Awkward TV Wall

This blog used to be a place where I talked about my house.  And things I had done to my house.

I haven't done anything to my house in for-ev-ver.  It doesn't feel right.  I love decorating.  And I can't stand for anything to stay the same for too terribly long.  It's a flaw and it drives Marty crazy, but I can't help myself.

The decor in our house, however, has stayed the same for a long, long time.  I haven't done anything new since we finished the kitchen remodel.  Too long, friends.

So I'm going to focus on this one tiny little area:  the TV wall.

You're snoozing, right?  It's SO boring.  But it's such an awkward layout that I have absolutely no idea what to do with it.

Things that won't stay:  the chairs are temporary, moved only so the drywallers that are working on our basement could get in and out of the basement door while carrying heavy items easier.  They won't stay there.   The clock could stay or go to another wall, I'm not married to the idea of it being there.

Things that will stay:  the TV, obviously.  The cabinet below.  It's one of my favorite things.  You know, besides my husband and child.

It's just such an awkward space.  Three walls, two small walls and you can see part of the hallway when you're in the living room.

So, it's not like I could do a gallery wall around the TV, because I'm planning on doing a gallery wall down the hallway. I just don't know how to even go about attacking this.  Do I ONLY put things on the wall where the TV is and ignore the others?  Do I leave the clock and put things on the TV wall and leave the wall in the middle blank?  This is an area where I'm completely lost and Pinterest isn't helping (what do I type in? "Awkward zig zag wall decor?")

Now taking donations for an interior designer.  Or applications, whichever you feel led to do.

Pillows, Please.

If you can't tell from my last couple of posts, I'm obsessed with decorating my house and getting it to that "homey/comfy/I love living here" place that I want it to be.  I've told myself that I have to focus on one area at a time.  I can't get in the mindset to decorate everything at once because then I'll go crazy and be like "BUY ALL THE THINGS!" and then I'll bankrupt us on Pier One curtains and One Kings Lane knick knacks.  So.  One thing at a time.

Right now, since I've solved the entertainment center dilemma and turned the crates into a functional piece that I love, I've moved on......to throw pillows and curtains for my living room.

I showed you all in my post yesterday what I was lacking in each room.  In my living room, it's personality.  It feels to me like we just moved in and I haven't done anything to the room except slap down a rug around our existing furniture. So it's my goal to add some character.  First step, find some throw pillows and curtains.

Throw pillows

Can I just say something that I feel needs to be said first?  WHY ARE PILLOWS AND CURTAINS AND RUGS AND ANYTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH HOME DECOR SO EXPENSIVE??!?!  $25 for a pillow.  Excuse me?  Rugs are $150 or more, or you're getting a piece of crap.  Lovely.  It's like the general market wants us all to have ugly houses or give up our first born if we want to have our houses look put together.  Harrumph.  I'm done now.

I'm a little bit stumped when it comes to throw pillows in my living room.  It's not like I can just pick three or four pillows that go together and slap them on my couch.  You see, I have a very, very patterned area rug.

I could totally pick out a color in the rug, buy two throw pillows in that color and call it a day.  But I don't want to do that.  I want to be able to mix patterns like a boss.  So far, I'm not very good at it.  I'm learning....slowly.

The other issue with this rug is that all the colors, other than the chocolate brown outline of the paisley swirls are all some funky looking colors.

The problem with funky colors, in my opinion, is that I can't just look at that, say "Oh.  That's coral." and go to Google to search "coral throw pillows" that will perfectly match this rug.  This is a problem.  And even if I did know the exact color, when you type "steel blue pillow" into Google, a million different shades of steel blue pops up.  Basically, I have a picture of my rug on my phone and when I see a pillow that I think might be one of these colors, I whip out the picture and hold it up to said pillow to see if they're a match.  Most of the time I'm wrong.

But I did find a few good options at Pier One last night.  Normally I don't even step foot in that store.  Mainly because I want everything in it and I don't have the fundage to support that want.  After striking out on throw pillows in other stores, I thought I might risk it.

While in the store, I played around with different pillow combinations (all while Avery yelled "WHY ARE WE LOOKING AT PILLOWS?!? MY BABY DOLL NEEDS TO PEE!").

