Change: The Living Room Is Almost Done (finally)

I picked up this painting from a yard sale that benefits the local historical society.

I'm even into the chipping.

It has finally happened. After being in my house for 4 years the living room has been painted. And all I can say is: why did I wait so long? I can't believe that I lived with that horrid light and color sucking purple for so long. Over the last 4 years I've painted swatches of light green, grays and buttery creams on the walls, but in the end I settled on a slightly warm white, Sherwin Williams Marshmallow. It is amazing how much better my living room looks now, it makes me happy every time I walk in the room. And because this room is the center of my home, I feel like it has made the rest of the house look better too.

The mood board I made a while ago finally coming to life. 

Of course there are still a few changes left to be made. The trim still needs to be painted, I want to redo the club chairs in a navy velvet (so they look a little more like the one above from West Elm) and I think that the wall with the Hi-Fi needs some art. But over all things are really looking good over here. Don't cha think?!?

P.S. The big before post if you want to know what the house looked like the day I bought it.

P.P.S. A whole lot more house-y stuff.

Change: Living Room Mood Board

Do you remember how last week in the post about my new couch I said that I thought that the new couch would most likely lead to some trickle down redecorating? Well I can't get the idea off replacing some of the light pinks and blues in my living room with bright and rich Fuchsia and  Navy Blue. And there needs to be more brass in the room - for sure!

Couch - My own read all about it here

Pillows - Navy Knit, Pink Handwoven, Birds of Paradise

Fuchsia Throw

Cage Lamp

Yellow Club Chair

Brass Elephant

Navy Rug

Some of the items in the mood board represent things I already have (brass elephant, cage lamp, yellow chair) and some I want to diy (pillows, throw) and others I just wish I had (rug)!

This moodboard was created atmydeco.com

Change: Painting Projects

(Polka Dot House from Life Magazine via Paper Pastries)

It is almost embarrassing how bad I am about picking a paint color and painting a wall. I waver and stall and then end up with nothing. So I thought it might be helpful if I sat down and made a list of all the painting I still want to do at my house, with an idea of the color I want to go with.

Living Room and Front Entry - Light Creamy Ivory (on the yellow side)
Guest Room -  Light Gray (I already have the paint for this so it is for sure on my to do list)
Kitchen, Dining Room and Hall - Bright White, with a surprise or two
Basement Stair - Gray
Basement - Gray and Limey Green
Front Door - Kelley Green!

Does anyone else have paint relate problems? What about a fear of picking the wrong color?

Change: New Couch!

That's right I have finally checked a big thing off of my home improvement list. I got a new (to me) full sized couch. I have been wanting a larger couch since moving into my little house, but I had a few requirements that it needed to meet. It needed to be long enough for an adult to lay down and watch a movie (or nap) on, it needed to petite enough to fit in my 1940's living room and needed to have upholstery in good condition that I could live with for a while until I have the time/money/where with all to recover it. So this is what I found to finally give me that much needed 6th seat in my living room. A petite, but long enough for napping sunny yellow couch in great condition.

The facts of the find are these:
I actually saw the couch on Craig's List a few weeks before I bought it and thought it was cute, but I was trying to connect with a guy selling an amazing Pink 60's MCM couch. Sadly I was never able to actually see the couch, so I kinda gave up not only on that couch, but on getting a new one at all. Enter Labor Day Weekend, my girlfriends and I decided to grab breakfast and hit up a weekly thrift sale in our area. While there my cousin Lydia spotted the couch and called me over. In real life it was a) cuter than in the CL posting b) the perfect size for my house and c) supper comfy to sit on. Great, sold! But it gets better, while I was pondering how I would get it home and what I would do with my old couch, one of the volunteers that run the sale came over and asked if I was interested in the couch when I told her I was thinking about it she disappeared  to return moments later saying that because I couch had been there for a while they would take only $65 instead of the already reduced asking price of $85. Hummm sold again!

So I found away to get it home (a harrowing tale for another day), made space to temporarily store the old couch in my guest room and wrangled a brother to help me move both couches. Right away I knew that this couch was begging for lots of pillows, these are only place holders, but I think you get the idea. It fits perfectly along the wall, but as is always the case when you change one thing I expect that there will be some trickle down redecorating happening over the next few months.

Maybe you can identify a few of the things needed a tweaking in this shot with the chair and coffee table moved back into place. The only thing I really miss about having the old couch is the big shot of teal it brought into the room. I am defiantly going to need to bring more saturated colors into the space now that it is gone.

