Living room and Fireplace Makeover

Here is the living room right after we moved in.  Tall ceilings, one wall with green paint, ugly drapes and a tiny living space.  

 HERE is our living room today! Note the finished archway that J put in for me!  The fireplace trim is simply some poly resin decorative stuff I found at Hobby lobby and regular old decorative wood trim all painted white.  Nevertheless, I love it and it does wonders.  I can't wait until J gets the crown molding up! 

Here's a close up of the mercury glass I have displayed all over the mantle.  Love me some mercury glass!  I did buy the looking glass paint and I have had a ball transforming random glass stuff to beautiful shiny decor! My tip for the looking glass paint, after reading several tutorials online, is to spray a light coat of paint inside your glass object.  Then, lightly mist...LIGHTLY as in one spray up in the air and catch it in your glass, the inside of your creation.  Take a DRY paper towel and blot the inside and even scrape it down the inside of the glass to remove and scratch away the paint.  Do this several times until you get the desired look you're going for and you will have beautiful faux mercury glass decor.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Fall Decorations on a Budget

I'm trying to be really good about decorating on a budget but it's so hard when Fall is my favorite season of the year!  And, I think I've done it with some thrify thinking starting with my new Autumn inspired pillows.

This is my goal: to have seasonal throw pillow all year long.  But, instead of spending a fortune on pillows and trying to figure out where to store them, I'm making seasonal slip covers for my already exisiting pillows.    

The first pillow below is made from a really cute hand towel I found this season at Kohls.  All I did was measure the size of the pillow, cut the towel to size and sew two folds of  coordinating linen fabric to the back.

This beautiful linen and embroidered pumpkin lumbar pillow is a place mat I adored at Kohls as well!  If you look carefully at the place mat when you purchase it, it is already sewn like a pillow with a distinct front and back piece of material.  I simply cut a slit in the center of the back piece of fabric and stuffed it with one of my pillows.  Boom!  Instant pillow!

Here is the new mantle (minus paint and stain) in the family room.  I still have to post my how to for the mantle and bookshelf my amazingly crafty husband built for me.

My foyer is decorated with Halloween decor already as well.

I love these cute Halloween ornaments but I needed a place to hang them.

I simply cut a few branches from a crab-apple tree outside and duct taped the bottom together.  I was going to spray paint the branches black and decorate with some glitter but I think I want to uses the branches somehow for November and December.  I may just need 3 different sets but for now I'm content with their natural look.

I took my glass votive jars and changed them out too.  This one below is stuffed with cotton pillow stuffing and a few black felt cutouts for eyes and a mouth.

I even hit up the bookshelves of my kitchen island!

Here is the living room; full view (still minus white trim and paint sadly)

Make your own Wheat Decoration

I love these decorative wheat bundles!  But... I've seen them priced anywhere between $100 and $15 dollars.  And I'm sorry, call me cheap but I'm not going to spend a minimum $30 plus tax to put some dead grass in my home.  I needed a money saving solution!

Since it is not wheat growing season here in Ohio, I was SOL to pick actual wheat.  But, a solution came to me when I was scowling at the distinct weed fence between my and my neighbor's property.  Bingo!!  I quickly grabbed some scissors and started cutting down some wild grass and grabbed some cardboard, my trusty hot glue gun and duct tape.

This project is simple!  Roll your cardboard or heavy card stock and tape it in the shape of a cylinder.  Hot glue each stalk of grass being sure to kine the wheat like top at about the same height.

Cut of the uneven bottom and glue a band or ribbon, twine or lace around the middle for a pretty touch.

Ta DA!!!  Here's my beautiful and cheap fall mantle!  Notice I made a small bundle to stick inside a white pitcher on the left side or the mirror.

Now, if only I can get J to finish painting the trim to get rid of the yucky oak so I can paint the walls!

My Half Finished Projects

I mentioned that my progress would be much slower with a 5 and 3 year old slowing me down. I can't work well into the night anymore and I think J is about sick of working on the house unless he's tearing things down. Forget clean up... that's apparently my job too. And I just haven't had the energy and spark to work into the wee hours of the morning. So here's what I've been doing. None of these projects are finished. I know. I know. I should probably work on one thing at a time. I hear you. But sometimes my wonderful hubby just likes to scare the crap out of me with the sound of a crashing wall. You'll see what I mean... OPENING UP OUR LIVING ROOM:

We decided to open up the formal living room and make the house more open and less choppy. The best way to do this was by removing the wall between the formal living room and the In-law Suite Master Bedroom. We saw no need for such a large guest room and wanted to have access to the double doors that led outside from that room. We still have yet to paint the formal living area and I haven't even begun to decorate the new space which we refer to the "family room" now. REMOVING THE CARPET FROM THE STEPS:

I did stay up into the wee hours of the morning with this project. It was not fun pulling out every staple and and nail. But, the effort was worth it I think. First, I got rid of the nastiest carpet in the world and second, there are beautiful hard wood steps beneath! This is my inspiration photo for what I will be doing with my newly uncovered stairs:

traditional staircase design by boston architect Siemasko + Verbridge

THE KITCHEN MAKEOVER: The first time I saw this kitchen, I thought to myself, "Now THIS is a kitchen I can cook in!". I was wrong. Once I started unpacking dishes, I realized I had no counter space and the cabinets were bass ackwards. The worst part was the ginormous island taking up most of the kitchen and slowing the flow of traffic in and out of the kitchen. Also, the cabinets weren't designed for someone who cooks. There's no space for me to store my dishes or my spices. In other words, we came to the realization we would have to replace the cabinets. Oh, and I hated the huge 60" wide fridge. It was obnoxious!!! So here we go...

Our new island cabinets are here and I'm waiting on J to install them. He's been rewiring the outlets and moving the plumbing around. Meanwhile, I've been working on the sink. Let's just say I drove two hours one way to pick up a sink yesterday and got it home, pulled it out of the box and J found a huge chip in the porcelain. I'm heartbroken. I have a 4 hour trip ahead of me to return it and I might go with something different now. I'm stressed to the max because out granite needs to be measured and I'm on a timeline with that. The kids and I have been looking everywhere and they are bored out of their minds comparing sinks and faucets! That still won't stop H from modeling everything I take a picture of as you can see in these out takes: