Sneak Peak - Sassy Tween Room

Not at all finished, but sneak peak on how the stripes turned out. LOVE!

excuse ugly night time lighting on the camera phone

We have lots left to do, like:
1. bedding changes, need something more neutral, swap out dust ruffle
2. dresser to be painted with a fun paint treatment (not pictured, but it is on the other side of the bed in the middle pic above
3. art/collage wall above the dresser, thinking several mis-matched mirrors and maybe some other pops of color
4. FUN fabric for the curtains, looking for a bargain and the right print - this is my biggest challenge, figuring out how much is "too much"
5. More art, and bookshelves

So, what do you think?

Level Headed

Just spent my lunch hour using a level, tape measure and Frog Tape keeping a new projects going.  At work now on my most recent BIG project, an overhaul of my daughter's room.  This is the goal (yes, OOOOOOOOOOOOH  AHHHHHHHHHHHH) is completely in order:

Sorry, this is the best picture I can get.  I saw this in House and Home Magazine in the June issue and couldn't get it out of my head.  I thought my 10 year old would poo all over this, but she LOVED it - she's turned into a true vintage modern junkie like her mother (PRIDE!).  How cute is this room?  I just love the mix of modern horizontal stripes with vintage pieces.  By the way, H&H is my FAVORITE design magazine hands down.  I can usually find it at bookstores or even Walgreens.

I'm about half finished, here are some before pix (note the furniture was already removed!).

Right now the house is chaos as I have all of her furniture and STUFF (so much stuff) out in the hall and living room.  I need to wrap it up soon so we can get our house back.   I recently finished painting the entire room white, which took MANY Coats over this dark turquoise color.  So, I have a big white box!

Since I work full time, and the kids seem to have full time sports schedules, I grab time for projects whenever I can.  I went home at lunch today and started measuring and taping the lines.  Here is my progress:

This is actually very easy, and I showed you my handiwork from my boys' room overhaul in THIS POST.  To accomplish great stripes, just measure out your stripes (one tick mark for each measurement in the middle of the wall) and then use a long level across the wall to continue the line.  It can be a bit daunting if you're over-critical, but once the paint is on the wall, you won't notice small imperfections, promise!

More to come!

Featured!

Thanks to Lindsey at Better After for featuring Mash-Up Chic today on her blog!  Better After is hands down one of my favorite blogs of all time!  I've been linked via her blog to so many other blogs that I've come to love as well.  She featured this post about how to hide scratches from cats or children or husbands off leather furniture.

Check the entire post out HERE.

THANKS BETTER AFTER!

Plagerism, I mean Imitation is the highest form of flattery!

It's pumpkin pickin time!  Or, it's grab a pumpkin while getting paint at Home Depot time!

I saw these pumpkins on one of my favorite blogs a couple weeks ago and have been dying to try.

These are done by the great gal over at My Sweet Savannah  , here's the LINK to that post.

So last night, I plunked down in front of the TV for about 30 minutes (I know, unheard of right?) and of course couldn't just sit and watch TV so I taped up my newly purchased pumpkin.  Cause, why be "normal" as my husband always mockingly asks me.  It was an easy process.  My daughter cut strips of tape for me to keep it rolling.

I simply did a light coat of gloss black Krylon spay paint and let dry (not long enough) for about 30 minutes. I forgot to take a picture after I painted it, but before I removed the tape - but picture a glossy black pumpkin and you get the picture.  Here's how she turned out!

I also had a can of yellow and white spray paint (and every other color in the rainbow) and decided to do a candy corn pumpkin.  Ideally these are done with a taller, oblong pumpkin, but I still think it turned out cute. Just prop the sucker up on something so you can paint the bottom, do light coats from the bottom of yellow, then from the top of the white paint.  Key to keep the finger light so you don't go down too far on the pumpkin.  Also, if you use too much paint, it drips down through the grooves of the pumpkin. (you can actually see previously described glossy black pumpkin in the background)

Here's a crappy phone picture of how they looked on the porch, of course I moved them well before they were dry and ended up soaking in the tub to get the paint off my hands. But you get the picture.  I really want to paint my plastic mum pots black.  Hope to get that finished this week!

TAGS: fall decorating, pumpkins, halloween

What a difference a bulb makes

Just made a fun and simple change to a vintage chandelier in my house.  Said chandelier was in my dining room when I moved in.  I initially wasn't a big fan, thought a more modern drum shade fixture was more my speed.  You do have to be careful when using a vintage style to ensure your house doesn't look like Grandma just moved out.

Here she is (the chandelier, not my grandma):

Sorry, taking pictures of lights is tough!  Anyway, she grew on me after a while and I decided to keep her.  Then one day I saw a vintage fixture with round bulbs instead of typical chandelier shapes.  So, I swapped those suckers out and here's what I have now:

I really like the result, such an EASY and really free change because I would have changed out those bulbs eventually anyway.  It gives a much more modern and fun look.  

