Latest State of Living Room - with NEW furniture!

I wanted to share the current state of our living room - as some of you who regularly read this blog know, I move my furniture around ALL the time!! BUT - get ready now... I am very happy to announce that I finally LOVE the layout of the furniture in my house! I must admit it's in large part due to my mom redoing her entire house (Shaun Smith Home is doing the complete design of course! Fun job!) and me getting my pick of any furniture she was going to sell -thanks mom!

So, I'll start with our living room. I first need to show y'all my current Craigslist score - a new (used) sofa!!! yippeeeee!! I couldn't believe it when I saw it online. It wasn't super cheap - bought it for $500 BUT it's exactly what I've wanted my current sofa to be - a single bench seat, and 2 simple pillows on the back so I can switch small accent pillows as I wish. My current awful sofa has 3 seat cushions and FIVE pillows on the back. TOO MANY PILLOWS!!! That sofa is now in our new TV room. Anyway, here's the down sofa:

Now, use your imagination people! The sofa had an awful micro suede diamond patterned slip cover that is SO not me - I plan on getting it slip covered in a great linen but until then my crazy ass has draped linen over that micro suede! I love the lines of it though. Here's the type of slip cover look I'll do:

via EST Magazine

Can you see my vision now!? OK... now moving on to the room...

My big sexy console on the opposite wall from the new sofa. Loving my estate sale painting with the spooky faces over the console. 

One of my two new antique chairs everyone hates but me! I'll show them once I recover this seat and give these guys some love!

Above are my two new chairs from momma! These chairs are from the 50's and I have a little attachment to them - they were in my bedroom in high school but covered in a cow print fabric! You can see from this picture I still need a rug to ground the room. I'm planning on getting a chunky sisal... maybe with a hint of grey in it over tan. And everything in the room is square or rectangle. Eventually a new coffee table or round side table will be nice. 

Close up of the chair. These will eventually get recovered but I'm not a money tree and these things need to happen in phases! 

Another view of the room. That black dining table is going to be sold.

Current state of my chrome & brass etarge. It's a hot mess... baby steps people!

Here's the "foyer" to the left when you enter the house. That lamp is another new member to our house. It's solid marble. I need a new shade but I got a steal of a deal on it so a new shade isn't a biggie...

SO there ya have it! Our new "formal" living room :) There's a lot that still needs to be done but the big pieces are in which makes me happy! 

Here's my to buy/make list:

- new slip cover

- chunky sisal rug

- new fabric on slipper chairs

- new fabric on antique chair

- new lamp shade

- new round little table to replace coffee table

- new floor lamps for either side of sofa 

Yikes! Seems like more now that I've typed it out! A design tip I recommend to all of you slowly acquiring your "grown up" furniture - it helps to make a list and know what you're looking for. SAVE your money for what you really want and don't cheap out. It's better to wait a month or two and save more money and buy the something fabulous you've been eyeing over something that "will do".  

I had been searching for a new sofa off and on for years and knew exactly what I wanted. I wasn't planning on buying a used one from Criagslist but hey, even after getting a slipcover made it'll still be a fraction of the cost of a new one. SO, my point is if you have a clear idea of what you need - once you find it, there's no second guessing if it'll work. Hopefully you've analyzed it enough beforehand you can pounce on it! 

Geesh... were you expecting design tips from Boo today or what!? ;) 

What do y'all think of that advice? Are you looking for *perfect* pieces to add to your home? Do tell!! 

Our House Is Ready For Mardi Gras Dawlin'!...

Just wanted to share the "after" pics from yesterdays post about decorating the house for Mardi Gras!

My skeleton man dressed for the season...

Here are my sexy mannequin legs I painted gold. I love them! My neighbor put little bows at their ankles (and the Mardi Gras Muff VaJayJay!) I kinda prefer just the Muff.... no bows... I think it takes away from the awesomeness of the legs... thoughts?

Hopefully this weekend I'll go around the hood like last year and get some shots of everyones homes decorated. There are some wild ones this year and I can't wait to share! 

New Lighting Is Up!!

Remember my $5 light fixture score from Habitat?? Well.... it's up!! My lovely brother happened to be over this weekend and he oh so nicely offered to change out the light. :)

I love watching him do things like that - it demystifies how complicated I think lighting or construction is - he removed the old light and installed the new one in literally 5 minutes! An electrician would of cost at least $50!!

Anyhoot - here's what the hallway looks like now:

It is a little off center from when we built the wall on right side of the hall but I'm not complaining! And I don't have the globe light bulbs I want for it yet but I wanted to share what it looks like up.

And I love the contrast of the French starburst with the mid-century modern light...

I would of preferred the fixture in my kitchen but we need a light with a fan in there to help circulate air during the hot New Orleans summers!

Oh, and below is a picture I dug up of the light that was there! When our sheet rock was sprayed the contractor covered the light to protect it and we would up keeping the plastic wrap around it because we hated it so much! Ha!

