~doing a little living room rearranging~

Every now and then, ok, about once a week, I get in the mood to change things up.

Sometimes it's little things like bringing in fresh flowers and cleaning out the cupboards.

Other times it's rearranging furniture or tackling a major project.

This week I switched things up in the living room a little bit.

As many of you know, I sanded the green paint off our coffee table.

I know a lot of you liked the green, and I did too, just not in here.

And if I ever do want it green again, I'll just paint it!

I'm loving the look of the raw wood.

The photo below shows the main changes, even though they are small. I removed the glass front cabinet from the left of the fireplace and stacked it on top of the other matching one, on the right.

{you can't see the bottom one in this pic}

Then I moved the leather chair to the corner to create a cozy little spot.

Sorry for all the sun glares. 

It rained all day and when I went to take photos, the sun came out.

Not complaining though!

I didn't have any fresh flowers so I cut a couple branches off some trees in the yard.

I also brought back my stump table and put all my favorite back issues of Cottage Living Magazine on it. I could read them over and over and over.

Of course when I sacked these two cabinets, the artwork was too big, so I changed that up too.

Some sources for this space:

Lamps on table- Homegoods, similar here

Sectional- Pottery Barn {in twill cream}

Euro pillows on couch from here 

Frames on wall from Ikea

Shutters, glass bottle, and tray on console table, various antique stores

Stacked cabinets {old} Fred Meyer

Floor lamp-Homegoods, similar here

Metal pitcher- Joss and Main

Leather chair {color whisky} -Pottery Barn

Blanket on chair- World Market

Pillow on chair- Pottery Barn

Coffee table- family heirloom

Wall color-swiss coffee by Benjamin Moore

Ticking pillow on couch from my friend here

xoxo

~a vintage sign reproduction 2 ways~

I have always loved this vintage sign:

A few years ago I made this one for our front porch, and have since sold it.

I kept going back to that original sign really wanting it again, so over the weekend I made another one.

This time  I used an old window frame and the same raspberry color that are in my pillows.

Yes, I took the flag down.

I love it, but when I brought back the pink pillows it clashed.

The beauty of it is, when I tire of this one, I can switch the pillows out again and put the flag back up!

So which look do you like better, the pink with the lake view sign or the flag with the more neutral pillows?

xoxo

~living room refresh~

I teamed up with these lovely bloggers to show you how to refresh your living room!

classic•casual•home

Don't Disturb This Groove

Lime In The Coconut

Little Black Door

My Sweet Savannah

Pretty Petals 

Rough Luxe Lifestyle

Roses and Rust

Stone Gable

Sometimes we all just need a little pick me up, some fresh new pillows, flowers from the garden, etc. to brighten things up.

When it came to our living room I thought really hard about the purpose this room serves. What we really use this space for. 

I also kept in consideration the upcoming summer months, and how it is used during that time.

I came to the conclusion that this really is a kid hang out room in the summer. 

The kids go swimming in the lake and then come back and plop down on the couch for a movie, maybe a board game on the coffee table, a few snacks….

So, here is how I added a little life and summer fun into our living room!

{sources at the bottom of the post}

The very first thing I did was hang this flag.

I have had it forever, as well as the frame, so I put it together, got on a ladder and hung it up high!

The ceilings in our living room are 12' tall, so it filled up this space nicely.

I think the flag might be my favorite part of the room.

Now here's a funny story.

When I had the ladder on top of that console table to hang the flag, I stepped back to view it all and realized how nicely the blue in the ladder looked with the flag!

So I took a copy of the ladder with my phone and took it to the hardware store and picked 

out a paint to match.

I painted this bucket and added fresh flowers from the yard.

Voila!

Ok, I lied.

This coffee table is my new favorite.

And it has a story.

It was my husbands when he was little, how special is that?

The whole piece was green, which happens to be my favorite color, but after getting it in the room I realized it was just too much color.

So, I sanded down the top to reveal the wood and put a coat of clear wax on it to seal it.

It's much bigger than our previous coffee table and I am loving to!

I also had to cut 3" off of each leg to make it the right height.

Since a few days ago when I did this little living room refresh, we have played many games of junior trivia and dominoes. :)

I brought out some more of the kids' board games and piled them high on my books.

I also piled on the pillows.

Lots and lots of pillows, most I had but I did pick up the blue vintage ticking ones at a antique store.

I wanted to keep the pillows fairly neutral since there is so much color going on in the room elsewhere.

Do you see how just a few accessories and pops of color can change the look entirely? 

Here is a before picture:

And after:

sources:

Lamps~ Homegoods

Wood bucket~ Home Depot

Paint on Wood bucket~ Behr "tornado season"

Shutters~ antique

Gallery frames~ {I don't see the exact ones, mine are about 13x17} Ikea

Flag~ My Sweet Savannah

Pillows~ Dreamy Whites, Great Findz, vintage {similar here}

Sectional~ Pottery Barn

Ceiling light~ Pottery Barn

Jute Rug~ {8x10}  Rugs USA

Zebra rug~ local antique store

Console Table~ Farm Chicks Antique Show

Bench behind couch~ Craigslist

Wall color~ Behr Swiss Coffee

xoxo

~project design~

On Friday I am joining these lovely ladies below to show you how to refresh your living room with some inexpensive tips!

