Change Up Your Family Room With New Pillow Covers

Can you ever have enough pillows or pillow covers?

I don't think so, but maybe that's just me.
The biggest problem with buying pillows is that they take up too much space. 
The great thing about pillow covers is that they take up so little space when stored and they cost less to 
make (or buy) than if you buy a whole new pillow. For less $60 if you make pillow covers or $60-$100 if you purchase them, you can give your Family room a whole new look.

I probably have a couple/three dozen pillows and just change out the covers seasonally. 
In January, I ordered 3 different blue fabrics and some zippers from Fabric.com and made 8 pillow covers 
for the Family Room. I found the faux Mongolian fur pillow from TJMaxx.com

Coat Rack For The Laundry Room

I really liked the coat rack we had in our oldest daughter's room at the last house and it had some nice bronze hooks on it. Before we put our house on the market, we swapped it out with one that was made out of reclaimed wood from our mountain cottage and some inexpensive hooks. You can see that post HERE if you missed it. 

'Tis The Season To Get Organized

Happy New Year Friends!

Now that the new year has begun, I'm working on getting things back in order and getting Christmas put away and organized.

It would be so much faster and easier to just throw things behind closed doors, but doing that would just come back to haunt me later when I'm looking for something.

If you've been following me for awhile, y'all know I love armoires. Now that TVs are so big and don't fit in armoires anymore, you can pick one up for a song (ok, maybe a few dollars more than that) on Craigslist and yard sales. 

Remember, we had 2 of these in our Great Room at our previous house and one held a TV and the other one held books, pillows, etc. They didn't look right in our new Great Room and we needed storage in our Office/Craft Room, so that's where we have it now. We originally purchased 1 full retail for about $800 and found one on Craigslist about 8 years later (the same one) for $350. I've seen them for as little as $150.

In the top of the armoire, we keep craft supplies and the printer and paper. The bottom is the perfect spot to hold most of our gift wrapping supplies. 
In the bin on the left side, top shelf there is curling ribbon, some misc ribbon and Christmas package tape. Center bin holds krinkle paper and cellophane bags. The right bin holds gift tags. 

There's space on the bottom shelf for boxes, bags, tissue paper...

The bin holds gift bags and tissue paper. Below the bin are a few priority boxes and envelopes and on top are new, folded boxes and a few padded envelopes.

The drawer on the bottom of the armoire holds wrapping paper. I keep the Christmas wrapping paper up in the attic since it takes up a lot of space and we only need it once a year.

Since the armoire is in the office/craft room, I also have lots of other ribbon to

choose from in the bookcases on the other side of the room.  Don't hate me.

Now that the gift wrapping supplies are put away neatly and organized, I can get on to the rest of the house where there's lots of organizing left to do.

Pam

If you'd like to see another Organized Armoire, click HERE.

Vignettes Around The House

 We've been busy around the new Casa Fanatic!!!

No major transformations yet, but they're  coming. 
Last week 99% of the delivered boxes had been unpacked, shelves added to storage closets and it was time to start making things pretty. I LOVE organizing, but it's a lot more fun when the house is decorated. Plus decorating makes a house feel like home.

I can honestly say things were a little more cheerful once the artwork was put on the walls. There also wasn't a single curtain rod in the place - just plain white blinds against boring plain walls.
The framed chalkboard had come apart in the move, so Mr. DIY put it back together and then put it up on the Foyer dresser. 

The Dining Room was the first room to be unpacked and somewhat put together. 

We still need to put up some curtain rods and draperies. We brought the custom draperies I made for the last house, but they were made for one big window, so I have to divide them into two.

I'm searching for a new chandelier and possibly a server and as I'm looking at these photos, I'm thinking that this artwork might look better in the breakfast area. 

Mr. DIY purchased some Ikea Hemnes bookcases for our office and I filled them up fast. They were larger than our previous bookcases (taller ceiling than the last office) and gave us 2 extra shelves. The extra space was used to hold books that had been stored in the armoires that were in the Family Room at the last house. We're using the armoires in the office in this house, so there isn't any storage in the Family Room until Mr. DIY has time to build a custom entertainment center. 

The lower shelf is one of my favorites as it holds some of our girls artwork they made in school. 


Our youngest daughter's room is decorated nicely and

  it's already been painted a new color. She still has artwork to hang and we'll be trading out her wire closet for a semi-custom one in another month or so. 

You saw this photo last time, but I had to include it. The curtains are too short so we have to purchase new ones at Ikea, but until then, these dress up the place, along with my grandmother's antique mirror. This mirror hung over my parent's fireplace and now it's displayed prominently  over our Family Room fireplace.

There's still so much that has to be done so we do a little bit every day. 

Next big project: Mr. DIY will be working on installing a wall of garage cabinets first so we can have the last trailer/pod of storage, garage items and miscellaneous furniture delivered. Can't wait for that! 

I miss our porch furniture and a couple of chairs that were put in that last trailer.

Hope you're enjoying these last days of summer. I'm looking forward to cooler days and night. 

Hope today is a good day for you,

Pam

Transforming A Coat Closet

Hello friends!

Hope you're enjoying the last days of summer.
Here in the South, we have about 6 weeks of unrelenting heat and humidity. It won't be long now until the days start to cool off. Mr. DIY is still working hard on the closets so that we can be more organized.
A few posts ago, I showed you how he transformed the linen closet in the Master Bath.
If you missed it, you can see it HERE.

The closet I'm sharing today is the coat closet in the little hallway that leads to the Master Bedroom.

