Rose ~ Chic ~ Friends: My blog is all about you; friends and sharing lifes journey...My love for all things Chic; repurposed, crafted, painted in many venues... and My LOVE for all things Roses! which show up in my home and created projects.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Studio Organizing with What You Have

Hey Sweet Friends!
 
I find myself staying inside and out of the
colder weather during our Michigan winters.
We are now in that pattern or snow, warm up,
snow melt, snow...
I am now officially wishing spring and
much warmer weather would just stay!
 
A couple of weeks ago, I finally got into my
studio for its annual tweaking session.
I seem to do this after the first of the year,
and after the many months of creating
that I do for the Christmas Holiday Season.
 
I really like the few changes that I made this
year.  One of them was taking two shelf
units and using my drafting table top to
create a higher table that I could put in the
center of my room. 
 
I was able to use my pretty vintage sheet all
around the table to cover those ugly areas
that I would rather not see.

I like the fact the my back is not to the door and
I have a good angle to see out the window during
the day.

Below you can see I took the two smaller shelf units.
I had one and purchased one and placed them together. 
These were very close in height to the plastic shelf
I used on the other side.

I placed this open shelf on the side that
 you cannot see as you enter my room. 
It has items I use more often and
the other side as pretty storage boxes and things
I don't use as often.

I am sure I will be sharing more of my creative
storage ideas that I use throughout my room.
PINTEREST is also a GREAT way to get wonderful
ideas.
 
This table was less that $20 because I used items
I already had.  Be creative and look around to see what
you have, before purchasing.
 
Be Inspired, Be Creative and Reuse what
you already have!
 
 
 
 

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Curtains are Up ~ Sharing A Painting Project

Hi Everyone!
 
Gosh I have been busy this past week. 
I think I am doing my spring cleaning early this year...
or is that considered nesting?
 
In my last post I shared that I had spruced up our
family room/kitchen areas.  Well... hubby got
his drill out this weekend and we installed our new hardware
and Curtains...YAY!!!
 
BEFORE
AFTER

I am LOVING how these just curtain panels warm up our room
and pull it all together now!
 
******
My sweet friend Mary, who is a young 86 year old
usually calls me when she is itching to spruce up her little
apartment area she is in now.  Her nesting instincts
are so like me...we are indeed, kindred spirits!
 
Of course, I forgot to take a shot of this gorgeous
sideboard piece...it was a beautiful vintage oak look.
Last week I went over and painted the entire piece
for her.
 
She had me paint it a lighter gold color,
which of course does not show up too well in the picture. 
I really loved though, how this piece
just came to life with the color she chose.

I then returned yesterday and added some character
to this already beautiful piece.  I took  my painting cues
from colors in her rooms, of golds, greens and
deep reds.

Mary wanted me to add more of a background color
to the doors, which were pretty plain.
So, I watered down a green for the center and
also used this around some of the outer areas.

 
Then we added some vining, leaves and pops of
red flowers.  I was trying to use restraint and she
and I are both so happy with the final outcome.
It now has taken on a *French Country* feel.
 
My advice to anyone who loves color...
don't be afraid to paint your furniture.  It can
make a huge difference to a room.
In Mary's case, it now has become a huge
focal piece and much needed pop of color for
her tiny space.
 
Thanks so much for stopping by today!
 
 
 

Monday, February 4, 2013

Rooms We Live In

Hi Everyone!
Over this past weekend my hubby and I finally put
away the last of Christmas.  Now before you go
rolling your eyes on me and stating
why so late, I must share I have a hubby who LUVS
Christmas.  He loves the lighted tree and homey
Christmas decor.  So our family
tradition has been to keep it up till the end of January.
I was MORE than ready to get on with the cleaning,
vacuuming, dusting rearranging and tweaking of
our Family and Kitchen/Dining areas.
Most of you y'all know that I create in pinks,
creamy whites, aquas, lavenders etc....
but
I LOVE color and I guess the many rooms in
my home reflect this.  I choose to keep these two
most lived in areas in softer creams, reds, golds
with touches of blues.  Red has become a much
needed *pick-me-up* color.  I tend to get down and
slightly depressed during the longer, colder weather.
Red helps keep me *Up* and brighten my spirits.
I went around and took pictures from the 4 corners so you
can get a better idea of the room(s) I am working with.
Our family room is quite long, more of a good
rectangle.  Very little wall space to work with.

