Before & After

Now that we own a home I find myself glued to HGTV hoping to pick up design tips. I'm always blown away by designers who can find accessories to "pull a room together" and do small things that completely change a room's style. Sadly, I do not possess that natural talent and have to keep myself from being too "matchy matchy" (i.e. buying pillows that perfectly match the wall color, using furniture sets instead of breaking them up, etc). Just look at my original living room above. I decided to put my sewing skills to use and make a few pillows using different colors I wasn't entirely comfortable with (Think of the Seinfeld episode when George decides to do the exact opposite of what he would normally do in order to better his life).

16 x16 Orange/Yellow Pillow

12 x 16 Lime Pillow

14 x 14 Raspberry (felt) Pillow

While looking online I found that curtain tie backs could range from $12 - $40. To me this is ridiculously expensive. I decided to use my leftover raspberry felt to make my own. Using just my pinking rotary cutter and some self-adhesive velcro it was pretty easy.  

Probably the most complicated project was the mirror. This mirror actually came with the house and was far too big for the master bathroom. We had enough mirrors for the other rooms but I hated the idea of just tossing it since mirrors can be pretty expensive. I decided it would fit perfectly between the two windows (where the red berry wreath was) and decided to paint the gold frame white. I have never stenciled before but decided I would give it a shot after seeing this great blog entry. It's a lot easier than I expected and now I fear I will be stenciling everything in site. The mirror became exactly what I wanted it to be: functional and decorative.

All in all, the craftiness paid off and I'm happy with our updated living room. 

~ B