Hydrangeas

From my mother's flower bed. Sooooo pretty!

 Also added in some cute, little coasters from Target today. And a fun new @ pillow :)

chevron rug..and slip covered sofas!

It took 12 weeks, but my I.O. Metro sofas are finally in!! I'm pretty in love with them, but living in fear of the light fabric. I know, I know...slip covers! Take them off, toss them in the wash. But, still..yikes!!!

Let's take a look back at what the room started like 6 years ago....

And now...

Picked up the chevron rug off of Rugs USA. If I can remember back to February..It was only $125.

Also had a little chair make over that we threw over against the wall.



Before

 After

laundry room makeover

So, we took the smallest space in the whole house. With pretty much ZERO natural light..and painted it BLACK! Black chalk board paint, of course! :) And I love it!
We purchased a new washer and dryer a month ago, and I knew we needed to do something "fun" in there.

This is the best "before and after" I'm going to be able to produce. I think the before pic was taken the first few months we lived here. The room had been painted. But, just the same lenox tan that's throughout the living and kitchen.

David pulled down the cookie cutter cabinet, that I NEVER used. Seriously...can't remember the last time I reached to the top of that thing. It was obvious by the 7 empty light bulb boxes crammed in there!
 I wanted open shelves, but didn't just want a boring backdrop. David put up those little, adorable subway tiles.

 The opposite side of the room, got a bead board treatment and some hooks for the backpacks and jackets. I'm not sure what I want to do above. I thought about some cork boards. But, for now...Asher has turned it into a mural of our spring vacation :)

And the remaining little wall :)

smoke

Is the new, lovely color that has found it's way onto my lower kitchen cabinets. I was never totally feeling the taupe. Always just looked like my lower cabs were dirty. Of course, now it looks like my dishwasher is dirty. Just that ugly staining that kind of dishwasher gets as it ages. We'll deal with it for a few months, then hubby has promised me a new one! :)

I had some reservations repainting what I'd just paid a guy to do for me a little over a year ago. But, I've been obsessed with the idea of going blue/gray long before I did the taupe. I played it safe, and it didn't pay off. I'm happy now. Least until the color scheme completely changes in my house again :)





                                                    Benjamin Moore Baby Fawn

Benjamin Moore Smoke

outside changes

I thought I'd wait to post on some of the things we've done outside, till the lawn was nice, green...lush. But, this here drought we're havin' in the Midwest is NOT agreeing with that plan. Dear Lord..send us some rain!!! It's awful!! And brown..and dead. Sigh.
So, I've snapped some pics and will go ahead and show off the few little things we did back in the Spring.

The door. Oh..the white, boring door.

 I took off the hardware, and spray painted it ORB. And David painted the door with a Valspar's Green Apple. Fresh, clean...cheerful. Lovin' it!
.

The following wk he knocked out a couple of sets of shutters, then we painted them black. All very inexpensive changes. But, big ones in our eyes. Both things are something we've been dying to do since we bought the place. 6 yrs ago!

 And you can see some SERIOUS tree growth over the years! And to think..the one on the right almost got yanked out for "failure to thrive", haha!

the evolution of a living room

Snapped some more pics this weekend of some of the changes that have taken place over the last year of our living room. It's been fun looking back and seeing how drastic our taste has change. All that red...yikes!! So, glad that phase is over :)

This space actually started with these little dinky white framed pictures. Here we thought we really stepped it up by changing the frames out to dark ones, LOL. gotta luv the plain, postage stamp of an area rug.

And this is where that rug was replaced. Of course, like everything..I'm over this rug. I've looked for awhile for a replacement. But, haven't found one I'm willing to spend the $$ on. Because, the next one isn't going to be just another "quick fix". We also ditched the recliner. This is the set up we use every Christmas when the tree goes in front of the windows. And I always hated putting everything back. So,  two years ago..we just didn't. We lived with nothing in front of the window for 6 months. Waiting, and shopping to find the perfect 
chair.

Now we have some big changes. Replaced the coffee table, which I'd been dying to do. And everything just took off from there. Once that awful honey oak eye sore was gone, the rest slowly started to get picked off.

The over bearing red curtains..poof! Gone! Replaced with nice, crisp white ones. The purchase of our little IO Metro occasional chair. And some pillow changes.

Behind the couch, we had this going on

And once things started to "lighten up", it went to this.

And then finally...the bookcases I've been dreaming about since we bought the place. Magically appeared!! Ok, not so magically. It was days of work for my hubby. Which BTW..I think he totally rocked it!

So, here's a little before and after picture recap

So, there ya have it. In about a year..it'll all change again :)

not a fan of the ceiling fan

But, I AM a fan of this pretty little thing now hanging in our bedroom!!
Last week, while I watched our ceiling fan shoot sparks (and dust) across the room my first thought was "shoot, gonna have to get a new fan". Knowing full well that was the direction we were headed. As David has always thought designers were nuts when they took out fans, and put up new lighting on the decorating shows. We both actually prefer the constant circulation of air that a fan provides, so it's never really been up for discussion.
Made a trip to Lowe's, and found a fan we both liked. Then I snuck off to lighting..and oohed and ahhed over several purty, little chandeliers. It was clear he wasn't on board. We then trucked on over to Wal-mart to see what they had to offer..just in case we could swing this at a cheaper price. And there was this ADORABLE little Hunter retro table fan.

Hubby agreed it looked great, and would give it a try. Once home, we knew we were in love! It actually provided more air through out then the ceiling fan. It was adorable and wouldn't be a huge dust collector!
So, on to the hunt for the perfect light.....
I did some google searches, and knew I'd have to be pretty thrifty. And I came across a few different chandeliers at Home Depot. Oh, how I'd love to walk into an antique store and pick up an awesome vintage light. But, that wasn't gonna happen.
When I came across this little beauty at the bargain, or shall I say "Internet special" price of $49 (originally $99) my first thought was...piece of junk. Surely, how could this be any good at all?

But, after reading the reviews..I decided what the heck? For $50 bucks, we'll go look at it. If it's terrible..we move on.
So, I called the store to make sure they had one in. And talked to a gentleman who also told me he'd honor the Internet price. Cool beans!
When we got there, we couldn't find it hanging as an example. At least, we didn't think we were seeing it. I was looking for something small...fake looking. But, once we were in possession of the box they were holding up front for me..I realized we DID see it. And it was BEAUTIFUL! Seriously..in person, it doesn't look like a cheap piece of poop.
When we were checking out, the lady seemed shocked I was offered the Internet price, because their in store sale price was $77. I assured her Chad told me I could have it at that price. So, she rang us up!
It was a little time consuming to put up. But, we knew it would be. Not a big deal, though.
And we're loving it!! And hey..did I mention..it's acrylic!?! :) Which BTW..you totally can NOT tell in person!

And here's a flash back of what the room was like when the bed was on the other wall. And was oak.  Two wall colors, and 4 bedding sets ago.