HEMNES side table from Ikea

While I was in Ikea the other day, I also picked up the Hemnes side table. It's perfect for the end of our sofa here where we end up placing all the remotes, drinks and magazines.

Bev's Inspiration Board

My friend Bev needs a little help redecorating her living room. I took a stab at it without knowing her color choices and just threw a neutral warm palette together. Her first priority is storage and organization. She is a busy working mom with 2 young children. Clutter adds up quickly and she needs a place to store things while maintaining a formal living room for adults and entertaining. It has to budget-friendly with maybe some key splurge items.

See it up close here.

Here's a sketch of the new floor plan layout.

Beyond color and style, here's what I would like for this room:

• Define the entry way space from the intimate seating area by rearranging the furniture.
• Double duty - her storage furniture must be versatile. Ottomans for both storage and comfort.
• Creating a focal point by highlighting key items instead of adding more decorative tchotckes.

Things that must stay:

• The micro suede sage sofa.
• The bar that looks like a antique globe.
• The upright piano.
• The gold frame on the fireplace.

Let's get started shall we: [Assuming the fireplace is North]

1. The Sofa - New sofa cover in twill. So that she's not bound to a particular color scheme. By going neutral on the sofa cover, we have a neutral palette for a bold rug, throw pillows or ottoman that won't compete with the sofa. Twill is more durable especially for sticker fingered kids. The corded edge on this cover will give it structure unlike other sofa covers. Throw pillows can be picked up at discount places like Marshall's, Home Goods or TJ Max.

2. Two club chairs - Instead of the love seat, 2 club chairs will add both style and intimacy in the room. I love this chair that I picked out and the price can't be beat.

3. Ottoman - This ottoman is hinged and opens up for storage within it. Besides being extra storage, the family can prop their feet up while sitting by the fire. It's also extra seating if needed. Throw a tray on top of it and it's a coffee table for drinks and snacks. I would keep my eye out for a tufted ottoman because they keep their shape. Ottomans like the one in the photo tend to sag in the center.

4. Tufted Storage Bench - I love this piece! By the west window where people can sit down to put their shoes on. It's really purty, stylish and more storage!

5. Kid's Cubby Locker Unit - For coats and shoes by the entrance. Kids can come home and hang up their own coat and put away their shoes within reach.

6. Lidded Woven Baskets - These are great for the "spillage" for misc items, toys, blankets, and whatever you want to hide ;) in there before company comes. I like that you can flip these up real quick without losing the lid which is really important in my opinion if you're in a rush to tidy up the room.

7. Rugs -

I picked 2 rug options. One modern, one traditional. I prefer the traditional one because it has warm tones with touches of green, blue and red which makes it very transitional. She can alter the decor of the room down the road without being bounded to the blue-grey rug. Rugs are an expensive item, so I prefer the one that is more versatile. Because it's warm, I think it will really tie the room together and create that intimacy where they can enjoy the fire. She can always go contemporary with the throw pillows.

8. Patterned Curtain Panels -

For the large East and West window, I would like to balance out the room using a pattern curtain panel. For the large East window behind the sofa, I'd like to see patterned curtain panel on the outer sides and a white sheer on the inner side for a romantic look [in other words - pattern, white sheer, white sheer, pattern] For the other 2 windows on both sides of the fireplace, I'd like to use airy solid or white curtain panels and sheers. This keeps the room from looking too heavy and matchy matchy. She has such great natural lighting that it will looks so pretty in the daylight hours.

9. Over the mantel, I would like to see an oval mirror. The frame is really flexible depending on the style of the room. I like the oval shape to smooth out the lines of the very rectangular pieces we already have like the mantel itself, the ottomans and sofa. Some new candle holders can be clustered together or moved around. A trio of bud vases with silk flowers will look pretty as light hits them. By using silk flowers, she can also change up the theme in her room.

10. Green plants - Plants are good. They take in CO2 and produce O2 for you. It's a win win. It gives you something to look at it and something to take care of which forces you to go into a normally unused room. Plants keep us on our toes.

Last, but not least my favorite part:

11. Wrought Iron Balusters - This was a total splurge and wasn't requested by Bev, but I really liked it. Changing out the wooden spindles for wrought iron balusters will really update the house and make it twinkle. There are beautiful options these days in bronze or antique copper/bronze/gold that don't look like the dated stuff from the 50's. We can highlight the metal again in the room by adding a metal fire place screen.

This is what I have for now. Hope it helps!

Who doesn't love IKEA

I had New Year's Eve off and my girlfriend and I took a trip down to IKEA. Who doesn't love Ikea? I love browsing the aisles of Ikea for inspiration.

Today, I upgraded the picture frame to house my vintage Burpee Seed illustration. I love the way it looks and the illustration goes with my new rug.

Ribba frame

I have been looking for new seat cushions for a while, so I was thrilled to see these. I like that they are contemporary looking and you can't beat that price.

Ritva Seat Cushion

Living Room Decor

Last year, I told myself that I would finally decorate the living room when the kitchen, dining room and half bathroom are nearly complete. Now that the garden is on autopilot, I can concentrate on the living room during the summer.


Capiz Mirror from Target. I want this so badly, but it's out of stock :( There is a round version of this from West Elm, but it's sold out!



Antiqued mirror from Pier1.


