First, I’d like to say Oh my gosh, thank you all so much for your sweet comments and for checking out my guest posts at Or so she says and Thrifty Decor Chick! I was beyond excited to work with these two sweet ladies. Thank you, Mariel and Sarah, for having me!!

Besides the postings, I’ve been getting things going in the living room. To say that the room is a mess is and understatement. I look forward to everything being done so I can have a little sanity back, but the gettin’ there is half the fun, too, right? So instead of parking it on the couch in my spare time this week (ha!), I’ve been messin’ in the garage – painting the TV dresser.

I bought this dresser at a thrift store over a year ago for $30, which was an awesome score since it is sturdy and heavy and in great shape. I always knew I’d paint it, but it took me awhile to figure out what I wanted. 

Source

are the inspirations for my new living room. I love the blue – love it! And everything looks so bright and happy.

I already had the lamps that I luuuuve! Now I had direction for the rest of the room.

Because I live in a rental, I didn’t want to paint the walls – just to have to repaint them again when we move. But the blue was calling to me, and I decided to use it on the TV dresser.

I could have gone over to the hardware store and bought new paint, but I knew I had this curb-rescued grey paint in the garage.

       

Except the ugly brass parts…which were immediately sprayed silver.

I purchased three knobs for $3.97 each. Eventually I will change out all of the knobs, but if I were to do that right now, it would have blown my entire $30 living room makeover budget. So three knobs for now.

My cute J making sure the TV dresser works for him, too:

I may want to distress it or glaze it or something, but right now I’ll keep it like it is to see if that’s what direction I want to take. For now, I like it the way it is.

I’m linking up!

It’s like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one.

   

•  three planks of wood flooring
• two cans of paint 

• a large box of envelopes

Oh, and I love my new little office/crafting/Mom Command Center already! It’s cozy, out of the way, and has lightened the living room considerably. Win win win! (I’ll show you more pics of that little area soon!)

K, so am I the only one pulling over like a crazy lady at every curbside opportunity? Have you scored something Oh.SO.Cool that someone else cast off? Leave a comment – I’d love to hear about it!

I am SO excited about making over my living room!! I’m tired of feeling tired of looking at it, so let’s get this party started!

At first I decided to silver leaf the lamps thinking it looked similar enough to mercury glass. Um, yeah. Not so much. The silver leafing went okay until I tried to tackle the tiny bumps and ripples of the base. It was pretty much impossible to get every little part, and my patience wore thin really fast.

If you decide to silver leaf a lamp, my suggestion is to spray paint it a base color of silver first. Then, if you have a few tiny spots that are being difficult, they aren’t noticeable.

Or, you could be like me, and get frustrated, and put the project aside for a few days until you realize you should have spray painted in the first place. Whatevs.

So I bagged the silver leaf idea and decided to spray paint the bases textured metallic silver. (I’ll use the silver leaf for another project.)

This was the look I was going for, and it only took me like 20 minutes (instead of the week this little project was turning into).

Next to tackle the shade: I bought 2 yards of burlap and had the nice people cut them into one yard pieces for me. (Isn’t it funny when you go into the fabric store and everyone asks you, “What are we making today, dear?”)

After yanking off the previous shade material, I used it as my pattern and cut out my new pretty burlap shades. It’s important to cut an inch or two wider than you need on both sides to make sure you have enough coverage. You can always trim the excess off.

**And here’s where I’d like to push the pause button. I wish I had known this before, so I will share with you: If you want your fabric to go the same way on both lamps (both vertical, both diagonal, whatever), put the two pieces of fabric in the same direction, lay one on top of the other, and use the pattern to cut out both at the same time. I didn’t do this. Now I have one lampshade that is vertical, and one that’s diagonal. I’m sure I’ll get sick of looking at it and fix it someday. Someday. K, push play.**

Using spray adhesive, I coated both the old lampshade and the fabric. Then I rolled the fabric around the shade, careful to smooth out the bubbles and ripples.

(I’m choosing to laugh at myself instead of cry! Plus, the Perfect Patrol isn’t coming by my house anytime soon, right? So who cares.)

 

My cost:
$5.98 for two yards of burlap
$5.77 for textured metallic spray paint
$1.00 for ribbon.
$2.00 spray adhesive
Total: $14.75 for two lamps. Each lamp cost about $7.38 to make.

(And, as a preview for more to come, the lamps weren’t the only thing to get spray painted silver! I don’t think this wreath will make it above my bed now!)

I’ve been going back and forth on my living room for awhile now. I like it, but…I don’t luuuuve it anymore. Sometimes it feels too dark for me. And I need light. Lots of light. It doesn’t help that my favorite color is dark. (Smooches Red!) I just think it’s time to lighten things up a bit in there. Most people want to loose a little weight every new year, right? Well, my living room has been telling me it wants to slim down a bit, too.

(give or take a dozen toys) 

As much as I love red, some days I’d like a different sofa color. Luckily for me, the sofa has slip covers, so I could change it if I want to. I bought it this way on purpose because I know I’d want to change my mind. The cover I would like to get retails for $250, so it’ll be a little while before I make that change. Instead, I’ve decided to remove the painting above the sofa. This will still give me what I’m after (a lighter, brighter space), while I save up for the bigger purchase – a sofa cover. A fabulous! (if I do say so myself!) and ridiculously inexpensive item will take the place of the painting, freshening things up a bit.

The wood in my living room is a lighter, honey color, which I like, but I’m tired of the matchy-matchy. I want a few pieces that aren’t the same colors as the others. No need to go out and buy all new furniture when a can of spray paint gives me the result I’m after.

The lamps have already moved to either side of the couch, so replacement lamps are in the works. (I’m really excited to show the new ones to you…soon!!)

My favorite favorite part of the living room makeover has to be the “office.” Ha! If you can even call it that! Our (free!) desk is in a little corner but kinda crowds the room. I’d like to totally remove it to give us some breathing space. Ahhhh.

But I need an “office.” And a craft room. And a “mommy command station.” We are out of extra bedrooms, and I’m not about to move out to the garage. There is a space, though…a little alcove to the left of the stairs. You can see it here, housing the treadmill. (Yes, the treadmill gets used. On those 3 days when Florida gets down to arctic temperatures like 57*. Brr!)

The kids’ train table was next to the treadmill, and both have been moved to other places in the home. Now there is space for me to create and blog and keep track of schedules and make menus and write grocery lists and clip coupons….and maybe a little Facebook.

I’m hoping these changes won’t cost too much (shocker!). My goal is to spend $30 or less on lightening up the living room. I think I can do it. It won’t happen overnight, but I’m pretty excited to see the results. Fresher, lighter, and a little more breathing room. I can feel it already!