Time for the AFTERS!

GUESS WHAT??? I'm nearly done! I will be the first person to admit that rearranging two very well used rooms is NOT easy....or quick. However it is TOTALLY worth it! I am loving how the rooms are turning out; although there is still so much to do around here with last minute thoughts and straggling projects. I thought I should post some of the afters here as it's taken me too long to do so. Here we go!

These first photos are of my TV wall in the living/family room. One is always having to wonder...when you have a flat screen tv on or in front of a wall....what does one do with the rest of the bare space? Since this is the wall that you see when you walk in the front door of our home, I decided to do something a little bit extra dramatic.....yes me...dramatic...can you believe it??? Tee hee hee! :) First we unearthed the TV from the larger cabinet and exposed it...that sounds bad...we...uh...freed it! :) I painted the smaller cabinet cream and moved it into position. That opened up the room soooo much! Then I bought some new white drum shades for the floor lamps (see first photo...we have no overhead lighting....so these are essential to us) and proceeded to paint the lamps BRIGHT BLUE. It scared the heck outta me to do it since they were 1920's antique French lamps. I gotta tell you I was regretting it instantly....but once I gave them a chance and moved them into place...I realized I had done the right thing. I love how fresh they look, and I think they really make the room. Yippee!  Then on to the embroidery hoops....yes....embroidery hoops!

This sort of wall is called a "Swatch Wall" (see earlier posts). I've been collecting embroidery hoops at thrift shops for a month or so. I have a TON of fabric scraps, so I wanted to get them out of storage and enjoy them...this was my solution for enjoying the fabrics and covering this pesky wall space! I just ironed the fabric, cut about one and a half inch larger than each hoop, and then closed the hoop. I then folded the extra fabric over and hot glued in place. Then I proceded to add some 3-D elements to a few of the hoops. I even hot glued little ones onto bigger ones to give depth. As I laid them out on the floor first to see how the whole thing would look , I decided I wanted them to overlap eachother. So, I just hung the lower layer with short nails, and the upper layer with longer nails. It worked like a charm. The finishing touch was to make a little Earth hoop....my boys loved it, and I liked how it tied my whole "MAP" look together. The photo above shows how I loved the birds I found, but my boys loved the car fabric the most! :)

I swapped out furniture I already had to do different duties. This armoir once held the tv...we switched it with the lower piece and transferred all the boy's games, puzzles, art supplies, etc...into this large cupboard. I'm SOOOOOO happy to have all their "stuff" in one place now! Just doing this project alone took half of the time spent....how do kids get so much STUFF???

I also got a large "sloppy" slipcover to go over the leather sofa...I was all browned out. I layered a fun quilt over the top with some funky pillows....and I'm really happy with how it turned out. It is a cinch to wash too!

I bought this butterfly pillow from Grandiflora (my shop) a few years ago...it was meant for a client. Somehow it never worked out there, so I saved it for myself. Since I have boys and no girls...it's fun to have a few girlie things in the house to get my fix.

I am hoping to make some slipcovers out of my old retro sheet collection...it should be fun for summer (this is one of the projects that could take awhile....)

I do love how my thrifted granny square afghan is looking on the fabric! That was a MAJOR find! :)

Even my chandelier got a makover! I have had this thing for over 12 years now. It has been gold, chocolate brown, and now cream. I spray painted the candle covers bright blue, and added some fun chenille ribbon to new simple white shades. Being that the whole chandelier and crystals cost me about $50.00 originally...adding the extras including paint....I think this is the best deal in my house at a whopping $75.00!!! Gotta love that! :)

I rearranged some things around my little wicker desk...and moved some artwork around too. That B you see used to be silver. Now it's "Caterpillar Gold" by Rustoleum! It is waiting to be hung in a fabric embellished frame....see? Lots of little things still need doing!

It feels so good to be organized...and to show off such a funky collection of stuff! I'm still trying to figure out if I want to paint that Scottish Sideboard....but what color??? I'd like to paint it that hideous "Caterpillar Gold"...but if I did, I'd have to change the wall color to creamy white (as the gold looks disastrous against the wall color directly!!)

I'm so happy to be able to say I got these lamps from Grandiflora years ago! I just got bored of the brown shades....so I bought these lovelies at Target (via Liberty of London: Sixty collection). I am loving how they turned out. Didn't they just refresh the whole look of the room??? I was so inspired by the Sixty collection that I kind of told a whole story around it. Of course if you've been hanging around my blog for awhile you know that I love my antique pull down map of the Eastern Hemisphere 1898. I am collecting vintage globes now too...I think I'm at 4 or 5 now...

See...is this retro goodness, or what?!?!?!

I even broke out my collection of vintage painted paper lanterns. I've been collecting them for years! I have more....I'm saving them for parties since they are newer and can still be used. These are very old and fragile, they are meant just to enjoy on days when I'm feeling blue. Aren't they just cheerful?

SOOOOOO.......if you think you live in a depressing home, where you can't seem to stand it anymore and you feel like life has issued you some tart lemons........

....just do like I did.....MAKE LEMONADE!!!!!

If you need to see more...much more...please go to my Flickr site (link on blog homepage at top) and poke around. I hope this has been inspiring to you. I really didn't spend much money, and it really didn't take that long....really....ok, a little bit longer than expected. But seriously...you CAN do this! I know this is not everyones style or color story...but pick green, or red, or purple...and GO FOR IT! What are you waiting for???? All you need is a little sugar....and the Lemonade tastes SO sweet! :)

Cheers!

Trish :)