Living Room Before & After

The day is finally here! Our new TV stand is finished! Yay! So, on Sunday I told you about the living room makeover, which is centered around our new maple TV cabinet that my father built. Today, I am going to share the big reveal!

You remember the BEFORE pictures:



And here is the awesome AFTER:


The new cabinet is proudly gracing our living room feature wall (we will call it). The custom built cabinet houses our VCR, XBOX and accoutrement. The design includes two removable shelves to accommodate any additional media devices we may aquire in the future (can you say DVR?) ;) As luck would have it, the bottom shelf on the left exactly fits a DVD box! We didn't even plan for that-- hooray serendipity! Eventually that happy accident won't be so important because I intend to get a woven basket for the DVDs so we don't have all those colorful boxes cluttering up the view. :) The cabinet was constructed with solid maple and stained ebony, then coated with multiple coats of bombay mahogany poly-shade to achieve the dark mahogany finish. My mother sanded, rubbed, sprayed and brushed this thing for a solid week to achieve this satiny-smooth finish. Isn't it gorgeous? Now, we just need to get her to do all the other pieces of furniture in this room to match! Haha!



Our TV BEFORE... Don't jump, TV, we'll get you a new home!



And now:

And in the corner where the ugly TV stand used to live, we now have a nice corner for reading or talking on the phone (or putting on those running shoes!) A special thanks to Mama for the cushy chair--a ratty goodwill find that she reupholstered with cream colored cut velvet... so soft. The new lower TV position opened up the wall above the cabinet for a photo gallery featuring black and white family photos. I bought most of the frames on the cheap, painted them black to unify the different styles, and then hung them symmetrically above the television. I tried it assymetrically for a while, but I just couldn't handle it! :-P Me and my laser level are all about precision--in addition to hanging the frames on a nail, I also taped them to the wall so they won't be bouncing around and un-leveling themselves as time goes by. Who has time to go around straightening frames all the time? And the other set of frames displays some botanical prints that coordinate nicely with the colors in the room:



The final addition to the living room is a set of bronze lamps with cream shades from Wally World on the clearance aisle (they weren't really that cheap, however, I think those Walmart people just put a clearance sticker on something and stick it on that aisle so some sucker like me will buy it!) :) Finally, a little light for our main living space.


So, there you have it, our lovely living room makeover. But don't worry, we aren't done yet (could I ever be done with a room?) Future upgrades to the living room include new paint color (in a darker shade of beige for more contrast--can't get too wild here because the walls connect to the foyer and hallway), bamboo roman shades, recovering the couches in a nice tan color, a big square ottoman to replace the coffee table, new neutral drapes, coordinating throw pillows (of course), and at the top of the list--a console table to replace this little plywood stand:


I like this one from JCPenney, but I wonder how it would look with all the other furnishings in this room. What do you think?

Sneak Peek: New Media Furniture

So, (fingers crossed) we are supposed to be getting our new TV stand tomorrow! Here's a sneak peek of the piece during the construction phase in my father's workshop. Papa built it and Mama did all the staining and finishing.



And here is where we are going to put that solid maple beauty--yonder, on the far wall...


And here is where our TV currently lives-- in the corner, perched precariously on a cabinet. Even after four years of sitting up so high on that flimsy stereo cabinet, (which has survived two moves) miraculously it has never fallen! The new lower and sturdier cabinet will solve all those problems and look good doing it. :)


Check back soon for the big reveal which will include new lamps, new artwork, and new furniture! :) Yay! Stay tuned!

Closet Confessions

Last weekend my father finished building my sweater cubby (one of the many projects I've had him working on this month) for my wee walk-in closet. Since it has double rods on both sides, and I only use three of them, there was a great space available storage. It was previously occupied by mountains of sweaters, all threatening to topple over, desperate for some shelving to keep them organized.
Here is the cubby system in the new workshop:


It's a versatile design and at 35" tall I could use it as storage on the floor (with baskets in the cubbies) if we have different closets someday. After a couple coats of semi-gloss white it was ready to install in the closet. Here it is, happily organizing all my sweaters (see they are not ALL pink, just most of them, hehe):


My next project in here is going to be a new flip flop storage system (basket, perhaps?) to get that shoe organizer off the back wall, and I want to paint the closet walls pale pink! Then all the trim will go a fresh coat of white. Maybe I'll get a new light fixture, too, the one in here looks like an old jar with a brass lid... ick! What do you think?

