Sunday, May 29, 2011

Final Living Room Reveal

About a month ago, I began making a couple of changes to our living room. After selling our old sofa on Craigslist, we found another sofa that we really liked. Unfortunately they did not have a matching loveseat or chair and a half, so we went on the hunt to find one. While we looked, I painted the living room with some leftover paint from our sunroom and bathroom. Our search for a loveseat turned up a local retailer that would order the piece we wanted at a great price. While we waited for the loveseat to come in, I also replaced our curtain panels with some from WalMart's Better Homes and Gardens line. Last week, we finally got a call that our sofa was in and ready to be picked up. Now the living room is finally ready for a big reveal.





I really love how the room turned out! I do have plans to buy some vinyl for the wall above the sofa and to get a coffee table once I come across the right thing. I love the way the room looks, but the best part about the new room is the sleeper beds in both sofas. We have used them multiple times for movie watching and for the kids to "camp out" in the living room. Not only are the beds fun for us to use on these occassions, but they are going to be very functional when we have overnight guests.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Gallery Wall

Awhile back, I began my gallery wall in our basement stairwell with a grouping of 5 frames. Since then I have been collecting frames from Goodwill. On a recent trip, I found about 10 frames! Score! Several months and about $40 later, my gallery wall is really filling out. I would still like to add a few more frames here and there, but for the most part, it is finished!

After hanging up all of the frames, with some of my most favorite pictures, I kept walking past my gallery wall and just smiling! I am such a dork, but it makes me so happy to see all of these wonderful memories out to be enjoyed daily! Included in the wall are baby pictures of both kids, pictures from my wedding, family photos of my husband and I's families growing up, a 5 generation picture taken after my daughter was born, and memories from when my husband and I were dating.

I started out spray painting all of the frames to match in the same silver finish, but really liked the look of all the different finishes mixed together. I kept them similiar by choosing frames that were ornate or textured.

Though there is no right or wrong, I was very worried about the layout of the gallery wall. In the end, it worked best for me to keep the frames in columns. I tried to mix it up so that there were a mixture of sizes and shapes in each column.
I would still like to add some moulding and paint to the gallery wall, but for now it makes me very happy!

Architectural Art

I received so many compliments on the architectural art that I gifted to my brother-in-law, that I began to contemplate selling pieces. Before beginning to sell pieces I had to expand my library of letters. I have been working on getting pictures, starting with the letters in the names of my co-workers and family members. As we usually give each other a small gift at the end of the school year, I decided that this would be a perfect time to experiment and test my product.




I was very pleased with how they turned out! It was great to get to experiment with different sized frames, letter placement and matting. It also gave me a little bit of an idea of how much it would cost me to put the frames together and how much I could charge. I have the summer months to work on this venture, wish me luck!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Painting Baseboards

The baseboards and trim in our kitchen were so gross! There was some kind of glue along the bottom, probably from flooring that the previous owners had replaced. Besides being gross, with the cabinets painted white and the trim all dark wood, the trim really stuck out in a doorway in the middle of our kitchen. Sorry, I could not find any pictures of the kitchen that included this doorway before I painted!

I had some paint leftover from cleaning up the cabinets that I decided to put to use painting the baseboards and trim. I started by sanding the trim. I had to use a scraper on the larger globs of glue. Once all the trim was sanded, I swept and wiped down all of the trim with a wet cloth. After allowing it to dry, I painted several coats of the cabinet paint on all of the trim, allowing time to dry between each coat. Finally, I removed a vent from the floor and spray painted it white to match.



It looks so fresh and clean! Not to mention more open. The doorway used to be the first thing that you saw as you entered the kitchen and now it blends in beautifully with the cabinets and backsplash. It really makes me think about painting out the rest of the baseboards in our house. Though I would love to paint out the baseboards, there are things like the fireplaces, banister and window casings that I do not want to paint. Is it ok to paint some of the trim, but leave other pieces stained? I have seen a mixture of white and stained wood banisters and really like the look, but am not sure about painting all the baseboards in a room and leaving the rest of the trim stained. I feel like they are not relating to each other and therefore the room would look unfinished. What do you think?

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Project ADHD- Too much going on to focus on one thing

Though I have not been posting recently, it is definitely not because there is nothing going on as far as crafting or decor. Rather, just the opposite. I am in the middle of several projects right now and not at a point where I am ready to share any of them. I recently showed a reveal of our made over living room. Something just did not look, right, so I have actually made a few more changes in the room. We are still waiting on the arrival of another sofa. As soon as the sofa arrives, I plan to do another reveal.
I have also been slowly adding to my photo gallery wall. It is looking pretty good so far! I recently saw a sconce wall on another blog that I read and have decided to mix in a few sconces for some variety and interest.
My daughter's 4th birthday is coming up in less than a month, so I have also been thinking up ideas for invitations and decor. We recently held a Thomas themed party for my son, and I had a blast putting it all together. I have lots of ideas for The Little Mermaid theme my daughter has chosen and need to get to work crafting!
Finally, my husband and I have spent a lot of time cleaning up the exterior of our home. We cleaned up some oddities in our backyard by moving a randomly placed rock in the middle of our yard and removing several large piles of dirt. We did have a bon fire to burn up the large shrub we removed but have yet to buy the rock to finish off the planter box we put up in it's place. Finally we have hired contractors to roof and side our house. We knew that the house needed it when we moved in, but I never in my wildest dreams imagined that we would be having this work done already. I am so excited for this to be finished and to see the final product!