Christina's Virtual Living Room Makeover

After I did the virtual makeover for our living room, my friend, Christina, left me a comment saying,

So I offered to do a virtual makeover for her living room as well to give her some ideas.

Her and her family just moved into a big, beautiful brand-spankin' new house
and so they have a big ol' blank slate that they are workin' with.

Here is what you see when you first walk in their front door...

Aren't those hardwood floors great!?

What a great room!
I see LOTS of potential in this space!

Here is what Christina said to me about her living room...

 So with her modern style in mind, here is what I came up with...

Since Christina wants to brighten up her living room and likes greens, 

painting the walls would be a great place to start. 

Warm Neutral colors with a hint of green in them would be a subtle way to add color and warmth to the room. 

Some color suggestions include:

Most of Christina's existing furniture works well in the room, it just needs a little rearranging.

Instead of having the couch pushed up against the back wall 

(aka: furniture under arrest as Nate Berkus would say), 

shifting the couch and all of the other furniture down about 5 feet from the back wall would help fill up the room and make it not seem as long and narrow.

Christina and her husband have a 2 year old son and another little baby boy on the way...

and as a mother of toddlers myself, 

I know how important storage is to hiding all of the kids' clutter!

So to help house some of the kids' stuff and give mom and dad a place for displaying some of their stuff out of the reach of their kiddos, 

I stuck in some built-in shelving that spans the entire back wall
and would sit behind the couch.

Here is a closer look at what the built-ins could look like,

with cabinets & drawers below and cubby-like shelves above.

Adding small scones to the bookcases would give some much needed light to that end of the room 

and help illuminate displayed items.
The lights in the above picture are a bit traditional looking, so maybe something like these would be a little more modern looking to suit Christina's style.

Pottery Barn

Pottery Barn

Since the black console table and loveseat currently are sort of
blocking the flow of traffic into the living room,
I would move the loveseat over to the wall where the chair now resides to open up the room.

I would also move the black console table 

(which, by the way, is an awesome piece of furniture with great storage!)

to the wall on the left and 

rotate the large black mirror 90 degrees so that it hangs above the console table.

Adding some small sconces above the mirror would add more light to the room as well.

Here is an example picture of what it would like (sort of)...

The black coffee table she already has works great in the room and can be simply accessorized by adding a large bowl on top like this Hultet Dish from Ikea...

It's made of bamboo, so it won't shatter if one of the kids decides to knock it off the table :)

Some cute white boxes placed on the bottom half of the coffee table would be a great way tohide magazines and stray toys too.

Christina had mentioned that she wanted to put up curtains, 

so I found these Hedda Blad Curtain panels from Ikea 

for her to flank the two larger windows in the living room.

I think using white curtains with just a hint of pattern would help bring some brightness and interest into the room and since the curtains are sheer, they will not block out any natural light either.

 Side note about hanging curtains:  

To give the perception of tall windows, attach your rod about half-way between the ceiling and the top of your window frame and hang long curtains (just make sure they touch the floor so that you don't have high-water drapes!). And for long skinny windows, extend the curtain rod out on each side of the window a foot or more to make the window appear wider.

(windows are not draw to scale)

Following these tips will give people the perception that both of Christina's large windows are a little more uniform in size.

As for the "tiny annoying window" (as Christina put it) in the middle of the wall, 

I really think it can just be left alone. 

By hanging curtains and giving the illusion of two large windows that are uniform in size,

I don't think your eye will even really notice that small square window.

Although the room already has some great modern furniture,
a few more pieces could be added to make the room feel more complete.

Placing two slipper chairs, angled opposite the couch,
would offer more seating while leaving the area open and welcoming for conversation. 
Here are two options for slipper chairs I though she might like...

Both chairs are reasonably priced and have other fabric options available.

I placed a round accent table in between the two slipper chairs like this one from Overstock...

 While the top of the table looks like glass, it is actually made of fiberglass, which is a shatter-resistant alternative to glass. A good option in case the kids knock it over :)

I also though the entryway needed to be more defined as an entryway,
so I replaced the entryway light fixture with a stylish modern pendant lamp from Ikea.

I know how shoes and such tend to clutter up an entryway (at least they do in my house!),
so I thought one of these shoe cabinets from Ikea would be a good place to store shoes, mail, keys, etc.

It's less than a foot deep, so it wouldn't take up much space
or block the flow of traffic to and from the front door.

Although I didn't add it in the virtual makeover picture above,
a larger entryway rug would also help define the area as more of an entryway as well.
Here is an example picture of what I mean...

West Elm

Other objects I placed in the room include...

Ashton Sutton Slick Wall Clock

White Tear Drop Lamp from Target

Ikea Stockholm Vase

Ikea Knipsa Baskets

 

 

 And a variety of black and white pillows from Target.

 

Here's one last look of the BEFORE and AFTER...

BEFORE

 

AFTER

BEFORE

 AFTER

I hope that gives you some good ideas and inspiration, Christina!

I had a ton of fun working on this little project :)

Best wishes to you as you await the arrival of your baby boy!

Merry Christmas, from our family to yours...

Wishing you and yours a peaceful and joy-filled Christmas.

 

Displaying Christmas Cards

Every year I struggle with what to do with the Christmas cards we receive in the mail.

