Furniture

Oh yeah…

Posted by Lindsay C on Jul 21, 2011 in Decor, Dining Room, DIY, Featured Articles, Furniture | 0 comments

…I bet you thought I forgot that this blog was supposed to be about interior design and decorating.  Hmmm…well here are some things we’ve been up to lately around here.

I found these beauties at the local antique store, I had a gift certificate, so they came home with me!  And this is exactly how I found them…with slightly worn paint and tarnished hooks.  They make me happy.

One for each of us!

These are hanging in our “dining room.”  Although it’s really one big space with the living room.  And the other major change in the dining room is with our dining table!  We’ve wanted to refinish it ever since we pulled it out of the barn about a year and a half ago, and with being stuck inside for what seemed like months this past (freezing and rainy spring), my husband decided to go ahead and refinish it one day.  Just like that!  He used some ‘ebony’ stain that we already had on the table and bench tops, and instead of sanding and staining the legs, he decided to use some leftover wall paint that matches the living room walls.  Which is Benjamin Moore ‘Ashley Gray.’  Enjoy!

Before:

During:

Afters!

I love the variations in the stain!

It’s much more “us” now and we really love it!  It’s amazing what some stain and paint can do, even with a “log-cabin” style table, and it can turn it into something much more contemporary.  I hope you like it, too!

L.

Another Switcheroo.

Posted by Lindsay on May 17, 2010 in Bedroom, DIY, Featured Articles, Furniture, videos | 0 comments

Phew – I have been busy! But I’m home with a sick little one today, so I have a chance to update you all a little and hopefully I won’t be so MIA for a while. Well, I take that back – when I’m not here, I’m working like crazy so that’s a good thing!

I’ve come to realize that we’re rather spontaneous when it comes to our house sometimes. We talk about our house a lot (more than most, I think!) and what we need or want, but a lot of it is just dreaming. But when something can become a reality, we kind of just jump on it and make it happen!

For instance, we’ve been talking about getting a new bed for a while now, but weren’t sure when it would actually happen. So I decided to post a picture of our old bed on Facebook saying it was for sale to see if anyone was interested – and 20 minutes later it was practically sold! Then we did some final research (we’d already done a lot) and bought a new mattress and bed online – woo hoo!

So next we decided to switch rooms with Harper. Why? Well hers has a half bathroom and Glenn wanted it. But it has a smaller closet and it’s a little smaller so I was a little torn. At first. Her room is more of a square and ours is longer and skinnier (a rectangle). Which after I thought about it, makes more sense for our King size bed. Anyway, we’ve switched rooms, put the bed together, painted and the new armoire for Glenn is on the way (solving the closet problem!).

Luckily both the mattress and bed had free shipping and arrived very, very quickly (thank you, Amazon Prime!!) so we had a new set-up by the weekend! So here’s a sneak peek of our new room – more to come soon!

I love that what took us almost 2 hours to put together, is time lapsed into less than 2 minutes. I also love that Glenn tested the bed out and you see a flash of me about to jump on it, ha! Enjoy!

Putting the bed together from Facebook User on Vimeo.

Chair Envy

Posted by Lindsay on Mar 22, 2010 in Featured Articles, Furniture, Likely Favorites | 0 comments

Another reason that I fell off my chair today? I saw this at Crate and Barrel; the Ankara Chair.  Oh yes.

I think I need to check C & B more often because this is hot.  And way out of my price range at $699, but a girl can dream, right? Or look for imitations…

The Big Reveal

Posted by Lindsay on Dec 7, 2009 in Decorations, Dining Room, Exterior, Featured Articles, Furniture, Holidays, Living Room | 7 comments

Wow…have you missed me? If you’re reading this, I guess it means you might! I have been working my fanny off, but am able to spend a little more time blogging today, and I finally took all sorts of photos to share! So I have to say that I am LOVING our new set-up. I hope our pool table is enjoying his freezing cold new home in the garage, because I don’t think he can come back. Sorry, dude. Especially now that we have a giant new dining room table that has taken his place! A F-R-E-E table at that. It was just sitting in the barn out at the ranch (my in-law’s ranch). And I hope she loves her new home (yes, she’s a she!), because if so, the feeling is mutual! Plus with the whole house (inside and outside) decorated for Christmas I am finally able to relax in here and enjoy my home! Isn’t that the best?