So, I did find this pillow.

Pier One, $24.95.  Not bad.  I liked the orangey-rust-coraly color of the pattern.  Plus, it's a pattern, but it's subtle.  I did the "hold my iPhone picture up" test and it passed, I thought.  It was enough of a contrast from the pattern of the rug, but also had similar colors.  Plus, it was really freaking soft.  So I bought it. 

With this, I can go a couple of different directions, I think. 

I can get several pillows that are all in that specific shade of rust/burnt orange/clay

I like this option.  At least I know that all the pillows match.  But it's a little more monochromatic than I was wanting.  I really want to utilize the variety of colors in my rug.  But this is most definitely the "safe" option.  (clay colored solid pillow, $23.96, Pier One)

My favorite color in the rug is the little chartreuse/lime green swirls.  There's not very many of them, but I think they're so bold and colorful.  Ideally, I'd pick that to be one of the colors that I bring out into the pillows.  So the other night (you know, at 12:30 am when my stupid brain wouldn't shut off and let me sleep), I went on Etsy and searched "chartreuse throw pillows."  And this popped up.

$49.98, Etsy.  I want it.  I need it.  It's chartreuse.  It's whimsical.  It's Mary Poppins inspired.  I WANT it.  But it's $50.  That's a little too pricey in my book for a throw pillow.  Especially a cream colored throw pillow that little Avery hands will be all over.  But gosh, do I ever want it.

So, just for pretend, like I'm actually going to buy the pillow, let's see what we could do with it.

I LOVE times a million this combination of pillows.  It's so feminine.  I love the colors and the patterns and the way they all kind of flow from one to the other.  But this combination does not match my rug at. all.  *sniff* (grey, coral and chartreuse patterned pillow cover, $45, Etsy)

I think, to pull of this look with my rug, I need a solid color pillow to anchor the two patterns,  but how do I find a solid color that will compliment the clay color in the pillow on the left and the chartreuse and teal in the pillow on the right?  I can't.

It just doesn't work all together.  Goodbye, fun, beautiful pillow.  Maybe one day.

Here's an option that I'm kind of digging.  It's got the chocolate brown solid color, the patterned pillow I already bought and then a zigzag pattern that seems to have a lot of the colors I'm looking for:  chocolate brown, clay, cream, chartreuse.  The blue isn't the right blue, but I'm not really hung up on that I don't think.  This is definitely going in the "strong possibilities" category (chocolate brown pillow, $23.96, Pier One; zigzag pillow cover, $20, Etsy).

Or, I could mix the options together, just picking out two of the colors in the rug:  chocolate brown and clay/burnt orange (someone find a name for this color so I can stop calling it clay/burnt orange).

I'm kind of digging this too.  (Plaid pillow, $17, One Kings Lane)

Well.  I went into this blog post with the intention of talking about throw pillows AND curtains.  Now that I've bored you to death with every throw pillow out there, I think I'll stop now.

Until I find an actual combination I'm happy with, I guess the cheese stands alone:

Home Tour....sort of.

A request I get often is to see pictures of my home.  I'm not sure why....it's not like I'm a guest host on Property Brothers or anything.  My house is not something you'd see in HGTV Magazine, but I'm working on it.

This past weekend, I completely rearranged my entire living space.  I probably moved my club chairs 15 times, trying to find the exact place that I felt like I'd be happy with them.  I did the same with the area under our wall mounted TV.  I kid you not, I tried every single table option I had in my home before I finally decided on a piece of furniture that made me happy.  Before my rearranging party, I liked my living room....but it wasn't wowing me.  It wasn't anything that I'd look around and say "I love this room."  Now, I can say that about a couple of areas....but I still have a loooong way to go.

