Blue

My newest craft obsession is spray paint.  It's not quite as messy as painting and it can completely change the look of an object.  Usually I'm very much a neutrals (black, beige, white) person when it comes to furniture, but I saw this color blue* at Hobby Lobby during a recent trip and wanted to try it out.  My victim was this IKEA, outdoor, metal table that I've had for 5 years.  I failed to take any before pictures, but it was looking pretty shabby.

I think I really love it.  It will look great next to the black bench that Kingsley has claimed.

* the color is Rustoleum Satin in Lagoon

Blue

Winners!

The winner of the double giveaway featuring yummy oatmeal cream pies from Kate at Marshmellow Goodness

and choice of a pretty apron from Jenn at Orange You Sweet

is Mrs. B-P!!!

The winner of the Get One, Make One giveaway from Melinda at Palindrome at Home

is Marissa!!! 

Please email me your addresses so you can receive your goodies :D  AND a HUGE Thank You to everyone who entered!!  

Extra thanks go to my wonderful friends who donated items for all of the giveaways (Kate, Jenn, Melinda, Amy, Laura, Jessica )  This would not have been possible without you!!!!

AND (best of all)......  $93 has been donated to the Lupus Foundation of America because of all your wonderful comments :) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

 

Winners!

More Mirror Inspiration

This weekend was very productive at our house.  The Karlstad arrived Friday, and was assembled in our living room Saturday.  It looks sooooo much better and we are really happy with the result... pictures soon to come!  Unfortunately, Husband injured himself moving the old sofas into the garage (for storage, until we sell them).  He was feeling a little better Sunday night, so I think (hope) that the muscle(s) he pulled are on their way to healing.

I also painted the guest/second bathroom and removed the existing light fixture only to find out that there was no junction/electrical box installed.  Lovely, and I'm going to guess that all of the bathroom light fixtures were installed this way.  Thus, another trip to Home Depot or Lowes is in order to correct the problem. 

In the mean time, more mirrors:

Living Etc. via Birch & Bird on Pinterest

Viva Terra via Lissa on Pinterest

Apartment Therapy /Elle Decor via Cassandra on Pinterest

Hip Hostess via Lynn on Pinterest

P.S. The winners from the last two Lupus Awareness Month Giveaways + the total amount donated to the Lupus Foundation of America will be announced this evening :)

More Mirror Inspiration

The Staircase

There are some areas of our home that I know exactly how they should look and there are others that I have no clue about.  One of these areas is the portion of empty wall above our staircase.  See the following (and please excuse the poor quality of the photos, the mirror that needs cleaning, and the dust on the fan, mmmkay?)

 

You can kind of see the top part of one of the sofas in the last photo. Other than the mirror and one other framed picture on the wall to (your) the right, the walls are pretty bare.  My problem is this:  The area that includes the stairway, upstairs hallway, entry way, and living room is very open.  I don't want to overdo it with pictures/stuff, but at the same time it looks so empty as is. 

Also, whoever build the house we live in did a horrible job of sealing the drywall joints.  If you squint in the top picture, you can see a little line that's in between the fan blades- trust me, it's far more noticeable in person.  So the second purpose of putting something on the staircase wall (above the stairs) is to draw attention away from that monstrosity.  I also, feel like I'm limited to what I can put on both the wall above and below the stairs because they are in the same line of site.  

I stumbled across this before/after post on Design*Sponge today and fell (hard) in love:

Design Sponge

I think this would be the perfect solution for our stairway wall, but I don't think my husband will be as easily convinced.  So now, I'm thinking of adding symmetrical, organized elements or one large element to one wall (probably above the staircase) and a mismatch of smaller items (sans mirror, it will move to a new location) to the wall below the staircase.  My first thought was to line the top staircase wall with mirrors.  Somewhat inspired by this:

Elizabeth Martin Design via Katherine on Pinterest

Apartment Therapy via Emily on Pinterest

Country Living/ My Sweet Savanah via Nikki on Pinterest

I think I like the simplicity of the second picture best, but using mirrors instead of framed art.  I picked up some cheap round mirrors from Target (on clearance) and I'm experimenting with them right now to see if really like the look or not.  Hope to have some results soon :)

The Staircase

A New-To-Me Chair

My husband owns these two bar stools (I think he's had him since we first met, which was a really long time ago) that were quite plain.  Instead of throwing them away/giving them away/setting them out on the curb and buying new ones, I decided to try to make them a little more presentable.

Before:

After (and much better IMO):

One down, one to go.  Details to come :)

Don't forget to enter the final Lupus Awareness giveaway!!!  I'm donating $1 for each entry to the Lupus Foundation of America!

A New-To-Me Chair