Mirror, Mirror On The Wall...

Well hopefully we'll have this mirror hung on the wall soon...although I wouldn't be surprised if it stayed on the floor for a couple months weeks.

In an effort to turn our master-less bedroom into a masterful one, I have been on the hunt for a mirror just like this one.

Ahhhh, the Cyrus Sunburst Mirror from Horchow.  It's gorgeous and the perfect statement piece to go above two chairs I'd like to place on an empty wall in our bedroom.  Unfortunately, there is noooo way I could afford the $387.00 price tag...but wait, the mirror now has a "special value" now of $249.90.  And with the coupon code "SAVENOW", the price drops to $227.28.  Dang...still out of my price range!

While doing some research for a look-a-like mirror, I came across Cyrus's twin {fraternal, of course...since Cyrus has a silvery-golden frame}...Z Gallerie's Devon Mirror.

This option has a price tag of $199, not including the shipping cost and over-sized surcharge.  If I was going to pay all that, I might as well just buy the Horchow version!  So the hunt continued...

I even emailed my Mom yesterday, asking her to keep an eye out for a mirror that resembles the look I was going for.  And wouldn't you know it...last night I stumbled upon the long-lost {and cheaper} cousin of the expensive mirrors I featured above.  Wooohoooooooo!

Of course, it was Home Goods to the rescue.  I had searched my local Home Goods a million times before and never found anything even close to what I wanted.  But last night was different...there were actually TWO of these waiting to be snatched up!

I know the metal frame is a bit more bronze than silvery or golden, but it's very pretty, and if I want to make a change...it's nothing a little paint and dry brushing can't fix!

So for $129.99, this purrrty thing came home with me {and took up almost my entire trunk HA}!  I know it isn't the exact replica of the Horchow version, but for less than half the price, I wasn't expecting it to be!

I actually love how the bronze looks against our newly painted gray walls.  And even Perny approves!  Clearly, that is what's most important in our household. ;-)

Painting...Round 2

A while ago, I gave you guys a sneak peak at our master.  Then I gave you a mini-update of it on Friday.  As you saw, it was...and still is, very far from masterful.

Since these pictures were taken, a couple things have changed {but unfortunately, no where near enough to call our room complete haaaaa}.

Since then, we:
- sold our old bedroom set on Craigslist and replaced it with a mid-century modern set we Craiglisted and painted
- bought a rug for the living room, but didn't like it there, so it now lives in the bedroom {happy accident}
- re-arranged our furniture layout to suit our new-to-us furniture better
- re-painted the whole room because the accent wall was now the wrong wall {thanks to our re-arranging} and I was SUPER antsy to get rid of the pretty-but-not-the-look-I-was-going-for tan-ish walls

I started the painting on a Friday night after finishing up our barn door, and began by covering our former accent wall in Glidden's Pebble Grey.  I finished that wall before I was forced to call it quits so my hubby could rest up for work the next day.  {Boooo busy season and working Saturdays!}

When I opened my eyes in the morning, I was pleased to see that I loveddddd the new color.  It was perfect.  Darker, a little more moody...and definitely made our white trim and dark floors pop.

I couldn't wait to get started on the rest of the room.  The hubs told me there was no way I could finish the whole room in one day.  HA!  That's what he thought.

With the assistance of my iPod blasting and some March Madness commentary, I had our bedroom one-coated by the time the afternoon rolled around.  {And thank the Good Lord, the room only needed one coat!}

I started by cutting all the grey walls in... 

...then I rolled them all.  Then I cut the green wall in, and rolled that.  {I was so focused at this point that I forgot to take progress pictures.}  So here are two finished pictures.  And when I say finished...I obviously mean the painting...not the disaster that we call our bedroom. ;)

I'm so pleased with the new color!  I know it isn't a dramatic change, but I'm in love!  {And don't mind the splotchy color.  The walls were still semi-wet when I took these pictures, but it dried nice and even!}

Also, I'm sure you caught a glimpse of our newly painted furniture in this post.  At that point everything was severely lacking some hardware.  Hopefully I'll get a post up to show you their finished-ness sometime soon! :)

Plan B

Noooooooo...this post has nothing to do with emergency contraceptives!!  It's about a rug, actually.

A couple of weeks ago, I purchased a rug from One King's Lane.  And I'm not talking about this one.  Its a different one that I spied for our living room area.  It was a great price, 100% wool and I was head-over-heels for the pattern on it.

