Front living room

My house became… messy… yes, messy… while we were preparing for Origins 2010. I’ve slowly been cleaning it up and rearranging so that the house is pretty again. It was to the point where I didn’t want anyone over because the house embarrassed me! So I figured if it was bad enough that I didn’t want my friends over, it was time to do something about it. I started with the front living room since it’s the room you see from the door and worked my way out.

First, I painted that last bit of wall (finally) so it is now blue too.

Next I moved the couch to the area behind the door and replaced my mirror with a embroidered flower picture.

Then I moved the piano to in front of the fireplace, took down the giant clock, and put plants in the fireplace.

I’ve got some other rearranging to do and I’m selling some furniture, but it’s a start. I at least don’t shudder when the doorbell rings!

Edited: July 3rd, 2010

A baby grand piano

My friend has wanted a piano for awhile now but his home is too small. I mentioned he should just put it in my house and so he started visiting the pianos at the music store down the street. He was looking to buy one of the baby grands there and just hadn’t done it yet when we saw an advertisement for a baby grand piano for not a lot of money. We went and visited it and he wrote the nice woman a check. I had the feeling we were being interviewed to see if the piano would have a good home with us and luckily the woman decided we could take it home. You can’t just toss a piano in the back of the car and go though so we’ve been waiting for the right time to bring it home.

Today was that right time.

Our lovely friends Tara and Brandon have a big car and trailer which they drove to pick up the piano. Our other awesome friend Ross, James, and Jordan all pitched in to help lift and move the thing. Thanks to those guys (and Gary from Central Band and Piano in Warrensburg, Mo as well as Cody and Udom), I now have this in my front living room.

My camera is a bit spotty (sorry) but you get the general idea. I need a chandelier for this side of the room but I’m good with how it is for now. the other side of the room also needs some work but that’s the general idea for the whole house usually so I’ll just work with it.

It took a bit of work to get it in to the house though and of course i took photos of the entire thing.

We started with the piano right inside the door and decided we didn’t really like it there because it felt so crowded when you walked in to the house. We rearranged a little bit and now the piano is on the other side of the living room and some of the stuff was taken out of the room.

So now I have to go bust out the paint and finish the wall. I thought I’d wait until we were painting the hallway too but I can’t handle it anymore. I’m also painting the fireplace mantel back to white. The black color worked when we were going to paint the room a lighter color but now that the room is dark blue, it is just too much dark in here. White will help. There’s just minor things to tweek (like always) but that’s part of the fun of decorating.

Edited: March 26th, 2010

Fireplace Wall

I worked on it a bit yesterday and painted the fireplace wall. It had a green square of paint that had been covered by a mirror and the rest of the wall was this flesh colored eww. The whole thing just really didn’t look good. My arms hurt though so I put it to the side for a little while. I did what I could yesterday but ran out of paint (OH noes!) so it doesn’t have its final coat on yet. Since I am painting a hallway this color too and I have to remove wallpaper before I paint, I’m waiting to finish this wall so I can paint it all at once. Until then, the wall looks like this

It doesn’t look bad, but it’s not finished either. My house is a work in progress though so I’m okay with it not being done right away. I think the giant clock looks better now but I need to put some numbers or something up so its easier to tell the time. We’ve kicked around a couple ideas but ultimately didn’t like any of them so I’m leaving it as is until we figure out what we want to do to it. We may replace the hands with an actual oversized clock. idk. we’ll see I guess.

I also have an idea for the mantel that I’m going to try out this weekend. If it’s great, I’ll share photos… If it’s not great, I’ll share photos too. Why not let other learn from my decorating errors?

I have a couple things to do before tomorrow because tomorrow is my friend’s 21st birthday and he’s having dinner with some of his friends at my house. It’ll be fun!

Edited: February 25th, 2010

Decorating for less than $500

I had a party at my house for my friend Udom to celebrate him coming home from deployment (my house because it’s bigger and he wouldn’t have to prepare or clean up) and we had several people over that had never been to the house before so I gave them a tour. I realized while giving tours that most of my furniture is thrifted. Last night, I realized my entire front room has been purchased via Those Were the Days (a thrift store in Warrensburg) or the Salvation Army (also in Warrensburg, MO) with the occasional other thrift store or auction item thrown in. Running through the numbers, I did the entire room for less than $500. One friend kept asking where I purchased things and eventually told me if I said “Those Were the Days” one more time, she’d murder me…

So I thrift… a lot. I find that vintage items last longer. They hold up better against my kids and pets. Vintage pieces don’t make me cry if they’re ruined because they didn’t cost me an arm and a leg anyway. And finally, if you buy vintage items, everything has a nice aged look to it already and goes together easily. I don’t have to worry about the tiniest sign of aging on a brand new piece of furniture like a lot of my friends do. If something gets a little scratched or has a worn spot, it’s okay because there were probably already spots or scratches on it anyway. I wanted to break down the room for you though because I think the room is lovely and I wanted to show that you can have a pretty room without spending an arm and a leg (No really mom, you can!). It just takes the willingness to wait for the right pieces to come along and the willingness to go out and look for them.