 

And now just for fun how about a little walk down memory lane of my time with my little free teal couch. Here she is in my pre-homeowner apartment days. This picture is from shortly after I moved in, note the lack of wall art and funky dorm room lamp. This was also in the days when I was in love with my wool shag rug, but for I knew that it was going to be like owning a pet that shed all over you and your house. Sign, but it is so cozy! Hummm this picture has me wondering if that coffee table is still in the basement of my old building (owned by my parents and aunt and uncle), I totally have a place for it in my current basement.

And finally here is a horridly bad picture of my living room before I moved the couch to the wall and with a really out of place bright red, orange and green painted that has been given a new home.

So what do you think? Good buy? Worth the 65 bones? Are you creeped out by used furniture? Do you love a good thrifting deal? Share and feel free to leave a link to a great thrifted find of your own, I love celebrating a good deal!

The year of the kitchen

I think it is well established that I am a fan of the color yellow. And yellow in the kitchen is totally the cream in my coffee so when I received and email from Crate and Barrel with the above image I had a styling crush of the utmost kind. Between the amazing Italian appliances and the bright tea kettle I was sold. I had already declared to myself that 2012 would be The Year of The Kitchen over here at the little mouse house so I figured what better way to kick off my plotting than to share this wonderful bit of inspiration. I'm giving myself the rest of January to pull together ideas and then start the projects in February, I'll be sure to share what is going on each step of the way.

But now I want to know if you have any big house plans for 2012, are you going to repaint, add-on, or start fresh? I'd love to follow your progress so please let me know, there is nothing like DIYing vicariously through the blogs of others! Oh and you know if anyone asks you, yes I'd love that yellow toaster, my birthday is only five months away! If you'd like to see how my kitchen looks right now you can take a quick tour right here.

Clean slate

One of the things I love about putting away the Christmas decoration is all the clear surfaces left behind. Not because I like clean, empty surfaces, but because it is a fresh start to fill up! So this past weekend with all the Christmas things boxed away for another year I took on the major task of filling the top of my massive record player (left behind by the last owner of my house).
I thought some of my milk glass and the green depression glass from my Grandma would make a good combo. I think I was right, but I have something else in mind for the milk glass so on to the next idea.
My second thought was to gather a bunch of elephants from around the house. Believe it or not these aren't even all the elephants that I have. My Grandpa had a great big collection of elephants that resided on his mantel so this gave me a nice nostalgic feeling of glee. Needless to say I really liked this look and tried it a few ways, with all the elephants facing forward.
I also tied this look - but it was a little "elephants on parade".
And finally all mixed around, but I decided that all the elephants together might be to tempting for little hands and because I'd like to keep all my pachyderms I moved on to idea number thee.
In the end I when with this. I pulled out my trusty silver picture frames and a nomadic collection of vintage cameras that move around my house like they are trying to use up frequent flyer miles before the airline goes under. Have you been making any tiny changes around your home for the new year? Do you think I should have gone with the elephants? Do you like nice clean spaces or are you a filler like me?

My little animal family

The other day I was going from room to room in my house and noticing how big my elephant heard is getting. Here are just a few of my favorites!
Can you spot the elephant tea pot?
Sadly this little guy is fake jade, but he still looks cute along with my books!
Hummm he must be waiting on a few dinner guests.
And finally my all time faves this gathering of teeny tiny pachyderms.

So do you have any faux four legged (or more legged!) friends around your place? I always love finding out about other peoples collections.

Little Changes: Ironing Board Storage

Because I do my ironing in my down stairs hallway (more on that later) my ironing board lives in my office/craft room. Up until a few days ago it hung on the inside of the closet door by balancing one side on something that I guess was used for more hanger space (the last owners of my house were big on installing 1950's storage solutions, so time I really should do a post on all the fun little gems hidden around my place). This wasn't the worst thing ever, except every fifth time I opened the closet door the iron board would come crashing down on me.
I've been on the look out for something that would solve this little problem for months and then one day last week I was at TJ Maxx when I spotted this split over the door hook I knew it would work perfect. And wouldn't you know it did!

P.S. sorry about the blurred photos, there will be better ones when I do that room tour I've been working on.

