and stick with all the light neutrals.  So I decided to paint my bedside table to start:

In addition to the colors I wanted to tone down the dark brown head board so I have started adding those nifty decorative push pins from Michael's to look like upholstery tacks around the edge.

P.s. the tacks work great for a inexpensive update but just the amount I have done so far has taken me a few hours. Caution you must be patient with this project . . and I am not!

Next project: to make my husbands night stand look like a smaller version of this:

All the little changes make a big difference.  Maybe its just the small additions that I need to keep me loving my home!  Enjoy!

 

Framed Vinyl

Here is another simple project I did over the holidays.  Now this is the ugliest room in the house. . where all of the un-liked furniture goes . . and where I make my messes.  This one day will be the nursery.  (don't ask when we are going to have kids please we get that too often from the elders) So I don't want to paint or spend much money fixing it up.  But since it is where I do my crafts I like it to look somewhat decent.

I had some vinyl cut from Janey-mac.com and designed it to display my business name.  Adhered it to the wall then added some nifty decorative push pins from Michael's to add more interest.

Then I framed it out with crown molding I picked up from Home Depot.  Take a look:

I also picked up some jewelry chain to hang from a unique hook (found at the fancy farm girls sale) on the wall.

I like how adding the frame made the vinyl appear much larger. I thought about taking some more empty frames and turning this wall into a gallery.  Kind of like this:

Now I need to hit all the second hand stores for some unique frames!

enjoy!

Pottery Barn knock off shelf!

I have had my eye on this for a long time:

Pottery Barns Vintage Shelf.  I wasn't going to pay $399 . . so let me tell you how I paid only $15 for mine!

1. Searched Craigslist for reclaimed wood and scored with some trim wood pieces for just $15.

2. Begged my husband to make it for me for Christmas.

3. Happy to say I am now enjoying my new ledge!

I wish I could have shown you a picture of the wood before my husband cut and put it together.  But I was too late before I found out he was making it for me. Isn't the transformation great though?!?  After he put it together I just painted it with SW 7050 "useful gray"(which might be my new living room color) then sanded it to get the vintage look. 

the idea with this shelf is to make a mud style room in my hallway (because I don't have a mud room).  I screwed hooks from Home Depot into another great craigslist find of wood trim(less holes in the wall).

Now all I have to do is build my bench and there will be a place for all my things when I come in from work!  I hope you were inspired and I hope you all have or will find a great husband like mine!

2012 . .its going to be good!

Happy New Years!  It feels good to be back into a routine. Though I already miss those sugar cookies it will be good to lose the 5 pounds I gained in the last two weeks! My husband and I were able to take a week off of work and it was SO nice . . he was kind enough to help me with a few projects!  Stay tuned for those to come. 

I thought my first post of the new year should be all the goals I hope to accomplish in our home this year!  This is before I have really considered the budget. . here is to high hopes! So here you go:

If you want to keep track of all the projects I would like to do then follow me on Pinterest!I hope that you had a fantastic holiday season . . Cheers to 2012 and all that we are going to accomplish!

enjoy!