Fast forward to when it was delivered.  Unfortunately, it sat idle in our garage for quite a few days because I couldn't figure out how I'd drag an 8' x 10' rug up the basement steps by myself.  {The hubby works very late every day, and Saturdays, January through April...gotta love busy season.}

After way too many days of walking by it after I got home from work, I decided I was going to get this thing up the steps, no matter what.  HAAAAAA...you all would have loved to see me tackle that feat...but don't worry.  The score ended up Gabbi - 1, Rug - 0.  Somehow I managed to drag/push/kick that sucker into the living room.  Then I patiently waited for my hubby to get home and help me get it out of the package.  {I'm sure it was exactly what he wanted to do at 9:30pm, after working a 12 hour day.  He's the BEST!} 

Normally, I would have attacked carefully unwrapped the protective packaging with a pair of scissors, but there was a ginormous sticker on the exterior that told me to open the large bag-type thing carefully from the end, because if we return the rug, it needs to go back in the same plastic.

So with the hubby's assistance we essentially dumped the rug out the one side of it's packaging.  Here she is all rolled out.

Clearly, Perny was a fan of it. 

{Ummmm, he was way over due for a haircut in this picture.  I'll have you know, I have since given him a haircut and he looks more like this now.}

But anyway....I digress...back to the rug.  The hubby and I were not fans of how the rug looked in the living room.  Granted, we never took the time to move the couch and put the rug under it, but it just didn't feel right.  So it was on to Plan B...{carefully} dragging it down the hall to the master.

Did I mean to buy the rug for our bedroom?  Definitely not.  But did it work?  We think so!  {Pleaseeeee ignore the lack of sheets and duvet on the bed.  It was all in the wash.  And our room is MAJORLY in progress, obviously...but as usual, I want to keep it totally real with you guys.}

We love the rug in our room.  And come on...who doesn't love feeling a thick and comfy rug under foot while you're hopping into and out of bed?!?!

Also, as you can clearly see...our bedroom is re-arranged from the sneak peak you saw here, and you are getting a little preview of our Craigslist bedroom furniture re-do!  More on that and our freshly re-painted bedroom coming soon! :)

Happy Weekend!!!

Spring Bling

Yup, I'm that weirdo my neighbors are giving funny looks to because I hopped out of my car before I pulled it into the garage so I could take pictures of the blooms popping up around our yard yesterday, after work. 

Ahhhh, I love the changes that the warm weather and sunshine bring....

Spring Is In The Air!

Like most people around the country, we enjoyed a very mild winter this year.  There was not much snow to speak of, unless you count that terrible October storm.  And although spring officially arrives tomorrow, I feel like we have been enjoying spring since the beginning of March.  Instead of "Coming in like a lion..." March brought us lots of mild temperatures and beautiful sunshine.  {The end of this week may even bring a record-breaking 80 degree day!} 

All of this uhhhhhhhhh-mazing weather is giving us a sneak peak at what may bloom in our yard this year.  We are anxious to see what will appear on our almost-half-an-acre since this is what the yard looked like when we bought our house.  {Yikes!}

Even though our yard {especially the back yard} is still a complete hot mess, at least we have a whole lot of daffodils popping up everywhere!!  Who needs grass when you have flowers randomly appearing in your dirt patches, right?!?!?!  {Yup, those are tiny hot pink arrows pointing everything out.}

In keeping with all things spring and the great outdoors, I'll fill you guys in on an appointment that the hubby and I had with a tree company this weekend.  We have a bagillion oak trees on our property, and most of them are planted close to each other, or close to our house.  We are hoping to selectively remove some of these trees over the years for the safety of our house, as well as the health of the trees and our lawn.

From the tree people {I'm so technical}, we learned that our town has restrictions regarding cutting down trees.  You can only cut down one healthy tree a year, unless you want to replant another tree in it's place.  So long story short, we are going to have twenty {yea, that's right...2-0} trees safety pruned, one large oak removed {it's next to our house and lifting the sidewalk...who knows what the roots are doing to the foundation of our house}, the dead cherry tree removed {it's the one with the birdhouse, front and center in the first picture above}, the hemlock you see below removed and a bunch of stumps ground down that we couldn't manually remove while we de-jungle-ified our house.

Unfortunately, the cherry died because it became infested with insects.  The tree person said that it's common because of it's sweet sap, and clearly, no one was tending to the property to save it.  The hemlock needs to come down because it's growing into the oak tree right behind it, and it's also stealing sunlight from my precious magnolia to it's left.  As if those two things weren't reason enough, we were informed it's $210 a year to treat that tree and keep it healthy.  Ummm, no thank you.  We aren't paying all that money to keep a tree that will kill two others.  {Luckily, the hemlock isn't big enough to count towards our healthy tree count, so we are okay to take it down for those of you keeping track.}

Welp...that is our tree saga.  Even though this is going to be a CRAZY expensive endeavor, it's totally worth it.  Our poor property has not been taken care of in years, and we really can't afford to have any huge branches come down on our brand new roof or break one of our brand new windows.

