Our Home Tour: Living Room Reveal with Wainscoting

Over the past few months we have made a lot of changes to our family room! It first started when we got a new sectional from IKEA--Chad was so embarrassed of my last "vintage" couch :) And with a new couch comes a new arrangement of course! We had fun rearranging the furniture and the feel of the room a bit. Knowing me, we will probably move it back at some point; I like switching it up! :) Then I got a gorgeous new rug (from RugsUSA) that I LOVE! A new coffee table, and side tables came up and just recently we finished some wainscoting! AND I LOVE IT ALL SO MUCH! :) ...I am excited to share it all with you today :)

Here is the "before" picture of our living Room:

and the After!! :

It feels like a completely different room! The blue paint is a little brighter that we expected..some days I like it, other days I don't. So we haven't decided if we are going to keep it. What do you think? :) Here are some more pictures! 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Wainscoting :)

Tutorial to come!

Picture frame tutorial

Lamps are thrift-ed, I painted them. Lamp shades are from Target.

I love being able to hide our TV! 

This fun old window is the perfect way to display pictures of us when we were little, as well as some of our parents and grandparents! 

and this ladder makes displaying our blankets so fun!

Coffee table I refinished

This side table was another fun project! Tutorial HERE

Bella is displaying my stenciled curtains :) You can see the Tutorial HERE 

Well, what do you think? I love all the changes we have made and I hope you do to! 

Easy Summer Centerpiece: DIY Table Runner and Painted Bottles

I am addicted to change. It's true. You will see that more and more as you are following me, I am constantly changing things :) This means I have to find easy and affordable ways to decorate and redecorate my house. One of the fun ways to change things up is your table settings/centerpiece. This is a super easy DIY; cheap, and fast!

We splurged the other day and bought the "good" Rootbeer ;) And as soon as I saw those glass bottles my head started spinning with ideas.

 You will first want to clean them and take off the label. The easiest way is to just soak it in a tub of warm soapy water. I just let them sit in our sink for a few hours.

Once they have soaked for awhile the labels will peel right off.

After you have removed all the labels, let the bottles dry. Now you are ready to paint! I used a foam brush and just normal wall paint. I had a bunch of the small sample sized paints in many colors to use. 

I did 2 coats of paint on each bottle, letting it dry for at least 10 minutes in between. I did not paint the very top until the final coat of paint. That way I could hold onto the bottles without any problems.

..after 1 coat of paint..

..2 coats of paint.

Now for the Table Runner. I just used a piece of linen paint drop cloth. Cut it to size and hem the edges. To paint the polka dots I used a ping-pong ball and just normal acrylic paint.

Pour paint into a shallow cup or on to a plate to make for easy dipping for your ball. Dip one side of the ball into the paint, then stamp it onto fabric. I did a slight roll while holding the ball on my fabric to make my dot bigger.

Continue stamping until the cloth is covered in polka dots, I did a random pattern.

...you might want to be better at ironing your runner first...ignore my wrinkles... ;)

Let it dry for a few hours before use.

Tutorial: Stenciled Curtains

Today I am going to share with you my super easy way to stencil curtains....without painting!!

That is right, no painting involved.

I bought the Merete Curtains from IKEA and  I love them! They are nice and thick, super long, and only $25 a PAIR!! However, with white walls and white curtains my husband thought it was a little boring :) I have been debating forever over what to do with them, stripes and what color, a stencil, ribbon trimming, etc. My biggest fear though was painting them. I have heard so many different responses to fabric paint. Some people love it and it turns out well; others hate it, saying its hard and crunchy. Well I didn't want crunchy curtains....
When I finally did decided on the stencil I wanted I was thinking how much easier it would be if I could just trace it on. It would be so much faster and easier than multiple coats of paint! So I went about googling it and found out about Fabric Markers! They are easy to work with, don't change the texture of the fabric, and you can wash them! I was delighted! And soon went about stenciling my curtains.

I found the template for my stencil here. I just printed it out, traced it on some cardboard, and cut it out, using the cardboard as my template. At first I did just one single stencil, but soon had the idea to do multiple at once...making it a TON faster and easier to keep straight.

Fabric Markers are $2.50 at Joann's. For my 4 curtain panels I used 3 markers.

You will want a large flat surface to work on, I used a large table out in our garage.

Have fun! Here are pictures of the process!

I started in the middle of the curtain, just to make sure it looked even. The main thing you need to worry about is staying straight!! I often took a step back to make sure everything was lined up correctly.  

Like I mentioned above, I first started out with doing a single stencil at a time.

It took awhile, so I soon made another template with multiple. It made the job so much faster and easier! 

I love how they turned out! They add just a touch of character to the room but aren't too overwhelming! And for the price you can't really beat it! 

DIY Decorative Books

This is a simple DIY project that only takes a few minutes, can be done with supplies you already have, and makes such a big difference when adding those last few touches around the home.  :)

Supplies:

Books (just grab some laying around your house! and hardcovered books are easier to work with)
Scrapbook paper or wrapping paper
Scissors
Tape


This is NOT permanent--so don't worry about ruining any books! We will just be wrapping them up like a pretty present for display :)

I'm sure this would be easy for anyone who has ever wrapped anything before but I will show a few pictures, hopefully they don't confuse you more..haha! :)

The supplies I used; I just grabbed a few books and gathered up some scrapbook paper and wrapping paper that I had lying around :)

Place one of your books on the wrapping paper; fold the paper over the book so that the front and back are covered. Cut the paper so that you have extra on every side.

Fold the paper over the side of the book and into the front on the cover, secure with tape.

Now flip the book over and do the same to the other side; fold paper over the outer cover of the book and secure the paper with tape on the inside of the book.

If you have more than 1/2 inch of paper hanging over the top and bottom of the book, feel free to trim it off.

The picture below shows about how much extra I had to work with. 

 Now you just need to fold and tape the bottom and top! But before you fold the paper over the bottom of the book cover, you will want to snip a small straight line at the corner of the book....I know that doesn't really make sense so see my picture below :) 

 Now fold the paper in and secure with a piece of tape.

Flip the book over and repeat; cut a small  line in the corner, than fold paper over and secure. 

 Once you have both sides secured you will have this little "tail" left :)

Just cut it off!

And your done!

Look how cute these upcycled books look on my upcycled table! :)