No Cost Changes in the Master Bedroom!

Earlier this week I told you about my "Hate My House Syndrome" - and I had thought that it was just a result of returning home from vacation.  I do believe that was what was behind my feelings - that and the cold temperatures that I returned to.  I will be the first to tell you that I feel I suffer from seasonal affective disorder.  I really hate winter and cold temperatures like those we live with here in Ontario.

In an effort to get rid of those feelings this week, I have taken on a few small projects this week.  Nothing major, just some re-arranging and bringing some spring into my home.  The first was to re-arrange our master bedroom.

I moved the bed under the window and off the long back wall.

I put McG's marble-topped bedside table at the far end of the room near the ensuite door to the bathroom.

My armoire was moved to the long wall where the bed used to be, while my dressing table was left in its original position.

Here's a closer look at the new arrangement on top of the armoire, including a new owl I found at the Dollar store this week!

Just some small changes - that cost NOTHING - but made a big impact in making me feel a little better about my home this week!

Hope you enjoyed them!

Cheryl

Thrifty Finds...

Today's adventures involved some errands and a trip to the local thrift store.  Here's what I found...

All for the low, low price of $3.37!!!

I was looking for a new lamp for my new office - and found this lovely black one for just $1.99.  

As you may or may not know, the 2013 Pantone colour of the year is Emerald Green...and while I love green, I am not going to be painting any rooms Emerald Green any time soon...however, I do love green as an accent colour and these four little gems all together were just $0.99 - a STEAL to add a little colour to a vignette or room...I will stash them away for now - possibly bringing them out for a spring arrangement on my dining table soon.

I added a small wicker shade to my lamp that I purchased on a prior thrift store trip for just $2.00.

The finished lamp looks lovely next to my desk in my new office space...and you can't beat the price!

Have you been thrift shopping lately?  I love it when I find exactly what I'm looking for.  Thank you Community Thrift Store!

Cheryl

Creating an Office out of a Dumping Zone...

Ok - here it is January 2nd and I am just itching to start clearing out the clutter...The Christmas decorations are all packed away for another year - but like you, I'm sure - I have alot of new stuff that needs to find a home...perfume and lotions that McG bought me for Christmas, along with a whole lot of other goodies that have been dumped in this room...our spare bedroom.  (This is the view from the door)

This room used to belong to our son, however, about 5 years ago he decided he wanted to have his room in the basement.  For the past 5 years this room has been home to all the STUFF that has no home...extra tables and other furniture that is "waiting" for a place to be in our home.  Here are some views from other angles in the room...

There is a desk in the corner here under the piles of other stuff - I just have to dig it out!

This is the china cabinet that came with our dining room set - there really isn't room in the dining room for it and I have been thinking of selling it - but for now it's found its way here.

More stuff piled up...clothes to go to Goodwill, the stuff on the shelf belongs to my son, but was forgotten here when he moved downstairs...pictures and frames - you name and it's probably in here somewhere!

Since starting this blog last fall, I have been using my netbook on my lap in the livingroom (not really a great workspace!)  I knew I wanted to claim this room for my own, but with all the coming and going during the holidays, it just wasn't a reality.  Now that the living room/dining room renovations are done and Christmas is behind us - I want to claim this room as my office/craft room - a place to set up my computer and do my blogging. and work on some projects.

So this morning I started to stake my claim...out came the clothes for Goodwill - the closet was organized to fit the frames and some of the craft items.  My son's cub cars and trophies were taken down from the shelf covered in dust...(I'm quite ashamed of this next photo - look at the dust on his trophies! - YUCK)

They were dusted off and put away for safe keeping.  The walls were dusted and the furniture cleaned.  It took quite a few hours, but now the room is a beautiful office.  My son attached a bigger monitor to my netbook so that I don't have to blog on such a small screen.  I have hung pictures on the walls too, along with a quote that I purchased at our local Dollar Store.  

It actually looks quite lovely on the wall by my desk.

See - I told you there was a desk under all that mess!

I kept the paint that was on the walls in there...it is a lovely khaki-tan called Straw from Sears that we put up  several years ago.  The walls are in good shape so no need to paint.  Here are some other "AFTER" views of the room from various angles...

(Just pretend you don't see the unmade bed and other mess in the background of this picture)

I am quite excited for McG to get home from work today and see my progress on this room.  I am very pleased with how it turned out.  It is no longer the eye-sore of our home.

This is the first of many organization projects I will be tackling.  Next up a small project in our bedroom...

Are you in the mood to get organized?  I'd love to see what projects you are tackling!!!

Cheryl 
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A Break from Holiday Decorating...(Living Room Reveal!)

I am taking a break from all things Christmas to post our finished living room.  McG celebrated his 50th last weekend and we really didn't work on any projects...except adding a rug to our living room.

Well - last week you got the reveal of the dining room - this week the living room!  I don't want to say it's "finished" - cause we all know for a home decor junky like me, a room is hardly ever done!  But it's one step closer to feeling done...This is what our living room looked like before we started our renovation.

Pear green walls with aqua accents and that orangey railing...and beige carpet that was way past its prime!

Now we've got grey blue walls, autumn oak laminate floors and white trim...and that railing is outta-here!

And here's the carpet we got for a steal of a deal yesterday at Home Depot - a golden-y chenille rug (originally way too expensive for our budget at $449) but in the sale bin for just $79!!  WOO HOO!

McG and I couldn't believe our eyes when we found it in the sale bin.  We had the sales clerk double check and sure enough it was marked down!  We quickly paid for it and got out of there before they came to their senses and changed their minds...