Here’s a before shot from the listing of the house. trust me when I say the floors didn’t look nearly this pretty after we moved in. Funny how nice floors can look when you’ve just mopped. Anyway… This is by the front door. We removed the heavy drapes (which were left here) and all other things belong to the previous owners. I HATED the wall color. It was way too fleshy.

The other side of the room had a mirror that was too small visually for the fireplace and a bench that was unsafe. Everything else was the previous owners.

Keep in mind that this room is 28 x 13 with tall ceilings. So it’s not even a small room. Huge thanks to Sara over at The Steampunk Home for helping me figure out what direction to take this room. Although my final result isn’t exactly what she recommended, she was a huge part in why we decorated this room the way we did. I made the art wall based on her recommendation. The wall and floor color were taken from a playing card and the giant clock was also from her post. I’m still searching for a white rabbit or a moss bunny to add to the space (and with easter coming up, I should find one soon) and some heavy drapes for winter, but we never would have taken the room this direction without her.

First we’ll start with the art corner. My sewing machine table was bought at auction for $15 and the auctioneer even delivered it on base to my house because I couldn’t get it to fit in the car. How’s that for price and service? The chair is one I found at SA for $1 and Udom and Cody removed the staples holding ugly fabric on to it and found the original fabric still intact. There’s a vintage copper trash can being hidden by the chair that was $5 at TWTD. The glass fishing buoy was found in Japan and was free. The table holds a vintage typewriter that still works and was picked up for $1.50 at SA. The flower specimen was made by me and is on a stack of SA books that were $2. The vintage squirrel on nut was also SA and was $2.

Above the sewing table, we have some art. The Ace of Spades picture is one I painted, supplies were $15 (on sale). The White Rabbit one was $8 at Visioncon from artist Russel Dickerson and is in a $5 frame. Panda Party is $18 from Red Velvet Art and is also in a $5 frame. The key was $1 from the SA. Butterfly was $2 from SA. The mirror was $3 at SA and I spray painted it with leftover spray paint. The Alice art was made by me and supplies were $22ish. That includes the framed pen we used to buy the house (the pen was only used to sign documents for the house and was the only pen used to do so. neat huh).

On the other side of the room we have my wall of knobs. It was a whole $6 ish because I bought the knobs at a salvage place. The mirror is the one thing in the room I don’t remember how much it costs and is the only thing in the room not purchased since June. It’s one of the few things in the house that Cody and I bought at our first house and it has lived in every single house with us (all 5 now). He bought it for me as a gift because I really liked it but we were dirt poor at the time and I remember thinking it was really expensive. He surprised me for our anniversary or my birthday (I can’t remember which) and gave me the mirror. I still heart it

The plant was $3 at Lowes and is in a $6 container. The vintage luggage was $2 at SA.

The furniture on  the other side of the room consists of the blue damask couch $85 from TWTD and a vintage couch $50 from the SA. Eventually I want to recover the bigger couch because the floral thing is not my style, but the base itself is lovely and in good condition. I just have to find someone locally to recover it because it’s not something I feel I can do myself.

The lamp is a $1 auction lamp  (I have two of them and they were $1 each). Cody and I are looking for a new lamp though because neither of us are really digging this one. The chalkboard lamp was $1 at SA and I spray painted it with chalkboard paint. The lamp’s shade was $2.50 ($1.50 lamp shade from SA that I put $1 of fabric on). The tall blue lamp was also $1 and I spray painted it light blue instead of tacky shiny brass.  Couch pillows were all made by me for less than $10. The clock above the fireplace is my only not used purchase. It’s normally $30 at Hobby Lobby and I picked it up on sale for $15. I used left over spray paint on it to change the color of the clock hands. I need to paint numbers on the wall still and finish painting the wall but I haven’t done so yet. I’m tired of painting!

The luggage table was $5 from SA (again) and the plant on top of it is in a container my friend Susan gave me. The metal tray was $11 at auction, the clock was $15 at TWTD, the elephant was picked up in Iraq when my husband was there. The rug was found in our attic and so was free. The candle holder was $1 at SA and the stack of books were $2.

The little table was $3, the flower specimen was made by me, the little train belonged to my grandfather, and the metal case in the middle of the table was $2.

Window treatments were $11 per roller shade from Lowes and Lowes cut them to fit my window measurements. The white fabric curtains were here when we moved in so they were free to me, but I believe they’re from Wal-mart. If not, Wal-mart has really cheap white curtains that look the same and are something like $3 a panel. The curtains are on tension rods that were also here but you can pick up for $2ish at Walmart.

Paint was a huge part of this room. I spent $40 on 2 gallons of floor paint during a sale at Lowes. The color is “Lincoln Cottage Black” from Valspar and is in a floor and porch paint. I still have enough to do the landing at the top of my stairs too as well as a small bedroom. The wall color is “Fairmont Penthouse Mosaic Blue” also from Valspar’s historic preservation series. I used 1.25 gallons at $18 each (also during a sale). We’ll call it $36 though since you can’t buy .25 gallons of paint. Paint total is $76 and I have leftovers to do other projects too.

