TV Stand Project

Matt and I would be better bloggers if we could commit to taking more 'before' pictures. However, we fail every time... Seems like, whenever we're about to start a project, we get so excited to jump into it, that we don't take the time to document the pre-improvement starting point...

Good thing I was able to scrape up this old photo of our TV stand before we painted it an added knobs.


And here are the afters...



(Paint is Benjamin Moore's Coventry Grey, color matched to Behr Premium semi-gloss finish)

All Kinds of New Wall Art

Recently went on an Etsy art purchasing spree.



Almost all of these have found homes on one bit of wall or another...and looking at them makes me so happy. Even Matt seems to approve. Mitchell remains the one hold-out, but he can't even see in color, so I discount his opinion.


**We also are in the midst of framing all of our various college/grad school diplomas. #1. Jeez, custom framing is EXPENSIVE. #2. Can't wait to hang them all up in the office.**.

(Click images for links to Etsy vendors)

I've started online window shopping at work

Add this sofa to the list of things I'm coveting for our living room.

(Santa, I would like mine in 'pearl,' please.)

Source: Macys

Incoming Goodies for the Living Room!

Looking forward to receiving these fun new things to give the living room a mini-makeover!

Sources: Etsy, Amazon, CB2

Love at first sight...

I'm *in love* with these pendant lights.

However, the absence of a posted price leads me to believe I probably cannot afford them. What a tease, Studio Bel Vetro...

PS. Just saw that the seller's tagline is "Luxury. Illuminated." If that's not code for 'I'm out of your price range,' then I don't know what is!

PINK

Matt won't let me decorate with pink in our house, so I have to reserve it for the blog...

Furniture Craving

Aren't these coffee tables great?






I've been really, really wanting a glass or lucite coffee table for our living room.

Bathroom Plans

Someday, I want our master bathroom to look something like these...




...apparently, I have a lot of work to do.

Entryway Styling

Spent some time recently making our entryway look it's best (okay, it's really just the far-left 1/3 of our living room where the front door opens...but doesn't "entryway" sound a lot fancier?).

What do you think?

Dining Room Wants...

Feeling really triumphant about the dining room.

It's currently the only room in the house that is done. Well, by 'done', I mean it is not marred by boxes, saddened by bare walls, or shamed by hideous 1970s vertical blinds. It is 'done' in the sense that we could have guests in this room without apologizing (e.g. "Sorry there's no nightstand here in the guest room...our TV is sitting on it right now in the den" or "Sorry there aren't pillows on the couch...we just can't seem to find any we like").

Nonetheless, that doesn't mean the dining room couldn't get *even better*.

Primarily, I've been coveting these last two things to really complete it:

This chandelier (West Elm)

And this wine rack (Crate&Barrel)

We'll see how long it takes to get these or some similar lovelies. I'm keeping my eye open for sales at West Elm / Crate&Barrel, plus watching Craigslist and Ebay. For now, the sideboard (and by 'sideboard,' I mean Ikea Expedit console table) is a fine bar top and my wine glasses will remain hidden in the kitchen cabinets...plus, I've already mentioned my plans for the really unfortunate light fixture...

Chandelier - Painting Project

The dining room is looking good, but we really need to do something about the old, country light-fixture in there.

Now, I'm going to be generous and say this fixture isn't terrible. It's a little spider-like, I think. In any case, it's not what we need. I'm thinking of spray painting it glossy black. Seems like that will coordinate nicely with our dining room palette of aqua, gray, white, and black. Plus, it should help tie in the black sofa (yeah, I don't love that guy, but it was free and sometimes free trumps stylish).

minor success in the dining room

Matt and I received two gorgeous contemporary 11x14 frames as wedding gifts.

Unfortunately, between our photographer, Photobucket, and the Target photo center, we are being foiled at every turn when we try to print oversize photos to fit these frames.

However, I had to beg Matt to hang them, because I the wall I'd planned to put them on was horribly lopsided in their absence.

They looked really silly displaying the store decal on the wall.


Then, in a moment of genius, I thought of a great temporizing measure...I downloaded a great free font (Traveling Typewriter) from DaFont, typed two quotes from our wedding programsaved them as a PDF, and went to the UPS store to have them printed on 11x17 paper (only 50-cents!).

They turned out pretty cool, I think.

Now, these aren't permanent...I'm still hopeful that we can find some gorgeous black&white photos to put in there. Plus, it kind of kills me that I couldn't print them in white text on a black background (it would look so much better with the white mat), but for 50-cents, it's a darn good temporary fix.

Blue Cabinets

I've been really, really wanting to paint our kitchen cabinets a gorgeous robin's-eggy blue.





But, I'm feeling stifled by the reality of our not-so-chic yellow formica countertops and terracotta-esque floors. Add blue cabinets to that, and you get...a mess.

Perhaps I need to settle for a cool blue dining table instead.