One of the biggest things I've had to learn as a homeowner is that my house isn't going to be exactly how I want it overnight.  I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating.  When Marty and I had our first house in Bardstown, I felt the need to have my house completely decorated all at once.  We registered for it all--clocks, tables, pillows, curtains.  Everything I thought I "needed" in a house, I registered for it.  As a result, I ended up with a lot of stuff.  Stuff that didn't necessarily fit my design style.  Instead of waiting until I found a piece I loved, I felt like I had to get it all RIGHT NOW.  Marty and I have now been married for 5 years and I can probably count on one hand the number of items around my house that I've kept from those early days of marriage.  If you're interested in decorating your house and making it into something that you're really happy with, figure out your style first.  For me, I love mixed patterns, pops of color mixed with neutral bases, antiques mixed with classic and clean styles.  I'm pretty eclectic.  I love an old suitcase, but I also love the clean lines and designs of everything from the Target Threshold brand.  And that's what I want my house to be.  Classic pieces, while inserting my character through fun statues and antiques.  I want it to be a combination of things that all look like they go together.  Once you figure out your style, then start in one room.  Find one piece that you really love and use that as inspiration to build the rest of your room around.  In my bedroom, my inspiration is this fabric bench.  In my living room, it's my rug.  When you have your inspiration piece, slowly build your room around it.  Get a couch that goes with the rug.  Then get pillows that pull out the colors in the rug.  Or buy the painting that you're obsessed with.  Then find pieces that compliment your painting and bring out the style and character of it.  Even if it takes you 5 years to fully decorate a room, the end result will be something that you are completely comfortable with.  It'll be 100% your home  (note: unless you have wayyy more money than me--which is a total possibility--and you can afford to completely decorate your room all at once.  if so, we should be friends.  want to go shopping, new friend??).

As an example, I'm going to show you pictures of my main living space as part of a little home tour (see??  ask and you shall receive.  i'm a giver.).  With each room, I'll give you a list of all the things I still have to/want to do or change in the room.  No room is perfect.  As soon as you build your room to the way you want it, your style may change and then it's time to start changing out pieces to reflect your new interests.  It's why I love interior design.  I blame/thank my mother.

Enough talking.  Pictures!

Dining Room

An old pair of shutters that used to frame my TV.  I plan to use this as a "command center" to hang reminders (Trash day is Wednesday....we forget almost every week) and pictures.

The top half of a hutch/dresser combo from Avery's room is now a table in the dining room.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way this room is looking.  List of things to change:  paint table legs, stencil the top of the table and bench, find new chairs--mixing wood and fabric printed chairs, change out chandelier, do something with the clock wall (gallery wall? add more clocks?)

Living Room

The TV table finally ended up being the dresser from Avery's bedroom.  Even though you can see the cable box and DVD player, I don't mind it so much when it's sitting on top of my red antique suitcase.

Now.  This living room still needs a lotttttt of work.  I see glimpses of good things:  my rug, the dresser, the chairs.  But it still feels too unfinished, too sparse to feel homey just yet.  I feel like I have the bones of a good room, it just needs more character.  List of things to do in this room:  find throw pillows for the couch, find side table for the couch, move the black cabinet out, get cute accessories for the table tops and dresser, do something to the awkward corner where the fake tree is now, possible frame the TV with a gallery wall of pictures, ADD CHARACTER.

Awkward mantle space

I love my cows.  Love them.  If it was socially acceptable, I'd buy more.  I think Marty would have a cow if I brought another cow print home.  But I'm a big fan.

I love the simplicity of my mantle.  Cow print and a few accessories.  What I'm not loving?  The blank space around the mantle.   Specifically, all the navy blue wall space.  And the gigantic amount of room in between the dining and living rooms.....

I'm not a fan of "white space."  It a flaw of mine when I paint...I always go one step too far in adding a background or a color.  So this blank space is kind of driving me insane.  It feels incomplete to me.  But what can you add without making the room feel insanely crowded with too many pieces of furniture or too much going on in one room?  Because, technically, even though I've defined it as two separate spaces, this is one big room.  List of things to do in this room:  make it look more complete (I'm stumped).

