Coffee Table Switcheroo

Ever since I saw this coffee table in the living room from Young House Love's first house, 

I have been on the look out for one similar.  

If you remember this is what our family room looked like a few months ago after I found 

this wicker trunk on Craigslist.

...and the family room after scoring a similar glass table from Craigslist last week for $30.

I really like how the glass reflects the light in the room and I can display things on both the top and bottom.  It is more upkeep but I think it is totally worth it.

I did finally wash three of the slipcovers on the seat cushions.  I did not use bleach or Oxi Clean but I was really disappointed by how they turned out with regular detergent.  They all came out with yellow streak marks.  I have a front loading washing machine, so I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the way they washed.  I plan to try again with Oxi Clean next time and hope they come out better.

I have friends and family tell me all the time that they can never find anything on Craigslist and I just say to them that you have to look all the time.  I down loaded the Craigslist app on my iPhone and it has made finding items so much easier.  Plus, I get to save my favorites so I can keep track of what I love.  I have posted two pictures of items that are listed on my local Craigslist right now. 

If you are looking for an easy DIY project, these matching dining chairs would be a breeze with some spray paint and new fabric.

...and if you are not the DIY type, this dresser is already beautifully done.

Our summer vacation started yesterday and I am really hoping to keep my sanity this summer.  Two children who want to be kept busy will be a tough job!!

~  Kim :)

Before and After... (almost)

  Today was a busy day, lots of updating at my mother-in-law's house for her living room and dining room makeover.  First, I will show you some before pictures and what has been updated so far.

This is what we started with.  A once loved floral print sofa that no longer fit into my mother-in-law's desire for a more light and modern look.  Luckily she was able to find it a good home at her mom's house!

The walls were white and missing personality!!

New addition...the sofa was found for $175 at a garage sale.  

It is Storehouse brand and is in great condition... (she did attempt to use a slipcover on the floral sofa from http://uglysofa.com/, but that was quickly forgotten when she found this sofa at such a good deal!)

The coffee table was $25 found on Craigslist.  

Yep, I said $25!!! This is a heavy, REAL wood table.  You can not beat it!!!

...the room with new paint from Martha Stewart, Myrtle Blossom.  

Such a pretty blue, it immediately gave the room new life.

...and today the windows looked like this.  There was no visual separation from this room and the sunroom on the back of the house.  So I ran around all day putting the pieces together to give the two windows in this room a new life.

...and the new and improved windows in this living room and dining room.  Thanks to my husband and father-in-law that so happily put up two bamboo shades, two curtain rods, and two pictures!

Oh and the crown molding was installed today!  My father-in-law has been very busy.  I love that the men in our lives are happy to help us!!

(pictures were taken with my iPhone, I apologize for the poor quality)

I absolutely LOVE how it turned out, and more importantly my mother-in-law is happy with it!

The break down of where the new items were purchased from is:

Curtain rods-  already owned and spray painted black

Bamboo shades-  Home Depot

White curtains-  B. Smith at Bed Bath and Beyond

Curtain rings-  Bed Bath and Beyond

Floral prints-  TJ Maxx

Thanks for looking!!

~  Kim :)

Inspiration Friday No.11 ~ Chair Rail & Trim

Today I am showing a little of what I've been up to and mixing in an Inspiration Friday because they go together, my mother-in-law's living room & dining room makeover.  I put together an Olioboard here and we are loosely trying to follow that as our inspiration.  Things changed up a bit when I found this Liliana Pier 1 armchair on Craigslist...

The lady had it listed for $100 and my mother-in-law talked her down to $60.  Score!!!

The chair kind of changed the direction of the colors we were planning on using, and then she found a wheat color Storehouse sofa that was barely used, and wrapped in plastic at a yard sale for $175 (pictures to come)... DOUBLE SCORE!!!  So my light, bright, and white furniture design idea kind of went out the window.  

I wrapped her dining room chair pads a few nights ago, this is the old...

...and the new.  

I was a little disappointed when I opened up the box because I was expecting this color fabric...

ummm, it's much brighter on the screen than it is in person.  But the fabric is still gorgeous and it just so happens to match the Pier 1 chair fabric perfectly.  So it works even though it's not what I first imagined, but that's okay, sometimes you just have to roll with it!

I am really loving this design though!!!

I just had the chair pads at my house, I will get pictures of the new pads on the chairs soon!

So now onto the Inspiration Friday part.

