Absolutely FREE (and beautiful!) art

Well my goodness you lovelies – thank you so much for the sweet comments on our family room redo!! You all made my day. :) I SO appreciate each and every one!

I’m sitting here this evening with one of my very favorite people – my dear friend Traci from Beneath My Heart:

(Traci at our recent IKEA trip.)

Yep, she’s here. In my house. Staying the night.

I’m in heaven. LOVE her!

So does the Bub, by the way. And the dog. I think there will be a very sad little boy and dog when she leaves. :(

We’ve been working on a fun little project in the office and I’m loving it! I can’t wait to show you, but we’ve talked a little too much and didn’t get enough done today. Hopefully we can talk and work at the same time and get it finished up before she leaves. ;)

For now, I’m really excited to tell you more about the art in the family room! I needed to fill some of the walls in the space, but I got to that part of the redo after I decided to not spend a dime in July.

Well. Drats.

I was determined, and was forced to get a little creative – and I love how it turned out! The best part -- this art is 100 percent, absolutely free for everyone. WHOO!

I found the NYC Digital Gallery years ago, and just haven’t made the time to go through their prints till now. (The thrill of not spending any money made up for the time it took to find what I wanted!) The Gallery is such a great resource -- it provides free access to over 700,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's collections.

And it is AWESOME.

If you are using the art on their site for personal, educational, or research purposes, they are absolutely free. (They can be used for commercial purposes for a reproduction fee.) Basically, they are free “printables” you can use for art in your home.

Told you – awesomesauce!

I found a few I wanted to share and then I’ll show you what I ended up with!

There are seven categories of prints, like arts, buildings and geography. But I especially loved the Nature and Science artwork, and thought this horse print was especially striking:

Wouldn’t that be fabulous in a library or office?

This one was a cover of a NYC theater program in 1930:

Isn’t that gorgeous?

I think a series of these shoe prints would be adorable in a closet or bedroom:

Or even a little girl’s room – how fun!

And yes, you can make your closet a fun space – especially when it’s FREE to do so. ;)

I especially loved the maps – this one of Italy because someday I will go there:

And I loved the aged look and beautiful colors of this one:

Wouldn’t that be amazing blown up into a huge print?

Originally I had planned on using botanical prints in the family room, and there is an insane amount to pick from on this site!

So many beautiful options!:

You may notice I added some pops of blue throughout the family room space, and I wanted to pull some blue to the wall by the TV to balance it out.

When I found the Ocean Flowers collection, I was hooked:

They were set on the most beautiful blue background and I was completely smitten. I thought they were perfect – they were a little bit more laid back than the botanical prints, but also a bit sophisticated. And they were so interesting!

All I did was take the image, copy and paste it into a Word document and make it as large as possible. (I made the margins super small.)

I had large frames from our powder room art that I took down weeks ago:

That room is in limbo, waiting patiently for it’s new paint. Wait line bathroom…wait in line.

Years ago I had painted the poster board behind those old prints chocolate brown, so I just painted them again. Then I just printed out the art from the Word document, cut it out and taped it to the middle of the poster board:

I doubt I’ll ever pay for mats to be cut again – this looks great every time! I wanted the poster board “mat” to be a flat, white paint, but all I have is glossy white – so I used a very light blue paint I used on the farmhouse desk in the office.

It looks really cool – turns out it’s the exact same tone of blue as the images:

I absolutely LOVE how they turned out!! And the best part – I didn’t spend a dime! I printed them on leftover cardstock, but you could just use regular paper (it looked just a good). And if you don’t have frames already, check out Goodwill and spray paint them the color you want. SO easy, so cheap!!

You just need a color printer, and if you don’t have one, ask around. :)

I love the “gallery” look of the prints:

It filled in that little spot perfectly! And it gave me that pop of blue I wanted on that side of the room:

The fact that these are free is fantastic – but I also love the variety. It’s all so original and different – no one else will have the exact same art. (Well, I guess some of you will, but you probably won’t know each other. So you’re good.)

Check out the collections at the Digital Gallery here. Give yourself some time to browse – you’ll be there awhile. ;)

Have you gotten creative and come up with free art? I’d love to hear what you did!

The Family Room (Redone)

Well folks…I’ve made a few changes to the family room over the past few weeks and I’m over the moon about them. I can finally say…

I LOVE OUR FAMILY ROOM!!

First time in seven years peeps. First time.

I showed you here how this space has driven me a bit batty for all that time. Many of you offered suggestions on furniture placement, and when I say we tried them all…we tried them all. ;)

The open layout and the location of the cable and surround sound stuff made it hard to make the layout (with enough seating) work.

So first up was a new sofa – a sectional to be exact. When we became debt free earlier this year, it was the one thing I was SO EXCITED to buy. We hadn’t paid for (I mean, PAID for) a piece of big furniture in seven years. And the sofa set from seven years ago just plain sucked. ;)

So we were going to splurge…but I wanted to make sure this splurge was going to last…well, FOREVER. So I did a ton of research. You can see the process here and here.