Front door

Awhile back, I posted about the different options I was considering for an entertainment center.  I thought I'd decided on the option that was a unit made entirely out of crates.  Through the weeks, I'd accumulated a good amount of crates for my project.  Then, I assembled the crates together underneath my TV....and I hated it.  It wasn't big enough to make a statement on the wall.  Hence, why you see the dresser under the TV.  But I still loved the idea of the crate bookshelf.  So I moved it over into this awkward little corner between our front door and our new kitchen bar.  I freaking love it here.  It's probably my most favorite thing in the entire room, no joke.  List of things to do here:  stain the crates a dark wood color, finish putting up the black frames around the wall hanger on the opposite wall, paint the front door (shhhh, Marty.  it will be okay.), finish arranging/decorating the items in the crates.

The Kitchen

I realized while writing this post, that I never showed you guys the actual 100% finished pictures of my kitchen.  Oops.  If you're wondering, here's the last update I gave you.  Here's the new pictures: 

Since I made an agreement with my husband that I wouldn't paint the cabinets (still pouting....), I did convince him to paint above the cabinets in the color that I'd picked for my lower cabinets.  I looooove it.  Love it so much.

Whew.  I didn't realize how cluttered my counters appear until looking at these pictures.  Beside the point.....since this is the room that we've spent the most money on, obviously, I'm not in any hurry to do any major things to this room.  I do have a few things I want to do in here though.  List of things:  get a fun pendant lap to replace the existing one, find bar stools, paint or replace the current pantry doors (they're very hard to close....if I do keep the doors, I want to replace the knobs and either paint it the same color as the wall above my cabinets or a chalkboard paint), and bring color into the room with a fun patterned rug and tea towels and valence curtain.  Maybe even paint a quote in the small space above the pantry, not sure yet.

And there you have it, people.  The big open room in my house, separated into multiple living areas.  Am I happy with it?  Mostly.  Am I willing to leave it this way?  Absolutely not.  

Do you have any suggestions for my house?  Bring 'em on!  It's always nice to have a second (and third...and fourth) set of eyes looking at something.  

I totally get that my home may not be your style.  You may be cringing with every single picture I posted (except the cow painting....how can you hate that??).  But I hope you're inspired enough to go find your own style and decorate your house the way you want! 

Master Bedroom Inspiration

I realized this past weekend, something very important.

Not a single room is my house is decorated.  Here's my thing.  I know exactly what I like.  I can look at a magazine or watch an HGTV show and tell you exactly what features are "my style."  I can even go into someone else's home and mentally rearrange the furniture and picture other things hanging on the wall that I think would coordinate really well.  I can pick out paint colors and plan a room for someone else.  It's when I start thinking about my own house and how to decorate it, that I come up completely blank.   Maybe it's because it actually requires buying things and money for a room to look put together.  *sigh*

Yes, I have furniture.  I have things hung on the walls.  I have a rug in the living room that I love.  But not a single room in my house feels "put together" decorated.  Not one.

The closest thing I have to being fully decorated is probably our dining room area.  And that's going to be changing soon (more on that in another post)...

In my living room, I like the rug, the houndstooth chairs, the couch and the railroad crate side table.  Everything else is an afterthought.  I want a new entertainment center, art on the walls, a gallery wall.  I have big plans.  But more on that in another post too....

Because this post is about my Master Bedroom.  If there is one room in your house that you should feel is a retreat that is decorated exactly the way you want it, I really think it should be your bedroom.  Ours......not so much.  I would show you "before" pictures of my room...but I'm not sure you and I are that close yet.  It can only be described as a complete and total disaster right now.  Close your eyes and picture this:  a mismatched oversized chair in the corner.  Random things hung on the wall because I wasn't sure what to do with them.  Large pieces of dark wood furniture.  A very large dark wood four poster bed.  Clean clothes stacked in piles that need to be put away.  Dirty laundry in baskets throughout the room.  A large pile of art supplies that needs to be carried to my basement.  Got a mental picture?  Okay, let's just go with that....

I originally thought I wanted to go with a grey, yellow and mint color combination.  But the more I started trying to find decor to go in our room, the more uninspired I was feeling.  The combination almost felt nursery-ish.  Not something I wanted for my bedroom.  So, I'd decided to completely start over with our bedroom.  If that meant getting rid of the yellow and white bedspread I love so much, then so be it.  So I started looking around online for grey master bedrooms.  I found a lot of stuff that I really liked.

Like this coral, turquoise, mint and grey combination.