In December, we had ALL the windows in the entire home
replaced.  HUGE undertaking before the holidays...ugh!
Anyway, I am slowly getting rid of older mini blinds
and redoing some of the window treatments.
As you can see, I am having issues with getting a true
color values because of light coming
in from the large set of 4 windows in this room.
That is even with the blinds on for room darkening.
I am hoping to get rid of these blinds. 
The actually cover up beautiful trimming that
is around all the windows in our home.
Also, you can see the deep red curtain I put up,
I am trying to get a better idea of how these will look.
We got new hardware, and the deep red curtains are
room darkening, so I am pretty sure I will be taking
the blinds out and then just opening/closing the curtains.

Furniture placement in the room is always tricky.
Since we made the large TV beast our focal point
I always try to make sure all seats have a decent view.

My hubs, is one of those guys who says...
if it ain't broke you don't fix it.  The *beast*
will probably be here till it croaks.  Could be soon,
since the sound is already gone, or another few years
lol!
Once it dies, we will probably get a TV for over
the fireplace.  Then that will create a whole
other set of problems,
I also am showing you that at least in my home,
rooms seem to always be in
a state of flux.  I know most peeps don't show rooms
like I have, but I wanted to be honest and show you
that we still have to live in rooms that are in progress.
I did splurge these past few days and found some GREAT finds
and Hobby Lobby.  Those Vases/Urns were $7
on clearance!!!

Do you see the gold frame on the right?
A great Pinterest idea of using a frame
around those ugly thermostats!

Okay, so moving on through the room into my
Combined eating/kitchen area.

The french doors were installed in 2011 and
I am SOOOO happy we paid the extra money for them.
They add so much character to my builder
grade ugly kitchen that I am working with.
We are planning soon to replace the counters with
granite.  I am trying to convince hubs that I either need
to darken or light the cabinets as oak is just
no longer the look.  A total gut, is not in
our future budget, so I am trying to be creative.
I would SO love input after you see what I am
working with.

I have decent kitchen space, but believe it or not, horrible
storage space.  I have a pantry, it is not  a walking or deep
so I have had to improvise a lot.

We actually are thinking of extending out the island
and making it larger so we could use it to
eat on if we wish.  We may also do away with the
eating area and add lower cabinets under to
cutout.  You would be able to still put a smaller
bistro table here, but we think we'd like to
open the space up a bit more.

One of the biggest changes in windows, we made was to
the kitchen window over the sink area.  Because of my
horrid light, you cannot see that the wood is new and
not painted yet.  I did take the blinds out of here and
will be doing some type of roman shade here.

Below picture is our large desk area. 
I love this area and use it all the time, it's my
command center and houses extra glassware.
As you can notice, we have door walls everywhere in this
room.  The doorwall by the desk goes to the powder room,
butlers pantry and into the formal dining area.
I have a friend who thinks I need to take down the cut out
wall completely.  I am not so sure.
We have lived in our home almost 20 years.  Like most
people, when you live in a home, it is not always set up
to how you live. 

I am so thankful to have my home.  I feel blessed beyond
measure.  Yet, the creative, artistic gal in me wants
to improve upon and change things up.  It doesn't
happen fast with an engineering hubby, who is very
money conscience and prefers not to be handy,
if ya know what I mean. 
I must admit you gals who have handy hubs
are what I envy most.

Yet my sweet hubbys ways got us through some
very lean times in recent years.  For that I a truly thankful.
We are back on track now and he is
on board and realizes we have do some improvements.
You can be sure I have my list and
he knows about it too...lol

Thanks so much for stopping by.
I look forward to hearing what you may think
of our home Living areas.