Anyone else have a super expensive home cost pop up lately?!?!

PS-I linked up to Thrifty Decor Chick's "Show Us Your Kitchens" linky party so I could show off our retro renovation in all it's glory. :)

Using What You've Got

In my sunburst mirror post, you caught a glimpse of the new console that now lives behind our sofa.  Its actually a dresser from a mid-century modern bedroom set that I purchased on Craigslist for $200.  Yup, that's right.  I was able to find a beautiful, dovetailed set {dresser, armoire and two nightstands} for that price.  Yayyyy!

Anywho...since the hubby and I have these awesome closets that fit most of our belongings, we knew we wouldn't need both the dresser and armoire in our bedroom.  The armoire worked much better for our layout, so the dresser needed to find a new place to hang out.  Lucky for me, I knew just the spot for it! 

I wanted to put a console table behind our sofa, and since we didn't have the budget for one, this dresser was the perfect substitute to serve as a perfect placeholder.  Its a bit deeper than I wanted it to be, but hey, beggers can't be choosers!

Unfortunately, I deleted the before picture of this piece, but I do have a before picture of the armoire from the same set.  Hopefully this will give you an idea of what the dresser looked like before...

I love the lines of the piece, but the color and hardware just weren't the look I was going for.  So after the usual sanding, priming and painting methods we used on all of our other Craigslisted furniture {here, here and here}, our new console table looks like this...

No, it's not painted white.  It's {wait for it}....a very pale aqua!  Anyone surprised?  Nope...I didn't think so haha.  And noooo, it is not the same color as the buffet.  The buffet is actually a much brighter aqua.  This is more pale and subdued.  They coordinate, but are not the same.

I wish I could take better pictures and show you the real color of the piece...but just trust me.  It's very pretty!

Here is a picture at night...so the lighting is even worse.  It's hard to get a straight-on shot of this piece because it's so long and I can't back away from it very much.

Of course Perny needed to try and get in a picture...

 Let's try that again, without the cat in the way!  {You can see it's a bit more blue in this picture...}

Here is a close-up of the hardware I chose for doors.  I love that it looks like it was original to the piece.

And the other hardware I chose for the drawers...

 And here is a view from a previous post, showing how the console looks in the whole room...

I have been on the hunt for lamps to set on the console, and the chevron fabric laying on there will most likely become a runner for the top of it.

Piece by piece, our home is coming together! :)

More Than Meets The Eye.

One of my weekend to-do's to prep for the hubby's family visit on Sunday was getting our barn door painted.  I meant to do this the week it was installed, but clearly that did not happen.  This weekend was a different story though...I was a woman determined.  The minute I got home from work on Friday, I threw my paint clothes on and got down to business. 

After a little paint and primer-in-one {the same we used on our trim and cabinets}, our door went from this....

...to this!

 

I know...I know... you are probably thinking that I wasted my time painting it because it looks EXACTLY the same, but I promise you...in real life, the barn door looks much more bright and clean...and well, finished!

Plus, it feels so good to cross another thing off my to-do list. :)

A Place to Call Home...

This weekend was crazy busy for me!  We made plans to have the hubby's family over on Sunday...so that meant I needed to cross quite a few things off my to-do list before then!  {More on that later this week.}

One of the smallest projects we completed was finding a home for and hanging the sunburst mirror I discussed here.

I thought that we should hang it over the TV to give that side of our great room a little "ooomph".  As you can see below, it was mega boring before...

Now, it's much better!

And yes, that is a newly painted console behind the sofa.  I'll be showing that in more detail this week.

P.S. - I was lucky enough for Roeshel over at DIY Show Off to feature me on her amazing blog today!  Head on over there to check it out! :)

Far From Over...

For those of you who remember this post, you know our basement is quite dark and dreary...and well, retro.  I never choose to spend more time down there than I need to.  Basically, I quickly do my laundry, and I enter and exit our house through there...that's about it.

Since we first shared the space with you, we've had a new steel post installed to accommodate the removal of so many walls upstairs, the hubs and I ripped down the ceiling, we had new windows installed, we rearranged the laundry area {with new a new washer and dryer}, we moved in and now, thanks to a whole heck of a lot of hard work by my Dad, we lightened up the walls with a couple fresh coats of paint.

{Here's my typical apology...sorry for the awful pictures.  I took them on my iPhone as I left for work in the morning.  And seriously, we only have 3 lights in the whole basement.  Its awful.}

We know this is NOT where our basement story ends.  I mean, come on...it still screams HEEELP!!!  But it is a lot better than where we started. :)

One day {when we hit the lotto} we will have this area re-done...so it'll be the perfect place for kids to hang out and play.

Anyone else dreaming of re-doing a specific area of their home?!?!?  I'd be shocked if I heard a "no" to that! ;)