We decided on an Arhaus sectional, and I went against two of my original plans – one was I wasn’t going to get a microfiber sofa. But I did:

It’s actually called micro denier and it’s a soft as a bunny’s bottom. For reals. I have never pet a bunny booty, but I’m guessing it’s pretty darn soft. As soft as this sectional. ;)

It’s all polyester, so it repels liquids and stains like a supastar. Arhaus had fabulously large samples that I took home, and I may or may not have tested out said sample with some spills. Shhhhh…

All I knew is I didn’t want to deal with stressing over the sofa all the dang time. And I don’t.

All along I had planned on a slipcovered sofa, and then one day it hit me – what in the HUH was I thinking? I know me…and I know washing and drying and recovering every time something spilled would put me over the edge.

(This is me here, and you all know me is a bit cuckoo for cocoa puffs at times, so if you are searching for a new sofa, take that as you will. I’ve heard from MANY who love their slipcovers. They are just much more patient people than I. Me? I.)

Anyhoo, we ended up with the Lansbury from Arhaus:

We were able to configure it just as we needed – the left side of the sofa needed to be shorter to go under the window just so. The right side could be long but not too long. I didn’t want huge arms sticking out taking up space, and lastly – the seats needed to be deeeeep.

Working in the decorating biz years ago, I learned a few things about picking out a quality sofa and that one has stuck with me. This baby delivers on the deep:

I love the side view – isn’t that little curve so pretty?

The sofa is something like 103 inches by 80-something, and it fits like a glove in our family room:

I measured and moved and planned it all out beforehand, and I couldn’t be happier with how it fits in the space. At first it even seemed a bit smaller than I thought it would be, but there’s easily room for six people on there. (Six people who like each other, but six people.)

What’s most important is we (my family) can all pile on and it’s SO comfy. We are in heaven. :)

By the way – it is the most comfy couch I’ve ever sat my tuckus on. It’s kinda firm when you first sit down…and then you sink in and it’s perfection.

I was happy to find that, even though it’s deeper than our old sofa – it still gives us plenty of room for the sofa table and space in the kitchen:

I was concerned the longer section would stick out too much (even though I measured eleventy billion times and it was fine).  But because it goes almost up to the window, it doesn’t go out much further than the old sofa:

It most definitely makes the room feel twice as big.

That’s not the only reason though – the second third 15th happiest day of my life occurred when the surround sound folks came and moved our TV from the crammed spot next to the fireplace to over the craigslist dresser:

OH HAPPY DAY!! I cannot express to you the difference it made in this space. It instantly doubled the size of the room, seriously.

I would have done it forever ago, but it wasn’t as simple as moving the cable jack. All of the surround sound hook ups were on the wall by the fireplace, so we had to have it done professionally.

They ended up moving a speaker (instead of putting in a new one, to save money) and ran everything through the basement. (Hooray for unfinished basements!)

So now this large wall is now the TV wall and it has worked out perfectly:

You might notice the components – the DVR, DVD player and receiver – are all under the dresser. I wanted them hidden away if at all possible and wasn’t sure it would work because of the potential dust under there. But the guys who did all the work kind of laughed when I mentioned that and said under the dresser will be no different than anywhere else. (And I believed them when I saw all of the dust in the old cabinet – YUCKO!)

They made sure there was plenty of breathing room under there, checked to make sure the remotes would still work and arranged everything for me just so. (We love Ovation in Indy – they always do an incredible job!)

(We did consider rigging the dresser and putting them inside, but I worry about the heat, and we use every bit of that dresser space for toys. :) We don’t even notice them under there anymore.)

The only issue that we’ve had (that I already knew would happen) is that we can’t watch TV from the left side of our kitchen (basically the island). It’s not a big deal, but come football season, (i.e.: parties) it may be. The solution is pretty simple though – we plan on changing out the TV wall mount for one that swings out. (Someday…not a priority!)

Right now we’re just loving how moving the TV has changed the room!

I can’t wait to show you more about this project too:

:) Love it!

Because the TV console was gone (whoo hoo party hardy God bless America!!!!!), I had a new spot with the potential for new seating. I waited till we got the sofa to make sure everything would fit OK, and then I checked out HomeGoods.

I have had so much fun changing up things a bit in this space – the chair is a bit contemporary but I LOVE IT:

I knew I wanted something with legs to balance out the upholstered sofa. I also wanted something just a tad more sophisticated.

The little lumbar pillow in the red, blue, green and cream fabric that I showed you here adds a bit of casual, and the little candlestick turned itty bitty table fits perfectly next to it!

Having that console right up against the fireplace drove me mad. The chair still sits right next to it, but it’s a cozy, warm-by-the-fire-with-hot-cocoa kind of feeling now, not a the-TV-console-is-going-to-catch-on-fire kind of feeling:

I LOVE looking at this angle now.

LOVE. 

(Yes, the poppy print is staying where it is. Not moving it, at least for now -- for numerous reasons, but mostly because we like it where it is.)  :)

This wasn’t my most thrifty room, to say the least. But after years of paying off a mound of debt, we got to splurge and it feels awesome. I can’t wait to show you more of the accessories and art I DIYed in this space though – I’ve got some thrifty projects to share!

