The Dining Room

The dining room was one of the biggest attractions for me when we looked at this house. The wall of windows opening up into the living room was so wonderful. As someone who had been an apartment dweller for 7 years I wanted light so badly.

Some befores...

This is when we first bought the place, post popcorn scrape. The light fixture was gaudy brass-tastic. The walls were a deep red and the wainscoting (along with all the trim in the house) was a beige-y off white color.

This is after the initial coat of paint, nice white wainscoting, and new light fixture. The table and chairs were another borrow from my parents. It stayed exactly like this for probably a year.

Then I saw this beautiful black lacquer table on clearance at Pier 1. And I knew it was the one. The curve of the legs, the shiny black goodness, the size, it was all perfect. So I brought it home with me for only $300.

The wall color was one of the first things I painted an actual color in our house. The color is Purple Basil by Martha Stewart for Home Depot. I probably went through about 5 different purples before I chose this one. I knew we could go dark in this room because of all the windows and the fact that the wainscoting covers half the walls. So I decided to go bold and I totally love it.

Then after months of searching on craigslist I finally found the perfect chairs. Only $100 for all six. Huge score!

I painted them white, which took forever because the Texas summer started right when I got them. It took me six months to paint all six. It was just too damn hot to work during the summer, so they just sat there.

 I managed to find a thin black and white stripe fabric from High Fashion Home for only $10 a yard, so I spent $80 total. Then we saved up for upholstery which cost about $350. If you're keeping track including spray paint we spent about $600 total on the chairs. $100 each for custom chairs? Not bad if I do say so myself.

Then came one of my ultimate scores. The bar cart. I snagged it at, you guessed it, Canton. For only $55!

It needed some TLC but I thought that was all the better. I polished it up with some brasso, tightened the screws and bought some pretty paper from paper source to cover the shelves. The shelves were some fake faux wood or something.

I made a template for the shelves out of plain paper to make sure I got it just right. Then mounted the pretty paper with spray adhesive.

And bam, a whole new piece!

I do love it so.

Meanwhile I managed to score this beautiful art deco china hutch from some friends who were having a garage sale. I don't remember what we paid for it exactly because we bought several things altogether but it was stupid cheap. I had plans to cover it with paper one day.

Again the paper in the hutch is from Paper Source mounted with spray adhesive. Its amazing how much I use that stuff. Definitely a good item for your tool kit.

The fabric was a splurge. I had been searching for the perfect thing for months and on a trip to NYC I saw this fabric at Mood and just knew it was the one. It was my birthday gift that year. We needed a lot and it was $40/yard. I think we spent over $600 for everything. Then my mom and I sewed them together ourselves. It sounds like a lot but again, when you think about how much Anthropologie charges for curtains, it really is comparable. And no one else has these curtains. They MAKE the room!

The light fixture still has that generic home depot light we originally installed under there. I just wired a giant drum shade I got from a showroom at Dallas Market over it. 

The curtain rod is a cable system from Ikea that I highly recommend. It's cheap, easy to install and can extend really long. A curtain rod long enough to cover these walls would have cost easily $100.

                                                                                    Photo by  Sarah Greenman

So that's our dining room. If you have any more questions leave 'em in the comments!

The Living Room

The living room is a hard room you guys. There's so much to coordinate, so many ways it has to function, and not to mention $$$!

That's probably why this was the most recent room I've worked on.

It's in a good place but isn't quite where I want it to be yet. But I'm a slow decorator and I'm beginning to accept that.

This is the best before pic I could find from when we moved in in 2009.

And "after". 

We removed the popcorn ceiling, took down the ugly big wood blinds, painted the walls and trim, removed the gloss over the brick on the fireplace and made a new mantle.

 Then our house pretty much stayed that way, for like almost two years.

This is after I painted the room Nimbus Cloud by Martha Stewart. I don't have a big picture for the in between time because I was so embarrassed. That sofa looks so used up and lumpy! That coffee table I borrowed from my parents, "borrowed" for almost 3 years!

Our living room then looked like this for way too long. Sad right?

Photo by  Sarah Greenman

And here it is now!

Most of the art is either made by me or vintage pieces. All the pillows are made out of vintage scarves I cut and sewed together with an invisible zipper. Seriously these things are like $1 at canton. Slap some cotton on the back and you've got a gorgeous pillow for like $5!

Photos by  Sarah Greenman

The coffee table was a craigslist find for $150. It was short as are most mid century pieces so Scott built a box that we then covered in gold wrapping paper. Trust, paper was the best way, we tried them aaaaall!

The rug is from Wisteria and is now discontinued.

Photos by  Sarah Greenman

I know many of you are wondering about those gorgeous chairs. Why wouldn't you? They're awesome.

Here's a story;

I wanted two accent chairs. They had to be comfy but stylish. They couldn't be a normal wingback because that would just be too easy right? They also had to be cheap.

Cue searching craigslist every. single. day. for more than 6 months.

I finally found these gems for a $100 for both. Sold!

There they are in all their 80's business office glory.

They stayed this way for almost 8 months.

I had to find the right fabric. When I found that I had to save up the money. When i did that I had to save for upholstery. This shit ain't cheap and I want to be real with you. Decorating takes time. Sure I am envious of all those people that can decide what they want and then, poof, it's bought and all done up. But I don't make decisions quickly  nor do I have the budget for that. But I think this way is actually better ya'll. Because you really think things through and make sure you get exactly what you want.

