Art, a Pillow and a Freshened Up Living Room :-)

For the past eight months or so I've been working on a few little projects in the living room. Up until this point our renovation process has been: rip out all disgusting messes that we inherited, slowly repair and or replace all the bones of the room, paint, move in some furniture, add some decorations, and call it done. There are so many rooms and projects, and so much dinero involved, that we don't take the time to make each room perfect before moving on to the next. Especially because something usually happens like a basement flooding or concrete stairs crumbling or deck stairs splitting in half and so we move on to the next urgent project. :-) Oh, and I am also incapable of making quick design decisions in our own home. Other people's homes - not a problem. Paint your room blue! Recover that chair!  My house? Paint the room..... yellow? white? gee, I just don't know. I think I'll take eighteen months to think about it. :-)

Ok, back on track. I recently completed a few projects in the living room. I said that already. I told you that we replaced the mechanic's waiting room loveseat with a pretty little antique one, and that I found a matching blue chair at a garage sale, and that I painted franchute. I also ripped off the hideous contraption that the previous owners put on the piano, and replaced it with the original top and music stand. I also made two pretty pillows out of the fabric I bought in NYC. OK, so now we are all caught up. :-) Here's what I did next:

Made a flower petal pillow. 



I was inspired by this shabby flower pillow project and thought it would be fun to make my own. I used some leftover linen, and sewed the petals wrong sides together so that they would fray over time. I really like how it came out, although when used it does get a little smooshed and wrinkled, and that bugs me a little.

Painted two watercolors of scripture verses that are very important to our life right now. 

Once I completed the franchute project, and got that wall looking better, I knew we needed some art that would fill up that wall more than the poster we had up there before. I found these three huge frames (they're 24"x24") at the Christmas Tree Shops (where else) for just ten dollars each and I knew they would be perfect. They actually came with those inserts to add in a million pictures but I knew that I'd be changing that. Lover and I talked about which verses to display, and settled on 1 Corinthians 15:58 and Galatians 6:10 - both verses remind us to make sure our lives are focused on others.

I love watercolors, and it was super fun to design the text with a variety of fonts and then just take it to have it blown up to the right size. Then I traced it onto the watercolor paper, and started painting away. Super easy and so pretty.

Made a flower petal paper art piece. 

This one was inspired by the pillow, and also something else I saw online but now of course can't find. I bought a pack of Taj Mahal inspired scrapbook paper from Marshalls for $3.99 that had all sorts of cool glittered, embossed and stamped sheets. I also purchased an oval punch from the crafty store, and spent a day punching out little ovals from all the papers. Then I spent another day gluing them to each other individually, creating that flower you see in the middle of the frame. The goal was to have it look like a flower, but in the end, I think it ended up looking more like a Tibetan sand mandala.

Which I am cool with. I like how the different patterned papers pick up all the colors in the room. This project took more time than I thought it would, but it looks really nice and it will be easy to swap out with a photograph or different artwork when the mood strikes.

Bought a new lampshade. 

So much better than the faux leather cone one that was there before. Thanks Lowes!

Covered the glass of the builtin cupboards with contact paper.

I love having the storage of the builtins in this room, but I don't love the glass. Everything just always looks messy inside, unless I arrange it perfectly, which defeats the purpose of having lots of storage! I tried wrapping paper on the inside, to add a touch of pattern, but it was too busy. Then I tried fabric, but it was too opaque and looked weird. Finally I decided to try frosting the glass. I was all set to buy a frosting kit, but then I remembered how Thrifty Decor Chick "frosted" her pantry door with contact paper.  And since a huge roll of contact paper is only 5 bucks, I decided to give it a shot.  And I think it looks great. It softens the outline of the stuff inside that it's not constantly bugging me. Follow TDC's instructions, they really made this a simple project.

Bought new end tables.

Pretty much since we bought this house, I have been looking for a set of nice end tables. And looking and looking. I've stalked Craig and his list, looked at garage sales, and shopped in stores. Nada. Until this month. I finally found the right tables for the right price. $35 for both! Awesome sauce. They are much higher than the other tables, which is nice for drink setting and lamp lighting. They have two huge drawers, which is great - more storage! They've got great lines, but they do need some TLC. They are a little scratched and banged up, and the one on the right side has a broken handle. They match franchute really closely, so I think switching out the handles will help them look a little different. So now I just have to decide - do I want to paint them? Strip them and refinish? Both? :-) I'd love suggestions.

Hung pictures up over the piano.

Lover took that big picture when we were on one of our trips to NYC. I love it so much. The rest are pics I've taken and I am pretty happy with them. Which means I am sure I will switch them out soon. :-)

Touched up all paint and filled holes.

No picture here, because why on earth would you want to see such a boring picture? :-) But it really did freshen up the room.

Scraped the sides of the windowsills to get all the paint, tape and spackle left on them. (Not all that was entirely my fault. :-)

Sprayed the curtain rod brown-black to match the one in the dining room.

See dining room curtain rod picture. The living room one now looks exactly like it. :-)

Whew! Now, before you get all "wow, you have accomplished so much, when do you ever have time to sleep?", remember that I work from home, my photography business goes down for the count during the winter months, and oh, yeah, I already told you this took me eight months to accomplish. Or nine. Who's counting anyways? :-)

Next up, I'll show you pictures of the whole room. Have a great day!