P.P.S. my ironing board cover is from City Chic Country Mouse.

mirror mirror mirror mirror on the wall

This morning I thought we'd take a little look at a rarely seen corner of my house. Okay it isn't really a corner, but a stairwell. Unlike the back stair (where is oft photoed white board lives) I don't think I've ever snapped a shot of one of my favorite parts of my little house. When I moved in I thought that lining the walls of the stair up to my bedroom with mirrors would help bring light into the space. Just for fun I also took some glamour shots of my favorite mirrors of the bunch.
I really love this faux victorian by way of the 1970s one with the stain glass.This beauty was a gift from my brother Andrew and sister in-law Lauren.
The multi colored one was once just a black mirror from Homegoods, marked down because of damage that I covered with fabric.
Finally there is nothing special about this one, but it has lived in the bedroom of every "grown up" place I've lived so I have a soft spot for it.

Do you have a great way you have used mirrors? Do you think I'm crazy for being willing to walk past all those mirrors before I make it to the bathroom every morning? I'd love to hear all about it!

Come on in and take a look around - Dining Room

Did you like last weeks look around the kitchen? You did, good because this week we are going to take a quick look see about the dining room. The dining room is painted the same light blue as the kitchen and has the same blah flooring, but that isn't really all that important because for all it's faults the dining room has wonderful windows that fill the room with the most beautiful golden light in the early evening just as I'm arriving home from work.
I was still in college when I found the yellow dishes (that if you have been following the blog for a while you might remember used to be the header), I loved the color and design so much I bought them even though I had no use for them and they were not a full set. Over the years I have added some other white and yellow pieces into the mix. These dishes are the inspiration for the yellow in the kitchen.
Along the wall covered in weird 70's faux wood paneling I have framed a post card collection from The Black Apple. I think the bearded lady is my favorite!
Okay some details, the table cloth (crooked) is from Target, but the last time I was there I didn't see them any longer, so I think they are done selling it. The chairs were found by my brother Sam at a consignment shop in Ann Arbor, they are not the forever option, but work well for now. The table was free from someone moving and has a very cool feature where the sides fold down and the whole table goes down to about two feet across. I just have simple white sheers on the windows because I like as much light as possible to come in during the day. The carnival glass is from my grandma (she always passes along green glass when she finds it because she knows how much I like it). I made the paper chains just for the fun of it a while ago and can't bring myself to take them down (ever!).

Yay! I hope you have enjoyed having these little looks into my home. I really love creating spaces that are totally me!

Come on in and take a look around - Kitchen

When I was taking the pictures of the iced tea I wrote about yesterday I thought it might be fun to give you a look tour of how the kitchen looks right now. Some day I plan on painting the walls white and I need to tile the back splash sooner than that, but here is what things look like these days. This corner (you can see the whole thing better on the "change something good" button) is one of my favorite parts of my whole house. The yellow utensil holder is actually a planter from Target and the vintage nut grinder came from my great grandma's kitchen via my grandma on my mom's side.
I do not fear nick-nacky things so I like stuff like bunches of salt and pepper shakers lined up a long the back of the stove. That star burst clock doesn't work, yet, but it is so cool I don't want to wait until after I get it working to hang it up. The yellow blender is Cooks brand from JC Penney (It looks like they are on clearance now, I actually think they were on clearance when my mom bought mine for Christmas) its is totally cute and retro.
Okay here you go you can see in this shot that the kitchen is kinda small and doesn't really have much counter space. Oh and the floor, I HATE the floor, I'd like a nice black and white tiled floor like this. Lets see the rug I've had for a long time it is yellow and white squares and has seen better days, but much like my beloved pink and blue plaid chairs I can't replace it until I find another that's just the same! The pot holder hanging on the stove is Orla Kiely for Target, I also have a table cloth that matches. And the fridge covered in stuff, that is one of my favorite things to see in anyone's home tour all the junk they stick to their fridges.
Looking into the kitchen from the other side. You can see just little of the Best Year Ever calendar on the side of the fridge.
Final shot a close up of this funny little collection on the back of the stove, complete with a big mouthed Cherry Chomper and a light up garden gnome!

In the Middle

I don't have a Before and After project to share with you this week. Instead I offer you an "In the Middle" project.

I bet you can guess what room I'm working on. Can you, can you?

Hummm what can clementine boxes full of yarn and stacks of fabric mean?

Oh how I love cork board and vintage photographs.

Okay, okay you got me. I'm working away on the big reveal of the craftroom/office.