So there you have it. Add it all up and it comes to a grand total of $471 for an entire room from top to bottom including furniture, wall and floor paint, accessories, window treatments and art. Pretty freaking amazing imo. and proof positive that you can have a pretty room without it costing and arm and leg (See mom, I told ya!). It just takes some willingness to search for a deal, taking your time on the room, and not having to have everything brand new.

And the break down goes

sewing machine table $15

chair  $1

vintage copper trash can  $5

glass fishing buoy free

vintage typewriter  $1.50

The flower specimen $5

stack of SA books $2

vintage squirrel on nut $2.

The Ace of Spades $15

The White Rabbit $13

Panda Party is $23

key $1

butterfly $2

mirror was $3

Alice art was made by me and supplies were $22ish.

wall of knobs  $6 ish

mirror unknown

plant – $13

stack of books $2

vintage travel case $2

Total: $471

Edited: February 22nd, 2010

My Poor Husband aka I rearranged again

I feel bad for Cody. I rearranged the house again Saturday which means he got to hook up electronics again. I tried the tv in the front room and ultimately decided I didn’t like it there because it felt cluttered and closed off. I rearranged and now the house echos a little. I can’t say I feel *too* sorry for the guy since he knew before we even dated that I liked to rearrange often, but I think he expected me to grow out of it or something. Poor man though is constantly coming home to a house that has been rearranged. One of our friends commented that he was just over Thursday and yet the house was different by Saturday. Poor Burns, some day he’ll get it too. Luckily I live with people who don’t mind that I rearrange all the time so it works out for the best. Usually I do all the work myself anyway, I just don’t hook up electronics

As you can see, the teal couch has moved and my puppy is now by the front door. Cody hung up some art for me including the pen we used to buy the house. On the advice of a friend, we bought a nice looking pen and it was the only pen we used to sign paperwork for the house and that is the only thing that pen has ever been used for too. Now it is in a shadow box that has French Alice in Wonderland book paper as a background.

Cody also hung up a mirror I found at the Salvation Army that I spray painted another color, another Alice in Wonderland specimen box and I giant key. I also moved a plant over here. This plant is special because it is a clipping from a plant that belonged to his now deceased grandmother. My mother in law brought it to us via ziplock bags and a plan ride and it’s still doing quite well despite my black thumb of doom. The lamp was a thrift store find I painted and added a shade to but I don’t think I like the shade with it. The  typewriter is a vintage 1920s traveling typewriter that was a whole $1.50 (I about died when I found it). Moving on.

This is the other side of the room. The 1960s reproduction couch and the damask couch are both here now with a dark blue carpet beside them. Those pink and white flowers are actually real and bloomed just in time for my party. The blue flower is a specimen. Geek pillow is one I made and the giant clock hands by the door were purchased at hobby lobby on sale and then spray painted white so you could actually see them. The side table by the couches is actually two piece of luggage stacked on a base. The lamp was purchased at a thrift store and has orange cherry blossoms.

This is the fireplace side of the room. Cody is taking the fireplace insert down to the basement because the fireplace does not work, the insert is fragile ceramic tiles, and even if the fireplace did work we couldn’t use it because it’s a death trap that puts off lots of carbon monoxide. So he’s removing it but we’re keeping it so we can put it back when we sell the house. I’m replacing it with candles I’m also painting the mantel white again (which is was originally) and then I have to paint the flesh toned wall blue. When I say flesh toned, I really do mean flesh toned too. It’s almost the exact same color and my arm. Ew.

I’ll have to post photos of the studio tomorrow because it was rearranged as well. First I have to pick up all the blankets that are down there since we spent the day being sick on the couch and watching lots and lots of television with a brief break for me to take a nap and Cody to go in to work… on a Sunday… yeah. I don’t mind that at all though… You know, since they WILL be giving him time off later this week (right guys? Do you really want Mr. Geek’s wife mad at you? Really? Cause I get a little vindictively mean when necessary).

Edited: February 8th, 2010

A Dark Blue Room

So here’s a before shot of my fleshy colored walls. I’m not particularly fond of this color and it was in our bedroom as well as the hallway and the front living room.

Everything just kind of blends together and it’s just too basic for me. So I painted… dark blue.

Yes, it’s true. I’ve painted my front living room a lovely shade of dark blue. We’re keeping the trim and ceiling white and I hope to one day redo the floors and have them be a nice dark wood color. The pictures aren’t up on the wall yet (and I’m putting up different ones this time) but half my room is painted

I have to mop and stuff in the morning but it’s done. Next up is a lighting project that I’ve been working on and possible balloon shades for the windows. I’m not sure yet but we really liked the look of the room with no curtains. I have to have curtains though because it’s freaking cold here. So I’ll figure something out… I saw something that used thermal roller shades and they were going to put some lace trim at the bottom of the shade. I think that could look lovely in this room, show off the windows AND help keep my heat inside…

You can check out more before and afters at the thrifty decor chick’s blog or a soft place to land.

I’m currently getting ready for a convention in Springfield in January (only 2 weeks or so away) and hoping to visit the Red Velvet Art store while I’m there. I’m hoping it’s not as snowy by then. I would hate to drive for long in that much snow.

Edited: January 3rd, 2010