Hi all! Yesterday I shared the bedroom re-do, so today is the living room. Wanna see?
DISCLAIMER:
I have not included any BEFORE photos of the living room, but if you saw the bedroom pics from yesterday, you get the idea of what the living room must have looked like. :)
Well, first thing was first, and I got a new couch. :) White linen goes with everything! I looked at lots of different colors and styles, and just fell in love with this basic, traditional look. Clean lines in crisp white linen...so versatile!!! Thank goodness it came with Scotchguard to protect it from the inevitable spills and doggy badness!
(A white couch and three black dogs do NOT play well together!)
See that white pillow with the embroidered blue medallion in the middle? The entire living room, kitchen and entry re-do was inspired by the colors in that pillow. This pillow just makes me happy. :)
So after I found that pillow, I added a few more pillows. :) Some were purchased (green, black), some I made myself. The paisley pillows are sewn from upholstery fabric from Walmart.
Yes, Walmart.
(Hey, I like nice decor, and I DO believe you get what you pay for, but I will NOT pay out the nose for stuff that I will want to change again in a few years, anyway). So, yeah, Walmart baby!!!
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Then on to my re-painted side table:
This little side table was originally a boring, stained solid pine with black wooden knobs. Worked at the time I purchased it 10 years ago. But here, next to the new couch, it just was sad and out-dated. It looked just like the floor, the E-center, the coffee table....just too much wood grain (I do NOT live in a cabin) and frankly, I wanted a pop of color!
Soooo, with a few coats of green paint (my fave green- "Eden" Painter's Touch by Rust-Oleum) and a rub down with wax finish for a bit of shabby interest, it was ready for new knobs. :)
You know those really cool (and really expensive) knobs at places like World Market, Anthropology and Pottery Barn? These are NOT those!
Since I really didn't want to spend $15-$20 per knob, I painted my own!
Here's how:
Get yourself a porcelain knob (about $1.50 at any home improvement store), stick it on a skewer, and use paint pens to create your own designs.
Gotta love that turquoise blue!!!
The more colors, the better! Once you are happy with your colors and patterns, outline everything with a black paint pen.
If you make a mistake, a cotton swab dipped in nail polish does the trick.
When you're done, spray the whole thing with sealer, stick it in a piece of foam to cure for a day or so, and then attach to your drawers.
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Ready for a few more projects from around the room?
This is the entry way looking from the living room towards the front door (not shown):
When I designed the floor plan of the house, I already had that antique church pew (an amazing find it at a garage sale for 10 bucks!), so the entry length was determined by the size of that thing. (The doorway visible in the background goes into my office.)
More pillows I made for the church pew. :) LOVE the burlap pillow with the feed sack label on the front. To me, finding old feed sacks and/or their labels is like finding hidden treasures. Sooooo many possibilities! Hint- keep reading. :)
I actually have a stack of cut out sections from old feed sacks just waiting to be sewn onto pillows or added to a project. :)
The mirrored sconce thingy on the wall (found it on clearance at Home Depot about 8 years ago, and is hardwired into the wall) was hung to one side of the wall. This helps light up the entry, but also leaves a nice big space for wall decor!
I used to have a big ol' Warren Kimble painting hanging here, but it too, was looking a bit outdated.
Sooooo......I gathered up a bunch of odds and ends frames and painted them all satin black. Then I printed some of my fave WDW photos in b&w and had them matted at Michael's (used a 40% off coupon).
LOVE this wall!!!
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Wanna see more? Okay. :)
This is an antique hutch right off the entry hall that holds some heirloom china (in the bottom- not visible) antiques, collectibles, other odds and ends, and is, apparently, a good place for a black lab to hang out. :)
Lets look closer at the top:
Old bucket painted my fave green. :) Then I added black numbers with foam stamps. Done.
Found that metal ampersand at a garage sale. It was kind of dingy looking, so I painted it with chrome spray paint. Done.