Avington Console table from Target. It's nothing fancy, but it matches the TV stand that we already have. As for a console, the drawer and bottom shelf was important for me for storage.


Hemnes Side table from Ikea that I'm thinking about using as a coffee table. Since our living room is very intimate, a full sized coffee table just gets in the way. I want to pair this with an ottoman, so I can put my feet up as I watch TV.


Spring Green Floral Cube storage ottoman from Target.

Walnut Photo Tray for on top of ottoman/coffee table.


Adair Floor lamp from Pottery Barn. These are just for ideas. I like the neck on this lamp since I read a lot and would need it to reach over me.


Leafy Prints from Pottery barn. I would make these myself.

Rug Hunt: For weeks, I have been on a hunt for an area rug for the living room. I want something full of COLOR and contemporary. For one, everything is already beige in our living room. Second, I need it to hold up to all the traffic. I still haven't found what I want and what I do like is way out of my price range. I'm torn because it feels like such a big decision since the rug can be the deciding factor on which way the living room style will go.


Granada rug from Pottery Barn


Safavieh Rug from Target.


Stick Leaf Caroline Rug from Target.

That's it for now. I have plenty more stuff that I've been looking at. It's a slow work in progress...

Vintage Style Oval Clock

This is a neat looking clock with its oval shape. For the kitchen, I'm looking for a clock with roman numerals, black colored print and french text.


from Amazon here.

A Sneak Peak

Here's a sneak peak. I don't want to give away too much, so I can wow you all with the finished room. We've put up the roman blinds, cleaned the floors and walls, put down the new rug and polished the furniture. I'm just waiting for the Scotch Guard on the rug to dry and then I can get the rest of the room back together. By the way, I'm so happy with our choice of rug. It's really thick, super soft and the color combo can go with anything.


Bloggy pal and fellow home DIYer Adrienne asked me about floors. These are the floors I have picked out. They are more red in person. The photo makes them look brown. It's commercial grade vinyl by Centiva. It's supposed to last like 500 years (not that you need it to last THAT long). It has a layer of acrylic on top which makes it super for a house with high traffic and pets. Plus they make just about any flavor! You can install them yourself the way you would hardwood floors, but it's a tad easier I heard. We'll see. Hubby wants to get this done sooner rather than later. I'm a bit stressed as is, but if he's willing to do it, then I'm game.

Ribba Frames

This weekend, we're making a trip to Ikea to pick out some new photo frames. Maybe now we can finally frame some of our wedding photos.

I really like these frames from Ikea. They come in all sizes which is great for framing large scale photos that you want to emphasize. I especially love the square ones which are often a difficult find.



Ribba frames from IKEA.

Potted Mug

Over the weekend, I hit up Marshall's and Home Goods for some cheap, sweet finds for the dining room or kitchen. I picked up this monogram mug for $1.99.


It has a wide and heavy base which made it PERFECT for a little houseplant on the window ledge.


Using a large plastic cup, trim until it's level with the rim of the mug. Poke holes in the bottom of the plastic cup for drainage and air circulation. Why do I do this? In the past, I just found that this was much easier to maintain instead of putting the soil & plant directly into the mug or ceramic planter.


Then fill the cup with potting soil. I keep some handy near the house.


I pulled these spider plant babies off a larger spider plant. Just tuck them into the soil and water it in. Spider plants are really easy to maintain house or office plants. They are very forgiving.


I did the same with this soup tureen from Crate n Barrel. I love its rounded shape which goes great with these succulents because they will multiply in a big mound. In the winter they look very dark, but once summer comes they will plump up and look bright green again. These require almost no water.


I couldn't help myself and I made just one more with my little bowl for melted butter.

Capiz Mirror

This is bellisimaaaaaaaa! (And so out of our budget!)


from Pier 1 $299.95

Luke Wilson

I love that Zgallerie has art work for under $100, but it's still a little too pricey for me especially with the extra $10 handling charge. I currently have a crush on these.

Blue Modern Rug

I'm feelin' this rug right now. It would look great in a big home office with wood floors.


From Overstock here

My hands are itchin'

It's like Santa came down on his sleigh and Rudolph couldn't halt fast enough. We received the rug for the dining room and the roman blinds. I haven't opened up the rug yet but the blinds look pretty nice. The one thing we needed most that we haven't received yet is the chandelier. Since you oughta work from top to bottom, we have to install the chandelier and patch up the ceiling before we lay anything else new down below. The last thing we need is plaster vomit all over the new rug. That reminds me I should scotch guard the rug when we lay it out. Keith is going to work on getting the fluourescent lights down this weekend and then we will patch up the ceiling. In the mean time, it's killing me that I can't buy any decor stuff until we have all this other stuff done! As for the dining room floor, we're not doing anything with it yet. If we do replace it, we're going to replace the living room floor all together.

In addition, I saw this image and really liked the way the curtains are done here.

Rug Runner

For the kitchen. 2'-6"x7'-6" It's the perfect length for the sink area of our kitchen. I wanted something with a lot more pop, but in the mean time I thought I could not pass this up since it's tricky to find something that is the right combo of size and style. I haven't found my "style" yet for the kitchen, so I wanted to avoid investing in something that I would later regret. We still have shelving and artwork to hang, so until then this will do.


from Overstock here.