Living Room Makeover!

My last post was about a table makeover and this one is about my living room and its transformation. As I said before I was feeling unhappy with how it looked. It was missing personality and rather blah. Not anymore! New table, new curtains, a little homemade art and picture rails (or shelves) and voila! A whole new look that makes me smile everytime I walk in. It's amazing what a few relatively easy changes can do to a room. I'm so happy I jumped in and went for it. I'm learning to trust my instincts and decisions when it comes to decorating. It might not be everyone's cup of tea but who cares! I love it :) The living room, after a redone end table before curtains.

I'm in love with my new curtains. I was planning on buying some because for the price of fabric you usually can buy them at the same price or cheaper but that plan was quickly changed. The only ones I could find that I really liked where oh about 35$ for one panel. I was not ready to pay that so I was still browsing. I happened to be at Marshall's looking for shoes (quite unsuccesfully) and decided to go into Joanne's on a whim. Red signs all over the fabric section, SALE SALE SALE. Oh yeah baby I was all over it, I had some fabrics in hand for other projects when I saw this fabric. It was mustard yellow with these sweet white berries all over it. I was smitten, it was all over! I grabbed it and dumped my others and promptly got 6 yeards for grand total of 28$! 4.79 per yard. The next day I immediately sewed them and hung them. They are perfect. They add color and let in a lot of light because I didn't line them.

Another day I was feeling quite creative and got an idea in my head. I'm pretty sure I've seen something like this somewhere but I'm not sure where. What do you get when you combine the following: a wine bottle, puff paint, spray paint, branches, felt, and a hot glue gun? Original homemade art obviously!

Fun, modern, felt, mustard yellow, what's not to love? (yes mustard yellow is slowly replacing green in the favorite color spot)

And last but not least the grandest part of the living room makeover. My picture rails that I have been dreaming about for a month. If you don't know, my father is a custom cabinet maker, and a darn good one at that! Whenever I have come to him with little projects here and there he's always been wonderful and never said no. Maybe we both share that love for creating things and it just makes it so fun! I proposed and idea, Daaddddd what if for my birthday you made me some picture rails ( or really narrow shelves) out of some nice rustic crown molding? He was up for it because he's great like that :) My description was rustic (wood with knots and imperfections in it) crown molding, 8ish feet long, medium stain, no preferrence on type of wood, and distress the wood a little bit. I could not have dreamed up anything more beautiful than what he brought over! They're perfect! Rustic alder with medium distressing, and a flat stain finish.

Obviously they aren't filled up yet. That will not take me very long though!

I feel like the pictures just can't do them justice. They are the crown jewel in my living room and I'm spilling over with how to fill them up. Thank you Dad for taking the time to make them and they are exactly what I wanted! It's crazy how making something your own just makes you feel so great. I think I'm liking all this home-maker stuff!

Mod Podge, Decoupage, Whatever You Please

We have had this end table since the day we moved in. It's not very stable, the fake wood veneers were starting to get scratched and bubbly, yet the cheap dutch girl in me refused to let it go. After having this thing for almost 2 years I decided to take action. Why not try something fun with it? If it turned out to be a complete disaster then I would only be losing an ugly end table. I have seen different applications of "Mod Podge" or "Decoupage" or whatever you want to call it. After much contemplation this table pressented itself as the perfect opportunity to try my hand at this.

First I spray painted it white.

In the words of some old friends, "it was just ok"

TaDa! A whole new end table. It's got a couple coats on it so Ben can still set his lunch on it while he sits in the recliner playing video games during lunch (I know, its just what he does :)

Looking at it, it's kind of retro.....I love it.

Much better!

I feel like it has added a much needed pop of color in our living room. I have been looking around the living room lately and I have been putting off doing more decorating because I wasn't exactly sure what my style was. Now I'm discovering I really like dark and neutral furniture but I am desiring more color. I'm thinking new curtains for starters. Anyway, things I would do differently with this table? I would sew the pieces of fabric together for a cleaner look in the transition area between the fabrics. I would also pay much closer attention to the edges and making sure they were amply glued down. All in all I am very pleased with the result of my first attempt at Mod Podge and hope to find another project to utilize this on soon!

Projects

I did a couple little sewing projects before we left on vacation. I sewed my mom little pouches for sunglasses, a camera, and whatever else she could think of putting in them. I lined them with some nice soft batting. I was inspired and made myself a make up bag. It came in quite handy on our trip.

Cancun!

Ben and I decided a long time ago that we would take a big trip sometime. We didn't do a very big honeymoon and wanted to do something bigger after we had been married a while and all that. Well we finally found something we liked and a time that worked. Cancun was amazing. It was warm everyday. The hotel (we did all-inclusive) was great. It was a very relaxing fun in the sun trip. Side note: we booked our trip through Costco travel and loved it. It was a complete package with flight hotel and transfer to and from the hotel. Everything was seamless!

Our hotel room


Ben on the beach.


Me on the beach.


First walk down the beach.


Ben loved the shade (and no setting up needed :)


My book. We spent lots of time lounging in the sun reading books.


Our view at the beach.


The view from our balcony.


Happy to be on the beach.


On our way through the mangroves out to the ocean to fish.



Ben's big fish. A 40 lb. Amber Jack.


Me fighting my fish.


My 25 lb. tuna or "Bonita"


Riding back to the dock.


Last day on the beach.

e