Project Flashback: Ladybug Crib Set

I was looking through some pictures tonight and I stumbled upon a sewing project from last year that made me smile. I want to share it with you in a feature I will call "Project Flashback".

This flashback is of the crib set I made for my niece, Abby. It was based on the Kids Line ladybug crib set, but I think ours is cuter! ;0)

See the inspiration below:


And here is my take on the design:

(Don't you love how its the exact same crib as the inspiration, only stained instead of painted? Almost like we planned that! hehe)

Our bedding was made with Minky Cuddle plush fabrics (pink with embossed stars and green chenille stripe) and assorted cottons and flannels. (We purchased a coordinating fitted sheet for the mattress.) The ladybugs were made of polka dot flannel and applied using a satin stitch on the machine. The flowers and dragonflies were cut from various cottons, and the trails of the bugs and flower stems were hand embroidered using embroidery floss. We even found pink ladybug and dragonfly print upholstery fabric! That was used for the back of the bumper and the curtain valance. My favorite part is the pillow with Abby's name. It's so whimsical and the style is cute enough to last through her childhood.



To top it all off, I painted two canvas prints to hang in the nursery. I must thank the people who invented paint pens for all their help in creating those perfectly thin lines!



This labor of love was a gift for my brother and sister-in-law for their new little one! When I look back at all that hand embroidery and applique on plush chenille fabric, I think I must have been crazy to attempt it! It was definitely worth it and I love how it turned out! I hope Abby does, too. :)

Abby-kins

I spent the weekend at my parent's house and my niece, Abby, came to visit. I got these cute pictures of her sitting in the heirloom rocking chair that my mother refinished. We have pictures of all of us kids in this chair. :)

Isn't she precious?

Pantry on Parade

This week we have been working on converting our seldom used "coat closet" (that's what a chair is for--to hold your coat!) next to the kitchen into a full-fledged pantry! It was clever Michael's idea to add some shelves to the closet for storing bulk food items and canned goods. You can see that the single upper shelf was just not doing it for us...


So, after my father cut and glued up some pine shelves for us (Thanks, Papa!) I cleared the closet of its junk and got to work painting. Flat white for the walls to brighten it up (there is no light fixture, alas) and semi-gloss white for all the shelves and supports. Then it was just a matter of putting up the shelf supports (using my hand dandy laser level). Lacking the special battery for my new stud finder (shouldn't it say "batteries not included" on the package!) I resorted to nailing into the wall every few inches in the vicinity of the stud. :) Lucky for me all those holes are now under the support brace. hehe.

Anyway, we now have four fine shelves ready for a plethora of pantry items. There is lots of room for the bounty from our next trip to Sam's. I keep finding things around the house that could live in the pantry--at this rate it will be full in no time. But that of course, is how my Mother's pantry came to be so disorganized! hehe. Mostly I'm just happy to get the cereal off of the floor and the beans out from under the couch. It is nice to be able to see all the food items you have in stock at one glance.

Mmmm... brownies....

Basement Blues

Our first project (after we got settled in) at our new house was to finish out the basement. Our basement boasts a a one-car garage bay plus a work/storage space in addition to a laundry room and den on the other side. The unfinished garage started as a blank canvas with unfinished open stud walls, concrete floor, and an exposed ceiling. The dark, dirty room was not a welcome greeting when we got home. And at night, it was just plain scary-- the single exposed light bulb did not inspire visitors to linger long.


We decided to tackle the project with help from our handy families. My father and I added a new opening in the divider wall to more easily navigate around the car, additional electrical outlets, and three new fluorescent light fixtures. Michael and his bro, Nelson, installed the insulation in an afternoon. Bless them! Next came drywall, peg board, and a ceiling.


After a week of mudding and sanding drywall, we added trim around the doors and gave the whole room a coat of fresh white paint. Then the simple tile ceiling went up with furring strips and molding finished the edge of the room. Lastly, we sealed the block wall with two coats of Dry Lok to prevent moisture from seeping in and followed up with paint to complete the room. Now, our basement is a bright and tidy place to work, play, and store things.


Future upgrades may include painting the garage door and metal air ducts, a drop ceiling in the garage bay, a painted faux tile floor, shelving for the storage boxes, and cabinetry for all the paint, tools, and supplies.

A special thanks to Hannah and Josh for the ping pong table--we saved it from a future in a landfill after some kids sat on it and broke the frame. Maybe it's not perfectly straight or level, but we embrace it for its uniqueness (and its free-ness). ;)

Anyone up for a game?