New Living Room Update {The Reveal}

May 20, 2013

Finally.... On a rainy Sunday, our new living room is almost complete.
This whole entire process took months. Literally. It all started with a Pinterest inspiration board and some blog searching. When I came across Jill Hinson's blog Forever Cottage, I knew that I needed help getting started and I loved her home and her decor style so I contacted her and this is what she came up with and I fell in love....
I truly believe that without Jill guiding me along the way this room could never have turned out the way it did!
Thank you so much Jill!
If you would like Jill to design a room for you go here!
I am really embarrassed to even post these before pics, but you need to see the disaster that was "before".
Here is goes.....
BEFORE:



.... Yes I know. What was I thinking??? How I lived five years like this I will never know!
AFTER:


                                     
                                         
I LOVE this room!! I get up in the middle of the night just to peak at it!
All I have left to do is install the lanterns!! The ones I had my heart set on are on back order so it's another waiting game until I can find something I adore!
This living room "update" if you will did NOT happen over night and it literally took months to come together. I changed my mind 1,001 times but in the end it all came together. The only way an update like this will work is if you have three things. Patience, a reasonable budget and inspiration and mine came from hours of exploring Pinterest and blogs.  
This room is functional, pretty, cozy and is complete reflection of me and my style and I could have not have done it without Jill Hinson!
Thank you so much Jill! I hope you love it as much as I do!!
...... And last but not least a great big thank you to my hubby for trusting me and for letting me do whatever my heart desired and for spending an entire Sunday putting up frames. Not once, but two times!
Stay tuned.... our new dining room update coming soon!!!


~Happy Mothers Day!!~

May 12, 2013

Just a quick hello to wish all the mommy's out there a very
Happy Mother's Day!!
My day could not have been more perfect....beautiful weather and a nice family outing to the Mystic Aquarium with my three favorite people in the world.... I hope yours was a great one too!!!
 
 
Have a great week!!!
Psst... New living room re-do reveal coming soon!!!


IKEA STOOL ~ {DIY}

May 1, 2013

Happy Wednesday all!
I have a quick post about a DIY project I attempted over this past weekend and it actually came out pretty good! I didn't take many pictures because honestly it was way too easy!
I picked up one of those small unfinished stools at IKEA for my kitchen a few weeks ago and the other day I came along this post on Pinterest (I mean really where else?!!) and I thought what an adorable idea, so I took a go at it and I am really very happy with how it turned out! I used some extra paint I had on hand from when we re-painted the bathroom (much more on that later!). I was going to spray paint the stool at first, but I was in a rush of course and I just decided to paint it. The base white color is white dove by Benjamin Moore and the for the words I used my favorite color right now, Moonshine by Benjamin Moore. It's a great, gray/green color that isn't to harsh. More honesty here, I didn't even bother sanding or priming the stool. It was very smooth when we purchased it and I just did two coats of the white dove....I did wipe it down first because after sitting in my office for two weeks it did collect some dust!
The next step was pretty simple too. I pick two fonts I loved and used carbon paper to trace it on the stool. There was some carbon marks left around the letters, but I just painted over it with the white paint. Then I filled in the letters......Pretty simple. Took me all of 45min. I was very careful when filling in the letters and I used three different sized brushes.
The final step was just to spray paint over the words with clear coat. You will want to make sure you don't skip that step if you plan on actually putting the stool to use!
And here it is!

.... Have I told you I LOVE IKEA.... & Pinterest???