Rug Option #1

I found this amazing rug at my favorite place, Home Goods.  It's a great rug, plush wool, it's the right size, and it was a great price. The gray seems really muddy-dog friendly. :) If I keep it, it will be installed with the edges underneath the couches, so not as much of the border will be showing. 

Rug option #1!!

It's definitely different than my original inspiration rugs, though it does have the great reds in it.

images from here and here

I feel like if I keep this rug, I am really open to completely changing up my curtains (and curtain plan), new living room colors, and all kinds of new things! Which of course means more work :)

So, do I keep this rug and have fun changing the living room around it? Or aim for something closer to the inspiration rugs? Decisions, decisions... Any thoughts?  Any big decisions you're trying to make right now?

DIY Lamps Idea

Okay, so lighting is something I don't usually think in depth about. I mean, I got a lovely new ceiling fan for our living room, then we installed some Ikea track lighting, and then I was just done. There's lighting, it's not perfect, but I can see. The end.

Ceiling fan and Ikea track lighting

But then Valerie (who really needs to get a website) told me I need lamps in the living room, because it produces light at more of an eye level -- and just looks cool. And yeah, all of a sudden I am noticing great lamps in all of the inspiration rooms I love.

The catch is that table lamps take up valuable table space, which at our house is usually reserved for laptops and candy.  Valerie and I have a shopping date planned, so I am trying to keep an open mind, because I think I know where she's going with this whole lamp thing, but I could be surprised.

Of course, because I'm a cheapskate and I like getting my own way, I've been thinking about how I could maybe make some lamps - so I could have one floor lamp and one table lamp that match, and hopefully kind of look like two matching table lamps, but really, one is on the floor - therefore saving space for candy and laptops.

And I came across this blog and these posts and I'm totally inspired.

Posts here and here

The blog: Not JUST a Housewife.  Great name, right? Something I'm explaining to people about myself all the time!

I think I'd stick with the scrap wood lamp (not the circles) because I'm lazy. I'd paint them with some nice primer and bold, solid paint to give them a modern feel and maybe hide some of the grain. And I'd make a matching table and floor lamp.

Imagine these gorgeous, bold lamps -- but in the scrap wood style. Yum. :)

image from here

Oooh, and you could purposely cut/stack the wood from largest to smallest, so it'd be reminiscent of stacked books like this:

image from here

Ooh, I am getting more excited about this lamp idea all the time! I'm not sure Valerie knew what she was getting herself into when she offered to "give me some ideas" for my living room!

But I will keep an open mind about buying lamps! (...or will I?)

Fireplace Update 1 + more tile choices

This little update isn't totally worthy of a blog post, but again, I came home from work last night to find more work done on the fireplace! Brandon put up the new piece of drywall! (And I didn't have to do a thing!)

It's greenboard because that's what we've had living in our house for 2 years...it's supposed to be for the master bathroom project that's 2 years on hold. :)

To fill this post out a bit more, here are a few more tile choices we've found.

We found this awesome 2x4 stainless steel subway tile at Schilling's, a local lumber yard/design center, and this white and gray 1/2" mosaic tile that we thought we might border with the stainless subway tile.

But I know that mosaic might be a little "trendy" and if I'm doing all this work on the fireplace, I'd like the look to be as long-lasting as possible so I don't have to do it again :)

I did find all-gray mosaic tile online, which I'd use with gray grout:

available here

Or, for the fun, modern yet vintage look, I was also thinking about using some white penny tile like this:

It's available at Overstock.com and HomeDepot.com.  I'm kind of loving it, and I think it's the #1 runner up right now.  I might border it with that fun stainless tile...or maybe keep it simple with a white wood surround. Who knows?

So, any thoughts? :)

I'm not gonna lie: I got the penny tile inspiration from one of my favorite blogs, Young House Love. :)

Fireplace Demo

I was getting so excited about pillows and rugs (I even bought a rug runner up) and fabrics, but I realized that I should maybe get onto some bigger projects: like the fireplace.

I really didn't know what I'd find under those cedar boards, so I took the project slowly so that I wasn't flinging cedar all over the place and all over myself! I kind of felt bad removing all that hard work that somebody else did, but I was getting pretty excited to see our own version of the fireplace!

 

I was pleasantly surprised to find some clean drywall underneath, but because of all the glue on it and damage I did to it while pulling the cedar off, I think we'll just replace it.

I know you love my creepy thumbs up!

So we ended up stripping the whole fireplace wall to the studs. (It was around this point that Brandon started helping me, because I was threatening to just leave it half done and a mess. I was tired!) :)

Scroll to the bottom of this post to see why I didn't get a picture of the demo-ed fireplace without the ladder! :)

We headed out to Menards to pick up some cement backer board to put up around the fireplace for under the tile, and to Home Depot to check out some tile choices.  Here are a couple I found there:

Arctic Ice 1x2 glass tile and  Majestic Ocean 1x1 glass tile

I love the subway tile look, but we'd definitely need tile nippers and/or a wet saw if we used those. The square tiles are nice because we'd get away with no tile cuts! I think I'd love to find all-gray 1" square tiles in our price range. I'll be off to a couple more stores in the next few days on the tile quest.

