Living Room Before & After

I have a confession: I'm a terrible decorator. I try but I never get it right and I just don't pull rooms together well.  I had a hard time admitting this!  But I finally had to, I've wasted way too much money decorating rooms 3 times over.

My living room is the first room you see when you come into my house and I was tired of it being ugly. So I asked my girlfriend (who has more style in her pinky finger than I'll ever dream of having) to design it for me. I'm so glad she agreed!  I love it! She's so talented. Sara, you're fabulous! Rachel helped out too, she has impeccable taste, love you girl!

First, let me show you the inspiration and textiles.  (I feel so fancy saying textiles for some reason.) I loved the checks and Sara recommended some bold pops of color.

This room provided some inspiration as well.

via

I'm so embarrassed to show you a before but here it is, a hodge podge of hand me downs and stuff we didn't know what to do with.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

What we did:

• Moved the couch
• Replaced carpet with hardwood (my husband did this himself, so handy)
• Made drapes (I made those, thank you very much)
• Purchased a hide rug (copying Sara of course)
• New coffee table painted Graphite by Annie Sloan (my husband made the coffee table, I really wanted a round one and couldn't find one)
• Bought 2 new chairs from PD's in Franklin (locals love this place)
• New mirror (Home Goods)
• New lamps (Home Goods)
• Made throw pillow covers in chosen fabrics

I'm so happy with it y'all. I love to sit in this room with a hot cup of tea and read. It is also our family game room; I wanted a room that was pretty but also served our lifestyle. I still have to style the coffee table with some cute stuff and decide on artwork (and my family's antique piano is going in here at some point) but overall it's nearly finished!

What projects are y'all working on?

Linking to The House of Smiths, A Bowl Full of Lemons, DIY by Design

Laundry room redo: before and after

Happy Monday!  I am so excited to share a room redo with you.  Getting some of my rooms *complete* is a goal for 2013 and I'm off to a good start. Let's hope I can keep up the mojo.

I have a nice big laundry room that has been an eye sore for 2 years.  I spend a LOT of time in this room and decided it needed to be a more inviting little space.  I cannot get laundry washed and put away fast enough to keep it tidy and desperately needed some shelves and storage.  Mr. C came to the rescue!  He is quite the carpenter when he needs to be and built a lovely set of shelves for me, as well as a hidden shelf under the counter that will hold 5 laundry baskets!

Before: (I know, don't judge, I live with 3 boys.)

After!

I tried to use what I had so the color scheme just sort of evolved.  I already had Sherwin Williams Comfort Gray paint, Alabaster white paint (cabinets and shelves), and the navy blue bins (Target).  I happened to find a rug at TJ Maxx with those colors that helped tie things together.  The only real expense was the wood for the shelves that Mr. C built.

The process:

• Painted the grody yellowish cabinets Alabaster white by Sherwin Williams
• Painted the walls Comfort Gray by Sherwin Williams
• Used my favorite Lowe's drop cloths to make skirts for the tables to hide storage
• New rug from TJ Maxx
• New hardware from Hobby Lobby
• Re-did a faux Roman Shade that was once in my kitchen

Done! So happy with it.  On to the next project!