Sitting Room Changes

Surely I must be sick.
Not thinking straight.
If I had to guess, I'd say that I've come down with a serious case of COLOR!! Yes, friends. Caps AND exclamation points. I've started to focus my latest decorating efforts on our sitting room and no one should be more surprised by my choices so far than I am. It all started with some pretty floral fabric that I scored on mega-sale ($2.99/yard) at Hancock fabric last weekend (normally $9.99/yard):
Considering my natural gravitation to all things black-and-white, this was a very nice change of pace! I sewed the fabric into 2 17"x17" pillows:
Several weeks ago, I found a really cute fireplace candle holder ($5, garage sale) and when I got it home, I was relieved to see that it fit in my fireplace perfectly, but because it was black, it faded into the black brick (left photo). However, after a coat of Rustoleum's chrome spray paint and a few linen-scented candles from Family Dollar ($14 for 7), the candle holder now ties in much more with the fireplace and really pops:

And my favorite change so far, GREEN CURTAINS! They're from Target and they were $7/panel.

So, okay. We are on our way. But I still have several things I want to change. The first and easiest thing is probably to get rid of my tiled coffee table and find something sleek, stylish and wooden. Also, I'm going to put my two-drawer side table in the guest bedroom because I've got a new side table that will go there. And of course, get rid of the classic-shaped blue wingback chairs because they really feel out of place here.
Oh yea, and I still have one brown set of blinds. Those have GOT to get painted white.


This is a quick inspiration mosaic that I've put together to show some of the things I would consider for the room:1. Danish retro coffee table. A NEW one would run around $500, no way.

2. I think I'll have to find something like this by pure chance at a garage sale, thrift store, or CL.
3. A white shaggy rug like this one fron Overstock.com. $123.99 for 4'x6'.
4. UGH, can you tell I'm stuck on this style of table?!
5. This pillow from Target, $24.99
6. Adorable pillow from West Elm $39.00
7. Josette Chair from Pier 1, $199.95 A little over the top? Yes. Fabulous? YES.
8. Poly Slipper Chair from Target - Aegean - SWOON. $299.00
9. Birds Fringe pillow from Pier 1, on sale for $22.38

Those chairs are pretty far out there, right? But if I got one for the corner near the window, I think it would be the perfect touch. (My logic = since the couch is a solid neutral, I think it would be safe to add one crazy piece of furniture). And can you tell I'm obsessed with retro Danish furniture? I've been stalking craigslist for a coffee table like that for weeks now.

Basically, I wanted to let you know I've started the transformation in this room and I've got my sights set on a couple different things.

I plan to make my own pillows for the couch, and will attempt something fancier than just the square kind. And as always, I'll be sure to share a tutorial (unless I fail miserably).

And there you have it. Being sick with COLOR!! isn't so bad afterall.

My New Super Fantastic Mirror

This just might be my favorite project that I've ever done.
1. It was a lucky find, and it was cheap.
2. It was fun.
3. I'm not trying to be obnoxious by tooting my own horn, this is just a fact: IT TURNED OUT AWESOME.

I visited a church rummage sale last Saturday and found this clock for just $5.

Well, okay yea, it's totally 70s, but I instantly had visions of transforming this piece into a mirror.
Luckily, the wooden petals slid off.....
So I removed them all.
Then using a pair of pliers, I hacked off that clock and its parts. There was a long, sturdy piece of hardware that connected the back of the clock face to its gizmos in the back, and I think it took me about 20 minutes, no joke, to pry and break everything off. Look at how bent the face got:

Once the wooden petals and clock components were removed, I spray painted the metal part Rustoleum's "Aluminum":

And I took disposable wooden shish-kabob sticks and stuck those into a box so I could put each of the petals on their own little stand for spray painting:

I went with Rustoleum's semi-gloss black. I know, black and silver is such a safe choice, but just wait and see, the impact is quite stunning.....

I picked up this round mirror from Michael's for a piddly $2. I hot glued it to the metal sunburst part:

And once the black petals were all dry, I put them back on their posts and TA DA!

SUCH a difference!!

For a cost breakdown:
$5 - retro clock
$2 - round mirror
$4.50 - can of Rustoleum black paint
(I had all the other supplies)

I have myself a new mirror for just around $12, and it makes quite a dramatic statement in my sitting room.
The black, silver and gray all goes really well with my new green curtains (I'll get to those in a future post).

I am seriously in love.
I'll be linking up to the DIY Show Off, Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party, and Metamorphosis Monday, too!

Giveaway time!!

But it's not through me. :)

For a chance to win a gift certificate to my Etsy shop, please head over to Amanda's blog at Serenity Now and leave a comment!!
The giveaway is for up to $20, so that could mean one 8x10 print, or a few smaller prints - totally your choice.

And give Amanda's blog some love - she is always posting about fantastic things and has some incredible recipes, so be sure to follow her, too. :)

And last, I know I've inundated you with posts this week (three days in a row, whoa) so I'll slow it back down from here on out. I just felt like I had some catching up to do!

$3 Garage Sale Shelf

To put it simply, I am a bookwhore. I am rapidly outgrowing my Ikea bookshelf.

In fact, I had rows of books hidden behind the books you can see. And as in the photo on the right, I was starting to stack other books all over the house.

Garage sale find to the rescue!
It was dusty and looked like a cat had puked all over the top shelf, but it was just $3!
And I couldn't resist those swirls!
I scrubbed it down, popped the swirls off and sprayed them Rustoleum's "Aluminum," and the blue is a Valspar color that I'm not totally diggin'. I was wanting a teal color, but they didn't have anything at Lowe's so I went with this. I don't know, it looks very much like it belongs in a little boys room:

So now it's in my bedroom, covered with books. My downstairs bookshelf is also still packed.