{via}

But nothing else was really inspiring me.   I just knew that I wanted colors and to be able to mix patterns really well (NOT one of my strong suits), where different pieces were all in the same room, but all looked like it went together.  I've been looking for things to help me decorate my bedroom and every time, I was coming up empty handed.

Then, I went shopping.  And I found this: 

It's dark grey, light grey, mint, yellow, cream, black, light blues, dark blues....and I'm in LOVE.

At first, I looked at it, looked at the price tag and it was a little more than what I wanted to spend.  I probably stood there, staring at this bench for a good 5 minutes and then decided to walk away.  As I was walking around the rest of the store, I kept thinking about that bench.  Even though I don't love chevron anymore (Chevron. Is. EVERYWHERE.  Over it.), the mix of the patterns between the chair and the bench gave me hope that I can actually mix patterns and make it look good.  So I wandered over to the throw pillow section.  And found two pillows on clearance and brought them back to the bench.

As soon as I laid the two pillows on top of the bench, I decided that I had to have it.  I was going to make it happen, one way or the other.  So I pulled out my lovely smartphone, got on my Retail Me Not app, prayed to the Heavens that there would be a coupon for the store I was in.....and there it was.  25% off one single, regular priced item.  Needless to say, I ran and got a cart and promptly brought the entire combination--pillows and all--home with me.

I'll be honest, I was little nervous that the bench wasn't going to work with anything in my existing room, other that the paint on the walls.  I was prepared to start completely over for the sake of having a room I loved, but having things that I could use and not have to buy new would be awesome.  

When I got home, and I found a ton of things in my existing room that already work with this bench.  Including my bedspread!

Black and white chair--TJ Maxx, bought FOREVER ago.  Like 5 years, old
Silver 1 & 2 boxes--Room Service, new
Bench--Gordman's, new
Tray--Gordman's, new
Letters--Kirklands, old
Bedspread--TJ Maxx, old
Frame--from our wedding, old
Window panes---random yard sales, old

I have so many things that are already in my room that work within this color scheme.  Not only that, I think the mix of the greens and blues and whites are extremely calming.  I can work black and white in too.  This is a win-win-win-win situation.

I need to find a rug and curtains and decide what's going on the walls and paint the existing furniture black.  I want to give the bed back to my parents and find something a little more unique and not so gigantic in our room (not a fan of four poster beds....too obstructive for my tastes).  Shew.  I've got a lot of work to do.  Any volunteers?

Front Door Makeover....I think.

This post is gonna be super short.

Mainly because I'm going to talk about a front door makeover that hasn't even happened yet.  Or that I have any potential ideas for.

I want to paint the front door of my house.

I don't want a black or any type of neutral color whatsoever.  Even though I think it would look pretty, I'm OVER the color red.  I love the idea of a yellow front door, but yellow would most definitely clash with my yellow/tan-ish siding.

Help?

Mantle Madness!

Definition of a good husband:  one that will spend a good chunk of his Sunday putting up a mantle from your momma's basement.

I'm super ridiculously pumped about this.  Remember last month when I scored this super fabulous, super cheap clock from Hobby Lobby and I talked about my plans for our big open wall in our living room.  Well friends, the transformation is (almost) complete!

Before.  Terrible picture, I know.

What you need to know:  long navy wall.  Super boring.  Needed something.

Marty took down the clock, found the studs and marked the position of the mantle.  Then, he spent several nights at his cousin's wood shop giving my mom's old mantle some much needed TLC.  It was in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint, some wood putty and, most importantly, a shelf on the top so I could actually display items on the top of the mantle.

After!

I have a mantle!  And a wall with something on it!  Hooray!!  I've already been browsing Pinterest for decor ideas for different seasons.  Right now, I'm trying to picture decorations for Avery's Winnie the Pooh themed 2nd birthday party this weekend.  Don't worry.  Pictures will follow.

I still have some styling to do around this area, but it's up!  And I'm excited!  Who's got the best husband ever?  This girl.

Yard Sale Finds Are My Friends

Yard sale finds, castoffs, items hidden deep in my mom's basement storage room....these are my friends.  I never thought I'd be the type to say that I loved junk.  I enjoy looking at an item and finding a new use for it.

