Let there be... COLOR!!!

  There are two things that I have learned about myself.  One is that I do not like dark or busy area rugs... I would buy a rug and would get tired of it at the six month mark and be ready for something else.  But rugs aren't cheap and it seemed that I was spending a lot and not getting a lot of use out of it.

  Two is that although I LOVE LOVE LOVE a white room in a picture or in a magazine, in my own home I crave color.  Not red slipcover color like I had before but color that is fun and bright, especially this time of year.

 I bought some fabric for $35 and made 4 pillows.  I like how the pillows bring in other colors than the yellow but also brings it all together.  The pillows are fun and will be easy to change out when I feel like it... and the sisal area rug from Ikea that I purchased for $99 has been down for a year, and I still love it!!

... and I am still loving the yellow lamp!!!  It is such a fun and easy project that anyone can do in just a few hours!

So I am interested to know, is there anything that you have learned about yourself in regards to decorating?

Before:

After:

I'll never win Seamstress of the Year... my sewing skills are basic at best!

Fun, colorful, and easy to change out... yes please!!!

~ Kim :)

Inspiration Friday No.7 ~ Fabric

It's Friday!!!  

The kids have been on Spring Break this week so we've been busy taking in the nice weather

... lots of bike riding!

  Now that I have a light and neutral slipcover I am craving a bit more color on the pillows than the ones that I made here.  I was browsing through the pages of http://www.fabric.com/ to get some ideas and came across these pretty fabrics.  I also ran into Hancock Fabrics earlier and found a few I liked.  So we'll see, we might have some pretty new pillows soon!

Premier Prints 

Premier Prints 

Premier Prints 

Robert Allen 

Robert Allen 

Waverly  

Waverly 

Waverly 

Premier Prints 

Waverly

Have a great weekend!!!

~ Kim :)

Family Room Slipcover Round #2

*** I want to apologize ahead of time if anyone is sick of looking at my Family Room, it's new to me so I am excited to show it off... the newness will wear off soon.  I promise :)  

 I was looking at the pictures from yesterday's slipcover reveal and I didn't care for the placement of furniture.  It felt lopsided to me.  So I messed around with the room today and it went from this:

To this:

 I think there is more symmetry to this layout.  One day I plan on doing two matching side tables with matching lamps, but for now this will have to do.

 Our dog, Zoe, she was comfortable so I didn't want to move her.

  I left out the Pottery Barn chair (on the left) in yesterday's post because the slipcover was being washed.  I thought that the two fabrics would match perfectly but the sofa slipcover is a much creamier color than the chair slipcover.

 I created a little display on the wicker trunk of books, shells, and a green potted plant.

Okay, so I have a question and would love some feedback.  Below is a picture with the yellow garden stool that I purchased at HomeGoods.  It is very yellow and I'm not sure that I want to keep it that color.  If you compare the two pictures below one has the stool and one doesn't.  What do you think, keep the stool yellow or spray paint it another color?  And what color do you think?

 With yellow garden stool.

With out stool... I definitely plan on incorporating it somehow, just unsure about the yellow.  What do you think?  

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

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 :)

Mixing Fabric Patterns

  So as I said a few days ago, I am really trying to get over my aversion to mixing fabric patterns.  I spent some time in the fabric store today putting some fabrics together for the fun of it, and for a possible selection for our sofa when our new natural color slipcover comes in.

Here are a few that I came up with:

These looked really good together (I thought!).  But I need something with yellow to match the garden stool that I have purchased.

These three were kind of pushing it for me, I always get freaked out when there are too many patterns.  But I really love the two on the left.

And this is what I came up with for my space.  I already had the fabric to the far left and I have been trying to get two other fabrics that went together.  What do you think? 

I really like this one!  So pretty, it looks like a watercolor.

Etsy

So how did I do? :)