I Did It In Ten Minutes, More or Less

Nester's linky party put a fire under my tushy to actually do something around here. I've been making excuses, like not being able to paint yet, or I want a new couch, blah, blah.

Well, after I saw what a big difference one plant made last week, and with the deadline for Nester's party looming, I decided to do a few more things to spruce it up in the living room. This is the before picture.


And this is after. It's hard to take indoor pictures at night without using the flash.

I went to Goodwill this morning hoping to maybe find some curtains. No luck there, but I did find the floor lamp, brand new, for $19.99, to replace the cheap IKEA lamp. It came with a red shade, which didn't fit my color scheme, so I traded it out for a shade that I got for $3 at GW a few months ago.

I had the table in the family room but decided to move it. It's an old ice cream table that was my grandmother's. I have one of the chairs too (lost the other in a move), and I can remember eating lunch at this table on grandma's patio many times.

All us bloggers who paint furniture on a whim have nothing on my grandma. She was the original. This table had been green, and then yellow, before it was white. I definitely remember it being yellow. Okay, enough about g'ma.


I kept the chocolate brown faux suede cloth on the table that I was using in the family room. I added a $5 lamp (from Dollar General months ago), a stack of books elevating a picture of, well, my grandma. Very fitting. And a clock which was also a Goodwill purchase at one point.


While I didn't find window treatments at GW, last week I scored these faux suede panels at Target. They were on clearance for $7.49 each, originally $29.99. They are for Firstborn's room, really, but I'm nowhere near ready to do his yet. And really, with the state he keeps it in, is it even worth it? So for now I decided to use them in the living room. I had Craig hang them kind of high, which means that they are well short of touching the floor, but you can't really see it since it's behind the couch. Shh, don't tell.

The rods we hung them on were from three houses ago. I found the wooden finials on clearance at Lowe's, as well as the brackets for hanging, and cut big dowels to the width I wanted, attached the finials with double-ended screws, and spray painted everything black. I think it was about $10 total, and I have two more sets of two. This afternoon I had to brave a trip to my basement to forage them out of the bottom of a box.

On the other side of the room is my corner cupboard that my grandpa made. It's not done, but I just pulled a few things from around the house so it wouldn't be empty.

And on the wall opposite of the ice cream table is my entry table. I sadly do not have a foyer. That was my one big concession with this house. So I put this table and mirror just inside the front door. The only thing I changed here was to put one of the silhouettes on a stack of books so they weren't lined up like soldiers. I think what I really want to do is hang them on the wall.
Another day.

There you have it. It took a little more than 10 minutes, but it all happened today. Grand total of items purchased specifically for this makeover: the lamp for $19.99. Everything else I already had. Go to Nesting Place to see what everybody else did. Can't wait!