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!

 

 

 

 

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!

 

 

 

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.