A Beautiful Living Room Makeover {by Emily from Decor Chick!}

May 31, 2011 AT 6:00 am 8 Comments

I got to meet today’s guest poster at Blissdom this past January, and she is just adorable.  I love her heart and her style…a winning combo!

I truly appreciate her helping me out during my move.  Thank you, Emily!!

Decorchick!

 

Hi there Beneath My Heart fans! When Traci asked if I could help out and guest for her since she was moving, I was thrilled! I love Traci and was lucky enough to meet her at Blissdom in January and she is just SO sweet. But y’all already know that. :) She did have some great advice for me, and I look forward to the day when we can hang out more.

Over the past few years, I think I’ve been in limbo with what my style of decorating is.   But now I think I got it.  I love traditional mixed with modern. That of course doesn’t mean I didn’t have any painting mishaps or an over abundance of accessories (a/k/a, clutter), along the way because I sure did.

Our living room recently got a makeover, and it’s what made me fall in love with our home again. The house feels like a new house again, and now finally a home. I think we all strive to make our homes a welcoming retreat and a place to relax comfortably at the end of the day, but it takes time, a lot of time.

So here it is before:

And here is the after!

Pretty, right? I am really in love with how the room came out. It is so amazing how wood floors add an instant coziness and welcoming factor isn’t it? And of course the new paint definitely helps too. :) I chose to accent with yellow and blue right now, but still keeping it simple and neutral.

I sold our old area rug on Craigslist and used that money to buy 2 of the same rugs from Overstock. I bought 2 because I really liked the rug online, but it was only 5×8, so I thought I would try putting 2 together to make 1 big area rug. And, I like it! That was risky for me. :)

Like the aerial view? :) And in fact, the rug itself was risky for me. It’s not my typical floral traditional rug I would have chosen and I am really loving the fresh new change.

The t.v. nook looks way better than it did, but I still know we need some sort of built in or bigger entertainment center. But at least my darling husband put the subwoofer inside the entertainment center on the shelf instead of the floor so I could add these:

Love.

The polka dot pillows on the sofa were a killer deal.

And when the room isn’t staged with the yellow chair from the office (because I do want one permanently eventually), here’s what is really there.

Yes, that’s the little tyke’s mini recliner. :)

And way too many pics to follow now. Enjoy!

:)

I still plan to add some wainscoting to the big wall in the living room, find a nice round ottoman, and get something different where that big picture is now. You know, the one that everyone says is hung too high. ;)

Here’s a source list:

  • Flooring: Manufacturer-Castlewood; Color-Winwood Birch; 5inch plank hand-scraped engineered hardwood.
  • Paint Color: Balanced Beige by Sherwin Williams (Color matched and used Behr’s paint and primer in one) More details about the paint in this post.
  • Curtains: See this post for details.
  • Rugs: Overstock.com, found here. Be sure and use a coupon–just google a coupon code and you’ll likely find a 10% off.
  • Floor vases & sticks: Michael’s. The vases were $50, but used a 40% off coupon for each one so they were $30.
  • Polka dot pillows: Target, on clearance for $4.98
  • Mercury glass hurricanes: I found last year around Christmas at Homegoods.

And if you’d like to see our entryway makeover, you can read about that here. See, I told ya I’ve been busy changing up our house! :)

Thanks so much for having me Traci! Love ya!!

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Love you too, Emily!  Your living room is fabulous!  Thank you for the great inspiration!
Now for more inspiration, be sure to stop by Emily’s fabulous blog and say hello!
Decorchick!

How to Decorate {for the DIY’er} by Beth from The Stories of A2Z!

May 30, 2011 AT 6:00 am 3 Comments
Hey, friends!
Well, we successfully closed on both of our homes on Friday. (That was a crazy day!  One for the record books.  I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry that day.)
We have spent two days in our new home, and we’ve already made a TON of changes to the home and property!  I cannot wait to share the progress with you next week.
In the meantime, I am still trying to unpack all the boxes and praying our neighbors do not think the Beverly Hillbillies have moved in next door!  :)  I’ve made sure the boys know not to pee in the front yard (only the back yard!)  Ya’ll think I’m kiddin’, don’t ya?
I still do not have internet service at my new home, so I am once again at MickeyD’s using their Wifi.  Thanks, Ronald!
Today, my precious blog buddy, Beth, from The Stories of A to Z is here!  I have known Beth since I started blogging two years ago, and she has become a precious friend of mine.  She is one of those friends who will always shoot straight with you, and I love that about her!  She is pure gold in my book!

 



Beth has something very exciting coming up on her blog, and she is going to share it with you today!

Take it away, Beth!…..
Hi, all you Beneath-My-Hearters!  While Traci is otherwise occupied trying to find her four boys amongst the packing materials and moving boxes, you are stuck with me today.  For those of you who don’t know me, I am Beth from The Stories of A to Z soon to be Home Stories A to Z.  I live in Pennsylvania with my hubs, two little boys, and pomeranian pup.
We live in the city in a 100 year old rehabbed “twin”.  Nearly four years ago, we purchased, gutted and completely renovated our home; however, since that time my decor taste has drastically changed.  (Those darn home decor and design blogs!)  So over the past two years, I have been redecorating each room in the house to feel more like home.  I absolutely LOVE to decorate.  It is definitely my passion, and I immensely enjoy the creative process start to finish.
So answering readers questions such as, How exactly do you decorate? Where do you begin? How do you decide on colors? How do you decide where to place everything?, should come easily….but they don’t. I fumble through these questions and never feel that I provide satisfactory answers.  Indeed, there are many tips and tricks I use to envision a space, but I rarely label them and don’t typically talk about them in my posts.  After all, How to Decorate seems like a ridiculously broad topic to conquer!
But what if we try?  What if we do a series of posts and we ask the advice, tips, and tricks of some of the best home and design bloggers available?  What if they take us step by step through their wild creative thought process and “make plain” to us the art of how they do it?  Wouldn’t that be fantastic?  Well, that’s EXACTLY what we’re going to do the entire month of June over at A2Z!  I present to you…..

Traci is of course in the line-up as well as some other names you should recognize!  If you are reading this post on a feed, hop on over to the real blog so you can see the calendar of who will be sharing.  All buttons on the calendar are live, so feel free to click on a button and be transported directly to the source of talent!  Really.  Please do. That thing was a pain in the patootie to create so please use it!

For a larger view of the calendar, please click here.

June is going to be an amazing month over at A2Z, so I hope you’ll come over and visit, take notes, and spread the word!  Thanks so much Traci for letting me visit with you and your readers today.  I can’t wait to see your post for the series :).

THANK YOU, BETH!!! for helping me out!



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