While we appreciate each one and love receiving them in the mail, 

they usually just end up in a pile on the kitchen counter 

and then {with lots of guilt} get recycled in the new year.

I especially hate getting rid of the photo cards and the handmade ones, 

but I also hate hoarding things that clutter up the house.

So this year I decided to figure out a solution to these problems - 

displaying Christmas cards in a pretty, uncluttered way

and

what to do with the Christmas cards that you hate to toss at the end of the year.

I did some searching to get inspiration for displaying our cards and 

holy moly, 

did I find some super cute ideas!!

 Pretty Handy Girl attaches her cards to shutters using little wooden clothespins.

So easy and cute!

Some great ideas for displaying Christmas cards can be found at BHG, 

like this Christmas Card memo board, 

where cards easily slip behind ribbon attached to a fabric covered cork board.

Centsational Girl also has a unique spin on the cork board turned card holder.

 BHG

How easy would it be to slip your cards into a pretty glass canister!?

This idea would look pretty cute on a kitchen shelf, don't ya think??

 BHG

A vintage painted ladder would be a unique and unexpected card display.

 BHG

To display cards on a wreath like this, simply wrap a straw wreath form with upholstery webbing , securing it in place with small sewing pins. Attach cards with small silver binder clips.

 Centsational Girl also cleverly used jingle bells to hang her cards on display.

 

 Apartment Therapy shows a pretty picture of a traditionally way to hang cards from an evergreen bough.

Country Living shows a cute way to use ribbon to hand cards from a door.

And leave it to Martha to come up with something spectacular!

I liked so many of these ideas, 

that I decided to combine a few elements of some of the above 

to create a card display in our house.

I started with a 15' cedar bough {from Lowe's} 

that I hung {using Command hooks} from our entertainment center in the family room.

Using some little jingle bells and red ribbon {from Michael's},

I tied the bells onto our greenery.

If your pinch the bells together, it makes the slit smaller 

so you can just stick your cards into the bells and they hang onto the cards like a clip would.

Now for what to do with the cards you want to save at the end of the season..

Last year I came across this idea/tutorial 

from For What it's Worth...or Not  

for making your cards into a Christmas keepsake book.

Isn't she clever!?

Why didn't I think of that!?

So here is the book I made last January that holds all of the cards that I couldn't part with. 

I'm looking forward to adding more to it this year!!

And I'm happy that our Christmas cards 

won't be cluttering up my kitchen counter this year :)

Knock-Off Dollhouse Bookcase

I've admired these dollhouse bookcases in Pottery Barn Kids and Land of Nod 

ever since our baby girl was born.

Pottery Barn Kids

Land of Nod

Now that she is older (she will be TWO on Friday!!) and enjoys playing with girly things in her room, 

I knew we had to get one of these for her to store her girly treasures in.

But with prices around $200, I knew we'd either have to build it ourselves or find a knock-off for way cheaper.

With Christmas looming around the corner and little time to devote to building one, buying one was really our only option.

A while back I happened to stumble upon one of these adorable dollhouse bookcases at Target. 

It looked very similar to the one from Pottery Barn Kids, except it had a pink roof instead of a green one. 

Oh and the price was a quite different too...

$79 instead of Pottery Barn's $199!!

Still, I held off on buying it.

This morning, however, I was perusing Target's weekly ad

and lo and behold,

the very same bookcase is now on sale for $60!

So, I packed up the kids and raced out and bought it for our little girl.

Good thing they are still young enough not to realize what I am buying...hee hee!

By the way, if you're interested in building one of these 

{and unlike us, you have time to spare},

Ana White has great FREE plans to build it HERE.

Simplifying at Christmas: Holiday Cards

I used to make my own Christmas cards...

that is, before I had kids.

I used to love sitting down at the kitchen table, 

sipping my hot tea with Christmas carols playing in the background 

as I spent hours making our annual holiday cards.

That came to an end two years ago, though,  

as I spent months in the hospital before I delivered our 3 beautiful babies on December 10th.

Our Christmas that year was spent adapting to life as new parents while driving back and forth to the hospital to visit our newborn babies. 

Life was so chaotic that year that we didn't even decorate our Christmas tree, buy gifts, or send out cards. 

None of that stuff is what Christmas is all about anyways, right? 

That year I learned that Christmas is just as joyful without all of the frilly extras that we tend to stress ourselves out over every holiday season. 

What really mattered was that God had not only given us the gift of salvation through his Son, but the gift of three healthy children as well. 

What amazing blessings!

Although we have adapted to a crazy new lifestyle with three little tikes, life is still chaotic. 

So I have had to prioritize what is important and just let some things go.

Things like spending hours making Christmas cards.

Thank goodness for companies like Shutterfly that make awesome personalized holiday cards for those of us who don't have time to do it ourselves!

They make it so easy...

just choose your card and upload your photo(s), 

type your message,

and a few days later your cards arrive in the mail!

Then all you have to do is address your envelopes and mail them out!

This year Shutterfly is even giving away 50 free cards to bloggers!

WU HOO to that - I was planning to order some anyways :)

Here are some of my favorite holiday cards this year...

You can choose from folded greeting cards, flat stationary cards, or flat photo cards.

Decisions, decisions...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How do you simplify during the holidays??