Family Room

Quick Tip: How to Fix a Rolling Rug

August 2, 2012 by beth 6 Comments

Hey friends! How’s your week going? Ours has been pretty chill…we’re trying to recuperate from our trip! We’ve been watching a lot of the Olympics in the evenings. Go Team USA!! (We’re huge fans of Gabby Douglas and Michael Phelps!)

While my butt has been parked on the couch a bit, I’ve been driven pretty much over-the-edge annoyed about something so small, you’d think it was no big deal. But, to me, it’s big fat freakin’ screaming at me. Tell me you’d be annoyed at this, too:

See those obnoxious rolls the rug is making in the corners? You’re not supposed to do that, rug. I spent (not) a lot of money on you! Why are you rolling? (Okay, you’re right. At $80 for a rug, I’m pretty sure that was going to happen. But still. It’s not my fave. At. All.)

Stupid inexpensive rug.

(And, yes, Kids…Mom said stupid. I’m happy to go to timeout.)

Luckily there is a solution to my ~~HUGE~~ little rug dilemma. Have you ever seen these cool rug anchors from 3M?

They’re like Command Strips for your rugs. The black and tan sides attach to each other. Then the tan side attaches to the rug.

Once the tan sticky part is holding tight to the rug (that’s the tan sticker, not a band-aid!), the black part is stuck to the floor. You can pull them apart like any Command Strip when you’re ready to move it.

See how awesome?

My rug was super roll-y (is that a word?), so I had to use two on the one on the right, above.

But now I’m pretty thrilled that the rug isn’t curling like it was before. It was super annoying, and for some reason the curling edges were a kid magnet. My boys seemed to want to step right on the rolls. :/

Whoohoo! No more annoying rolls!! And it took me all of about 1 minute to correct the problem. Now I can sit on my tush and watch TV without interruption….from the rug at least.

Have you tried these awesome strips? Have you had luck with them? Ever had an annoying, rolling rug and fixed it? What’s your trick?

Disclaimer: This is NOT a sponsored post. 3M and the makers of the Rug Anchors did not pay me to write this. I saw a demonstration of the product and received a free sample. Once I took it home and tried it, I really liked them. Now I’m passing the info on to you. If they were total crap, I’d let you know.

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Filed Under: Before and After, Family Room, Quick Tip, Rug Tagged With: Before and After, Family Room, Quick Tip, Rug

My 42 Cent Abstract Art

June 16, 2012 by beth 23 Comments

K, so remember a few months ago when I showed you our family room? (Go HERE for a refresher…) Even though it isn’t completely magazine worthy, I wanted y’all to see how things were coming along since our move. One of the many things on my To Do list for this room was to find a suitable picture to place above the mantel.

We’ve had this Monet reproduction sitting on the mantel while my creative juices waited for some inspiration.

I like the picture, but we’ve had it for so long I couldn’t really see it anymore. Plus the frame was a bit too big. The original frame broke, and a few years ago I bought this Ikea frame as a replacement. Of course, it helps to know the size you need before you go all the way over to Ikea and buy a frame. But, since I like learning lessons the hard way, I decided to keep this too big frame as a ~~constant~~ gentle reminder to measure before I go off and buy something.

Anywhoo, about a year ago I saw this painting in the West Elm catalog that I just loved. It’s called Circles by artist Lourdes Sanchez.

West Elm

Unfortunately it’s no longer for sale through the store, but I just needed the inspiration to make something on my own. It’s paintings like Circles that make me think I could possibly be an artist. The same way John Grisham makes me believe I could possibly be a lawyer (yeah, right), or Ashley from the blog Make It and Love It makes me feel like I could sew (not happening!).

I found a few more inspiration paintings that helped me realize, YES! yes…you CAN paint your own picture to put over the mantel, Beth!

Pawleys Island Posh

I love Sanity Fair’s apartment! Her picture inspiration was from her stacked bracelets. Freakin’ genius.

Sanity Fair

David Kleinberg

As I gathered my materials to paint my own masterpiece, I was pretty thrilled to think I could make it for free.

First, I spray painted my Ikea frame black using spray paint from my stash.

I also grabbed black craft paint, a bowl, and a foam brush (which I ended up not really needing). I had originally intended to paint directly on the back of my Monet picture, but when I got it out of the frame I realized it was glued to a piece of board. That wasn’t going to work. :/ So, I had to actually open my wallet (yeah, call the papers…Beth’s spending some money) and buy a piece of white poster board. It was 42 cents. Yikes! Break the freakin’ bank, why don’t you?