My chair and purple table had been in that corner, but I just flipped them to the other side:

Uhhhmmmm. And yes.
I took the opportunity to organize ALL of my books.
First by genre.
Then by author.
I know.

All my novels and short stories are in my sitting room downstairs.
Memoirs, poetry books, and art and art history books are in my room:

If this isn't a convincing enough argument that I need built-in bookshelves in our sitting room, then dude, I don't know what is.

P.S. For all St. Louisians, the gigantic YMCA Bookfair will take place in South County August 20-25. Yes, I am already just about to pee my pants from excitement.

$5 Bistro Set Makeover

This has been, by far, the most labor-intensive project I've undertaken. It kicked my ass, but I do believe the payoff made it worthwhile.


I'll start by saying my WONDERFUL mother picked up this wrought iron bistro set from a garage sale for a mere FIVE DOLLARS and gave it to me. I literally squealed when I first laid eyes on those swirls:
It is very sturdy and has "good bones" but man, it was pretty rusted in lots and lots of little spots:
Two of the chairs were in particularly bad shape.

I decided I had to first get rid of the rust by scrubbing every inch with a wire brush, pictured here in the forefront. And this is the spray paint that I ended up using, too:

I dragged everything to the garage and scraped like crazy.
The wire brush DID make a huge difference with the rust:
But the pieces were still just CAKED with layers upon layers of old paint.



To help MY paint job last longer in the outdoors, I knew it would be best for me to strip away as much of the old paint as possible. Enter Citristrip. Chemical-resistant gloves are necessary, and goggles and a face mask are highly recommended:


Although the bottle says it's safe to use indoors, I would recommend using it outside. It actually had a very pleasant citrisy smell (duh) and I could see it working almost immediately after brushing the stuff on:



I let it sit for about 45 minutes, then used my wire brush to scrape off as much as I could. This definitely took off a good amount of paint. After that, I sprayed each piece down with my hose and scraped with the wire brush on every piece YET AGAIN. All that work was brutal, especially since it was nearly 100 degrees outside, so it helped to keep spraying myself with the hose. :)

I'm telling you, those chairs and the table were shellacked with a billion coats of white paint, and the Citristrip only took off the top few layers. I could have keep applying and waiting then scraping and repeating until getting down to the actual metal chair, but I was exhausted just from doing it once. Plus I was impatient. See? Still some left:
So after the pieces all dried in the sun after MULTIPLE scraping sessions, it was time to paint them their final coat. Using Rustoleum's High Performance Enamel Spray in white, I covered every square inch of the chairs and table and I used two whole cans. I think they turned out BEAUTIMOUS:
After letting them dry for 24 hours, I put them on the front porch and they were ready to go!

And these pictures turned out looking blurry because my freaking camera lens kept STEAMING up from the humidity!!


If you need a reminder how rusty those two chairs were to begin with:

Gotta thank my mom, once more, for her keen eye and thrifty prowess!!

I'm linking up here!

Slipcover Review

I've had my slipcover for nearly a month now, so it's time I write my review! I'll try to analyze more than just the slipcover itself, but working with CSNstores as a whole. Let's start from the beginning....

Payment: Super easy. I was given a $50 credit, and since the slipcover was $59, I was responsible for the $9 difference. I was able to pay that with paypal so it was quick and simple.

Shipping: Well, the fact that it was free shipping was an instant pro. Although at checkout I was told it could take 8-10 business days, I think I received it after just three days? So, shipping was free AND fast. It was delivered by UPS so they would have been able to track it, too.


Trueness to color: Very accurate. I have had problems ordering things offline before (from overstock.com especially), only to find the color in person appears very different than what it looked like on the computer screen. No problems here.

Fit: Okay, this is completely my mistake. I ordered a cover for cushions that have the little arms on them, only to realize that my cushions are completely rectangular and so I have a little bit of extra fabric that would normally fit around those arms, they go in front of the armrest, you know? TOTALLY stupid of me and it affects the fit, but that's not the slipcover's fault. I've done a bad job of tucking it in here but I wanted you to be able to see all the excess fabric. I'm actually able to get that shoved in between the arm and cushion pretty good.

You can see, however, that it doesn't fit very much like the picture but I'm sure that's because my couch is curvy and the one in the picture is very boxy. Who knows.

Quality: This is where I have some issues. The fabric is kind of see-through. My couch underneath has a hideous floral pattern, which you can see faintly in some spots, if you look close enough:
The fabric feels a little thin. I do like the material, it's almost like a linen cotton material, soft with a slight texture, but if I had children, I'm not sure how it would hold up.

With my cats, however, it has held up well. It hasn't gotten dirty and I haven't needed to wash it yet

Here is a shot of the room with the new slipcover:
I've thrown a neutral-colored blanket over the back and still use my black and white pillows on either end. I know it's wrinkly but oh well. It has really changed the look of the room and that's what is important. No more RED couch!! Now that I have a neutral base to work with, I'm hoping to get a new coffee table, an area rug, curtains, and I'll make some new pillows, too.


My verdict: Eh. Working with CSNstores was an incredibly positive experience, and I would have no hesitation about ordering from any of their online stores in the future. Please know that I am not being paid or encouraged by anyone to say this, it is my honest opinion. I would happily recommend CSNstores to anyone.
But this particular slipcover, I probably would not recommend unless you had a solid-colored couch that you needed to cover. And don't be stupid like me and order the wrong silhouette. :)

So there you have it. Feel free to comment with any questions if I left anything out!