Merry Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday filled with love and laughter!





I am a Guest Blogger Today...

At A Lived In Home!




How exciting that Megan asked me to be a guest blogger and share our Living Room transformation.  Please hop on over to check it out.  And check out her great blog while you are there, who wouldn't love to sit for a spell and have a dinner party here?




I love those dining chairs! 


And I am in love with this table in her Living Room:



I think it would be perfect in my Living Room too!

Thanks Megan for having me!!!

Foyer Updates and Additions... and a Survey!

#1 - The Mirror:

When I bought the mirrors to go over the foyer table they weren't exactly what I wanted - but just after the return period expired (of course), I found the perfect mirrors!  So I had to get them, and I must admit that I really like them so much better!

Before:

After:

What do you think? Better After?  Would you believe that the new mirrors were only 1/2 the price of the first ones?


#2 - The Lighting:

When we were working on the foyer I purchased one chandelier for the light closest to the front door.

We have a low ceiling, so no beautiful dramatic welcoming foyer for me!  I wanted to turn the second light (another fantastic boob light) in the entry hallway into a recessed can, so you got the light, but it didn't interfere with the chandelier.

One year later...skip to - still no recessed can.  So I thought I should get a second chandelier while Overstock still has it! 

After about an hour of grumpy grunting, and some drywall modification, I have a second chandelier!

It is a bit more dramatic, and I think I like it.  I better like it - I was told that it isn't coming down (after all that grumpy groaning...)

What do you think? Better After?

#3 - The Rug:

Here is my same 'ol same 'ol rug from Steinmart that I have used in every home.  I think I need a more modern change.  But, this rug is just about the perfect size, somewhere in between a 4' x 6' and a 5' x 7'.  It has black and gold tones.

But...I REALLY want a chevron rug in there!  I bought one a while back but it was cheap and had rounded corners - yuck!

I found two on overstock.com. 

I think I am leaning towards this one, but it is a little smaller than the other choice, 4ft x 5ft 7in.  I like the cleaner white color with what I have going on in the two rooms right off the entry - the Guest Room and the Living Room.

This one is a little larger, a 4ft x 6ft.  This one also has a more earthly cream color mixed with the black - which would show less wear and dirt.  But I don't know how I feel about the earthiness....maybe not clean and crisp enough??

I am going to try this new twist on your opinion, with a survey!  Let me know what you think!



Linking to:
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savy Southern Style
Open House Party at No Minimalist Here
Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage
French Cupboard
Inspiration Friday At The Picket Fence
Fridays Unfolded at Stuff and Nonsense

Living Room Gallery Wall...

I received a lot of questions about the black and white pictures and the frames over the Living Room sofa.  They have a special meaning to us.  They are photographs of our parents and grandparents - a wedding photo if they had one. 

They were displayed at our wedding 10 years ago:

They lined the stairs in our first home:

 (Wow, this stairwell looks a bit ominous - I would like to think my photographic skills have improved since then...)

(This was a sweet little first house.  And you can see our little Boston, Rosie on the front walkway.)

Since then the pictures have been hidden in a drawer for 9 years!   

In the clean-up for our last move, I took the pictures and their mats out and tossed the original silver frames.  When I got them out to try over the couch, I used these thin metal look frames from Jo-Ann's.  The frames are oversized for the black mats, so I used glue dots to adhere the black mats in the middle of the new frames.  I turned over the advertising frame insert to give the black mats a plain white background.

(These are my parents, married at 15 and 19, for over 50 years!)

The frames are sized 17" x 21", with a mat opening sized 10" x 13".  They come in Bronze, Pewter, Copper and I think Black.  They are the LA frame series.

Ryan loves it when I ask him to hang complex series of frames in a very specific way that have to all be even and exact.  Love that guy, but he doesn't have a great track record of hanging things straight the first time.  This go-round he came up with a clever little trick.

I laid out the frames just how I wanted them spaced on top of a piece of masking tape on the floor.  He marked the tape with the correct spacing and then stuck it on the wall using our trusty laser level, then nailed right through it.

Then he used the same piece of tape, just moved it up the wall and nailed through it again.

And voila!  Done the first time!





Linking to:

The DIY Showoff - DIY Project Parade
I Heart Naptime - Sundae Scoop

Wow! Featured at A Thoughtful Place....

Wow!  I am a huge fan of Courtney and her blog A Thoughtful Place, I regularly refer to her posts for inspiration.  I was so surprised and excited when she emailed me to ask if she could feature some of our Before and Afters!

Check it out!




Wow. Wow. Wow.....

Living Room, Almost Finished...

Here is where the Living Room started, this is what it looked like when we looked at the house for the first time:

Here is it empty:

Here it is during our furniture arrangement phase:

And here it is in it's current state:

It's funny how differently a room looks in a photograph.  In this picture I see how I can really use a rug.  I thought of layering a large natural fiber rug trimmed in gray with a cowhide on top... like this one:






Or this:


I am also thinking of changing the end table hardware to these:




I am trying out this end table I found at HomeGoods - it might be a little too rustic...

There it is...at least until tomorrow, when I change something....




Linking to:
Miss Mustard Seed - Furniture Feature Friday
Chic On a Shoestring - Flaunt It Friday
At The Picket Fence - Inspiration Friday
Funky Junk Interiors - Saturday Nite Special
French Country Cottage - Feathered Nest Friday
Debbie Doos - Newbie Party
Dittle Dattle - Amaze Me Monday
The DIY Showoff - The DIY Project Parade
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia - Tuesday's Treasures

Horizontal Striped Curtains Are All the Rage...

and now I have some too!!!


My in-laws just went home after a whirlwind of projects - so I will have a lot to share now! 

My favorite finished project is my new curtains in the family room.  I have quite a story about these! 

I have ALWAYS loved The Nester's curtains:



And then when I saw these on A Thoughtful Place:




I knew I needed some!  And I wouldn't mind having her light fixture over the table too.

For a long time people asked The Nester - "Where did you find the fabric!?".  Much to every one's disappointment, the fabric was long gone from the Carolina fabric shop where she originally purchased the fabric.  Well...one morning while scrolling through blogland, I saw her announcement that the store found one more bolt of the fabric!  I called immediately - and I was 8th in line for a cut of it!  She said she would call me back after she finished with #7 - of there was any left....  a long 35 minutes later, she called me and in an oh so sweet southern drawl that I dearly miss - said "Now...what exactly are you going to DO with this fabric?".  I explained my plan of how we would turn it and piece it to be two horizontal striped panels.  They only had two pieces left of it, about 4 yards each piece, but there were runs and flaws in three places throughout the fabric - oh no!  But she thought I could do it!  When she offered it at 1/2 price, what did I have to lose!?

After I sat on the fabric for a while, didn't use it in the kitchen, mulled it over - I thought, why not try it in the family room?  I could go with a more neutral palate in there, with soft browns and greens?  So Martha the Window Treatment Whisperer and I got to work.  She did the math and we sewed away!  I even sewed a bit on these too.  I LOVE the finished product!  It warms up the room so much! 

What do you think?



Linking to:
The DIY Showoff - Fall Festival
Savy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays
DIY By Design - Fall Into Fall Party
No Minimalist Here - Open House Party Thursdays