TAGS: vintage, chandelier, round bulb, crystal chandelier, new bulbs, vintage modern

let there be light (from matching lamps)

Quick update on some thrift store finds turned fabulous new lamps for my living room.  My living room is extremely symmetrical, see below:

On top of that I don't have any lighting except some lighting that shines from the ceiling onto the mantle. I've been looking for some matching floor lamps to bring some light and style to the space, was looking for something like this: 

Like this one from CB2 - except I wanted gold

But at $150 a pop, that would be $300 for lamps (see my mad math skills?).  Needless to say, I didn't want to shell out that kind of cheese for two lamps, ain't my style.  I have looked at Target and found some similar options, but even at Target it was going to cost a minimum of $50 each for these, so $100 total (again, math skills are sick!).  

$50 option from Target

But then I came across these at a Thrift store for $10 each, shades for $2.50 each.  It appeared said thrift store had a boatload of stuff from a hotel that must have liquidated old furniture and lamps.  I pushed aside the grossness of buying things from a hotel.  I mean what can people do to lamps?  Nevermind, don't want to think about it. 

As I referenced in THIS POST, I'm kind of totally super obsessed with painting things gold.  So, a $5 can of gold spray paint later, and I had two awesome floor lamps with nice sized drum shades for only $30 TOTAL! (that's $15 x 2)  Dontcha just love 'em? 

IN PROCESS: (sneak peak of another project  - black chair)

Here they are in my living room: (excuse crappy cell phone photos)

I'm loving them and super-pleased with the great deal I got on them.  What do you think? 

TAGS: thrift store, floor lamp, gold, drum shade, spray paint

Enter at your own risk

Did you ever walk into a house and think, how welcoming, how inviting, how indicative of how the rest of the house must be because it's so fabulous . . . .

Well, you wouldn't think that about my house a couple months ago.  We enter the house through our front door (no mud room) and with 3 kids, coats, backpacks, sports equipment, etc., it often looked like you were walking into the Goodwill.  We are not the tidiest of folks, but I REALLY like my foyer to look lovely - smoke and mirrors baby!

So, a while back I decided to add a variety of decorative coat hooks to an open wall in the foyer.  Here's how it looked after I applied the hooks:

Super cute, right?  Each of the hooks was picked with care to represent the new owner of said hook or something important to us.  It was a great idea (I say so myself), however in practice, here's how it actually looked each day.

And the view from the front door was this:

As you can see, my masterpiece of the hook collection was covered by books and bags and CRAP constantly.  So, I decided a revamp was in order.  I developed a new solution for the bags and coats and what-nots (we have buttloads of whatnots) to be tucked in the main hallway of my 1960's ranch, just off the foyer.  

First, I stained some boards I had cut at Home Depot.  I bougth a 8ft piece of lumber, and had HD cut it in half.  Then I came home and stained a dark cherry/walnut color: 

I wanted them to look a bit rustic, so wasn't very precise.  I then sanded boards down a bit with steel wool and applied the hooks.  This was actually pretty easy as the screws bit into the wood nicely, vs. the foyer where I had to use anchors for all of the hooks (fixing all those nail holes was awesome). 

Here's how they look up in the hallway, ahhhh, much better!

Now they are out of view, but still very accessible! 

Here's how it looks with just our "summer" stuff, of course in the winter it's filled to the gills but there is plenty of room for each person to have 2 hooks! 

This pic gives you some perspective on how it looks from the foyer, out of sight but still neat.

Now for a pic of how the foyer looks AFTER:

Better, right?  Here's a pic of the door that leads to the hallway with the new hook rack, just off to the left:

Love the bright aqua sideboard and mirror wall - great upcycled pieces anyone can do!

And here's a better pic of the wall of holes that I filled to add a nice little entry spot.

So more coming this week on some nasty old floor lamps I purchased at a thrift store, see BEFORE:

TAGS: foyer, entry way, bench, coat hook, coat rack, messy entry way, messy foyer

Celebrate Good Times!

Earlier this month my brother married the most wonderful man - yep, I said it, man.  I'm super lucky that my brother (who is BEYOND smart, creative, hard-working and wonderful) married someone equally so.  I feel so blessed he has a partner with whom to travel life.  PS - these two are the GREATEST uncles of all time.


Here's a pic of the happy couple: 

My bro on the left, wonderful new hubby on the right

Anywho, my mom and I threw a rehearsal dinner get together for them. The wedding was held in Chicago where he lives.  We rented a large 6 bedroom house/mansion (to-may-toe/to-mah-toe).  It was a great place to stay and a wonderful venue for the get together.  In our family, we very rarely have things catered or hold parties at hotels or restaurants.  I think the very best way to show someone you want them to be your guest is to invite them to your home and serve them food and drinks you've made yourself.  Just me . . . . so when we figured out we wanted to throw this party, finding a house/venue all in one was AWESOME.

I went with a black and white and yellow theme.  First of all, black and white always make a statement, and I already had some pops of yellow to bring along.  Here are a few pix!

Sorry this pic is crappy, but it's the only one of the bar.

Fru-fru tooth picks from Hobby Lobby

These food signs were super easy add a custom touch

This is a Tipsy Arnold Palmer
(Tea, Lemonade, Vodka, Mint)

TAGS: black and white party, black and white and yellow party, rehearsal dinner, gay wedding rehearsal dinner, black chevron fabric, candy sticks