I've Been Framed.

This weekend a plumber came over to work on our kitchen, and we were pretty much chained to the house all day. That didn't stop me from yardsaling with my friends at 6:45am, since I was able to get back home before he arrived! I have been looking for a frame for my living room mirror for months. I can never find one big enough, but I thought I might get lucky this morning. I found a $8 picture that looked to be huge enough to fit on the mirror. I had high hopes. Really high, since I didn't have a tape measurer on me. I figured $8 was cheap enough that I could find something else to do with it if it didn't work out.

It didn't work out. It was PERFECT from top to bottom, but it was just 4 INCHES too short width wise. I was crushed. So I had to find SOMETHING to do with it. I never want a finished room, I love the thrill of changing things up by finding new treasures, or reworking my current posessions into a new room or area. Things take on a whole new life in a new space, and it's those little things that make me happy. That blank recessed wall where the fireplace is makes me the opposite of happy. I've been trying to figure out how to make it look more full since we bought the dang fireplace. Should I flank it with shelves? Should I put the corner piece on the back of it to make it a corner fireplace and put a chair on the other corner? Should I keep it in the middle and put a chair on each side? That could be overwhelming. I don't like a lot of furniture, I like room to breathe. However, this nook was basically suffocating in all the air I gave it.

I decided I wanted to use the frame over the fireplace, but I needed to figure out what to do. Something that I can easily change out, or at least match everything I change on the mantle. I need change! Then I remembered this collage idea from Life In The Fun lane:

GENIUS! It satisfies my need to consantly change things around, but still have the overall look stay the same. The best part? I could destroy this huge posterboard of pictures we had at the wedding reception and use the pictures on something more attractive.

I'm finally happy with this nook taking a little more shape. I'd still like a heavier piece on each side, like a vase with tall limbs coming out of it. But with 4 broken vases in a week, I think bare is pretty ok for this house.

I'll need to be a little more random with my pictures, and want to find more special things to put up there, but you get the idea :)

Thrifty Thursday: Goodwill Hunting.

I was trying to decorate the living room to be a little more summery since this heat wave has come through Richmond. I went through my stash of decorations and wasn’t inspired at all. I was so uninspired that I was getting frustrated that everything was just a small knick knack and there was nothing to add height to our mantle or side tables. I had my eye on a few vases at HomeGoods, but I thought I could do better than that. I went to Goodwill last night on a mission to find things to work in all of our main rooms: living, dining and bathroom. This meant it had to be green, white, or silver. I usually throw in pops of color with flowers and pillows, so I like to keep the accessories neutral.

As soon as I got there I spotted this Apothecary Jar for $1.25:

I was studying which room I’d use it in and what it’s purpose would be. The problem was I had 100 ideas for it, and I was fighting with myself over which use I’d have for it. The poor thing will be homeless until I find a permanent spot because I want to use it everywhere! Where's that multiply button? For right now, I just have it sitting with my pony head with a flower inside.

Then while I was trying to find more inspiration, the unbelievable happened. I was so excited that one day I got 50% off both of my items, and never asked why. Well, over the intercom, a voice spoke some beautiful words: "attention shoppers, this week is half off all blue sticker items!" It was like magic when my eyes darted around focusing in on all the items with that color sticker. I'm not going to lie, they picked a good color to mark down that day, because it seemed like only all the best items were ready to be bought for half off. I normally don't fall for percentage sales, especially after working for the mecca of this tactic, a mall department store. But seeing pewter candle sticks for $3.13 each? I'll take that TYVM.

I had 7 things in my arms that I placed on the counter one by one, excited about seeing the total:

Then my cashier, the lady behind me in line, the cashier beside me AND her customer all looked at my stash with mouths dropped at how nice everything looked put together. "Oh, I love those candle sticks!" "I know, those things are beautiful!" "wow, all those things are so nice!" "where did you find those?" Well, ladies, it was all right where you were looking. My eye just happened to see the potential ;) They aren’t really all that pretty. They just look better pulled out from a bunch of useless junk. They needed some cleaning up, so I got to work tonight polishing and scrubbing and then placing them around the living room. Lets break down each item:

Cute little dish= 4.25

Bowl that says “LGA 1956 First Flight Runner Up Bill Herman”= 3.25-50%= $1.63

Avon After Shave Bottles= $2.25 each-50%=$1.13 each

And here’s the new fireplace topping, including a decanter and another apothecary jar holding wine corks, a vase that held my Secretary Day Bouquet from my boss, and the silver all shined up:

All that for just over $13. Not too shabby :)

Then I come home tonight after work, and realize in our pile for the neighborhood cleanup, someone took the countertop off our cabinets and dropped off a crib frame.