Like these old shutters my mom had in her basement.  They were black, nothing special about them at all...but I felt like they needed to be displayed somewhere and out of the bottom floor of my parent's home.  I took them to our house in Bardstown, where they hung out in our storage shed for awhile.  I was unsure of the perfect place to use them.  As a picture holder?  As a decorative accent on a wall in our home?  Nothing sounded just right.  Until around Christmas time, when I decided to take a shelf off the wall and it left a HUGE mark where the brackets had been.  Oops.  I searched frantically for a solution to hide the eyesore and finally came up with one of the shutters.  I displayed it on the wall and hung our stocking from it for a couple of months (oh, you don't take your Christmas decorations down until March either??).

Soon after, we moved and I haven't found the "perfect" place to put the shutters back up in the new house.  I've been trying to decorate very deliberately and with purpose and not just throw crap on the walls just to have decorations.  But one day, while I was watching TV, it hit me.

Duh.  These shutters make the perfect frame for our TV!  When Marty mounted the TV, it left quite a bit of open spaces on the sides that I always felt needed something.  I didn't want to hang pictures because I felt like that would distract from TV viewing, but I didn't like the idea of leaving it all blank though.  Marty complains that they make his TV look smaller, but I don't mind a bit.

I'll leave you with some other TV wall inspiration that just make me drool:

via thelaurenelizabeth

^ I literally have dreams about this wall I love it so much.  Maybe one day.

via

Love these colors.  And the frame around the TV.

via

I'm geeking out over this.  I want sliding barn doors!

Do you have any creative ideas to make a TV wall look prettier?  Share! 

Welcome to my new home!

Several of you have told me that you can't wait to see pictures of our new house after I've decorated it.  Well, if that's the case, you'll be waiting for months :)  I'm still wading through boxes, piles of things that I don't have a place for yet and items that don't have a home.  It'll be a looooong time before this house is decorated the way I want it.  Plus, I don't want to rush and throw up a bunch of stuff on the walls just for the sake of having decorations.  I want to take my time and make sure that I'm putting up stuff that I really love that makes my house look good. 

With that being said, here's a little sneaky peek of some of the things that I have done, that I'm really super happy with....

Growing up, my mom had a "country/antique/Americana" kind of style.  And I HATED it.  If I never saw another antiqued piece of furniture or gingham print, it would be too soon.  Then, I got married and had a house of my own to decorate.  I found myself gravitating towards..... *gasp* .....antiques.  And rustic-y things.  And old wooden items.  Shocking, I know.  Right now, I'm really obsessed with window panes, old keys and wooden shutters.  Expect lots of those as I take you on a tour of my home in the future.  For now, here's a picture of our dining room wall and parts of my kitchen.

Gah.  I'm so in love with this navy wall.  When we moved in, this wall was yellow on top and a striped wallpaper on the bottom.  My future idea is to add wood to the bottom part of the wall to resemble bead boarding (found on Pinterest, of course).  That's a future kind of project, though. 

Now, the kitchen.  This kitchen is about to be overhauled.  In the very near future.  But for now, I'm working with what I've got. 

Cookbooks, farm animals, antique coffee tin and a rustic white picture frame?  I am my mother. 

SO excited about this one.  I've had this Dr. Pepper (my favorite drink) crate for practically forever.  I never really knew what to do with it.  In our old house, it sat above our cabinets, doing nothing.  In this house, the counter space in this kitchen is ridiculous.  Thus--a spice "rack" to hold my alphabetized (I hear you judging me) spices!  Hooray!  Also, Hammy the pig likes to watch me cook.  He was one of two animals in the clearance area at a local restaurant.  My sister took the sheep and I couldn't leave poor Hammy there by himself.  He's my kitchen friend....just not when I'm making bacon :)

 Lastly, the toaster oven my Meemaw bought me last year.  I LOVE it.  Doesn't it just SCREAM retro?!?  May seem silly to you, but I love the design of this toaster oven.  So cute.

That's it.  The rest of my house is a complete and total, undecorated disaster.  But I promise, the second I decorate it, you'll be the first to know.