The painting was seriously the easiest thing I’ve ever done. I just dipped the bowl into the paint and placed it on the poster board. Sometimes I twisted and turned the bowl around, sometimes I just lifted it right up.

(See that drip? It was intentional…just like my inspiration painting.)

The only hard part of this project was getting past my fear of failure. Really. It took me months to get up the nerve to take the picture down and out of the frame. Then a week or two of looking at the poster board sitting in front of the fireplace while I stared at the black frame already on the mantel. I was afraid that I would ruin the painting just by painting it. That people would come over and ask if I framed my kids’ artwork just to be nice. That someone would be rude enough to say, “Oh, you made that? Huh….well, you can always put something else in there.” Pretty sure I don’t have such rude friends anyway, but it still scared the crap out of me.

And guess what? No one has said anything rude. My friends and family really like it. And, more importantly, every time I look at the painting, I just smile. I personally love it. Like really really love it. (So if you don’t, please keep it to yourself.)

I think it’s going to look fab with the curtains I eventually put up. I’m actually just waiting for fabric samples to be come THE thing to put on your windows. Call me a trend setter. You saw it here first.

I’m pretty thrilled with the transformation…

P.S. Same paint color, by the way…just photographs differently during the day I guess.

And I’m glad I sucked it up, got up the guts, and painted it myself. And for 42 cents? Yeah, I’m pretty happy.

I’m linking up!

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia , A Bowl Full of Lemons, The Thrifty Home, Someday Crafts, Seven Thirty Three, Beyond the Picket Fence, House of Hepworths, Tales From Bloggeritaville, Made in a Day, Sassy Sites, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, The Shabby Nest, Remodelaholic, Beneath My Heart, Lolly Jane Boutique, Be Different Act Normal, C.R.A.F.T., Thrifty Decor Chick, Funky Junk Interiors, Under the Table and Dreaming, House of Grace, Primitive and Proper, Sugar Bee Crafts, Home Stories A 2 Z, Domestically Speaking, Southern Lovely, Somewhat Simple, One Artsy Mama, It’s Overflowing, Six Sister’s Stuff

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Filed Under: Before and After, DIY, Family Room, Knock Off, Paint

Tufted Zebra Ottoman

June 6, 2012 by beth 9 Comments

***WARNING!! This post is a little long!***

Hey friends! Thank you so much…SOO much…for all of your votes in the One Crafty Contest! I know I kept asking you to vote, week after week, and I really appreciated your encouragement and cheering me on.

I’m sad to say I did not make it to Round Four. I had some tough competition! But I am so grateful to have had the chance to participate. I got a few fun projects checked off my To Do list (check them out HERE and HERE), including Round Three’s submission: The Tufted Zebra Ottoman.

We’ve had the ottoman that’s in our family room for about 10 years now. I rescued it from the curb on abnormal trash day, took off the dog-chewed and fugly old fabric, and revived it with a soft velvety/suede, taupe-colored remnant.

Here’s a picture I found on Craigslist that looks the most similar to the fabric that was on the ottoman when I rescued it from the curb:

And once I reupholstered it:

This ottoman is so squishy and bouncy. My boys absolutely love bouncing their brains out on it, and I’m totally fine with it since it was free to begin with. But it was seriously starting to look sad. There were a few holes, one too many spills, and it was just plain tired looking.

Round Three’s theme was fabric, and I knew immediately that I would be recovering the ottoman. I’d done it once, doing it again would be cake, right?

Wrong. So wrong.

Recovering this piece was a beast. I’ll give you a play by play, and don’t you worry…I’ll make sure you don’t make the eleventy billion mistakes I made. Sheesh.

I began with ripping all the old fabric off and pulling out a crap load of staples. This was my view for one entire afternoon:

Green Lantern couldn’t handle it.

Some of the foam was not salvageable. It disintegrated all over my family room rug, but I just added it to the list of things that needed to be vacuumed up later.

I wanted to see the legs again…I couldn’t remember why I had covered them before. Yeah, this is why:

Hmmm. Fixing it was a bit of a head scratcher for sure. My ideas ranged from wood filler and paint to just sawing them off completely. But pretty soon I came up with a better plan! Wait and see…

Here is the ottoman in all it’s naked glory. This shot was taken late at night after the staple removal massacre of 2012.