I haven’t really posted any new updates on my living room in a long time (it was never my favorite room in the house), but we’ve inherited a lot of free furniture (my favorite kind!) and accessories that I get to borrow for now (more on that later) so it is much more pulled together, which makes me happy. Not my dream living room, but definitely one that makes me happy. So here is an old photo of the living room, from last February, which is the last time I took photos of it.

And here it is today, after the big switcheroo and Christmas decorating has been all done! So here are the photos, in their un-edited glory (wayyy too many for me to have enough patience to edit, plus I just want to get them to you!). Enjoy!

This end is where the pool table used to be (hallelujah!), and it is now the living room.

And this end is where the living room furniture used to sit, so it is now the dining room.  With a real table that will allow us to have more than 2 guests!

Now with the lights on…(Glenn wouldn’t get out of my shot, hehe).  He’s enjoying the new space, too.

Instant dining room!

But now my ‘original’ dining room, which I loved as it was but it was just a little cramped, is now a sad little nook again. Someday we plan to extend the kitchen out there for additional countertop and cabinet space, which will help so much with our tiny little kitchen.

Before…

Today…home to dog beds and high chair.

I can just see an ‘L’ shaped kitchen extension going in there. Okay, back to the living room…husband included.

And the funny thing is, rearranging really breathes new life into furniture for me.  I had stuffed my black cheapie coffee table into a corner in the old arrangement (because I didn’t like it) but now it fits here and I like it again.  And I was also not too happy with my curtains in the other arrangement, but now I like them again!  Before it was because they were stuck behind the sofa and behind a cedar chest on the other window, but now they have space to hang and be shown and just be how they’re meant to be!  Not hidden.  I like it.

Boy Scout wreath…complete with our little hanging puppet, and bow that is falling apart, hung on a Wal-Mart wreath hanger. It smells very good, though.

Dog’s stockings…hung on the metal sun, which I think is going to be moved to the backyard come spring.  I have big plans for that ‘new’ dining room wall!

And our stockings (a la Pottery Barn)…hung on the baby hearth gate.

Did I mention that I love my new table and benches? I do. They just need a little TLC after being out in the barn for a few months.

My house is full of borrowed accessories right now (via my sister-in-law). Her stuff is in storage until they find a new house (they’re staying out at ‘the ranch’ for now), so I get to babysit. And I’m really going to miss them when they’re gone, and by ‘them’ I mean the faux orchids, not my sister-in-law (they’re not going anywhere!).

We’ve even decorated the outside (and have gotten a couple of honks of approval – we live on the highway and are the only house that’s all lit up!). Now, I want to say that we’ve never been on of ‘those people’ with blow-up Christmas characters, but at $20 a piece at Wal-Mart last weekend, we just couldn’t resist. Because Harper would love them, of course.

Maybe tonight I’ll take a night shot for the blog.

And even though it is still technically fall, winter has arrived in Likely.  I can’t wait to let Harper go play in it, but she has to get over her cold first!  She’s excited!

So I’m dying to know…should we bring the pool table back or is the new living room better?  Do tell!  And what do you think of our Christmas decor?  I always miss it when it’s gone! xo, L.

The Big Rearrange

Posted by Lindsay C on Nov 24, 2009 in Featured Articles, Furniture, Living Room | 1 comment

Glenn and I recently started discussing what to do for our holiday decorating, and finally came to the conclusion that our living and dining rooms are just too packed to fit a tree anywhere! Our living room is actually a very big room, it’s just a little awkward to work with because there are 2 8-foot windows in it, the wood stove in the corner, and a hallway at the other end. So unfortunately it’s the type of living room that you have to place the furniture around the walls in, and the rest have to float out in never never land.