When we toured the house for the first time, the owners used this closet for linens.

The closet only had space for hanging and one wire shelf. This wasn't going to work for us since we needed more shelving so the games, cd's, etc. that we stored in the armoires in our previous home. If you remember, we moved both armoires to the new Office/Craft room since that room doesn't have a closet and because the new Family Room is configured differently and they wouldn't work with the layout. I figured that if the hanging rod was lowered a few inches, 3 shelves could be installed to provide a lot of much needed storage space. 

The wire shelf was easy enough to demo and the holes were patched. We'll get around to painting another time. I was getting weary of boxes everywhere.

Mr. DIY installed two-16" fixed melamine shelves and one-12" shelf. It was enough to hold all of the games, cds and some miscellaneous items

I even have a little space left on that 3rd shelf. (Mr. DIY cut two 12" shelves in case I wanted to change the middle 16" shelf to 12". He just stored it on top of the other 12" shelf)

Even though the shelves aren't adjustable, the new closet is perfect!

This past weekend we started putting up artwork, mirrors and Mr. DIY installed some curtain rods.
It's beginning to feel a lot more like home. Here are a few peeks:

I set up the framed chalkboard on the little dresser in the Foyer just like our last house.

Hope you're week is off to a good start! This week we'll be working on closet, doing some organizing, selling a few unwanted items and making our new house feel like home.

Hope today is a good day for you,

Pam

Shopping For A New House

Hello friends!

Don't you love finding a new shop with lots of interesting things and great prices?

I know I do - especially when they have items that you're looking for at that particular time.


We sold the two Family Room chairs before we sold our previous house and I've also been wanting to get a new sofa because the grey one we bought several years ago was cheap inexpensive and was supposed to be temporary. I've also been looking on Craigslist for a large entertainment center just in case someone happens to be selling one that will suit our needs. 

I found a local shop called Sardis Marketplace while perusing Craigslist and went to their Facebook page. They had several chairs and a sofa and loveseat that were affordable and the right size, so I decided to head on over to see what else they had. Turns out the place was made up of quite a few shops within the building. Some shops sold new furniture and some sold vintage furniture and accessories. I'm definitely going to go back and shop for more because the prices were good.

I loved this display.

Here's a larger photo of the booth.

Don't you love the classic lines of this cabinet?

  

 I didn't expect to find a large entertainment center almost the exact size of one that I had drawn up just a few days ago. The price on this piece was $2,499, which was pretty reasonable, considering I had seen others I kind of like for between $5,000 and $8,000(totally out of the question). I would have purchased it on the spot, but thought it was a little too rustic in style compared to our very formal dining room furniture. We're not quite ready to replace those pieces too.

I loved the chairs in the display, as well. 

The chair we had in our last Master Bedroom is a little large for the new space and this chair would be perfect and the price was affordable. The larger chair would fit in the living room. 

This sofa would look great in a smaller space. You don't often see sofas that are this narrow.

These leather chairs made me pause, even though I don't normally like leather furniture. I really love their sleek style.

I thought of Kim of Savvy Southern Style when I saw these demijohns. 

I ended up getting this traditional sofa and loveseat. They were comfortable and not a bad price.

If you're ever in Charlotte, be sure to stop off and visit Sardis Marketplace.  Definitely going to keep my eye on their Facebook page for other  things we might need. 

Do you have a favorite shop you love to visit near you?

Pam

This isn't a sponsored post, I just wanted to share a great place to shop!

Fall In The Breakfast Room

The first room I start to  decorate for a season is our Breakfast Room. It's an easy room to decorate; I just start by setting the table.

Office / Craft Room Reveal

Well, I didn't make any money on our office / craft room makeover like I did with our Guest Room Makeover, but we didn't spend too much money making updating it. If you missed that makeover, you can find it HERE .

We painted our office back in May. I waited  to show you the reveal because I hadn't found any drapery panels that I liked. I ordered some from Target when I found the Guest Room curtains, but, I didn't really like them.

I was at HomeGoods a couple of weeks ago and found a couple that were perfect and Mr. DIY installed a new curtain rod for me. I also found a new bulletin board at HomeGoods on the same trip that I found the curtains. 

But, lets start at the Before:

Reclaimed Wood Coat Rack

We're still plugging along doing little projects to get the house ready for sale. We're resigned to the fact that it's going to take us most likely until next Spring; which is ok with us.
This weekend, we're working on prepping the boards to install a planked ceiling at the kitchen at the mountain cottage, but in between coats of primer and paint, Mr. DIY did a little project for me.

A Simple Summer Tablescape

Do you keep your table set?

I like to keep our breakfast table set because it looks pretty and it's an easy thing to do.

For my simple summer tablescape, I used dishes, flatware and accessories  I already had. 

These little votive holders are my favorite. I found them at Target a couple of years ago.  Add an electric candle inside, especially if you have little children or curious pets. That way, they don't pose a fire hazard, but still look pretty.

Buying and Selling On Craigslist

Do you buy or sell things on Craigslist?

I've been loving Craigslist lately because we've been selling some furniture recently ...more on that later.

I've got a challenge for you. Can you tell which armoire I purchased on Craigslist and which one I paid full retail for??? 

Take a guess. 

If you looked inside, you'd probably see that one is a little more worn than the other and guess that it was the one that was purchased on Craigslist...

...and you'd be 

WRONG!

 I purchased the armoire on the left at least 14 years ago  retail,  then about 6 years ago,  I thought a matching one would look good, so we found a matching one on Craigslist for about a third of the price.

Gotta love that!