My Brother-in-law's Living Room Redo

One of the many projects I planned on tackling this jobless summer was to redo my brother-in-law's living room.  And I'm so excited to say it is done!  I have been buying and ordering stuff for this project for the last couple of months.  I had most of the goods piled up in my garage, shown in this post.  Yesterday, I was finally ready to put them all together and reveal the final product!  I'll start with some before pictures.

It was very masculine, dark and empty.  I tried to lighten things up while keeping it masculine.  The couch had to stay so I worked with it.  And now for the afters!

I especially love this corner of the room.  It is what you see when you walk in the front door.  I took pictures of meaningful things to my brother-in-law (such as his street's sign, his company's logo on his truck) and then hung them in Ikea frames.  I also love the ceramic horse head on that little stool, which eventually got moved to the mantle.

There are some nautical elements going on, but I wouldn't call it a themed room.

There are a couple things left to do.  One is to have the room painted a soft gray, but the painter was booked til October.  Anyone know of any good Benjamin Moore grays?  Been thinking about Moonshine and Stonington Gray.  I really like Stonington Gray on the chip but when I tried a sample in this room, it looked very purpley.  The last thing I'd like to do is add some matchstick blinds to those windows.

I am pretty happy with how everything came together, and so is my brother-in-law, thank goodness!  This was my first redo of someone else's house so it was a little nerve racking.  But it was definitely worth it in the end!

Summer Haze

It's been a while!  No posts for all of August!  I guess I've been having way too good of a summer.  I have been on a couple trips to Kennebunkport, Maine, which I recently discovered and love.  It has adorable little shops, nice beaches and great restaurants, and it's pretty close to home for me!  I bought a couple pairs of earrings for myself and of course some home stuff.

The linen runner can also be used as a scarf or throw, couldn't pass up something so versatile.  Then there's that cute bird, I seem to always find a little birdie to take home with me.  O and how I love the pattern on that small dish, might use it as a soap dish or to collect jewelry.  I got a couple Christmas ornaments too, because I love opening small bags of ornaments I bought throughout the year when I am getting ready for Christmas.  It's like Christmas before Christmas.

I've also been busy finding all the right pieces for my brother-in-law's living room that I am decorating.  Since I want to have a big final reveal with everything in place, my garage looks like this....

His living room currently looks like this.  So you can imagine how excited I am to put it all together!  I will be sure to post before and after pictures.

Hope you all have been having a fabulous summer!

HomeGoods Shopping Spree

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! This past Saturday, my cousin and I went on a HomeGoods spree.  We hit up 3 HomeGoods and 1 T.J. Maxx home section.  It was great! We both ended up getting a lot of good deals.  I scored a bunch of stuff for my brother-in-law's living room, which he just gave me permission to decorate.  And for myself, I got a striped rug, glass lamp, and a chevron bench. 

Let's start with this jug glass lamp, that can be opened and filled with stuff.  It is in our basement family room.  I can't wait to fill it with things like pumpkins, pinecones and maybe some seashells for right now! (Sorry for the yellowy picture.)

Then I got this rug, LOVE it.  But, big but, I have no where to put it.  I tried the basement in the couch area, but it wasn't right.  This rug is 5x8 and was on clearance for $39!  I just can't bring myself to return it.

My last significant purchase for myself, is this chevron bench.  I needed a new bench for the vanity I use in one of our extra bedrooms.  This one is comfy, cute and opens up for storage.

 It's a huge improvement over the previous stool I used, which was slowly falling apart.

Love my acquisitions.  HomeGoods made me one happy girl this weekend!

Too many Sunbursts?

Can you have too many sunburst mirrors? This thought kept me from ordering this Target sunburst for a while, but last week I added it to my online shopping cart for the hundreth time and actually completed the order.  There was a small 10% discount on it when I checked out, so with shipping it came out to around $30.

I have one gold sunburst mirror over our fireplace mantel.  This one is going over a chest of drawers in one of our guest rooms.  This room has a lot of boxy furniture and artwork in it so I think this mirror will help break it up. 

What do you think?  I think I need more sunbursts in my life.  Love them.