Revamping The Living Room

The first floor of the house is almost done, I painted the living room and the finishing touches are complete.  It only took me one day, surprisingly, to paint this room and ceiling, and another day to redecorate it.  I was working like a busy bee.  I don't really like when the house is in disarray.  I had to get done quickly, as we are having an overnight guest this weekend, and the guest bedroom was overflowing with things that I cleaned out of the living room.  So it's done, I'm happy, the house is happy and the guest will be happy.  Now on to the next room, the laundry room and a tiny hall that has to be repainted.  Check out my low budget redo.

Gold is old, this is the first room I painted when we built the house 10 years ago! The living room is

 12' x 14', a nice size room that we don't really use. 

 This room only has these two windows so it does not get a lot of light.  It is on the southwest side of the house, so it makes for darkness in the room.  I wanted to brighten it up a little bit so I chose a lighter color palette.

 And these are my colors - Rocky Mountain Sky (a blue gray) on the walls and Popped Corn on the ceiling.  I use Popped Corn on all my ceilings, it's not a bright, (you need sunglasses to look at it), kind of white.  It softens the blow of bright white.  Both paint colors are from Behr.

 My painting supplies, can't live without my edgers! 

 And these handy dandy furniture movers, make life easy especially if you are moving furniture yourself.  The furniture easily glides across the floor and doesn't scratch them.

Look at what a fresh coat of ceiling paint will do for a room, after 10 years!

Ceiling done, and now the trim.

 Trimming around the room is the part I don't like about painting, too time consuming, but it has to be done.

 Almost done!

 I finished this painting project and the clean up in one day, all by myself.

 It looks great, and I am so pleased with the color.  It brightens the room and is very calming, yes even for a room we don't use!

This is before and after, which do you like better?

 My new 7'6" x 9'6" medallion rug on the floor is from Wayfair. The cost was $96.00 with free shipping.

 New curtains on the windows, from Home Goods $24.99 for each pair

They look good!  I may get rings so they glide easier on the rods.

Furniture moved back into the room.  These are new to me, I have never used store bought slipcovers before, these are from SureFit.  I was going to get new furniture, but didn't want to spend the money. I still have cats that lay all over everything!  So I decided to try the slipcover thing.  They are inexpensive, washable, and I hit a buy one get one 50% off with free shipping, so about $100 for both slipcovers, pretty cheap.  They are a creamy/white color and they feel like suede, so against the chenille fabric of the sofa they don't slip when you sit down.  This is just a quick fix, someday new furniture will be in this room, someday.  I don't think they look too bad, and the fit was perfect.

New pillow covers from IKEA and blankets from Marshall's.  My family loves blankets even in the Summer!  The leather bench and square table in the background, are loaned by my sister. We have our own yard sale swap with each other for things we still want but aren't using.  So rather than store them, give them away or sell them, we swap with each other.  These are her contributions to my new room, thanks sis! 

 
Old trunk I purchased a few years ago at a thrift store.  This is before wall decor is hung.

And this is after wall decor is hung.

 Before....

And after.

All wall decor is hung, some I reused like this grate, pictures are new.

 

 Big sticks from IKEA, mirror from Marshall's

This picture on clearance at Ross for $8.00.

 I reused this table from the Living Room and put it at my front door.  This lantern from Southern Living Home was in the Living Room and now hangs in the Dining Room.

 I was keeping my computer on the kitchen table and it annoyed my husband, so...

this desk from IKEA, that was part of the Living Room for 10 years, has now found a new home in the kitchen.

The printer and my computer sit inside, and the top has lots of storage.  I have my coffee here every morning, as well as writing The Bee Skep blogs.  Hope you enjoyed this one, there are more to come.

Don't Keep Me Hangin'

So, I finally finished my dining room. I didn't paint it because I like the color and it didn't look bad, so I let it go.  Less work for me, and I can expend the energy to paint the living room, that is getting done next.  I put a new carpet on the floor and hung a few new things and that was it, I had everything else, just re-used the items and voila, all done, take a look!

From Kirkland's - Shutters were $59.99 on sale for $50.99 each.

Clock was $19.99 on sale for $16.99.

 These wire burlap number baskets I had from another room, as well as the straw runner.

 Up close of the weathered wood and metal shutters.  They are 52" H x 16" L x .75" W.

Also at Kirkland's, the oversized rustic wood ruler was $39.99 on sale for $33.99.

  The size is 72" L x 7.25" W.

 Wine bar did not change, but added a more decorative platter to the shelf.  I took these pictures at the park with my IPhone, edited them on the phone and changed them to black and white.  I printed them out on my home printer and double matted them in these big frames.  The tray was re-used from another room, it came from Southern Living Home.

 Here are my pictures.  The cream colored mats came with the frames, but 8 X 10 pictures were too small.  So, I purchased three 8 x 10 mats for $2.99 each from the Christmas Tree Shop, and framed my photos.  The black wood frames I purchased for $10 each on clearance from Jo-Ann Fabrics a few years ago.  The pictures cost $13.00 each to produce, an inexpensive way to decorate.

There was something about these steps that intrigued me.  They led into the woods and were covered in dried out leaves.  When I changed it to black and white, they became more artsy to me.

 Re-used this large lantern, from Wegman's for $34.99, it's perfect. So everything is hung and done in this room, I hope you like it!