Front Room is a Changing

Even though I just recently posted about the new rug I had picked up for our front room:

I've already switched things up.  The rug above is beautiful and I did love it, but after having it down for a little bit, something started to bother me about it.  I think perhaps the green in it was too subtle and made our green couch look strange in the room.  Or maybe it was just too busy.  Or maybe there was too much red and orange for my liking.  Or maybe it was the curves of the couch with the paisley print that made things just too curvy for me.  I don't know what it was exactly, but it didn't feel right, so it got returned.  I was a little sad because it was a fantastic deal at $199 for an 8'x10' wool rug.  Ah well.  

I replaced it with the Olin Rug from Crate and Barrel:

This rug was exactly what I had in mind after I landed on my inspiration image for this room:

Amber Interiors

See the black and white striped rug by the credenza?  Olin makes me so happy.  And while I don't have black chairs next to the credenza, yet, I did play with our floral Pier 1 chairs, so the room is currently looking like this:

The chevron pillows were from Target on clearance for $6.48 each.  The letter pillows were from this post.

Next up on the list of projects for this room:

1. Art on the wall behind the couch

2. Curtain Rod and Curtains

3. Perhaps a big mirror for singing productions by Lucky and Charm (They are mirror singers, and I love their shows.)

4. Black Chairs or Slipcovers

Has anyone else been return happy lately?

The Trouble with Rugs...

is that there are too many good options!

I just picked up this guy from Marshall's on clearance for $199.  It's a 7'6" x 9'6" 100% Wool Rug.  I couldn't believe how well the colors worked together for our front room.  I also love that this rug could work equally well in our very neutral great room, in our sun porch (which has reddish cushions on the chairs and couch), or down the road in our basement if I want to switch things up...it has both the yellow and blue colors we used on our walls in that space.  For a person who likes to change things around as much as I do, versatility in a rug is a definite bonus!

I should note that I originally was thinking of a black and white striped rug like this for the space, and I would have tried to track down some sort of fabric to make curtains with a color scheme that included black, white, green and blue.  Now, I'm searching for some black and white striped curtains or fabric that could be made into curtains.  Black and white striped fabric should be much easier to come by!

In addition to curtains and a curtain rod, I'm also working on coming up with an artwork plan for the wall behind the couch.  I'd like to settle on something personal and inexpensive, and I'm mulling a couple options around in my head:).  Regardless of what curtains and artwork I settle on, it sure is exciting to look back on the progress we've made in this room already, considering we started with an empty room and a green couch:)!

Front Room: Sunburst Mirror

When I wrote this post earlier in the week, my front room's credenza looked like this:

While my inspiration image looks like this:

via

Enter this mirror from Kohl's:

Flower Burst Wall Decor

Current Sale Price: $64.99

I actually picked it up in early summer because at that time, it was on sale for $45 (down from the full price of $99 at the time), and I had a 30% off coupon, and $20 in Kohl's Cash to use up.  I couldn't not buy it:).  I had always planned on spray painting it gold.  My cost for the mirror was about $20 after all discounts.

I used Rustoleum's Gold Spray Paint on the mirror.  Well, first I used Krylon's gold spray paint, but I quickly learned that not all gold spray paints are created equal.  I liked the Rustoleum color much better!  I felt like I had the Midas touch!

Here is how the mirror turned out:

 The overall room look now is this:

That rug now really needs to be switched out to better fit the style of the room and that light fixture has got to go too!  One thing at a time though:)!  For now, I'm just loving the new mirror, and I'm excited at how the room is shaping up as a whole!

Have a wonderful weekend!  

P.S. It's crazy to think that one week ago, we were playing in the leaves in fall coats, and yesterday, we needed big, bulky winter coats for a simple walk around the neighborhood.  I wish fall could stay for a little longer:

Linking up to Finding Fabulous.

Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick.

Front Room: Accessorizing the Credenza

When I last posted about our front room, it was looking like this: 

While my inspiration image is this:

via

After a little accessorizing and couple 'new' lamps, my console is now looking like this:

The lamps were Goodwill finds for $3.50 each.  The lamp shades are from Target and were $3.74.  I have plans to do some sort of gold lining in the shades in the future.  The books and pictures/frames were all owned already, along with the blue jar.

