The wood tone is very similar to my Costco table and chairs that I got a few years ago.  The hutch came from a discount furniture store in Snohomish.  Hey, discount furniture stores are a step up from my normal Craigslist furniture finds!  

Once the big hutch was in place, I had to find a home from the old cabinet that used to be in our dining room.  I love this little cabinet from my hubby’s side of the family.  I have grand plans to restore it, but haven’t gotten around to that yet.  After taking the tree out of the living room, we started rearranging furniture and found a perfect spot for the cabinet. 

The ottoman is now the coffee table, since this room isn’t a “formal” living room anymore.  The boys like to pull up a seat and play some games, eat popcorn, and drink sugary soda. The ottoman encourages play, and a place to kick your feet up.  I’m kind of liking this new arrangement.

The old coffee table is now in the family room, which is a whole other story. (Pictures to come later.)

The cabinet in the living room is the perfect place to store my fancy silver.  (Ok, I really don’t have any fancy silver, but it sure looks pretty in the cabinet!)  I love going to Goodwill and finding silver platters and bowls.  You can usually find them for about $1-$3.  I buy them whenever I find them.  They are the perfect things to keep on hand for taking food to parties.  They look very pretty and they are cheaper than plastic platters from the party store.  

(Wow, when will I learn that I need to use a tripod if I don’t want blurry pictures?)

The top of the cabinet is now home to my pottery collection.  I LOVE this pottery from The Weedpatch, in Country Village.  My sister in law bought a piece for me for Christmas and apparently they are not going to carry it anymore.
 (insert frowny face here)

So, you can see that one thing leads to another in my house.  It all started with a new hutch in the dining room, and ended with three rooms being totally revamped.

Happy rearranging!

Then, I moved onto other parts of the family room.  I filled my wire basket with shells and pulled out a few of my Seaside photo books.

I saved a few of my big shells for the side table in the family room.  The conch shell was a souvenir, brought back by my mom, from her honeymoon in the Bahamas.  Another Seaside photo album and a few more shells finish off the beachy look.

See, mom, those collections I had as a kid really did come in handy!

What do you collect, friends?  What do your kids collect?

Happy Beachification!

Linky Parties

I had seen baskets like this at antique stores, usually selling for $15-$20. I don’t really make purchases like this, thinking I’m going to sell it and get make a little extra money. If I buy something old or antique, it’s because I like the look and think it will add character to my home.

I can’t tell you how excited I was, when my Country Living magazine arrived this month.  See the basket on top of the fridge?

Here’s a closer view.

It’s my basket!  I wonder what’s hiding in that basket.

Happy decorating!

Before we bought the couch, I made pillow covers and new slipcovers for the ottomans ottomen ottomans.  (I think I’ll stick with ottomans on that one.)

The couch fabric almost looks like a blend of the chair, slipcover, and recliner fabrics.  It’s a mixture of gold and brown.

I’d like you to meet Sparky. Sparky The Chair is the Christmas present I bought for my hubby.  My mother-in-law was always saying how we needed a good recliner to relax in.  I’ve never been a huge fan of big, bulky, recliner chairs, but the more I thought about it, the more I agreed that my hubby needed a comfy chair to relax in at the end of the day.  I found this chair at Macy’s, during the after Thanksgiving sale, and it was delivered just after Christmas.  The very day it was delivered, my daughter was sitting in it, when the power reclining mechanism sparked and caught fire!  It quickly went out, but it scared the living daylights out of me.  We looked around for a replacement chair, but just couldn’t find anything we liked as well as Sparky.  So, we ordered a new Sparky, after Macy’s reassured us that they’ve never heard of this happening before.

A while back, I got the itch to repaint this room.  It used to be a warm yellow, with burgundy drapes.  It was very warm and pretty, but Pinterest showed me that all of the rooms I was pinning were light and bright.  So, the walls went light and the drop cloths came out of the garage.  I need to add a little length to the panels, so the ruffler foot on my sewing machine is going to be coming into the picture soon.  I’m excited for that little project!

I’d like to make this corner into a game area. I’m thinking I’d like to find a REALLY small, round, table and two Parson’s chairs.  The Parson’s chairs would also be used in the dining room, when we need more seating.  The table will be perfect for taking pictures (the lighting is great in that corner) and playing cards with a kid or two.  I found the perfect table, during Christmas time, at Goodwill.  I had to leave it there, because I couldn’t imagine another project during that time of the year and I had no where to put it at the time.  I’ll keep looking.

This next area is a work in progress too.  I love the picture wall, but I’m in the process of finding new pictures for the frames.  Since everything else in the room is in the neutral, brown and white tones, I changing all of the photos to sepia.  I have a few photos picked out, but I still need to find many more.  The little table is temporary too.  It’s a table I use on the deck in the summer.  I brought it in because I didn’t have anything better to put in between the chairs.

Cookie, the bunny, gets to live in the corner of the family room.  She likes it there.  She’s always in the action in the family room!

So, that’s the new space!  I still have a few more projects to go (including restaining that door in a darker brown) but, my house is a constant work in progress.  I love the way this room feels now.  It’s light, bright, open, and inviting.  We have plenty of floor space to play Wii or Uno Attack. (I dominate in Uno Attack, by the way!)  The dog and the bunny love sprawling out on the family room floor, when we’re all playing a game.  It’s also the perfect room to curl up in a comfy spot, on a Saturday morning.  It’s my happy place!

 

Happy decorating!

Here are a few linky parties!

In honor of kids and art, I’ve featured the paper beads from last week’s linky party.

The kids could totally make these!

We’re ready for our next linky party.  I’d love it if you’d grab my button and become a follower.