And, I’m happy to report, I only got one splinter!

When it came to buying fabric, I knew exactly what I wanted. I came across this blue cheetah print recently and fell in love:

Except when I went to go buy it, I was informed that it had to be ordered and wouldn’t come in until the day of the contest. Me no likey. I was pretty frustrated to say the least. Cuz I had no Plan B. (And grabbing the bolt of fabric off the wall and running out the door would have only gotten me so far. But don’t think I didn’t consider it.)

Eventually I snagged two yards of some super cute zebra fabric at Hobby Lobby for less than I would have paid for one yard at the other place. Hooray for happy accidents.

Tufting was totally on my list of things to do to the ottoman this time around. I’ve never tufted before, and, to put it nicely (keeping my post free of strong curse words), I had a lot of learning to do. :/ Tufting’s not hard, especially if you don’t try to skip steps to save time and money. Cuz you won’t. So don’t be like me. The following instructions are here for your benefit. (FYI, I found these two posts very helpful: HERE and HERE)

1. Make sure you have the correct size staples for your staple gun. Check again. Are you sure they’re right? Because, at least in my case, stores didn’t have the correct size I was looking for. Grrr. Luckily it only took one frantic call to Allison who let me borrow her awesome staple gun. What better staple gun to use than House of Hepworth’s? For reals. I am SO grateful!!

2. While you’re at the hardware store for staples, buy a pegboard. Don’t be cheap. Buy one. Buy one now, not later. Cuz later you will have to anyway, and you’ll be annoyed with yourself for not getting one before. Have the nice Home Depot guy cut it for you. Know your measurements before you go. (I actually did know my measurements, which was a miracle!) Mark your pegboard where you want the tuft holes.

3. Using the peg marks as a guide, cut holes in your foam where the tufts will go.

4. Stack the board like this tufting sandwich: pegboard, foam, fabric.

5.Decide if you want premade button covers or if you want to cover your buttons yourself. Either is fine. I decided to cover my own. Find buttons all the same size and shape. I used some vintage buttons from my grandma’s collection.

6. Thread your button holes with thick twine. Not flimsy little string. Can you hear me shout that loud enough?!? NOT flimsy little string. I made that frustrating mistake. Leave a long piece of the twine on your button so you have enough plus extra to go through the thick foam. And invest in the knitting needle it takes to tuft. Do it. Just do it. I think I paid $1.50 for the needle.

7. Follow THIS easy tutorial on how to create covers for your buttons. Even this part was easy for me, the non-sew-er.

Notice the thin, flimsy string? Yeah, NO. Don’t do it. Use twine.

8. Thread your needle through the thick twine of one covered button and knot one end. Shove the needle into the fabric, down the foam, and through the peg board.

9. Staple that thread’s brains out. Zigzagging the staples will help keep the threat taut.

10. Admire your work. Make adjustments as needed. (Yes, I needed.)

Once all the tufting’s over, it’s all smooth sailing from here. I added more batting to the sides for extra comfort.

The rest of the fabric was then stapled around the ottoman. I pulled tight, and stapled the fabric in the middle before moving out to the sides.

As for the feet, I decided to wrap the feet in black leather to make them stand out a little better. I just folded the leather over, creating the look of separation.

And, that’s it. Oh my gosh I’m actually done.

Although this project took me a little longer than I thought, I realize that I learned so much. I can avoid a lot of mistakes next time around. But, that’s how it goes, right?

Remember our ottoman before?

SO much better.

And you better believe there will be no jumping on the ottoman anymore!

Did you make it through this mammoth post? If so, bravo! Thank you!! I promise to give you a high five next time I see you.

Make sure to check back on Friday for a SUPER CUTE giveaway!!!

**By the way, do you follow me on Pinterest? It seems they just did an upgrade or something, and I ended up loosing half my Pinterest followers. Do you mind checking to make sure you’re still getting my pins? Click HERE and push Follow All. Thanks!!**

I’m linking up!

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Filed Under: Before and After, DIY, Family Room, Furniture, Ottoman, Pinterest

Folding Chairs and the Power of Spray Paint

May 7, 2012 by beth 21 Comments

K, so I came across this picture recently on Pinterest, and I knew I was staring at my next project:

Source

I loved the fun, happy colors. And to make things even better, I had just received TWO free metal chairs from a friend. She found them free on Craigslist but ended up not wanting them. I thought it would be fun to spray paint the chairs bright colors for the boys to use in the family room and play room. Woohoo! Party time at the Free Stylin’ household!!