I also re-painted that stack of oval boxes to match the colors in the room and stacked them inside a real vintage explosives box. A totally cool find years ago! :). Say it with me....."Done."
Btw, I have a LOT of those old blue glass insulators and bottles. They are all over the house. :) LOVE them!!!
The bottle is an old Worcester sauce bottle I found at a little antique store somewhere in Oregon- no kidding! :)
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Lets take a look at the entertainment center:
Lots of stuff going on there, and btw, THIS will be painted black (or maybe white?) sometime in the near future. Still deciding. Thoughts?
This is the right side of the e-center:
Middle shelf: White-washed old wooden crate, letter stencils cut from stencil material with my Pazzles Inspiration Electronic Cutter, black paint. Done.
Bottom shelf: Round cardboard lidded container, turquoise and black paint, foam number stamps, white paint. Done.
See that row of books on the top shelf? No clue what those are even about. I picked them up at an antique store for a couple of bucks 'cuz I liked the colors. :)
Now for the left side:
The green lidded box thing on the middle shelf was found on clearance for a couple bucks in the gift section at JoAnn's after Christmas a couple years back. :) It is a wine bottle carrier made to hold two bottles of wine for gifting.
It started out navy blue with a Christmas scene painted on the front. It also had brass hardware. :( Of coarse, it just HAD to be re-painted green! I spray painted all the hardware silver too, and finished it off with a text-print paper and a metal "B" added to the oval on the front. Much better, yes?
Other boxes were found as-is (large white hat box- bottom shelf, black rectangle box- top shelf) or covered with scrapbook paper (green oval box- top shelf).
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What's on top of the e-center?
An old bottle crate, cool tri-pod clock, and a green oval box. :)
I don't even remember the original color of that box, bu it has a new coat of green paint. I also added an old piece of burlap cut from a grain sack that I just hot-glued to the front. Done, and done!
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Wanna see what's on the fireplace mantle?
So yes, you are looking at just the fireplace mantle. I am NOT ready to show anyone the actual fireplace. :( A few of the bricks on the front have fallen off and need to be re-done, so now it looks like poop. Total poop. And you're not allowed to see it.
Okay, so the above was not a very "involved" decorating re-do. I didn't paint any of it.
Just a simple black framed mirror, old wooden window, candle holders, floral odds and ends, happy little sign, and of course, blue glass insulators and bottles.
Those tall candle holders on either side of the mirror started out like this:
Two separate (and two very different styles) candle holders from Walmart.
One, a glass hurricane, the other, a mercury glass-looking piece.
Now they look like this:
This little epiphany happened while I was standing in the isle at Walmart trying to decide between the two separate pieces. Which one to buy? Neither was quite tall enough for where I was planning on using them. Whatever would I do? I had a different piece in each hand. I couldn't decide! Then it happened....
I held them next to each other, end to end. Problem solved!
(A stroke of genius I tell you!)
I used a heavy duty epoxy to stick them together. :) Added some of my collected wine corks to the bottom of the glass hurricane, a candle, and a length of hemp twine. Done!
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A few random things to finish up:
The coffee table. I didn't make it. Got it at World Market. Cool industrial details. A big ol' shelf on the bottom for my big wicker basket that holds several scrapbooks. Form AND function. LOVE this piece!
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This lamp base used to be all sorts of rustic country colors (barn red, navy, mustard) because it was a Warren Kimble signature piece with a lovely painted scene of barns, farms, sheep, cows, etc.
So yeah, really outdated.
Cost me a freaking fortune at the time cuz I was really, really into Warren Kimble, and just HAD to have it. Oh, the lessons we learn!!!
So I painted it black, (sorry Warren), added patterned scrapbook paper (designed by my friend, the fabulous Cassandra Cooper) that matched my curtains almost exactly!!!
So I guess that makes it a "Cassandra Cooper" piece now. :) Maybe I will have her sign it the next time she visits.
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So that's it, folks. I have a few more things to share, but another day. :)
Thanks for stopping by!
Later,
nancy