Now for those curtains.

They are simple Ikea panels that I dip dyed ombre.

This is an easy but messy project. I also had to dye them twice to get them dark enough.

I used to not be sure if they were right for our living room but now I really love them.

This is the nook for our TV which you didn't see on the tour. Don't you always wonder where they hide those things?

This nook used to be an 80's wet bar complete with mirrors and tacky lighting. We ripped all that out and shoved a dresser in there for our tv. I like that it's out of the way and that little nook hides all the cords necessary to make my techie husband happy.

Photos by  Sarah Greenman

I know many of you wondered about our floors. They are stained concrete. I hate them with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. In person they are rust colored and very splotchy. After we reno the kitchen we plan to do wood but I guess this is better than stinky carpet right?

So that's our living room! If you have more questions please let me know!

See Our House on Houzz!

Back in June the lovely Sarah from La Maison Boheme contacted me about doing a house tour for Houzz.com and of course I said yes.

It was so much fun sprucing up our home for this tour. The extra motivation to finish a few projects surely did help!

See the rest of our house and read the article here.

I also thought since I might have some new readers I would go through a few of the rooms and talk about the projects and sources. Does that sound like fun?

Happy Hump Day lovers!

P.S. You might have noticed a new look around here too. That is all thanks to my super talented friend Adriana. She does amazing work and you should all contact her immediately!

Brass Sculpture DIY

I'm sure many of us have admired this brass sculpture many a time...

But even the smallest one is $1600! Woah nelly!

I really NEEDED one though...

In comes the DIY. This is going to be another tale of DIY gone wrong at the beginning.

I used small wood sticks and cut them in half using clippers. You can opt not to cut yours if you want a bigger sculpture.

Buy a small GREEN floral foam ball.

This is very important. I first tried with a larger ball which, duh, looked stupid. Then I tried with a small white ball which was way too hard to stick the sticks into.

The I got the small green ones and cut them in half.

Spray paint then start at the top sticking the sticks in like so.

You don't really need to get too hung up on spacing them out perfectly, which my OCD side was totally wanting to do.

After you stick them all in take it outside for a few coats of gold spray paint.

And voila! Nice little sculpture. I would love to make some more for a nice little wall arrangement.

Overall it's a pretty easy DIY. Have you done any lately?

Coming Around on Red

I have something to confess...

I don't much care for the color red in decor.

It used to be my FAVORITE color ever!

But for a while now I haven't cared for it. It was hard for me to work with, it felt like it overpowered everything else and was generally sucky.

But lately, I kinda like it.

The other day I even picked up this fabric swatch.

I'm smitten with its Ruby velvety loveliness.

                                                                            Source: isuwannee.com via Brandi on Pinterest

And after a quick perusal of my pinterest boards. I noticed I've pinned quite a bit of red.

                                                                           Source: theaestate.com via Brandi on Pinterest

                                                                              Source: design-crisis.com via Brandi on Pinterest

                                                                              Source: thedecorista.com via Brandi on Pinterest

                                                             Source: amberinteriordesign.blogspot.com via Brandi on Pinterest

                                             Source: design-crisis.com via Brandi on Pinterest

Source: sunset.com via Brandi on Pinterest

                                                                  Source: myfavoriteandmybest.com via Brandi on Pinterest

A lot of images actually...
This last image might have to be the inspiration for our hall bath reno. I'm thinking red and some inky blue, you know, in a non patriotic kinda way.
Are you a red lover? Have you always been?

Quick Change: A Big Ol Honkin Rug

Am I finally embracing my Texas roots with the title of this post? 

I kinda hope not...I just don't like country music ya'll.

There I go again...

I bought another discontinued rug from Wisteria Flea Market for our master bedroom.

I didn't realize how big it would be in our room until I got it home. But I kinda like it this way.

From this:

To this: 

It's a dhurrie so it still needs to flatten out a bit. I plan to put some carpet tape under it asap as well.

It goes so beautifully with our new curtains!

What do you think? Bold right? I wouldn't have it any other way.

Once Upon a Time in Decor Land...

A couple of elves (my parents) graciously house sat for us last week and watched our dogs while we were on vacation.

But they didn't just do that, no no.

Things were sewed, weeds were pulled, stuff was vacuumed. It was incredible to come home to what felt like magical little elves who had done all the things I had been dreading for me.

My mom sewed the trim on the new white curtains I had mentioned in my last post.

They are perfect! Just as I had pictured and I can't believe how cheaply I was able to do them. In case you don't remember I paid $45 for each curtain (they're 102" long!), plus bought about 17 yards of trim for only $2.50 a yard. That makes the grand total about $140 for both. 

Hard work and a little elbow grease pays of people. Although my mom did some of the hard work (thanks mom!).

I also finally got some glass and backing for a super cheap and awesome frame I got from the antique store a few months ago.

Mad savings here too people!

Frame: $1

Clear plexi and backing, cut to size by my wonderful husband: $6

Matting: The matting is actually a watercolor board I cut a square out of, $4

Art: A vintage print I've had for almost 3 years sitting in a drawer! I think it was like $15.

Grand Total: $26!

Ridic!

I've wrapped up a few more projects as well so stay tuned this week for those!

Happy Wednesday Lovers!