It’s a long and skinny room, and we’ve always had the living room furniture arranged down at one end (by the wood stove) like this:

And last year in our first Christmas in the house we put the Christmas tree in the corner (on the right side of the photo), and we knew that we wanted to do something different this year, but in order to do that we knew we needed to do some rearranging. First up – the giant elephant in the room needed to go. And by that I mean – the pool table. We rarely use it. And when we do, it’s only right after we talk about getting it out of here. Or when we first come through the door to stack our stuff on. We thought that this holiday decorating season would be a good excuse to test out the waters and see how much we’d miss it if it was gone.

And so out of nowhere, we got up and did this on Sunday!

Rearranging the Living Room from Facebook User on Vimeo.

In order to move the TV, we had to move the cable, so at the end of the video above, Glenn and I are getting bundled up to go crawl under the house to re-run the cable. And yes, I did crawl under the house! Which is good because two heads and pairs of hands are better than one under there as our central heating system runs down the middle of the house and of course we had to run the cable from one side of it to the other, and this way we could just pass the cables to each other. Awesome. Along with the piles of bones that are under there – yuck. Cat bones, I think.

And this is pretty much how the house looks today! It’s so weird to us…it feels like a different house completely!! It’s also pretty bare now, but after we get the Christmas tree in, and inherit Glenn’s great-grandmother’s kitchen table, it will fill in a lot nicer. And I’m looking into some art options for the bare wall next to the wood stove, and how to rearrange what is over the couch now. I would show you some ‘after’ photos, but after updating my iPod (I haven’t done it forever!) for the road trip we’re taking today my hard drive is full so I can’t download the photos yet, ha! I’ll make some room.

With all of that moving, my sciatic nerve still hasn’t recovered. A lovely after-effect of having a baby…maybe I should finally make that chiropractor appointment!

We are off to my sister’s house for Thanksgiving! What are you guys up to? xo, L.

Window Shopping @ Teo Jasmin

Posted by Lindsay on Aug 25, 2009 in Art, Decor, Furniture, Likely Favorites, Travel | 1 comment

I was recently introduced to a lovely French company called Teo Jasmin, who specializes in digital prints on canvas, cushions, and furniture, and I just had to share some of my favorites from their newest collections!  How fun are these products?  I especially love the pink union jack prints – I seem to see them everywhere these days.

I’ve noticed that, in my personal design preferences, I like a little unexpected quirkiness.  For example, have you met Bob?  He lives on our living room wall:

It’s Bob Marley, singing into a microphone, if you can’t tell. We always have to explain it – but we still like him!  I think something like this (below) would be right at home in my house!  I actually have that Beatles record…I should find a way to display it.  I also love the settee – and the combination of the traditional lines and the graphic print.  It’s unexpected, in a good way.

And who wouldn’t love to bring a little European memorabilia into their home with some fun throw pillows and prints?  I’ve never been to Europe, but these might make people think I have, ha!

How cute is that Fiat??  I’d drive one if I didn’t have to cart 2 large dogs around…or have a car-seat in my ride.  Four doors are essential for moms, but it’s fun to dream!

This one is a little wild (even for me), but look at that face!!  And he/she is wearing a crown…quirky and adorable.  I’d put it in Harper’s room.  She loves “bops” – her word for dogs.

I have to have this one…gotta love Abbey Road.  And the Beatles.  This image does remind me of the movie “Vanilla Sky,” though…anyone else??

Don’t you just love window shopping?  I left the credit card in the iceblock in the freezer for now, so window shopping helps me satisfy my cravings to be a good American and spend, spend, spend!  Except this company is in France…

Don’t forget to visit TeoJamin at their website and check out the goods!!  There is lots more to see!  Have a great week!!

xo,

Lindsay