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

Scenes from the weekend

Weekends fly by, do they not?  Here's what's been going on here...

I finally wore my peter pan collar shirt to family pizza night on Friday.  This is the reality of trying to take a picture of myself (which is already awkward) while 3 wild boys are in the house.  Take 1;  The hubs decides to do his Risky Business dance.

Take 2.  My children show up to imitate him.  Who's the grown up here?

I tried to do the black dress/brown boot look (thanks Pinterest) on Sunday. My boots are 10 year old JCrew specials and they are a little orangie but I tried.

And....

1.  I found a wine I'm excited to try--named for my birth year, ha!  So old!!  I hope it's good!
2.  New chairs!!!! Finally, we are close to finishing my living room.  It's so overdue.  I'll have a little before and after later this week.  We're not done yet, but close.  It is amazing how giddy a new chair makes me.  I seriously love sitting in this chair!  And we have 2!  Come over for tea please!
3.  A little DIY action.  I really like this on my door but I'm not wild about the font on the C.  I may change it, it was so easy to make.
4.  Stella & Dot spikes.  I've wanted these forever, so glad I pulled the trigger because I LOVE them.

Back to pizza night... we found a New York style pizza place that my husband loves (I do too:) and we go almost every Friday.  Pepperoni for the little boys, eggplant/basil/ricotta for the big people.  So good!

And finally, remember last week when I told you I got the hair donut?  I loved it!  It does make an enormous bun, but..it makes my hair look thick and it's a nice change from the pony tail.  I liked it.  (p.s. that's not lint on my sweater, it's toothpaste on the kids' bathroom mirror, so hard to keep clean!:)

I hope you had a great weekend, can't wait to see what you guys have been up to!  Linking with friends.