Updates to the house

Here are some pictures of recent updates. It will be fun to see what stays and what goes during 2012.

With the first picture this wall used to be painted brown and had rotating artwork on it. Nothing ever felt right. Now it's turquoise like the rest of the living room. I framed the Audubon prints in thin black frames and hung them in a grid pattern. The originally wood and cheap gold metal colored lamp was painted orange and then a bright blue. The blue looks jarring right now but picks up on the bright blue in the drapes to be hung soon hopefully. The lamp shade was a $7 find at Goodwill still in the wrapper. The chair has the fabric I'm going to upholster it in draped over it. Saying I'm going to upholster might be misleading. I'm going to price out having the covers done. I'm not sure my sewing machine will sew the heavy fabric. And I want them to look good!

I created a bar nook in the dining room with a chest from my bedroom. I added all the bar type items I already had. I hope to add a tray, switch out the orange ice bucket for something shiny, get some decanters for liquor and actually purchase liquor. I need a piece of artwork behind the ice bucket to fill in that space.

I updated the colored boxes from orange to white and bright blue. I knew the orange wasn't going to last long after the last china hutch redo. I also moved out all the vintage dishes and made room for them in the bar chest. Things look better. I still think I'm going to put paper up on the back of the cabinet to brighten things up. 

I'm trying out a larger canvas in place of the smaller paintings my son completed. I like the larger scale. I just have to bring the other up from the basement and actually paint some type of art on them. It is still to high above the couch but with the larger piece its better. I don't want to patch holes in the plaster and repaint so it stays where it is. I added new pillows to the couch, a table runner to the coffee table to help keep it from getting scratched until I can teak oil it and more plants. Ugh. I hate my couch. It's a cheap Ikea couch (even cheaper - I got it for $30 the night I moved in. My gorgeous Room & Board leather couch wouldn't fit up the stairs). I dyed a natural slipcover brown and now its all stretched out. It's probably not in the budget to get a new couch this year unless I can find something decent on Craig's List. And even then its not a high priority in the budget. Although I have plans for the rug to change. And the old black slipcover might reappear. I think I'd really like a white slipcover. I know I won't be able to keep that looking fresh though so it's not a good solution.

I love my $7 pillow from Marshalls. The colors are perfect.

Like I said it will be fun to see what updates I get accomplished this year. I have a long master decorating plan with all the updates I want listed. This year I'm going to focus on completing the living room, dining room, bathroom and 2nd bedroom. Everything in those rooms is about 85% complete. I want to paint the kitchen and master bedroom but won't get much else done in those rooms this year.