 Even though the room is looking more grown up, the kids have really been enjoying the new space, as well:

 We went from disorganized baskets and bins of toys like this:

(Yup.  That's a Shera castle circa the mid-eighties.)

to more streamlined categories of books and toys.  The interior of the credenza now looks like this: 

Books and a Box of Blocks.

Puzzles

More Puzzles.

Games!

And there is one organized (for the moment) toy basket next to the couch as well.  

More progress to come later this week!

Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick.

Nearly Starting From Scratch: Our Front Room

We have a room in our house that doesn't have a real name.  It's the first room you see as you walk in the house.  It's supposed to be a formal living room, although, I suppose you could make it a formal dining room if that was your thing.  We have called it a play room since we moved in because it is the only non-office room that is carpeted on the main level.  It was the room we gated off when Charm was 1 and getting into everything!  Now we have a full basement play space, so we don't need the main floor room to be so kid focused, especially since it is the first room you see upon entering the house.  We still want some toy storage in the room, but we don't want toys to be the primary focus of the room.

Over the course of our nearly 18 months in this house, the room has looked like this:

And this:

And this:

And most recently this:

It's all cleared out!  Talk about nearly starting from scratch! Yup, we're working with a big green couch that used to be in the living room at our old house:

It is the same couch that used to be in the basement until we moved it upstairs when we cleared out our old nursery and moved the little kid furniture that used to be in the front room upstairs. 

Old Basement Set Up:

New Upstairs Sitting Room:

Did you follow that?  Yeah, we play a full-time game of 'let's rearrange the furniture' around here.

As far as inspiration for this space, I narrowed down the possibilities to two looks I loved. This one is from Jen at IHeart Organizing who used standard IKEA Billy Bookshelves and created a built in look with some molding, wood and paint:

via

Isn't that look amazing? 

Inspiration also struck while e-flipping through the last issue of House of Fifty magazine.

via

Amber Interiors

I have just been loving the look of gold with black and white. The credenza is AMAZING and the sunburst mirror is just gorgeous.

The way I calculated it, the cost for the IKEA based built in look would be about $225-$250 depending on wood costs for our room. The House of Fifty look would vary based on the pieces I was able to track down.

Bill and I chatted about our options, and after we came across this piece on Craigslist for $100, we decided to go for the House of Fifty look.

We love the sophisticated look it provides and the closed door storage for toys.

Here is how the room looks with our new credenza:

Admittedly, it's not that impressive currently, BUT I think it's going to be awesome once the rest of the pieces in the room are in place!

After getting the credenza in place, I decided to try out some side chairs that we already have on hand:

Here are the side chairs that had been in our dining room until they got bumped by the settee.

These chairs looked good in my opinion, but I wanted to try a couple other looks.  Plus the grand plan is to slipcover these chairs and get them back in the dining room.

Here I used a pair of extra Target Modern Stacking Chairs that we had in the office.

(We got ours for $17.48 for two chairs when they went on 75% off clearance in store.)

These chairs didn't look so good in this space, in my opinion.

Finally, I tried out our Lou Lou Ghost Chairs from this post.  I love them!!  

Maybe some day I'll get a pair of the adult size version, but for now...this works!  Plus, this is still a game/reading room for the kids, so I like that there are a couple of kid sized chairs in the space.

Next, I rolled out the rug I recently purchased (see this post), and added a coffee table that we had in the basement (originally purchased at Goodwill for $12).  This rug is a temporary one for this space, but it works for now and can be 'stored' here while it's intended resting place awaits a makeover.

While the room is shaping up, here are the items we plan on tackling in the near future:

1. Sunburst Mirror
2. Credenza Lamps and Accessories
3. Perhaps Larger Side Chairs?
4. Pillows for Side Chairs
5. Gallery Wall like this from Emily Henderson:

via

6. We'd also love to place a large wall mirror in this corner of the room for the kiddos:

They love to look in a mirror and sing and dance.  I can just picture us coming to this room at night for a little post dinner entertainment!

7. Curtain Rod and Curtains

8. Rug

9. Another Chair by the Window

10. Paint the room and remove/patch the four mid-wall outlets that were used by the previous owners to light up their formal family portraits.



We've already completed a couple of these items, and I'll be posting about those updates in the near future. Some updates will take some time to tackle. Regardless, the space is already looking so much better than it did before!!