And there ya have it! Slooooowly, yet surely, things are getting done around this ole' beaut!  ;)

Awning Is Up!...

We finally installed our black and white striped awning over the weekend! (You know I needed it to be black and white!)

We desperately needed it with these summer rain storms soaking us as we entered the house!

I even love that as you walk through the living room you get a nice shot of the black and white stripes! And do you notice out in the yard the little rose budding from the rose bush I feared to be dead?

Guess it might be thriving afterall?!

- BOO



Pillow Talk...

The Hubs and I have a total of 6 pillows on our bed... he needs more. Since I already have 2 down pillow inserts I figure I should just make them myself! They measure in pretty big - 27 x 27 so hopefully this will accommodate Mr. I Need 45 Pillows on my bed... 

I got inspired by the beautiful HUGE pillows we have at the Shop - they measure in at 30 x 30! BUT I could not stomach Hubs leaning on these gorgeous silks!

Silk & Velvet pillows from Shaun Smith Home 



Another shot of some of the pillows we carry...

Here's what I'd like the bed to eventually have a resemblance to...

Interior Design by Timothy Whealon

So I chose a cotton blend with a subtle pattern in a creamy white to keep with the neutral look. It's so so SOFT! It should be coming in next week and I'm excited because I'll be sewing in zippers (you know I'll have to wash white pillows!) and I have not done zippers in a while so it'll be a good refresher!

Welby in Natural available HERE

Just a reminder - here's what the bedroom looked like a couple months ago... (sorry for dark photos!)

And here it is after some minor updates...

I think adding the extra pillows will at least make the bed look "finished" - the rest is still a work in progress!

I am debating on cording for the new pillows?? I feel like the pattern is enough... any thoughts? To cord or not to cord... tis the question!

- BOO

Progress... Foyer!

Here are the latest shots of our foyer! It's almost done but I thought you might like to see where we're at:

It's probably the only part of the house that I do not want to change a thing to. When we were deciding on where to put the new door (it's right to the left of the umbrella stand) I made sure to leave room for that awesome sideboard/buffet scary face man table!!

Isn't it cool?! We inherited it from The Hubs' family - they do not make furniture like they used to!

Like I've said before, I love some personality in a space. I love my little white alligator! I've made a bunch of versions of these and I think it's a more modern look for a nod to our Louisiana roots - this one is white with white glitter sprinkled all over. (I even have some with gold teeth!)

 

The running look in our house is of course black, white, gold and punches of color. These little pieces sum that up perfectly! 

The white and gold bowl is a paper mache project I did. I painted the outside white and gold leafed the inside. It's a great catch all for change, jewelry, etc. I plan on making some trays like this too.

 Again:

Oh and some artwork was hung on another wall: 

 

Some of it I made, the other half is from Etsy. It's a work in progress but it's the beginning of the "art wall". 

 P.S. Mardi Gras is in FULL SWING down here and it's been hard to even post! But I will have lots of fun things to post from the last two weeks of madness - just bare with me!

HAPPY LUNDI GRAS!

 - BOO

Ugghhhh....

OK, I must say... I am SICK of renovating this house!! I can not wait for this to be done!! The first couple of months did not bother me at all but now, now I am done. Maybe because the end feels so near yet far away... and all of my clothes take up a whole room and are completely unorganized.....

 Exhibit A's:

(check out that awesome archway though... right?!)

AND I am sick of the house ALWAYS being dirty!! No matter how much I try to clean, I can sweep up so much dirt day after day...

 Exhibit B: (messy house)

 

(don't look at that amazing inlaid floor yet though... that will be a whole post unto itself!)

 Exhibit C: (dirt swept up on daily basis)

 

(again, ignore floor awesomeness!)

 I am sick of the bottoms of my feet turning black from walking on "dirty construction site floor" house...

These times are good to capture because I think we tend to forget how we get to the final goal. I am sure this will all be a faded memory in 6 months but for us, now, it is frustrating. Mainly because we are dealing with a construction loan, city inspections, bank inspections - so what would of been maybe a 2 month project becomes a 6 month project!

 Don't get me wrong, we are having some fun along the way!

- BOO

Window Boxes...

Even though the front of our house is not finished, (I need to finish painting the shutters and put them back up)  I wanted to put up our window boxes. The boxes were something we inherited from the previous owners and I have been wanting to put them back up!

We walked over to Harold's Plants off of St. Claude - he is the nicest cutest old man and has a great plant selection! - Gotta support the local businesses! Anyway, I picked out some white snapdragons and black - yes - black pansies!! I have never seen black pansies before. They are called Halloween! They are black with an orange-ish center. How fun?! So of course I went for a black and white theme with the flowers.

I can't wait for the shutters to go back up and little painting touch ups to be done!

Oh, and that awful upstairs window to be repaired!! and check out the hideous power lines!!?!

 - BOO