This is my new view as I blog every night and I couldn’t be happier:

What is it with my flip flop shots lately? Sorry about the feet thing.

It took seven years (did I mention that?) – but I finally feel like our family room feels as big as it really is. This new set up just works.

Here’s a couple of before and after shots for you – earlier this year when I removed the loveseat and just left the sofa:

We lived with that one sofa for six months and it worked OK till the end – then we kind of missed being able to lounge together in the room.

And don’t get me wrong…I’ve always loved the warm, comfy space this was. I don’t think the before was bad or anything…it just never worked quite right.

Now it does:

You’ll notice I took the drapes from the dining room. :) (More on that later.)

And a before before with both the loveseat and sofa and the TV console:

And how it looks today (the light was not great – sorry the pics are a bit washed out):

Up till recently, I thought having the sofa in front of the window would bug me. But I actually quite love it – it creates a weird cozy/open feeling all in one. (I did try our old loveseat in front of the window and it didn’t work – those big arms took up a ton of space!)

The sectional was the only way to make it work:

One final before (again, I don’t personally think this is a “bad” before):

And the after shot…at dusk. ;) Cause I love the evening shots:

I. am. thrilled. I’ve done quite a few happy dances over the past few weeks. ;) It was SO worth the wait. Really.

Thanks for letting me share and thanks for being patient with me!! I’ll be back with more details on some of the projects soon!

For now, can I get a WHOO?????

Design Star!

Hey there! I hope you had a wonderful Fourth holiday weekend! We had such a lovely time…yet again I feel so fortunate to have such an an incredible family and group of friends surrounding us. :)

I’m thisclose to done with our family room and I’m SO thrilled with it. I just need to clean it up and then take some pics. I’ll share it with you tomorrow!

For today, I have a fun little somethin’ somethin’ for one of you. :)

If you are an HGTV nut like me, you know the next Design Star season starts next week!:

Whoo! It’s reality TV and decorating all wrapped up into one – I could just pass out from the giddy. ;)

The first episode airs Monday (the 11th) at 9 p.m. EST. Because I love the show so very much, I’ve been checking out the contestants online over the past few weeks.

This year they include professional interior designers, retail merchandisers, stylists and artists:

And the first HGTV Design Star champion, cutie David Bromstad, will be a mentor to each of them. I love watching him and think he’ll be a GREAT addition to the show:

And HGTV favorites Genevieve Gorder, Candice Olson and Vern Yip will be the judges again this year, along with some fun celebrity guests:

They look so happy. ;)

There are 12 designers competing this season and you can check out their work here.

These photos are just a few of my favorite spaces:

I can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeves!

So get THIS! To celebrate the start of the new Design Star season, the lovely folks at HGTV are giving away one $100 AMEX gift card to one of you lucky ducks!

Yep…$100 buckaroos! That goes a LONG way to changing up your own space!!

All you have to do to enter is comment! For fun, tell us what room you would use $100 on. I’d love to hear!

This one is only open to US residents and is open through next Monday, the 11th, so you’ve got plenty of time to enter! WHOO HOO!

Have fun, good luck, and I’ll be back again tomorrow! :)

Candlestick turned Table

What up what UP? Are you ready for a fabulous holiday weekend? I’m looking forward to bunches of family and friend time and TONS of fireworks. And lots of food. Lots. :)

I’m so excited about a little project I finished up today and I couldn’t wait to show you. My first day of No-Spend July went off without a hitch – I already had everything for this project. (And have for awhile.)

It all started with a chunky candlestick I found at Goodwill last year (yes, last year) for $4. The process was pretty simple, and I took pics of all of the details for your viewing pleasure. ;)

First up, the I-like-em-chunky candlestick:

No sanding here peeps, just some cleaning:

(I. hate. sanding.)

A wooden plate from Hob Lob:

(On sale…holllaaa!)

Some Liquid Nails around the top:

I laid the plate on the floor and did everything upside down so I could see to make sure it was centered:

A couple coats of spray primer:

And then a coat of Heirloom White:

I like eggshell or satin for furniture projects, but glossy will do just fine!

After it dried I scuffed it up a bit:

Because I didn’t want it too look like there was a PLATE sitting on top (even though there was), I added a mirror from Hob Lob:

Half off, in the candle section.

I didn’t even glue it – just set it in the center. It was a perfect fit:

And now I have an itty bitty table perfect for this small spot:

I LOVE IT. Seriously…in love.

Love that candle too – have you seen the little holders at Bath and Body Works? Super cute, and that one was only $3.50.

The table is surprisingly sturdy – the candlestick is nice and heavy (the bottom is weighted). It holds a drink or the remote just fine, and that’s all I need. ;)

I know many of you are so excited to see the sectional!! The room has been a mess with holes in the walls, drywall dust and sawdust lately…but I will show you the space next week for SURE. I’m SO excited to show you! Hang in there with me!

I hope you have a wonderful, fun and SAFE holiday weekend!

 

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY

and

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!