When I said re-decorate, I thought we could maybe hang a few more pictures. I had the living room at a happier, more matching place than it had been in for a while. But, deep down I knew I didn’t like it. The colors in our couches are navy, green, gold, and a purple-ish burgundy. Deep in my soul, I craved serene and calming colors, like blue.
When my mom and sister visited, they didn’t stop at hanging a few pictures. They overhauled the living room, dining room, and the bedrooms. And, they re-decorated my living room with blue and white!
Way Before
This is how I had my fireplace decorated originally, after we first moved in.
Then I got this trike at Goodwill, the blue pot from Anthropologie, and the stems from the Dollar store.
This is one side of the fireplace. Both of those picture frames were empty for a long, long time.
This is the fireplace decorated for Christmas.
After
Mom used the wooden letters I bought at Goodwill, and a picture collage I hadn’t found a place for and replaced the butterfly.
Then we took down the Valentine’s Day banner, the things in the corners, and got rid of the old bottle I was using for my green twigs. Then we took down the Christmas lights and replaced the twigs. We moved some flowers from the guest room to the trike, and got some plate stands. This is how it looked after we were done:
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| The light-up orchid branches make up the Christmas lights! |
Every time I took at it, it makes me so happy! I love those branches, and the vase. The branches came from a decor store just down the street, and the vase came from Pier 1.
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| This was before we took down the Christmas lights, so pretend they aren’t there. |
I’d like to add some greenery to the corners, something like these topiaries from Simply Designing.
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| Simply Designing |
Before
This is our coffee table. The glass decanter is from Pier 1, the red beads inside are from the dollar store, the marble bust is a Christmas present from my parents, and the rose was a Valentine’s Day present from Brian. I used a recycled bottle for a vase. The candle and candle holder are both from the dollar store.
After
These blue and white balls came from Pier 1 and were $3 each. The tray was a wedding present, and the pebbles were leftover from wedding decorations. I picked out the reed diffuser for Mom and Evi because they needed something to reach $30 at Pier 1 so they could use a $10 off coupon. I picked it because it was blue and on clearance for $3 and mom decided it looked good on my coffee table. The scent is Bombay Blue, and it fits so well!
Before
This is one of the desks we got off Craig’s List. I eventually moved that picture closer to the one from my in-laws, like the picture of the couch below shows.
After
Guess where we found this blue toile slipcover? Goodwill!
We also got a pillow there for $1 and slid it underneath to make the seat more comfortable.
Before
This is an old picture actually, because I moved the picture thats on top of the black bookshelf to the guest room, and put the simplicity cement saying there instead. And I had finally put pictures in the frames.
After
This is how it looked after we moved some things from the fireplace over and added a little greenery. Much better!
Before
Here’s our couch, with matching purple lamps. Above the couch is our Wedding/Graduation present from my in-laws, a beautiful painting of a couple by the ISU campanile, and then two wedding photos.
After
This was perfect, because the butterfly got to stay in the living room. It looks nice with the couch too.
Before
The blue jay painting was painted by Brian’s great-grandmother.
This painting is of an amusement park in Iowa, Arnold’s Park. It’s by the same artist as the campanile painting that was in the living room, P. Buckley Moss.
After
Adding three things to this wall has a lot more impact and looks more put together than one lone picture.
Now both pictures by the same artist are together! And, the big campanile picture fills the wall better. The green mat looks nice with our bedspread and curtains too.
Great-gram’s painting is above the dresser now, as is the brown clock I got at Goodwill. And yes, there are two clocks, because the brown one matches, but it runs half and hour behind no matter what. This still needs some work, but it’s getting there.
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I think mom and Evi did a fantastic job. We actually didn’t buy a lot of new stuff, just the things from Pier 1. Mostly we decorated with what I already had. If you’d like to do the same, I wrote a post with 12 ways to decorate with what you already have!
Have you ever majorly re-decorated? Have you ever asked for help with decorating? How did that turn out?
Thanks for this shout out and link!!
I bet it feels so wonderful to have your house decorated more in your taste! I think it turned out lovely!
Ashley
http://www.simplydesigning.blogspot.com
very pretty…you are lucky to have talented women in your family!
blessings,
alison
stuff and nonsense
All those little touches look great!
Your "afters" are really coming along. I like your use of the pretty blue color as well as family momentos.
So pretty! Very nice changes, I love the bust.
New follower, love your design 🙂
I love it! They really have a designer's eye. I really love the after above the couch and the 3 pictures together. It really is a nice touch!