I will be working today to be getting my living room ready!

I hope you will join in the fun and check all our living room refreshes out on Friday.

classic•casual•home

Don't Disturb This Groove

Lime In The Coconut

Little Black Door

My Sweet Savannah

Pretty Petals 

Rough Luxe Lifestyle

Roses and Rust

Stone Gable

~table turned dog kennel~

If you are a dog lover like me, you like to make comfy little spots for your pets to sleep.

One of our labs sleeps peacefully on a bed in our room, but the other is a puppy and he would be running laps around the house and chewing everything up if we let him be on the loose at night.

So, at night time, he goes into his crate.

You know, those black wire ones that you can bring in your car, etc.

Well, lets just say after a year I was tired of looking at the metal dog crate in our living room and decided to finally do something about it.

Here is how I turned our console table into a little dog kennel for the puppy.

I removed the door from the wire crate and attached it to one end of the table.

My husband rigged up a latch to keep it shut.

Then, in order to avoid the back of our couch getting dirty, and also from Oakley sticking his tongue in the electrical outlet, I nailed up 1x8 pieces of pine on the other 3 sides.

It's the perfect size for him and he loves it!

After I finished I remembered that I had ordered this name tag from Pottery Barn, 

{no longer available}

and was able to use some strong adhesive glue to add it to the front.

The best part, you would never even know it's there!

I love functional practical ideas!

xoxo

~new art in our living room~

Have you ever heard of the $10 watercolors by Sarah Swanson?

Sarah is someone I follow on instagram and I have always admired her art.

She has the most gorgeous home and I am so excited I finally have some of her pieces for my own home!

Mine are slightly larger than her $10 ones, they were $20, nonetheless, still a steal.

I framed them in Ikea Ribba frames.

These frames are marked down from $19.99 to $14.99, another steal.

Sarah also has a great blog you can view here.

xoxo

~our dining room & break~

Kids are on vacation this week, so I am taking a few days off from blogging to spend time with them.

If you'd like to follow along on instagram, you can do so here.

In the meantime, I am loving the blue pillows I moved from Savannah's room to the living room so much, that I went to TJ Maxx and scored a Broyhill lamp I love for the adjoining dining room.

Pillows from Spark Modern.

xoxo

~decorating a room doesn't happen overnight~

When we first bought this house back in 1998, our living room had natural tongue and groove cedar walls and ceilings. I embraced this by decorating with a lodge feel using leather couches, pine furniture, deer heads and fish.

Then around the year 2008 I decided to paint the walls to lighten it up.

This change had me wanting more white so we bought a slipcovered couch from Ikea and I was on the hunt for the perfect coffee table.

I made some picture frames out of vintage chippy wood and hung a boat oar on the wall under them.

This picture just made a big debut on HGTV.

You can see the story here.

It got a ton of nasty comments.

Honestly, it bothered me at first, but in the end, I realize my house isn't for everyone.

How boring would it be if every house were the same?

Present day……

Today there is a bit more color in the room with the raspberry red pillows. I found a great $5 coffee table {trunk} at a garage sale that suits us just fine.

I hung rows of black and white photos of Crystal Lake {where we live} from the past, framed in Ikea Ribba frames.

We upgraded our sofa and now have one from Pottery Barn.

The lamps are a bit more substantial. A score from Home Goods.

I am a sucker for layers and a bit of animal print, so the jute rug and zebra rug are perfect.

Long story short, it takes time to create a comfortable look that represents you and your family.

If you pulled a room together overnight it would look like Pottery Barn page 127.

Who wants that?

Shop for the perfect accessories, and don't buy anything unless you love it.

If all you can afford at the present time is an Ikea couch, by all means, go for it!

There is nothing wrong with Ikea!

We live in this room.

Yes my carpet is a hideous brown that I'd rip up in a heartbeat and install hardwoods if I could, but money doesn't grow on trees and with 2 dogs and kids, it's perfect for where we are right now in life.

And for everyone afraid to get a white sofa, I can only say that you are missing out! They are the worlds easiest to keep clean! I cannot tell you how many spills we have had on this sofa and you just whip the cover off and throw it in the wash. So easy!

Good luck decorating the room of your dreams!

xoxo

~toning down our log mantle~

On a whim yesterday I decided to "tone down" the log mantle in our living room.
It was looking a bit orange to me.

Here's the before:

I knew it had to be super subtle because my husband would freak otherwise, so I used this stain:

It's super subtle and I honestly don't think he will even notice.

I think it has the appearance now closer to driftwood.
Here's a side by side for comparison.
Sometimes it's the little things!
{and it took less than 5 minutes!}

Before on the left, after on the right.

xoxo

UPDATE TO ALL YOUR QUESTIONS! NO I DID NO PREP! OUR MANTLE HAD A CLEAR COAT PUT ON IT WHEN WE HAD IT BUILT ABOUT 12 YEARS AGO, BUT ALL I DID WAS BRUSH IT ON AND WIPE IT OFF!
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