 

For now, I'm excited! This seemed like a huge project, but now that it's underway, it's seeming manageable. We'll see if I'm still thinking that as we go. I've never tiled before, so this will be an experience!

 

We're also not sure if we'll do a full mantel and wood surround - because I think that would take up nearly the whole wall, and I have to figure out how I want to integrate this angled fireplace with the bookshelves next to it. I have a feeling the shelves are going to get cut down a little bit...but one step at a time! As I go, I realize so many things are working out differently than I expected, so I'm not making any more big plans until we get to each new situation.

 

More updates coming as I go!

I didn't get a picture of the final demo without the ladder, because this is what I came home to after work last night:

Brandon put up the cement backer board while I was at work! So amazing! I love when projects just magically get done! :) I have to add screws to finish it off, and we still have to put the new drywall on top, but man, am I happy that the backer board is up and I didn't have to do a thing!

Aerogarden Update #2

Holy cow, my cilantro's getting huge!

My Aerogarden introduction was just about 2 weeks ago...look how big the cilantro's gotten in 2 weeks!

I've given it a few small prunings, to help encourage leafy growth, not stemmy growth, and it looks like it's paid off!  I totally used some fresh cilantro in my chicken tacos today!

The basil's still coming along, and the good news is there are some tiny green sprouts in the new Italian parsely!

Just for reference, here's where we were 2 weeks ago:

Also, over the weekend, I started demo-ing the fireplace! I'll hopefully post about that tomorrow! :)

Things I Love Thursday: HomeGoods

This will be a recurring theme on my blog, I'm sure.  I love HomeGoods. There isn't one really near my house, so whenever I'm out and about, I see if there's a HomeGoods nearby and try to visit it!  There are always gorgeous, high quality things in there at great prices.  And the thrill of the hunt at HomeGoods is...well, thrilling!

Here's just a couple super fun things I've found there.  Like I said, I'm sure this kind of post will be happening pretty regularly. :)

I didn't get this chair, but it was only $299 and I love the amazing pattern! I love that it looks like a club chair but is secretly a recliner!

I did get this blue capiz shell lamp (lamp?) and I have some plans to take it apart and use it to gussy up my dining room chandelier (is it really a chandelier?). For $24.99, it was cheaper than buying the capiz shells separately, and I adore the amazing colors! I'm just as excited to see that project as you are. :)

How fun are these lamps? What great shades, right? Unfortunately, I don't think they'll work in my living room, but if I didn't have a little Valerie (my interior design friend) sitting on my shoulder telling me to keep calm and think things through, I would have had these lamps in my cart immediately. I think they were $40 each or so.

Okay, and how great are these mugs? I love goldfish and this great owl!  Don't they look totally Anthropologie worthy? It took a lot of self restraint to not take these home with me.  So I am owning them vicariously through this blog.

Anyway, let me just say it again. I love HomeGoods!

PS - I do have plenty of TJ Maxx and Marshall's near my house, and I find amazing things there, as well, but oh, HomeGoods. There's no place like Home (Goods). :)

Living Room "Befores" Part 2: Fireplace

Unlike, the easy pillows and rug updates, the fireplace is definitely going to be a bigger project.  Here's our living room and fireplace today.  It still needs a ton of work, but it's come quite a long way from when we bought it!

I know everything looks a little off-center/odd around the fireplace, but that should hopefully be evened out and cozy-ed up as we get things in place and in order!

This is what the living room and fireplace looked like when we had our home inspection.

The boards were (are?) a rough cedar, that I sanded down with the belt sander (not fun), primed with shellac-based primer, then painted in these fun stripes for the short term (inspired by a picture I'd seen in Real Simple).

Excuse the lawn chair. :) We didn't have furniture yet.

 

The current goal is to turn it into more of a traditional fireplace, with drywall above, a proper tiled surround and mantel (also bringing it up to code by surrounding it with non-flammables like it's supposed to be!), and tone down that blinding gold trim.  I'll have to take down those boards (I'm sort of dreading what's underneath them!) before I start the mantel and tile work. But it will be worth it. And hopefully it will look like this:

images from here and here

And maybe I'll put some artwork like Lisa Congdon's Summer Birches above it:

available here

 

And those red chairs have to be recovered.  I'm thinking something stripey that will give me a fun pop of color. Maybe like this Side-Step Stripe by Waverly?

from here

I also love these chairs!

image from here, chair available here

Oooh, and going back to yesterday's post, here's another gorgeous rug, this time from Horchow. But a Pinterest friend said she saw one like it at HomeGoods! I might be heading out there later this week!

image from here