  We picked out this Martha Stewart paint color in Myrtle Blossom for the walls.

She painted the top of the wall the blue and then the chair rail and bottom half of the wall is painted Decorators White.  The blue is fantastic AND just so happens to match the stitching in the Pier 1 chair PERFECTLY.  Oh yeah, I like how it's all comin' together!!!

But...the bottom half of the wall is WHITE.  I mean really in-your-face-white in contrast to the dark, wide planked wood floors.  I kept thinking maybe we needed to repaint a darker color on the bottom and then it hit me one night...the problem is it's just too plain and flat looking.  So I thought about possibly having her add a shadow box molding.  Today's inspiration pictures came from that idea.  The two pictures below show what a difference a molding treatment can make in a room.

This is from the Drab to Fab Design blog before of their dining room:

...and the after:

Do you see what a difference just adding molding makes???  It's like the bottom half of the walls are popping out at you, it's amazing!  It has life and character now.

Some other pictures that show how great adding a shadow box molding can look:

www.littlemisspennywenny.blogspot.com

 (all other pictures are from Google images)

I am dying for this molding.  So pretty!

Hoping it looks more like this picture when it's done... I think this looks really sharp.  Obviously this room design is not the same style as our room, but it has that same pulled together look that will be the base of the room.

  On a side note, I am sad to say that my computer crashed the other night and I unfortunately lost all of my pictures.  Thank goodness I keep all of my memory cards from my camera so I still have most of my personal pictures, but I lost a lot of pictures from my design inspiration files.  Which makes me really sad.

  But on a happier note, I got a nice little surprise when I was pulling together the pictures for this post.  I did  a Google search for the paint swatch (because that was one of the pictures I lost), and found that my little 'ol blog is on the first page of Google when you search for "Martha Stewart paint Myrtle Blossom".  So exciting!!!  I know it's by keyword searches and not popularity but I don't care, it is still so exciting to see your blog on the front page!!!

Happy Friday!

~  Kim :)

Family Room Slipcover

  I am in love, I am in love with something that can not love me back...I know this and I still love it so.  I've thought about it, dreamed about it, and imagined it with me.  :)  It is my pretty new slipcover!!!  I love it.  It is exactly what this house needed and I feel like finally all of my hard work to make this our airy, beachy, modern style home is coming together.

  I saved $500 on a brand new slipcovered Rowe Nantucket sofa.  How'd you do that you ask??  Well let me break it down for ya!

New Sofa $1,100 + cost of upgraded fabric = around $1,300 when all is said and done.

I paid $810.00 for mine!

 This is how... I paid $165 for the sofa with existing cranberry slipcover off of Craigslist awhile ago and I paid $645 for a new slipcover.  Ridiculous I know, but I'm saving $500 here in the long run!!!  When you think of it as paying around $800 for a quality, name brand sofa that will last for years, most people wouldn't even blink an eye at that price.

Some people I know...(Mom and DH) think I'm crazy for paying that much for a slipcover when "the other one was perfectly fine".  Well yes, the other one was not in terrible shape but it was CRANBERRY for goodness sakes!!  I lived with a red leather sofa for 8 years (bad design choice I know, I was young).  I am so OVER red.  So that's how it happened and I am so happy that I did it.  We might be eating mac n' cheese for the rest of the week, but we'll be stylin' while we're watching the tube! :)

So here is the before picture of the sofa:

Not terrible but everything in our house is blue or white.  

It just didn't go with the style of our home.

And here she is all dressed up in her new slipcover!!!

 I made the pillows today.  I didn't even bother buying new pillows, I just stuck some old ones that weren't being used into the new case.

 A crate found at Goodwill.

 The lighting is hard to work with in this room in the afternoon.  For some reason the pictures come out dark when it actually really bright in here.  Speaking of lighting... the fan is hideous, I know.  I have plans.

Okay now watch this... you see this little person walking by, watch what happens...

Do you see the blanket?  He did that on PURPOSE.  Just walked by and pulled it down and kept on walking!!!

 The garden stool is from HomeGoods.

The view from the kitchen.  Sooo pretty! :)

So I put the slipcover on late yesterday afternoon and by last night there were already shoe marks and jelly. JELLY.  on it.  It was a total accident that the jelly got onto it but still I was like are you kidding me?!!!   I need to ScotchGuard this sucker ASAP.

Thanks for looking, I hope you all like it as much as I do!

~ Kim :)