Here are my chairs before their makeover:

I wanted to make this project as FREE as possible, so I rummaged through the spray paint cans and pulled out the pretty turquoise from the front porch updates. (It’s Krylon’s Blue Ocean Breeze.) I originally wanted the second chair to be a fun lime green, but Pickle picked bright red…Krylon’s Banner Red. Although we had to purchase the red paint, I paid with the rest of a Hobby Lobby gift card, so it was “technically” free, right?

Each chair got three good coats of the paint.

While I waited for the paint to dry, I came up with a monogram for the backs of the chairs using white paper and some letters the boys have in their room as my stencil. The letters were just a hint too tall, so I improvised a bit and erased a little here and there.

I cut out the monogram and used a few coats of Mod Podge to seal it to the back of the chairs.

The arm rests got a little makeover, too, with the help of some the maps from my big stack. I cut out a map for each arm rest and used Mod Podge to seal it as well.

And that’s it! The completed chairs:

The boys absolutely love them. The new chairs seem to have a permanent spot in front of the TV.

(Yes, they are sitting in each other’s chair.)

(And, yes, the monogram letters are new toys, apparently.)

This project was fun to make and only took a couple of hours. Using only items I already had (including a gift card!) made this project FREE!!

chairs: free from a friend (free to her from Craigslist)

spray paint: already owned, purchased with a gift card

white paper: already owned

Mod Podge: already owned (you could also use clear varnish if you had it)

maps: already owned (wrapping paper, wall paper, or scrapbook paper would work, too)

Isn’t it amazing what a little spray paint can do?!

I’m linking up!

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Filed Under: Before and After, Chairs, Family Room, Free, Paint, Pinterest

Hangin’ Out in the Family Room…

February 24, 2012 by beth 7 Comments

Heya!! I hope you’re having a great week. This week I received some cool news: Coupon Network’s Smart Living Blog loved my laundry room feature on The Organized Mom. Their feature of my feature was a complete surprise and had me on Cloud 9 for quite awhile , so THANKS Amori and Smart Living Blog! Check it out and show them some love, K?

************************************************************************************

And now on to the Family Room….

So remember how ~~eleventy billion~~ several months ago we moved from Florida to Texas? Well, it’s almost been a year (wow…already?!), and I am still getting things settled how I like them. I can be a pretty “All or Nothing” kind of person, so I haven’t really shown a lot of how I’ve decorated the new digs. I thought that I had to have everything pretty and perfect and decorated and magazine worthy before I blogged about each room.

Well, let’s be honest…that’s not going to really happen since decorating a home costs moolah (which you sometimes have to save up for), and it takes awhile for me to get the look I’m after (once I’ve decided what that is). There is a constant evolution of object placement. Not everything goes the way it did in a previous house. And nothing stands still in my house for long because, when it comes to decorating, everything is fair game around here.

So if I waited until things were just right, I’d never take pictures or blog because I am always tweaking, always redoing. Instead, I’ve abandoned that way of thinking. I’m going to show you how things look, whether they are my Pinterest perfect picture or not.

Lucky you. ;)

A month or two prior to our move, I redid our living room for under $40. This is how things looked right before we packed up:

And now….

Welcome to our Texas Family Room

We spend the majority of our time in this room…watching TV, playing Wii, hanging out as a family, reading on the couch. There is ALWAYS something going on in here. (As well as an incessant amount of putting away toys and straightening up that resembles the feeling of brushing your teeth while eating Oreos…)

Earlier this week I shared an update on the TV dresser/media console. If you missed this post, please check it out here.

There are a few minor tweaks I need to make to it, including repainting the whole $&@^# thing for the third time. And now that I’ve been looking at it through the blogs’ eyes, I’m about 99.9% sure I want to take back the 8 smaller glass knobs and exchange them for…..what? I have no idea. So, my love/hate relationship with this piece of furniture is in full swing. Let’s see if things can be resolved peacefully. (Cuz I really want love my blue dresser! Smooches!)

Moving on…

Our sofa and white Ikea slipcovers we bought last year have held up great. I LOVE that I can wash them (all the freakin’ time) when cute people get marker and juice and muddy footprints on the cushions. The choice to buy white was a little iffy, but I really love it. So much so, that every time I envision other sofas for other rooms in the house, they are also white. We’ll see….