It has a two toned look with a soft backing that won't harm our new floors.  It also has a border of gold-y carmel which is lovely with our curtains.  Here's a closer look...

Oh, and this is our new coffee table/ottoman - that we also got on sale at Home Depot.  It really shows up now on the new carpet.  And below is a close-up of the fabric on our pillows...It reminds me of bark-cloth.

It has a mix of greens and blues that go well in our new room.

And finally here's a picture of the new wall that is now in place of the railing.  Sloan loves the new wall and likes to greet everyone from here - its so much easier for him to climb on than the old railing.

Except for some artwork over the couch, this room is finished.  I hope you enjoyed the tour of our living room renovation.

Cheryl

Kitchen Tour

Hey there!  Before we start breaking out the Christmas decorations around here, I thought I should give you a tour of the kitchen.  The living room/ dining room tour will be very soon - I'm so excited to show you!  Come on in and have a look around...

This is the view as you are walking into the kitchen from the dining room.  We have a raised ranch and as you enter the house you walk up 6 stairs to the open dining room and living room...then you travel this way to the kitchen.  Here you can see our new flooring as well...I love how it co-ordinates with the kitchen floor.

This is a better view of that bank of cabinets.  As I told you before we painted the kitchen Smoked Turquoise by CIL paints.  It really picks up the colours in our counter top and I love it! Before it was a pear green - you can see that colour on the island.

Here's a closer view of this wall.  The upper cabinets used to be on the wall between the kitchen and dining room.  When McG opened up the wall, we moved the remaining cabinets over to this wall and ordered more base cabinets to match.  We were very lucky to find them and a matching countertop since we didn't do this until seven years after the house was built.

Here's a view of  the island (and the pear green paint) and a view of the other side of the kitchen.  McG built this island out of a spare base cabinet.  He clad it in bead board and painted it.  The newel post legs were a garbage find that we re-purposed.  He tiled the top for an easy clean surface.  We eat most of our everyday meals here in the kitchen. Here are a few more photos of this side of the kitchen...

This view shows you how McG opened up the wall between the kitchen and the dining room.  Here too is our coffee station.  McG loves his Tassimo and this little cabinet holds all his coffee options quite nicely.

Here's a little sneak peek of some Christmas decorating...I am just itching to get going on it.  I have been seeing some pretty creative stuff out there in blogland lately.  There will be a post later this week on this beauty!  The majority of our decorations don't go up until after the 1st of December.

Thanks for stopping by - hope you enjoyed this tour of our kitchen!

Cheryl
Linking up @:
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Happy Monday!

Hello there! - It's been a busy weekend over here...McG and I have been working on finishing up a few things - and while its not in any shape to be photographed yet - I thought I'd show you the vignette on our buffet which I put together last week.

I bet you thought you were going to see it decorated for Christmas - ha ha, fooled ya!  But don't worry I'll be decorating in the next week or so and I will be sure and update you all then.

The buffet was given to us by a friend of McG's Mom years ago.  She was moving to a smaller home and none of her children wanted it.  We took it in and McG refinished it.  It has had a place of prominence in our home since and I enjoy decorating it.  

The orchid was given to me by a friend recently.  It's my first one and I am hoping to keep it alive for awhile!
The placemat underneath is the same pattern as our new curtains which I showed you back in October.  The bird print was a thrift store score at only $3.99 and it picks up on the browns used in the dining room and living room areas.  A final reveal of our renovation will be up later this week!

The lamp on the other side of the buffet was inherited from McG's Dad...It has been in his family since the 1940's and I love how it goes with our new colour scheme.  I added a new shade from IKEA and rounded out the this area with my thrifted owl and a candle.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek at our dining room buffet...Next week the new buffet will be coming in and I will be gifting this one to a friend.  Although I love this one, its time to get the one that matches our new dining set into its new home!  Thanks for stopping by!


Cheryl

Updating the Dining Room Chairs

Earlier this week I shared with you our "new to us" dining room furniture...

At that time I also shared with you the two fabric choices we were considering for the chairs.  Don't you just love that blue vinyl they are pictured in above? Y-U-C-K!!!

Both of these fabrics I purchased from Walmart for just $9.97 - they are upholstery grade fabric and each remnant was almost 2 yards of fabric 56 inches in width - can you say SCORE!!!

Although some thought that one of the patterns was too modern to go with the style of the furniture, that is the one that McG and I both liked the best, so we went ahead and started reupholstering the chairs last night.

First McG removed the seat from the chair and we removed the staples, and took off the ugly blue vinyl.  

Then we laid out the fabric (right side down) on our kitchen island.  We reused an old quilt for padding and the cut the fabric 2 inches bigger than the chair seat.  McG then stapled the quilt fabric on first, making sure to pull it very tight as he went.  Once that was completed he did the same for the fabric, trimming the excess off when he was done.

Then he re-attached the chair seats using new screws.  McG had to add some toothpicks to the screw holes to help re-inforce them as the previous screws were stripped and wouldn't go back in.  It took about a half an hour in total to complete one chair.

This is a closer view of the fabric.  It is a grey/taupe background with blue, aqua, yellow and chartreuse wavy stripes.  I can't wait for them all to be done - then we will be ready for the big living room/dining room reveal!

I think this fabric ties in well with the rest of the colours we have in the room and updates the chairs into the 21st century...ALL FOR LESS THAN $10!!

Cheryl

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