Love it! Wall Decor

A couple weekends ago we finally got some wall art up above our sofa in the living room. It's the main wall in our living room so it was really begging for some attention. We (and by we I mean I) decided to go with some family photos as our focus since, after all, it is a space for family to gather.  

It all started with four frames I picked up at Hobby Lobby during their 50% off framing sale along with some precut mats. Then I shuffled through some wedding photos and some old school pictures I had stored away from our wedding rehearsal slideshow and decided on four photos that I just loved. 

Then I added in two skeleton keys I had left over from this earlier living room art project and a wooden "K" initial. We really didn't love the "K" right away. It was too white and perfect looking which did NOT work with the vibe of the frames so I sanded it down a bit. Then I sanded it down some more until we finally decided it could stay.

With everything combined, this was the result.

Good, but not quite enough for my taste. I knew I would want to add some more to the collection and I had an idea of what I wanted, but it wasn't something I had actually seen. I had that, "I'll know it when I see it" idea. And now I've seen it. 

I now introduce to you my "Love it! Wall Decor", Shanna Murray's Illustrated Decals. They are spectacular and I'm going to have to try to keep myself from buying one for every room in the house.

Here are the two that I'm already planning on snatching up to add to our living room wall:

1. This baby will be going around the "K". I'm thinking in the gold rather than the white.

2. This gem is my fav! It actually has a chalkboard center so I can put any quote that speaks to my heart. I'm planning on using this one from the Avett Brothers... "Always remember, there is nothing worth sharing like the love that let us share our name."

Don't you just love these? I'll be sure to post pictures once I've put these babies on the wall. I'm super pumped!

Until next time...

Use Whatcha Got

If God gives you lemons, make lemonade...

If God gives you random leftover home decor items make art? (Eh, it kinda works...although I'm sure he didn't want me to buy the random leftover crap to begin with.) 

Anyway, here's what I was up to on Sunday:


Project 1: 

• Woven Placemat
• IKEA silver frame (been waiting to be put to use)
• small IKEA mirror (1 of 4)
• Left over Guest Room wall paint
• Paper from IKEA frame

All of this eventually became a new mirror for our guest room.

  

  

Project 2:

• Old Target Artwork (was originally in our apartment bathroom)
• Left over white trim paint
• Pottery Barn Keys
• Gorilla Glue

All that equals some fabulous new art for our living room that I love.

Yay for simple free artwork completed in a hour! Woop, Woop.

Until next time...

Living Room Progress

The hubby, furbabies and I have been in our new home for one week now and although there are still a couple "off limits" areas, we have settled in quite a bit. Today we were able to make some more home progress by buying purchasing our first washer, dryer, lawn mower, and weed-eater. It was tons of fun as you can image. (I'll talk more about that later.) Luckily, we were also able to pick out a couple more exciting items (well exciting for me, probably not that exciting for Brent) that are moving us one step closer to pulling our living room together.

Basically, I've already made a detour from my original living room design plan. Shocking? Not really. It's what I do. A girl like me can't walk through any home decor store or flip through any design magazine without coming up with a totally new idea of the "perfect room". This time the design deviation came from spotting this pretty lady at World Market.

I never even knew I liked yellow (in home decor) until I found this curtain. I never really considered it as a main color option, but I'm really pumped about it now. All of a sudden, grey and yellow are the bomb and I'm going with it. 

So I haven't purchased these curtains yet, (waiting to use my coupon, girl) but it is now the jumping off point for our living room design. What we did get to buy today, thanks to my sweet in-laws, is this new jute rug.

Looking good right? Our other new edition is the yellow pillow. I love the combination of the natural woven rug and casual yellow pillow with the more elegant grey pillows. The most interesting design usually stems from unexpected combinations and these pillows do just that for me. I just can't wait to get the curtains in place. Bring on the grey and yellow!

Yeah, that last picture has nothing to do with the new living room scheme, but they are just too darn cute not to include. If only were that well behaved all the time.

Until next time...

Design Plan: Living Room

I spend a lot of time creating design plans for myself. Usually in just a Word document. I copy and paste home decor items and furniture that I'm in love with (for the moment) and dream of how it would all come together. It helps me think. (And gives me something to do while the hubbie plays Xbox.) 

It's quite entertaining to look back over all the design schemes I've come up with before we even started house hunting. I've created tons of "perfect" designs that have later been deleted, redone or forgotten. Knowing how often I change my mind on what I think is the ideal home decor can make moving forward on designing our new home a little worrisome. That is, until I realize that all these plans have been put together before I even knew what our home would look like. 

Once we are actually in our home, I believe I will be able to easily nail down a design plan that we will love. I have a game plan for now, but I'll have to stay open to any changes that may be needed along the way. I think you never really know for sure until you get to plug some items into the space. (Budget issues will also affect some of the overall choices. Got to have some cash available first...bartering doesn't work so well.)

Here's the plan (for now) for our new living room:

(We obviously have furniture already in our currently living room that will be joining in with these items as well. I just didn't feel like making the effort to take individual pictures of everything. Call me lazy.)

I'm pretty sure the living room wall color will work and we already own the media cabinet and chair so you can be sure those will be around in the final design. I also grabbed the Target pillows (that Young House Love stole from me) this weekend. As for everything else, we'll see if they actually get to make it to our home. It will be fun to see what the final result is. Stay tuned.

Until next time...