The couch may be working out, but the ottoman is on the list of ”Things to do…Eventually.” I’m pretty much over the fabric, and some stuffing is coming out from somewhere underneath. So it’s time. I’ll definitely reupholster it, but I’m debating if I’ll keep it in here. The boys love jumping on it, and I like the extra seating. Plus then I wouldn’t have to buy a new coffee table. But, then again, I could get a new coffee table. Hmm. Again, we’ll see…

The sofa pillows are doing well, thanks for asking. My no-sew placemat pillows are my favorite to use while I’m chillin’ on the couch cuz they’re squishy, but I’m starting to think I’d like to look around for some newer, updated pillows and use these in another room. (Maybe that’s because I keep seeing such faaa-reeeeking cute pillows around blogland, Target, Etsy….pretty much everywhere I look.) Add pillows to the every growing list of things that may or may not get changed in this house.

This area of the room looks pretty much like how things were in our previous home.

To learn more about the “D” pillow, go here.

The only GLARINGLY OBVIOUS difference is the empty wall space above the chair. It has taken me literally the whole time I’ve lived here to figure out what I should put up here. That’s partly because I keep hoping we can swap the TV to this side of the room and mount it to the wall. But after lots of trial and error, (for now) it seems like things will stay this way. So even though it only bugs me a little that The Hubs won this debate, I think I found the solution to the blank wall after reading Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick’s post about a small gallery wall in her living room.

Thanks, Sarah, for always always inspiring me.

(I say this cuz someday…SOMEDAY she’ll read Free Stylin’. I can feel it.)

So far the only family picture we have up in this family room is this oh so cute pic of my boys’ feet that my mother-in-law took and had framed for us. (The top picture is of Pickle’s tennis shoes on the last day of school. I think it’s a cool way to capture how BUSY this boy is…his shoes had been through so much! And I can’t get over how little J’s feet used to be. My sweet babies are growing up so fast!!)

Maybe we should put up a few more pictures of the family in the family room? How weird would that be…too weird? I have a bunch of different styles of gallery walls pinned on my Pinterest Frame This and Office pinboards, so feel free to check them out if you’ve got a minute. I think a gallery wall above the chair is perfect for the space, and it brings a little family into the family room.

Once you’ve gotten past the blindingly blank wall, did you notice anything else super ridiculous about my family room? Like maybe the fact that I have fabric samples on the blinds but no drapes? Yeah. These samples have been here for months. MONTHS. I am seriously in no hurry to accomplish anything. Ever.

The fabric I’ve chosen is called Covington – Wilmington.

Source

I originally saw this pattern on Emily Clark’s windows in her office. They are so pretty!

Emily A. Clark

Then my sister made kitchen curtains out of the fabric, and, after seeing it in person I knew this print would work well in our family room. My sis gave me her leftover fabric scraps, and there they’ve hung…on my blinds…until the end of time. Better run over to the fabric store before they quit making it. Or before Pickle goes off to college. Whichever comes first.

Here’s exhibit…what…F? G? Z??! of why I didn’t want to blog about my family room until things were picture perfect. My mantle is boring. Don’t fall asleep looking at it. I put up our framed print of Monet’s Nympheas (that has made an appearance in just about every home we’ve lived in) and added my trophy vase. I think the mantle’s only redeeming quality is a beautiful turquoise vase my aunt gave us as a house warming gift (which is, by the way, quickly climbing the ranks to becoming my favorite decorative accessory in my home).

It’s all a good start, but I’m still trying to figure out what else to put up here. I can totally see the name of my next pinboard…Mantles. ;)

Again, don’t fall asleep looking at it.

The only other part of this room I haven’t mentioned much about is our new rug. I found this large rug at Garden Ridge over the summer for $80. Although I’d like to get a rug pad to go underneath, I have been really happy with it. I absolutely love the color and pattern, and it goes perfectly with the TV dresser and drapery fabric. The rug warms up the tile floor and is easy to clean, too.

So overall the family room has had a few minor changes, but it’s shaping up nicely here in Texas. I love the amount of windows and light we have now, which is also perfect for watching the boys in the backyard. I still have my hands full with some minor projects in here, so be on the lookout for some future family room posts.

Again, lucky you.

By the way, don’t forget to enter the Q-tips $25 American Express card Giveaway here.

This Giveaway closes tomorrow at noon CST.

Have a great weekend!