Real funny, guys. Real funny. It would have been a perfect present from the stork, had I been pregnant. It’s not everyday someone has a good condition, vintage crib handed in their lap. Yes, I want it. No, Drew won’t let me keep it. But I have a vision! For SOMEONE! Anyone that’s pregnant!

I love lamp.

It’s no secret, I love acrylic ball lamps. I love them so much, I have 4. 4 of them in my house.

Then I saw the floor lamp version at the mall and fell in love… but I was worried it would be overkill. I mean, that’s alotta balls. Then I saw it on Restoration Hardware’s site.

I didn’t fall in love with the floor lamp version, in fact I did think it was overkill after looking longer at it. But the name drew me in. Why? It’s called the Wilshire Lamp! It’s like they KNEW that I loved those balls so much, they had to name it after me. Or a variation of my name. But who cares, my love of this lamp has suddenly grown stronger. Or at least, the lamps I already own.

Don’t worry Hussy, I don’t want it. I still long for this one:

Sigh. One day, my sweet. You will be mine.

A Room Makeover: Mom’s Guest Bedroom, Part 1.

Last night I visited my mom because I have a special surprise up my sleeve, and I needed to grab some of her linens from our family to use for the project. We sat for 1-2 hours going through all those table cloths, collar holders, hankies, and blankets. I came away with a bunch to use for my project (which I can't document til I give to her!) and some for myself.

Of course, finding so many different patterns that matched the room so well, I just had to use a few throughout the room. But lets take a step back for a moment. Back to, what, 2 years ago? When I offered to help clean my moms spare room (which was formerly my first bedroom in the house, and then turned into the office) for her birthday. It was a long process. A daunting process. Full of painting walls, ripping up carpet, and starting the layout and decorations from scratch. I wanted a room she could go to relax, read magazines, heck, take a nap if she wanted to.

The problem was I moved out, her BF moved in, and the room was just full of all of our stuff that had no other place in the house to go.

It took a year. ONE FULL YEAR to take the time to get all of it done. I ordered the bedding and curtains off ebay, side table from IKEA, mirror was my grandfather’s, and the rest we pulled things she loved from all around the house. Here is what we put together as the after:

And then after tonight’s fabric fest, it looks like this:

Just a few more patterns thrown in. It's not Design Star worthy, but it's a room full of things she loves. I think she likes it :) and I like that she let me work on it, because heaven knows I love a fresh design project. Thanks mom!

So please stay tuned for the second part to this series :)

A Kitchen Renovation: Demolition and Painting Trim.

A lot has been going on in our house over the last week. So much, in fact, that I haven’t found a moment to just sit down and write up what’s been going on! It’s a lazy Friday night laying around with friends, so I have a moment to share a snippet of the fun we’ve been having clearing room for the electrician (who came today) and the plumber (who’s coming next weekend).

See those outlets laying on the floor? Yeah, those were attached to the cabinet. Apparently this is, like, a hazard? ;) We have that fixed up now. But the flooring stopped at the cabinets. Since our new cabinets will be on legs, we need them to go all the way back. And, you know, match the rest of the house better.

What’s sad about the next picture is not the fact I’m losing my cats in our cabinet contents, but that we thought we had no storage. Well no wonder, we have so much stuff! But looking at things to get rid of? There are none. We really only need cabinets for holding food. We look like good contenders for Hoarders though.

And one of the people that commented on my contest entry on Apartment Therapy about my sofas being trailer park worthy (yeah, really. I didn’t make it far because I have sofas worth cozying up in!). Well, they haven’t seen anything yet:

Once that mess was cleared out, we painted the trim:

I picked up some test paint today. I picked out a color that was warm light brown, that appears to have enough yellow undertones to pick up the sunlight and look less blah. AND, in keeping with my other recent brown paint purchase, Belgian Sweet by Behr, this color was Iced Chocolate by Valspar. I can’t help it, I love chocolate.